Venice!

Ciao!

These past two weeks have been super busy, and filled with lots of exciting things. We started classes last week, and they’re all right. Each class have us a “reader” which is just a book of photocopied articles and things that they typed up, instead of us having to buy tons of books of which we only need a few pages from. The first day I read everything for my classes, but when I actually went to class, the information that the teacher was saying was just a reiteration word for word of what I had just read. I guess it’s a good way to get the information to stick in our minds, but it almost makes me feel like it’s a waste to either go to class or to do the readings, and since we are only allowed to miss 2 classes for each subject for the semester, I guess I know which one to skip. My literature class is a little better, because we are reading different books about the fascist era in Italy, but my professor just rambles continuously and doesn’t say anything of importance. We have yet to finish talking about the book that we began with, and have been behind the syllabus since the first day we started class. I also have a 7-hour block of time in between my classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and a 4-hour one on Mondays and Wednesday.

Also last week on Wednesday, I went to something that Umbra offers called Tandem, in which we go to a restaurant or bar and meet people who are in the Universita degli Stranieri, which is the university for foreigners. They’re all Italians who want to speak English, and we are the Americans who want to speak Italian, so it worked out well. I was at a table with 3 other Umbra people and then an Italian student named Francesco (everyone I’ve met here is named Francesco!). He was really nice, asking us questions and making us respond in Italian, even though he refused to speak much English. He had a friend, Luigi, who came over and talked with us for a while too.

On Friday I just hung out and didn’t do much, but on Saturday, Devon, Jessica, Sarah, and I went to Venice for the weekend. In order to get to Venice, we had to take a 2-hour train to Florence, and then hop on a train to Venice, which was another 2 hours. We got really confused about where to sit, and didn’t realize until the train was about to leave that we had an assigned seat written on our tickets. When we got to Venice, we were staying in a town called Mestre, which is about 20 minutes by bus outside of Venice. WORST IDEA EVER! We had to get off the train first; it was raining the entire time we were trying to find the way to our bed and breakfast, and we had to take a bus from the train station to where our B&B was, which was in a smaller town called Favaro, which was one street and was pretty run down. The B&B we stayed at was really nice, and we all got to share a room together which was nice. But then it took us 2 hours to catch a bus into Venice, so while we got to Favaro at 3, we didn’t get into Venice until 5:30. After wandering around smaller alleyways, for about an hour, we finally made it to S. Marco’s square, which was gorgeous. The only problem was that it was pouring and freezing cold, and a fleece and short sleeves wasn’t cutting it. After dinner, which I had a pizza with different meats on it, and then we made our way back to Favaro around 9, with the intention of waking up at 7am and getting to Venice early, which we did. However, the one thing we didn’t realize, is that on a Sunday, if stores are open, they don’t open until 9:30-10. We wandered around the streets again figuring out where we wanted to go when things opened up, and found a store which sold small Murano glass animals, which I have collected since I came to Italy the first time, when I was around 6-7. We then found a Murano Glass factory on Venice, instead of going on a boat ride to the island of Murano to the Murano Factory, which we later found out wasn’t open on Sundays anyway. The factory on Venice wouldn’t let us up to see people making things, but we walked around the store for a bit and saw all of the things they made. I was looking for small figures and animals, which they did not have at the Murano Factory Store, so we went back to the place with all of the animals in the window. I bought a tiny gray hippo, and a present for my brother and my friend Catherine (I wont tell you guys what it is you’ll just have to wait!). We wandered around this place called Il Palazzo de Ducale, which is where the Doge, or head senator type person, lived while they were in power. It was basically a huge palace in the middle of S. Marco’s square, with a large open center inside. After Il Palazzo, we went to lunch where we all got a different kind of pasta that we tried off each other’s plates. Then we wandered all around the streets, went into a store with Venetian masks, a chocolate store which had amazing chocolate and truffles inside, and eventually ended up at an Irish pub to have coffee and waste some time before our train home at 5:30. At the pub, Devon and I each had hot chocolate, which we decided was actually chocolate pudding you make on the stove, in a cup. We had to eat it with a spoon, it was so thick, but delicious all the same.

This week, we had Sarah’s 21^st birthday on Tuesday, which we celebrated grandly. Our entire apartment took her out to dinner at a place called Pizza Mediterranea, which is right by our house. We all split 4 pizzas, which were margherita (classic), lasagna, which had ham and ricotta, a vegetable pizza, and then one that was a sausage pizza but had an egg on it. Then for desert, we all split a Nutella pizza, which was Sarah’s first taste of Nutella. It was so delicious, and for 5 pizzas plus 2 liters of wine, it only cost us 8 euro’s a piece. At home we had gotten her a cake/torte from a place called Sandries in the center of Perugia, which was absolutely delicious. It was chocolate cookie layers, with chocolate mouse between one layer, and white chocolate mouse between the other, and then dusted with coco powder. It was devoured immediately, and whatever wasn’t eaten then we had the next day. Then we went to Dempseys and Rock Castle, where we came across Luigi and Francesco from Tandem, so we hung out with them for most of the night and danced. Sarah and I came back around 3:30 and immediately passed out. Class the next day was rough, but I found out that Luigi is a tutor for my class, which means that he comes in to help us out with things we don’t understand, and gives an Italian perspective to everything.

Today, I am going to Pisa and then Munich for Oktoberfest! We’re leaving around 2:30 to get a train to Florence and then have a bus from Florence to Pisa, and then a 7:00am flight to Munich. I’m traveling with 3 other Richmond students, which is nice because we all kind of knew each other, and then my two roommates, Amanda and Christie are meeting me in Munich to share a room. It’s going to be a long weekend, but I’m sure it will be worth it!

Next weeks agenda includes a cooking class which I’m doing each week on Mondays at a professor’s house, and then Tuesday is a gnocchi making class with my Italian class, and then Wednesday is another Tandem. I think I may be going to Siena to visit a friend from Richmond, but that’s still up in the air at this point.

Ciao!

Cortona, Assisi, and Italian Food

Ciao!

This week was absolutley crazy when it comes to the amount of things that we did. It pretty much started on Sunday, which I know I mentioned in my last post, but I accidentally forgot one of the coolest things about the weekend. I was walking out to go to the school around 9ish on Sunday morning, and on my way to the school I ran straight into an Italian organic market that is only open on the first Sunday of every month. There were tons of booths around all selling different things and it all looked and smelled really good. There was a table for fresh herbs, honey, different tapenads to put on bread (which Jess and I got 4 of and they are delicious!) and fresh produce as well. I got some fresh basil and green beans which were so fresh and delicious, and it was the first time I really saw fresh basil for sell here. Everything was really inexpensive too so it was nice to get a lot for our money.

Market by my house!

We had our week of intensive Italian classes, which was not as bad as I expected. We had a 3 hour break every day to eat lunch and on Thursday Sarah and I used that time to get our Permisso di Sojourno from the post office. On Tuesday our class took the MiniMetro from town down to the large grocery store called the Coop that was next to the train station. The MiniMetro is really cool and we've probably used it almost every day that we've been here since learning about it. Its a Euro for 70 minutes of ride time which is pretty cheap. It takes us from the center of town down to the train station, and to the football field which we went to on Saturday for the market in the parking lot. The market was kind of a waste because there was not much to see there and it just looked like a bunch of junk that people collected, but I was happy to go and see it.

We basically did indoor things after that class, learning about how to order at a bar (or Caffe) and learning about how to travel in Italy. On Thursday after class, Phylicia, Katherine, and I booked our flights to Oktoberfest that were going to on September 24-26. We couldn't get a straight flight from Perugia to Munich, so after a lot of false starts and different websites, we decided to take a really cheap flight from Pisa at like 6:00am on Friday to Munich, but we have to get to Pisa the night before by taking a train from Perugia to Florence, and then Florence to Pisa. But we're going with a kid named Vin too so it will be a good group to travel with. We are all really happy that we are not going alone because it would have been really stressfull to do all of that traveling alone.

Friday morning, Jessica, Devon, Sarah, and I decided to go to Cortona for the day. I had looked up trains from Perugia to Cortona, and it seemed easy enough to get there, just one change over. However, that was not the case. The MiniMetro froze for about 10 minutes while we were on it, we could not figure out how to get a train ticket from Perugia to Cortona, and we did not realize that Cortona has two train stations to go to, and then you have to catch a bus up to the city itself. After we figured out how to get tickets out of the machine, the machine ate 20 euro of Sarah's money, so instead of every ticket being 6.50 round trip, it turned into 11.50 per person because we all split the 20 Euro she lost. We then didn't realize that the train station we got off at first had a bus that could take us from that station to the actual city, so we bought tickets to the next station. We then had to buy bus tickets from a tabaccheria (tabacco and state store) and then the bus showed up 30 minutes late as well. Once on the bus, the engine stopped working, so we had to wait for a new bus to come and pick us up. Luckily, each time we had a slight bump in our travels, there was a very friendly English couple who would start talking to us and who knew the area really well. The couple who was on the bus with us had a house in Cortona that they went to for a few weeks a year, and they told us the layout of the city and where to find food.

Spinaci Gnocci con Ricotta e Gorgonzola

When we finally arrived in Cortona, we immediately went to find food because our hour long trip had turned into a 3 hour journey and we were starving.We found a Trattoria which looked good, and which turned out to be delicious. I ordered the spinach gnocchi with ricotta and gorgonzola sauce, which was rich but hit just the spot. Sarah ordered spinach ravioli with a truffle cream sauce, which she was in heaven over, and Jessica and Devon both got spaghetti with tomato sauce and mozarella which was really good.

After lunch, we walked around the town, but soon realized how small it really is. We walked up some really steep hills to find churches around the town, and went to St. Francis and some other ones that didn't have names displayed on them. They were really neat, but it amazed me that they had people treck up these hils every time they wanted to go to church. It was really cold and windy as well, and we were really unprepared with how cold we would get. It looked like it was going to rain the whole time, but we never got rained on which was a success. We then went to some museums and walked around for a little bit, and went shopping while we walked back to the bus station. We got an earlier bus back to Camucia which is the second train station that we went to, and hopped on a train home. It was a successful end to a day that started out really hectically.

Friday night we went out again to Dempsey's bar which is right next to the steps, and we saw our American Bartender friend. We seem to see him every time we go out, but hes really nice and makes us specialty drinks when we can't decide what to order. Then we ended up in Rock Castle which is the dance club next to Shamrocks bar that we went to the other night. I think the bouncer remembered us too because we told him we got our drinks at Dempseys, which they seem to have a connection with since the American Bartender works at both, and he just laughed and told us it was ok and we could just go on in. We did the exact same thing last time we went, so I think he found it humourous that we said the exact same things. Rock Castle was really busy that night, but it was really fun to watch people and meet some Italian men. They really are creepy here, and if you say hi they tend to follow you everywhere, even when you tell them to stop. But we had the 4 of us so we were able to block eachother from unwanted attention.

Deli Man Slicing Fresh Prosciutto

Saturday we went to the market at the football field, and then after we went to the big Coop since its on the way home. I got tons of frozen veggies and things that I have wanted, and Sarah and I split a small rotissiery chicken from the deli area. The guy at the deli came up to us when I was getting olives and was like "Are you American girls? Where are you from?" so we told him and he just ooh'ed and ahh'ed at each one. I later went back to see him slicing fresh proscuitto from a pigs leg for a woman, and he let me take a picture of him doing it which was so neat. I will definatley have to get some freshly shaved prosciutto while I'm here!

 

We had a walking tour with Zach from Umbra at 5 that night, who took us around to all of these really cool places, and explained the history of the town in a really interesting way. I will definately have to go back to some places and look around and spend more time there. We didn't go out on Saturday night because we were all really tired from the past two days activities.

Sunday we went to Assisi with Umbra. It was really cool, and they took us to a vineyard for a big Italian lunch with tons of wine, pasta, meat, and dessert. They gave us port wine at the end of the dinner which was fabulous, and I am hoping to find it again somewhere and buy it. We then took a tour around Assisi which was given by one of the teachers at Umbra, and we went to a few churches including one for St. Clare, and the large St. Francis Cathedral at the bottom of Assisi. The town was really interesting in itself, because when we first got there we noticed that most of the walls were a pink color, which was made by the rocks that they used to build things, and there was a perfectly preserved Roman Temple in the center of town. Also, there was a procession of people dressed in medieval costumes who were going to a crossbow tournament in the center of town. All of the women in the procession were dressed like old Roman women, and the men were wearing tights and playing either the drums or the trumpets. Almost all of the little "Negozia's" or shops, were filled with religious relics and tons of pictures of St. Francis. After the tour of the town, we went back home and after doing some homework, promptly passed out from exhaustion.

S. Francesco Cathedral

Today, Monday, we start our full class schedule. Mine starts with Italian at 9:20-10:40 every day, and then on Mondays and Wednesdays I have Italian Literature in Translation from 12-1:30, and then History of Early Christianity from 5:15-6:45. Tuesdays and Thursdays I just have Roman Empire History from 5:15-6:45. Not to bad of a schedule, but I do have to wake up early every morning for Italian!

My First Days in Perugia!

Ciao!

Saturday was our first full day in Italy, and it was jam packed with things to do. We had to wake up pretty early so that we could leave the hotel around 9 to our apartment, or should I say house? The car took us along winding roads that are so steep, and then we had to get out of the car with all of our bags and walk down this really steep hill to our house. Since we have 8 people, we have a 3 story house that has a bottom apartment by itself that me and a girl named Jessica are living. It has its own kitchen and bathroom, but the kitchen smells really bad if we open the bureau part that its in, so we have decided not to use it. We do have a fridge though which is really nice because the fridge upstairs is really small, and wouldnt fit everything that we need. We have our own living room as well, and a separate entrance too. Ill put pictures of the place up later but the upstairs portion has a full kitchen, 2 dining areas, 2 rooms on that floor with a bathroom, and then the 3rd floor has 3 single bedrooms and a full bath, and then there is a basement living room, kitchen cupboard, full bathroom, and a bedroom with 2 beds and a dresser. Its really nice there, and although not the same standards of things that we have in the US, it is still pretty well stocked with the necessities.

After unpacking, we took a walk around the town to try to find our way to different things, like the supermercado and the Conti, which is like household everythings. We saw tons of pizza places and gelaterias, and we went to one pizza store for lunch which was 1 euro for a 5" by 5" sized pizza which is pretty cheap. The food here is so good and even the pizza was fresh and had a different taste to it because of the cheese they use. Its so weird to see caffe's with a fully stocked bar behind them, and it seems that almost every store has a bar as a part of it.

We had our first orientation meeting at 2, and they basically explained how the program works with classes, and the different things they had in the city that we could use, like a laundromat and running tracks. There are tons of supermarkets in the city, but when you go in, you realize that you can't get everything at one place, so you have to go to 3-4 places before your able to find what you need. Everything also closes every day from 1-4 for "La Pausa" which is like the Spanish siesta, so we have to plan everything knowing that most places won't be open for a large chunk of time. There is an open market every day except Sundays which we have not been to yet, but plan on attending for fresh vegetables and fruits instead of the mercado's. There is a small marcado next to the school which has fresh bread and meats and cheeses, and then there is a back room with household items. But again, there isn't everything you need so we have to search around.

Everything in Perugia is pretty close to eachother. They gave us a map of the area which makes it look very big, but in reality things are really packed together, and there are only a few streets with anything on them as far as shops go. Our apartment is about 4 minutes of walking time away from the school, and about 5 minutes from the main Piazza with a fountain and a large church. Thats also where the bars and night areas are.

Saturday night, for dinner, we went to an outside restaurant called The Lunabar Ferrari. It was so delicious and really cheap as well. Three of us split an 8 euro bottle of white Umbrain wine which was really light and was mild compard to other wines. Then Sarah and I split a margherita pizza, which was the size of a very large frisbee, and the crust was so thin which is the way I like it. Then, my roommates Jessica, Sarah, Devon and I went out around 11:30 pm to find a bar or club to go to. We ended up sitting on The Steps, which are the steps in the main Piazza that face the Church. There were hundreds of college aged kids there just hanging out, and drinking. There is no open container law here, so we got a beer each and sat on the steps people watching for a while. Then we went to a place called Shamrocks Bar which had a round center bar and a stage to dance on. It was packed with creepy older Italian men, but it was fun none the less. We got free drinks all night because the bartender just kept getting the guys to pay, and then we would walk away. It was a Playboy themed party apparently, so they kept coming around and putting bowties and bunny tails on everyone. We saw some Umbra students there so we hung out with them, and then left around 2am. It was a really fun night, but really tiring none the less.

Yesterday I had to get up early to take a written exam to place me into an Italian class, which I think I did okay on. It doesn't really matter though, just shows how much you know Italian. We went to The LunaBar for a free breakfast that we got with a coupon. They gave us croissants, or cornetto(i) as they are called here, with Nutella in the middle. It was absolutley delicious, and we also got a cappuccino which was good too. They invited us to a party they are having on Tuesday which is tropical themed, and the one on Friday which is cosmopolitan themed. We are planning on going to both of them, and those will be our two nights out this week. At 12 we had a safety meeting in the Church, and the chief of police from Florence came and talked to us for a long time about how not to get mugged in Italy, and how to be safe. He was really entertaining, but he spoke for a long time about some pretty basically known things, so it was a little repetative. After that, I had an oral exam for my placement test, where I had to talk to two people about my life and some hobbies, just so they get a good understanding of what we know. I was nervous so I didnt do as well as I could have, but I guess having to take a lower level class than I was going to was a better idea because then I can really know the language, and become fluent in it.

For dinner we decided to have an apartment dinner and talk about house rules and make a chart for who cleans when. Jessica and I took over cooking, and we just made simple noodles and fresh tomato sauce, which was delicious. I think I'll end up having to cook a lot because some people want to learn how to make things, and I know more than most of the people. Everyone really liked it so I was proud of making it. I added my own mozarella to mine, and some basil so it made it a little brighter.

Today, we had our first day of intensive Italian classes. The entire program got split up into groups depending on skill level, and my class went over basic conjugations and reviewing some vocab that we learned in our previous classes. The classes this week go from 9-10:30, 15 minute pausa, then from 10:45 to 12 of class time, and then we are split up again in the afternoon to do survival classes, which means that we have to go and practice what we learned, and things that are necessary to know in the first few days that we are in Italy. I think today we are learning about silverware and eating in a restaurant, and tomorrow we are going to a grocery store to do something there. My time to do that is from 3:30 to 5 pm.

Tonight, I think were having tacos, which Sarah and Devon are making if they can find a butcher for ground beef. Its amazing how some of the things that we find so easily in a supermarket in the states are almost impossible to find here. Most things are also so deceiving because they look cheap compared to US prices, but then when you take it home, its smaller than we expected. Jessica and I bought toothpaste to share, and thought we were getting a good deal, only to find that the bottle is almost half the size of a tube you would get in the States.

This weekend Sarah, Jessica, Devon and I are going to Cortona on Saturday for the day, and then coming back by 5 in order to go on a Umbra guided walk around the town, where the guide will tell us the history of the city, but more importantly some fun things to do and see. I'm excited for Cortona, and it's only a 45 minute train ride there so a great place to go for the day.

Ciao!

England to Italia!

Ciao!


Hello from across the pond and beyond! I just got to Italy today after spending a little less than a week in England with my grandparents and I am so tired! I didn't think I would be as exhausted as I am, but I guess with the little amount of sleep I got last night and then waking up at 3:30 this morning I have a right to be. Being in England was such an amazing trip though, and I am so glad I was able to do it because I haven't had the opportunity to spend that much one on one time with my grandparents in England, and I probably won't have the same opportunity again.



I started off my week on Saturday at night by hopping on a plane in Philadelphia to red-eye it to London's Heathrow airport. It was really just a 6 hour plane ride, and I wasn't able to sleep that much on it but it wasn't that bad in retrospect. I sat next to a Canadian ice hockey player who was on his way to Finland to play for the national team, after spending 4 years in Italy playing for them. It was really exciting to talk to him and he was really entertaining to listen to. After a few minutes of conversation, I fell asleep until the noise of the dinner cart got to loud to sleep through. I then spent the rest of the trip trying to fall back asleep, while listening to music which probably didn't help.

Once I was in London, I caught a cab out to Shepperton, the town my grandparents live in. It was 60 pounds for a one way ride there, but apparently it was a holiday week so prices sky rocketed then. I guess it wasn't that bad because I barley spent any money for the rest of the week except on museum tickets. The first day is kind of a blur, as I was really jet lagged from my travels, but we took a walk around their little portion of the villiage that contained a pub, hotel, restaurants, and a car dealership. It was so small and quaint, and right on the river which was really nice. We took a short walk to the river where we went to the lock and watched the boats travel up and down for a little bit, and then went back to my Nonnie and Poppy's house for lunch. After lunch I crashed into sleep for a few hours, just in time to wake up to drinks and dinner. That night we just watched tv and their soap operas which are a little different than those in the states, but entertaining none the less.



Monday was a bank holiday here which is like their last official holiday until Christmas, so everything was shut down around town. We didn't do much, just relaxed and I took a tour of around the actual town of Shepperton and surrounding areas. That night we went to the local restaurant and my grandfather and I both ordered the steak and mushroom housemade pie, which is kind of like a pot pie but it isn't cream. It was really delicious and warm which was nice because it was a little chilly out. To finish it up, I had a slice of sticky toffee pudding which was different but really good and sweet.


Tuesday we took a train into London and had coffee together outside the train station. I left to be on my own after and that and to travel on a self guided tour of most of the sites along the Thames River which my guide book suggested I do. I went to the Tate Modern Museum and walked around for a while there and then headed to the Tower of London to see the crown jewels and the places that all of the kings and queens of England had stood. It was really fun to do and I liked being able to walk around by my own in London for a while.


Wednesday we took a 45 minute boat trip on the River Thames and then went to lunch at a local pub in the center of the village which was good. Neither my grandmom or granddad had been there but they enjoyed it and said they would go back again, so I guess it was a success. You never know the value of a greatly poured draft beer apparently!

Thursday we went into London again to see Billy Elliot at the theater for a matinee. My really good family friends mom's brother did the lighting for it and won a Tony for his work so he was able to get me really good seats for half the price of what they normally were, and my grandparents bought their own tickets which were a level up from me. We all thought the play was really good and definately worth seeing, and the dancing was amazing. I think both my grandfather and my favourite part was the song where Billy's friend dresses up in girls clothing and sings about it being okay of you're different. Then that night we had a small dinner and went to bed because I had to be up at 4am this morning to catch a 7am plane.

But of course, 4am really meant 3:40am, and 7am plane meant 7:30 so its been a long day. When I got to the airport though, I recognized a girl from Richmond there, Alex, and we ended up sitting right behind eachother on the plane so it was a good thing to have someone there with me so that neither of us were wandering around the airport alone. Once off the plane we got our bags, went through customs which consisted of us walking by a guy who just smiled and waved at us, and connected with our tour group. We took a 2 and a half hour bus ride to the hotel, met our apartment mates, and have just been hanging out since then.

I am currently in a room with 4 of my 8 roommates, and the ones I'm with seem really nice. We all have been getting along really well, and we met the other 4 and they're nice too, and I'm just happy I met some people that I like and feel that I can live with so hopefully it will work out well. We had a traditional 4 course meal for dinner which consisted of an apetizer of pasta, salad, chicken and potatoes, and then for desert it was like a chocolate pudding cup turned over onto a plate with a dollop of whipped cream on top. Everything was really good though and it was nice to be able to relax. Then we went across the street to a bar/restaurant and had a glass of wine or beer, and then off to bed.

Tomorrow we move into our apartment at 9am which we are all really excited about, but a little nervous. We can't decide if we think there will be one or 2 bathrooms for the 8 of us, and we can't wait to see our living situations. Im interested to see how the dynamic of our group changes once we are all together, because there are a bunch of different people in our group. Then we have some orientation stuff, a tour around the town, and thats it for the day!

Ciao!