The Chocolate Festival @ Santa Croce! & my first church service in Italy!

Ciao everyone! :)
     So today was an interesting day. Went to my first church service in Italy and it was held by a Methodist church. Now, because my church is non-denominational, it was quite interesting to see how things ran here. It was pretty structured and literally every word that was said was written in their pamphlet...even the message. And the minister was like a powerhouse on her own; she spoke in Italian, translated it herself and even played the piano and led the singing during worship. That was pretty intriguing and "wow." I'm not so sure I really learned a lot..but it was definitely interesting to attend. I'm heading to the evangelical church service at 6:30pm next sunday, so we'll see how that goes.
     Met a group of girls (students studying in Italia from other schools) afterwards and we went to the chocolate festival (which was two blocks away from the church). It was pretty cool! A lot of different kinds of chocolate...the hot chocolate was INSANE. it was like drinking straight up melted chocolate, super thick, my teeth felt a little grimy after. hahah...
     We bought some chocolate with hazelnuts, pepercino chocolate (chocolate with paprika!) and tried a bunch of random stuff, like (all the following infused with the specific oils, all 100% natural):
Green apple chocolate: pretty interesting....
Lavender chocolate: seriously tasted like I ate a flower, it was super bitter
Marijuana?! chocolate: it was strange (it's legal..?!) haha...
Basil Chocolate: omg so strong it was gross
Coconut chocolate: alright tasting, the coconut was strong, but not overpowering
Cinnamon chocolate: it was like eating Big Red gum
*note to everyone, don't try lavender, basil & marijuana chocolate one after the other. I learned the hard way, the outcome is REALLY DISGUSTING and my mouth just tasted like a gigantic, bitter soapy flower, ick.

And then we had some chocolate jam with some kind of fruit...which i did not enjoy at all.

That's the update! The weather is pretty awesome 50s-60s, but when the suns not out, it seriously feels 20 degrees colder.
Siena was beautiful, a lot of towers and kids throwing around confetti during Carnivale (the halloween-like holiday that lasts for the entire month of Feb). It was nice. :)

Hope ya'll are doing well back in the states! I miss chinese food & rice. :(

love,
jamie