Kind of Glad Mother Never Threatened Me to Play the Piano

So we read a little more of crazy lady book and frankly, I don’t know how in the hell child services hasn’t been contacted to inquire how this mother treated her children.  For instance, when Louisa, her second child, didn’t want to play the piano properly, she dragged her outside into the freezing cold and told the girl that she would have to stay outside until she learned to have respect.  What’s worse is that the daughter then refused to come inside!  What I’ve found so far that seems to aggravate me the most is that Chua tries to act like she’s a good parent, offers excuses for her actions and appears to almost be self-deprecating.  Honestly, I’d have some respect for Miss Chua a bit more if she would just defend the way she raised her children without all of these unnecessary excuses.

In other news, I finally got to go running in a short-sleeved shirt today!  I have been waiting about seven weeks to finally get the chance to do that and I’m so happy it’s getting warmer in Siena.  Of course, the Italians haven’t decided that it’s time to bust out the warmer weather clothing and continue to wear the Moncler jackets and four other layers beneath their walls of down.  It reminds me of a chapter of Adam Gopnik’s Pairs to the Moon when Gopnick describes attending a fashion show and despite being freezing cold and raining at the show, the women continued to fan themselves with their programs because it’s just what they do every year, regardless of the weather.  I can’t wait to get back to reading about these poor children and their horrifying/brilliant childhood (I’m still torn between loving her method and thinking she’s a horrible person and I don’t know why), so until tomorrow…

-JD

Spring Fever Struck Early in Siena, But Not For Me (What a Surprise)

So while out on my run this past Wednesday in the fortezza, it was kind of hard to notice that there were all these extremely sexually active teenagers doing everything but actually having physical sex.  Now I know that American PDA is quite tame when compared with that of the more openly romantic Europeans, but this was on a completely different level!  I saw a couple with the guy seated on a bench and his girlfriend practically in a sex position with her legs locked around his body and their lips not separating for what seemed like hours.  I could see them for a large part of my run around the fortezza (which I circle six times each run) and I only counted two times when they actually “came up for air.”  Then there was this other slightly younger couple that moved around with him always pulling a Justin Bieber hair flip:

On my third loop around the fortezza, this couple was literally dry-humping on the grass!  In total, I believe I counted at least twelve couples out and it’s not even spring yet!  Seriously, this is worse than Rollins, where those kids have spring fever everyday of the year.

Speaking of things that are blossoming, the number of tourists visiting Siena seems to have increased since the start of this month, which I guess is expected since Siena’s famous Palio is in the summer and it’s kind of dead during the winter months.  So inevitably, this means more people following an idiot waving an unopened umbrella in the air being paid more than he/she deserves to take a group of picture-taking obsessive tourists to see where they filmed part of the Quantum of Solace:

This is the same place where 007 drove that gorgeous Aston Martin DBS V12 at the end of that fantastic opening scene:

Anyway, this week coming up includes a midterm and many more phone calls to vineyards in Bordeaux and the Champagne region of France because instead of making reservations to tour the vineyards, our hotel in Bordeaux, a place kind of known only for its wine, has simply suggested we pay 600€ per person to do some over-priced guided tour.  Personally, I’d rather spend 1,800€ on Pétrus, Latour, Mouton, and Haut-Brion instead.  Then in the Champagne region, I’m just trying to see if Krug and Bollinger will be kind enough to even let me in since they don’t mention anything on their websites about tours.  Alors, a bientôt.

-JD