Allora...

And so, here I am in Germany after having finished an amazing meal with my extended family. I can't believe how time has flown. Due to internet "shortages," I haven't been able to send descriptive emails, let alone update the little used blog. Anyway, here I am.

What have I been doing, the way-to-curious-for-their-own-good might ask? Well, I have been to Lyon, Paris, Exter, Barcelona, Sevilla, and am now in Witzenhausen.

You might not have known, but our very own Lizzy goes to the same "uni" that JK Rowling graduated from. You know we hit up main street to see all the places of inspiration.

Paris was everything I expected...minus the unexpected romance, but that might have been because I practically ran through it in a day and a half.

Lyon was a place of dreams. I highly recommend that all people traveling in Europe stop in Lyon. It is known for its silk (yea.) and has far fewer forgein tourists than Paris. Beautiful fruit, book, and artisan markets.

Barcelona. Where to start... it is the only city I have "done" completely on my own. I stayed in the best hostel: Garden Hostel. There is so much energy in the city from the street performers to the tourists and school groups searching for all the Gaudí buildings. Even with four days, I didn't see everything I wanted to.

Sevilla takes the cake right now. The history of Muslim, Christian, and Jewish interaction and "cohabitation" makes the feel and the look of the city completely different from other parts of Europe. Toss in a Spainsh friend, beer, and some tapas and you have an amazing weekend waiting for you.

The German countryside is amazing, and I have seen a lot of countryside on this side fo tihe Atlantic from train trips. Everytime I go somewhere I am even more amaed by the hills and the colors and the architecture of the little towns. Staying with family I had never met is a lot less scary than I had imagined. Most speak at least a little English, so we havve a lot of fun traveling around, eating, and telling stories.

PS I swear I saw the boy from A Christmas Story t he Supermarkt (no, I didn't forget the e, it just doesn't go between k and t in markt).

That's all for now. Gotta go digest some chicken.

bis später

Finalmente!

After sufficient bothering and name calling from a certain friend, I have decided to update you all on life. Know that I have tried to do so a couple times, but have failed miserably in the recounting of events. There would have been many moaning and displeased persons, were I to have posted what I had written. So it comes to this...

Perugia has brought a whirl wind of emotion. Being in a foreign country makes me feel all my emotions 83.46x stronger than at home; therefore, I was a wreck when Sam Sadler sent out his retirement letter, Prez Nichol resigned, and a friend from home passed away. On the other hand, I was absolutely elated to have passed my Italian written and oral exams at l'Universita' per Stranieri. To celebrate this, a couple friends and I blew this popsicle stand and made un giro around Tuscany. Saturday night we went to Cortona, the town about which is written in Under the Tuscan Sun. It was breathtaking to watch the tramonto over the hills.
Traveling on a whim is amazing. We got to the main piazza in Cortona at the same time a couple, having just been married, was watching out of the church.
We watched the celebration for a bit before continuing our exploration of the city, which was by far the cleanest I have seen. There are signs posted everywhere about the hefty fine for leaving
behind. This is clearly NOT enforced in Perugia. (This picture was taken in Gubbio, however). My two friends and I were rendered speechless at each lookout despite continuously seeing the same view. This city is one for the list.

We returned late that night only to get up at 5, which was really 4 since we had our time change this weekend, to catch a train to Pisa. After getting the mandatory photo
ooops, I mean
We headed to Viareggio to nap on the beach. I swear we could see France (scherzo, I kid) from where we were.After getting sufficiently sunburned, we skipped town for Lucca; a very cute town which should be visited by all. We tried to see the house where Puccini was born and raised, but all we got was
Woooo! We putzed around town for a while, then decided to hit Florence for dinner. I did not get any pictures there because we were chowing down on some great vegetables at Il Vegetariano. Isomma, I am wiped out.

Hope that's enough update to keep you satisfied for some time.

A dopo.

Il Mio Cuore Resta a Siena

Yesterday I went on my first trip. I am officially a traveler. A few other students at Stranieri and I went to Siena for the day. It was an amazing little city and lived up to everything I hoped it would be. It is the city in which I was searching for a program, but couldn't find one well suited for American university credit. In any case, I did not want to leave at the end of the day.

In case you don't know much about Siena, I will gladly talk your ear about the reading I have done.

Now the city is known for its horse race, which occurs twice a summer, called Il Palio. The race is between seven of the fourteen contradas of Siena. The city is split into fourteen sections, much like counties in the US. When a person is born in Siena, he or she is born into a contrada. It is a rare and honorable event for someone who is not a Siena native to be "inducted" into a contrada. Each contrada has its own colors and animal mascot. The picture above is the of Piazza del Campo where the race takes place. I took the picture from the fastione (I believe I have misspelled the word.) above the Museo d'Opera Metropolitana or d'Opera del Duomo. This museum holds many works from the cathedral in Siena, including reliquaries holding bones of Saints/ martyrs, and other important people from the church centuries ago. Interestingly, the duomo is one of the biggest in Italy. The original was started in 1192! There are parts which still contain the original art work on the wall, complete with graffiti. We spent the whole day milling about the duomo, crypt, baptistery, and museum which are all part of the main cathedral.

If any of you make it to Italy, I highly recommend visiting this city. It is only about 30 minutes by car from Florence.

Life outside of Siena has been ordinary, as far as life in Italy goes. I found a discount grocery store! Todis: Il Superdiscount. I love the englishisms here. Most times I can't understand what people are saying to me because of the accent. Illory e Obama are topics of much discussion. Too bad I don't have the vocabulary necessary to tell them how I really feel ;)

E Dopo E' Venuto Il Sole

The past week has brought nothing but sunshine and puppies on Corso Vannucci. Unfortunately, I rarely get the chance to take a stroll down this main street during school days. This weekend has proven to be beautiful, however. One of my flat mates and I went on a run which started at our apartment. There was about an 1/8 mi downhill jaunt before a treacherous 1/4 mi uphill death stretch. After that, our run continued downhill until we reached the cemetery. The tombs which surrounded us could have been the setting for Phantom of the Opera, were we not in Italy. 40 minutes later, we were still gawking at the majesty the cemetery exuded. As the wind picked up, I began to freeze in the shorts I was wearing, so we began the trek home. There was no way we could run it our legs were made of pure lead by this point. To make matters worse, every person we passed gave us the most inquisitive stares. "Runners" are not a common sight on the streets of Perugia, least of all runners who are walking in the dead of winter in shorts and a bright yellow WILLIAM & MARY sweatshirt. Per fortuna, I don't understand enough Italian or Perugian dialect to understand all that was being yelled at us from a particular vespa.

Today is a day for fotos and shopping after the pausa.

...it is finally worth the 8 hour flight to get here.

Ventitre Ore per Settimana

I have begun the second week of classes; all substitutes are gone, replaced with my scheduled professors. It's interesting being in a class of international students. There are only four Americans in the class. Many students are Asian with about 10 from China, one from Mongolia, one from Taiwan, and one from the Philippines. We 17 students only represent about 3/2 of the class. The rest of the students span the globe. Such diverse backgrounds as ours make cultura quite interesting. With a brilliant professor who wears plaid pants and a gigantic sweater everyday, we have covered the feminist movement in Italy, changes in the traditional family, love, marriage, heaven and hell/ after life, the Mafia, and the region of Umbra. It is often the case that the professoressa calls on students to share their traditions and beliefs. The stories people share make the four hours pass quickly.

While I haven't had the chance to meet many Italians yet, I have gotten pretty good at throwing together pasta (great segue). Last night a few friends and I made pasta (dough), sauce, this wine based drink (I cannot for the life of me remember what it is called.), and salad. Benissismo! Delicioso! After we watched a few episodes of Fawlty Towers, a show written by and starring John Cleese and his first wife. It's wonderfully British and loud and hilarious. There are only 12 episodes, so it is quite acceptable to get addicted.

Tonight is kereoke at a local club (bar means caffè and caffè means espresso). I might go check that out and push my roommate to the mic.

Off to wash clothes...possibly by hand.

*The picture is of my favorite caffe, Kefe. The name is a pun. It means caffè and che fai? which means "What are you doing?" or "What's up?" In local dialect is sounds more like che fe? hence: Kefe.

Una Doccia Bella

Our landlord installed a shower curtain yesterday. It's fabulous. All I have to do is squat under the nozzle while straddling the stair in the tub (the stair which was previously a built in seat when I had to sit to shower.). So, yea. I am pretty stoked.

It's never an easy endeavor understanding my landlord. She doesn't seem to understand or care that I don't speak Italian well during that day or at all when I have just rolled out of bed to a pounding on my door and drilling in the wall a couple rooms over. Ma, va bene. It's all a part of the experience. The only thing that peeved me was the fact that they left the drill dust all over the bathroom that I spent 3+ hours cleaning a couple days ago. C'est la vie.

Well, time to buy vegetables.

A Perugia

You might say I have settled in, or you might say I am further discovering the "intricacies" of this small city. One of my flatmates and I moved in Jan. 4th. Our landlords speak no English, so the grand tour was difficult to say the least. We basically understood that we are not to touch the temperature dial no matter how cold and frostbitten we become. Utilities are expensive. Had I more language skills, I would have asked why our tiny shower tub came with no curtain. Is a shower just another way of cleaning the rest of the bathroom? Is it really possible to get clean while sitting in a tub half the length of my legs, holding the nozzle in one hand, and lathering up or rinsing off with the other? Apparently the answer is yes, but I have not yet figured out how this can be true.

So, Umbra kept us bouncing from one activity to the next during the weekend before classes started. Mostly they had us find buildings all over the city center without much direction and with no prize for finally finding said buildings. Yeah. Also, since I do not take classes in Umbra Institute, I had to find my buildings on my own (with the help of my fellow lost Americans). The main Stanieri building is less than a minute from my apartment, but I only go there 1 hour a week. The rest of my classes are twenty minutes downhill from my apartment, which isn't bad until I have to walk back up after a 10 hour day of classes. Thankfully, there is a bar (cafe) and a mess hall in the far away building since every single dish in my apartment was dirty when I got there. Big job cleaning up.

What's good about being here where the key to my apartment looks like it should unlock a castle? No math. Good food (when it doesn't come from my apartment).

By the end of the semester, I hope to not get sweaty palms when I speak in class and not burn myself when I light the gas stove (I still have yet to light it at all.).

Off to buy shoes!