Bob Dylan is playing in the background

Today is one day out of few this far in the program where we have freedom to do whatever we want. Guess where I am. Caffe del Corso. Pathetic? A little. BUT I think I started out the day right. Julia and I went on our first run here in Orvieto. It was chilly, but so nice to weave around people and their dogs and look over the cliff at the large quilt of grass below us. Some blocks have rows of olive trees, some have clusters of bushes, some are just green, some have houses, some have towns, and cars are crawling around them like ants. After our much needed run (which I hope we can get the habit of doing daily) we went to a market and bought dried strawberries and dates. It's been a fresh, cool-aired day. Relaxing so far. There was one point within the last hour that wasn't exactly relaxing when Julia and I sat down on a bench to soak in the sun a little, and a group of Italian high school boys stopped and came over saying, "Can we take picture? You English? American, yes? I love you." Fun times.

Yesterday we travelled to Sienna to see some famous frescos in monasteries and museums. The day was kind of set on a bad note after the first stop, because we parked our vans on a mountain and walked a distance to a monastery and then walked back to find that someone broke a window on one of the vans. Laura, a girl from Orvieto who helps out with the program, had her purse stolen with all of her identification, along with her new Macbook which had her thesis on it. Her thesis is the reason she has been a little distant from our group, cause it obviously requires a lot of time. She didn't have her thesis backed up. It was devastating. A lot of us were in a strange fog for the rest of the day cause we kept thinking about it. I'm sure it would do her good if we all prayed for her. Poor girl.

Well, my plans for the rest of the day are up in the air, but if I do anything super exciting, you'll hear about it. I miss all you people back in the States.