So, I'm back in the USA... have been for a few months now. I still miss Italy so much, but the readjustment was easier than I was expecting. Something that probably helped was going to an authentic pizzeria in Chapel Hill to watch the final World Cup game when Italy won! My friend and I drove around town with an Italian flag hanging out the window, honking the horn, and yelling, "Forza Italia!!" That was a lot of fun. ( photos from watching the game in Chapel Hill )

I really wish I had been in Italy for it, though... Here are photos from Perugia after Italy won:







Anyway. Since I have returned, I have been trying very hard to maintain the healthy eating habits I had in Italy. I have been buying homemade artisan pasta, organic produce, and all-natural products. My grocery bills have tripled. The USA makes it extremely hard for people to eat well; it's no wonder that obesity and poor health are problems here. In fact, I'm supposedly an acceptable weight for my height, but when I tried to buy clothes in Italy, I often had to go to the oversized clothes section. People there are far healthier and more in-shape. Even little old ladies were bookin' it around town with arms full of groceries. And it obviously has nothing to do with carb consumption - I'm sure Italians are at the top among countries in the world in carb consumption! Pasta, Nutella, pasteries, panini... (3)

Italians are also very conscious of cleanliness - not of themselves, but of their surroundings.
1) The streets in central Perugia are completely stone - there are very few patches of grass or trees in the center of town. Therefore, dog poop, cigarette butts, and trash line the streets during the day. However, each day and night, there are people sweeping the streets with brooms, and street-sweeping trucks circle through town in the middle of the night.
2) People keep their homes very clean. They sweep once a day, mop twice a week, do dishes right after each meal, take out the trash every day, and keep clutter to an absolute minimum. I found this interesting since they don't use all of the convenience equipment like we use here, yet they keep things so much cleaner than we do. I wonder if convenience makes us lazier.
(3,9)

Also, Italians either drive very small economic cars or motor bikes. Gas is expensive, streets are small, and Italians in general are far more environmentally aware than Americans. (9)

Italians also have far healthier hobbies. While alcohol consumption is increasing, Italians consume far less alcohol than Americans. They may have a glass of wine with dinner, but excessive drinking is seen as negatively out-of-control in Italy; here in the USA, it's "cool" for young people to go out and get completely drunk. Many of the students at the school I attended in Perugia would go out at night and drink heavily (many of them were under 21, so they were excited to be able to drink legally) - I wonder what the locals thought of them. Probably something along the lines of "stupid Americans." (3, 12)

One thing that surprised me was how religious Italians are. I had heard that they were, but it was very surprising to actually see it. EVERYONE attended mass on Sunday. Church bells rang. One Sunday, they had a procession through the streets of town - the priest was swinging insence and was praying over a loud speaker. There were little Mary shrines randomly placed throughout town. At the Rome airport, a lot of stores sold rosaries and trinkets with pictures of the past and current Popes. (11)

It is quite amazing that Italy as a nation really isn't that old (less than 150 years old), but their sense of national pride is remarkable. From the celebrations after soccer games to passionate union strikes - Italians are proud and not afraid to speak their mind. (8)

These bugs won't stop biting me! I never see them - I just notice when a part of my body starts itching and a bump pops up. They are everywhere!

Friday was my birthday - thanks for all the happy birthday wishes! I got really sick on Thursday night (I think it was dehydration), but I slept for a long time Thursday night and Friday, so I felt better that afternoon. I went to the community pool for a while, and when Carey got back Friday night, we went to dinner and out for a drink.


The community pool was interesting - it was €6.50 to get in (I got in for €4.50 since I am a student), which I thought was outrageously expensive for one day at the pool. The pool was indoors, and all swimmers were required to wear swim caps. Therefore, I was only able to stick my feet in the pool and go sit on the sun deck. I love the lawn chairs they have here - they have little adjustable shades so you can block the sun from your face.

I'm not sure why the pool is so expensive; although to be honest, I have no idea what a day pass costs at a public pool in NC. Maybe they do it that way to encourage people to buy more long-term passes or something.

Saturday, Carey and I rented a car and drove to Tuscany. After some exploring, we found a place to go horseback riding. We had quite a time trying to find the place - we almost got stuck on the side of a gravel mountain road (thank goodness for my kick-butt clutch skills!), and we drove in circles a few times, but we managed to find it. Horseback riding in the Tuscan countryside was way cool! Carey drove us to the beach (I fell asleep), although we didn't see much - we just had some pizza and drove back to Perugia. Carey was great at navigating through the countryside, but we had some issues once we got back in town. Our nerves were frayed all to hell by that point, so that was interesting. We managed to find a 24-hour gas station to fill up the car before we dropped it off and caught a cab back to the bus station. The cab driver was very flirtatious, so that helped our moods a bit. The 24-hour gas station was interesting, too - you pre-pay at a central unit, and it adds a credit to your pump; it will allow you to pump gas until you reach the amount you put on the pump. Nobody was actually working there; it was all electronic. This surprised me, because most gas stations in the US are only usable if there is an actual human attendant there.

Sunday was very lazy, and yesterday I packed and shipped some stuff home - what a nightmare. Not only was it a long walk, but it was hilly, hot, and expensive. Today, I've been in class all day. I also got a B+ on my food culutures midterm... and our finals are on Thursday. I catch a bus at 2am Friday morning to the Rome airport to fly back to the US... :( I'm sad about going back, but I've accepted it. I've been doing some last-minute shopping and tying up some loose ends. I've packed some, and I'm running out of room quickly. If going to the stupid Mail Boxes place wasn't such a NIGHTMARE, I'd ship some more stuff... but I'll figure something out, I'm sure.

It's been very hot here this week - in the 90s, at least. It's definitely much nicer than that 40-degree crap from a few weeks ago!


Oh, the Italians voted "no" on the recent referendum (Mauro 1) - so the government will now reverse the changes that Berlusconi (the last PM) made to the Constitution. I grabbed a copy of La Repubblica, which seems to be a pretty good paper... and I also got a copy of Il Giornale, which is apparently a very biased right-wing newspaper. I want to compare the two. The first thing I noticed is that there is nothing on the front page of Il Giornale about the referendum - only a story about Italy winning the soccer game. ha! I guess it sucks when things don't go your way. :)

Well, I need to run home before I go to the art studio for the student art show (free food and wine). heheh... hope everyone is doing well! Ciao!

( sources )

 

Yesterday, Carey and I wandered around town trying to find the Museum of City Walls. I think she gets irritated with me because I don't always have my routes strictly plotted out - I usually just wander until I find stuff. So I tried to ignore her irritation and enjoy the sweaty walk as much as possible. The museum was a bit lame, but the view at the top of the tower was pretty cool - and the breeze was great! I wanted to stop for gelato or something, but she was anxious to get back, so we just went back to the apartment. She and I get along pretty well, but she gets to be a pill sometimes when things don't go her way. Tomorrow is my birthday, so I might sneak off somewhere on my own just to do things the way I want to do them without having someone irritated with me for being me. I might go to the lake or to Assisi... or maybe I'll just roam around Perugia. We'll see.

Last night, Anna and I wandered around trying to find the outdoor theater, but we never found it. It was nice to get out and take a walk, though. We had some mediocre gelato on the way back. I took a big long nap yesterday, so I didn't get to sleep until late... it was hard to get up this morning.

I got a B+ on my History and Politics midterm... not as good as I want, but better than I expected. I kept dreaming that I failed it or got a D. So I was perfectly happy! My Food midterm won't be as good, but that's ok - I'll study harder for the final and hopefully do better on that.

Professors are starting classes earlier and letting them out earlier to let people watch the USA-Ghana game this afternoon. I think Umbra is the only place that will show it because Italy is playing someone at the same time, and no place in Italy won't not show the Italy game.

Well, I'm going to grab a Coke before class... I had my first Italian Coke this morning (can with a straw), and now I'm getting another one to keep me awake. I'm very sleepy. More lata.

Edit: I'm so tired of hearing these kids talking about getting super wasted, blacking out, and puking. There is also a random pile of garlic sitting in the computer lab. Vampires?

There are some interesting things going on in Italy this week. There is a 24-hour train strike starting tonight at 9pm... so I guess I won't be going to Assisi tomorrow! I would opt to take the bus, but I'm sure the buses will be jam-packed. I'll just go another day. This is interesting to me because strikes seem so rare in the USA. Sometimes I feel like Americans don't really stand up for their rights enough - they sit around and complain but don't do much about it. Italians are very in-your-face. If they don't like something, they will be sure to let you know and will do something to change it if they can.

Also, there is a referendum that Italians will vote on this weekend (Sunday and Monday). The referendum is on whether or not to keep the changes that Berlusconi made to the Constitution when he was PM (BBC). He made some raunchy changes - like giving more power to the PM, which in my opinion is somewhat reminiscent of the changes Mussolini made before he took over. I have a feeling that the people will vote to overturn the changes, but I guess we'll find out! I don't think they have had many referendums in Italy in the past; I was trying to remember any national referendums that the US has had, but I can't think of any. I'm not sure if we just haven't had many (or any), or if I'm just ignorant about American history. hehe.

I also learned today that the region I'm in (Umbria) is governed primarily by Communists (Fischer)! I thought that was pretty funny! Our professor Peter said, "Don't be scared!" haha! And for some reason, my first reaction was a touch a fear, which surprised me. I mean, what is there to be scared of?? Being hung in Piazza Italia or something? haha!

Well, I'm going to go grab some grub and a newspaper before my next class... catch ya later!

( sources )

 

Friday 6/16/06 - Day trip to Tuscany!

WHAT AN AMAZING TRIP! We met the bus at 6:45am, got to Florence at about 8:30am, picked up our professor (he lives there), and went to a bar for cappuccino and breakfast. I had this apple pastry thingy that was really good. We got back on the bus and made our way to Strada in Chianti. There, we went to a local pasta factory and got the grand tour (Fabbri). It was really interesting - they make top-quality pasta there. They use pure ingredients and dry the pasta in two steps - first, a quick warm drying process dries the outside layer of the pasta, and then it goes into a drying room where they apply lukewarm air to fully dry the pasta over a 4 or 5 DAYS (commercial pasta manufacturers dry pasta at much higher temperatures for 4 or 5 HOURS). This high-quality pasta has a much different feel and look - it's more dull and grainy looking, as opposed to commercial pasta that is shiney and smooth. The dull and grainy pasta absorbs moisture and flavor much better - sauce and flavors will just slide off of commercial pasta. Also, I'm sure you've noticed that when you cook spaghetti and drain the water, the pasta gets sticky after a few minutes if you leave it there. This good pasta doesn't do that - it stays moist. And it's amazingly good just by itself without sauce (Fabbri).

After the pasta factory, we walked down a few streets to get to a old-fashioned country villa. The yard was gorgeous with flowers, gardens, lemon trees, and an AMAZING view of the Tuscan countryside. The inside of the villa was decorated in old-fashioned and medieval decor. We sat at a long banquet table and ate one of the most amazing meals I've ever had in my entire life. Pasta with real safron, pasta with meat sauce that was out of this world (I literally wanted to moan with joy after every single bite), chicken, and DELICIOUS fried potatoes. We did a short olive oil tasting - olive oil is surprisingly spicy and peppery when you drink it by itself and taste it like a professional does! One type of olive oil actually made my eyes water it was so peppery. Apparently there is something in olives that is the same or similar to something that is in black pepper. For dessert, we had an interesting carrot cake with almonds and safron (Fabbri, Fischer).

We got back on the bus and rode further into the country for about 45 minutes to the winery - Montevertine. By this time, I was completely worn out, so staying attentive was difficult. We took a tour of the vineyard and the winery where they make the wine. We tried two types of wine, and the third type we tried was their finest wine (Le Pergole Torte), and he pulled it straight out of the vat for us to try, which was really cool!

Overall, the day was fabulous - Tuscany is just as beautiful as you could ever imagine. I have plenty of photos, but they don't do it any justice at all.

Saturday 6/17/06

I was such a bum on Saturday. I woke up at about 11, took the trash out, lazed around, and went back to bed at 2pm for a couple of hours. I eventually got up, took a shower, and got ready. Carey and I went to a restaurant on Corso Vannucci to have dinner, drinks, and to watch the soccer game (Italy vs. USA). We split a delicious steak dinner and a pizza and had some really amazing drinks. Carey ordered a cosmopolitan that came out bubbling with dry ice in the bottom - very cool effect!! Our favorite drink was the Polar Bear - it had coffee, Kahlua, Bailey's, Amaretto, and cream - it came chilled in a martini glass. The game ended in a tie, which was probably for the best. I was trying to convince the guy at the table next to us that I wasn't American, but he didn't believe me ;) haha. I showed him my cheapo flip-flops with the Italian flag on them, but he said, "This is not enough! I need to see you cheer for Italy! I am watching you" hehe. And I did cheer for Italy!

Sunday 6/18/06

Another bum day! I don't think I ever left the apartment... although, since I only have two weeks left, I made a list of things I still want to do in Perugia before I leave. Here is a sample:

1. Museum of the City Walls - this is supposed to have an awesome 360° view of Perugia, as well as some historical stuff.

2. Palazzo della Penna - this palace is about a block from my apartment... and I just discovered it yesterday. doh!

3. POST (Perugia Center for Science and Technology) - this looks like it's mainly for kids, but I might have to check it out anyway.

4. Etruscan Well - It was built in about 300 BC and was used through the middle ages. In WWII, the Americans bombed the water lines in Perugia, and citizens used this old well for water. Pretty amazing!

5. Cinema del Pavone - a local movie theater that is a transformed opera house. It's supposed to be really cool on the inside. On Monday nights they play English movies, but I might check out an Italian one. Although, tonight they are playing the Da Vinci Code, apparently - I might have to go see that.

6. Corso Garibaldi - there are supposed to be some cool places and stores on this street.

7. Gardens around town - none in particular.

8. Assisi (a nearby town) - this could easily be a day trip (it's about a 30-minute train ride each way), and it's supposed to be gorgeous and easy to figure out.

(Comune di Perugia, Umbra Institute).

today

I woke up early to go with Carey to the Parma market - she had to do some Italian homework there, and I needed to get some food. And boy did I get some food. I bought a rolled-up dough thing to make focaccia... oh my. Baking and I don't get along - never have. I followed the directions EXACTLY, and the freakin' thing still overcooked. That always happens to me. Ovens don't like me or something. Oh well - next time, I'll do it a little differently. I also bought some tortellini with pear and cheese in them... not to mention my FAVORITE yogurt of all time - Muller's green apple and kiwi yogurt. THAT STUFF IS AMAZING! I could eat like 10 containers in one sitting - EASILY. I don't think they have it in the US... I can't even find it on the Muller website. boooooo!


I tried to go shopping for shoes, but everything was closed - I forget how things are often closed on Mondays. Strange.

Carey and I talked to Ariana for a minute today - we are going to try to rent a car for Saturday and roam around Tuscany for the day. We heard about a place where we can ride horses (Carey loves horses), and I would just love to go cruising through the Italian countryside in a FIAT! hehe... we'll probably end up with a Ford or something boring.

Well, I've been in this computer lab for far too long. Hope all is well with everyone!

( sources )

 

Today, we went to the local chocolate factory: Augusta Perusia. It was REALLY cool - it's a very small factory that is owned by a guy and his son. Perugina used to be the local chocolate maker, but Nestle bought them out, so they are all commericialized now. This guy opened Augusta Perusia to try to recreate the original old-fashioned chocolate-making ways. They make their chocolate and sell it at their store across the street - that's it. No distribution or anything. He's so passionate about it, too.

He showed us what the cacao pod looks like (it's pretty big - about the size of two of my fists. When they break that open, it's filled with a white pulp that has the cacao seeds in it. They leave the seeds in the pulp and allow it to ferment. Then they remove the seeds and take off the outer shell of the seed - inside the seed is where the actual cacao is. We tried some of that, and boy was it BITTER. Yikes! Then they separate the cacao powder from the cacao butter... with this, they make different combinations of ingredients to create different kinds of chocolate. Their "best" chocolate is 70% cacao - it is remixed with the cacao butter and sugar. The higher the percentage of cacao, the darker the chocolate. They make 50%, 70%, and 90%. The 70% is still a bit dark for me, so I might try the 50%. Right now, I'm eating the 70% with peperoncino (hot red pepper). It sounds strange, but you can't taste the pepper - you can only feel the slight burn in the back of your throat. It's actually really neat!

Anyway, once they mix the chocolate, they heat it so that it becomes liquidy. Then, they have to raise and lower the temperature, back and forth, for the chocolate to somehow crystalize in a certain way. Once it has reached then proper state, then it will harden as it cools (if it doesn't crystalize right, it will stay liquidy instead of hardening). We made chocolate-covered hazelnuts and chocolate-covered orange pieces. Messy, but fun (owner of Augusta Perusia).

When I get home, I think I'll buy some chocolate, melt it down, and make all kinds of chocolate thingies for friends and family. Or maybe that's what I'll do for Christmas... spicy chocolate and limoncello! hehe.

I finally bought a new watch today - it's different! There is this NEAT store called Furla - they had really cute purses and watches. I might have to go back and look around some more. It really wasn't too expensive, either.

Okay, well it's time to go home and eat a real dinner instead of chocolate. Ciao!

( sources )

 

Yesterday was a nice day off. I went shopping yet again for a watch (still no luck), but instead, I got a haircut and highlights (or "mesh" as they call it). I'll post a photo this afternoon some time. The ladies at the salon were so nice! They spent hours on my hair, and even put blush on my cheeks before I left so I looked like an Italian. haha! And they kept commenting on my blue eyes. tee hee. I guess blue eyes are rare around here. Everyone here has similar features - dark hair, tan skin, and dark eyes. I guess that's why some people call me "bionda" (blond woman), even though my hair is light brown. (10)

I was very lazy for the rest of the day, drank some wine, cooked some pasta (prosciutto tortellini with a cream-pesto sauce I made, mozzarella, and tomatoes), slept for a few hours, went and hid on some stairs near Umbra 1 to listen to the 3rd period and OT of the hockey game (disappointing - maybe listening to the game was bad luck), and slept for a few more hours before coming to class. A few people have commented on my hair, which is nice. Peter (my prof) just looked at me, smiled, and did his little German acknowledging nod. haha. He cracks me up. I took a video of him during class on Tuesday - I'll try to post it on my photo site (the internet here is really flakey though). (Edit: Here's a video of Peter teaching Food Cultures class!)

TOMORROW I go to TUSCANY!!!! I am so excited.

I'm thinking about either going back to Pompei this weekend or maybe taking a day trip to Assisi or to Lago Trasimeno (a nearby lake).

I just read this on the Umbra Blogspot: "Annually, Perugia hosts Umbria Jazz, a world renowned week-long festival that pays homage to one of America's greatest legacies, jazz. Every year in July thousands of tourists, muscians and music lovers flock to Perugia as the streets transform into great stages where jazz, gospel, zydeco, R&B and even marching bands perform." That sounds really cool, but I'm sorta glad I'm missing it... thousands of tourists? No thanks!

I really wish I had taken the landscape painting class here... they have been doing all sorts of cool things, and Anna's paintings look SO good - she has some of the best souvenirs of all! I guess I could try to buy some paints and do it myself, but I've never painted with oil paints, and I'd want some instruction. Oh well - next time :) hehe.

Time to go back to class now... more later!

edit: Random observation. In English, Pompei is spelled "Pompeii" and in Italian it is spelled "Pompei." Why don't places keep their real names in other languages? That has always puzzled me. It just causes confusion when it's different for different languages. Venice=Venezia, Florence=Firenze, Rome=Roma, etc.

Friday 6-9-06

Carey and I had booked tickets for the 4:39am train to get to Pompei, so we left the apartment at 3:45am. Since the buses don't run that early, we had to walk to the train station, which took about 45 minutes. When we got there, the station was completely empty, and the doors were locked. We managed to find a way to get around to the other side of the station where the tracks are, but nobody was there either. Finally, we found a guy who was starting to open things up, so we asked him. It turns out that our first leg was by BUS, not by train. The bus left from the train station, so we were in luck. We took the bus to Foligno, and then a few trains to get to Naples. I talked to the woman at the hotel in Capri where we were going to be staying, and she said that my credit card information was "incorrect." I had talked to another guy the night before and given him another credit card, but that hadn't worked either. We gave them Carey's credit card number, and that worked okay. However, they had told us that we needed to get there as early as possible or we could lose our room. When we got to Naples, we decided to go straight from there to Capri to get our room at the hotel and just go to Pompei on Sunday on our way back.

We took an interesting cab ride from the train station to the port - he was weaving in and out very quickly - it was quite a ride! We caught the jet boat for 14€ to Capri. There were several people sitting around me on the boat speaking Italian, so I tried to make out what they were saying. I could only make a few words out here and there, but they were talking a lot about schools and students, so I wondered if they were professors. I got my dictionary out to look up one of the words I heard, and they started talking about me and laughing. I'm not sure what they said, but I heard "Questa ragazza" (this girl), "dizinario" (dictionary), and "parole" (words). Maybe they knew I was listening to them or something, although I was trying to be smooth about it. Oh well :)

We got to Capri at about 1pm, and boy was it jammed with tourists. I have never seen so many people in one place speaking so many different languages. There were a lot of Americans and French people there... and Italians, of course. We gave up trying to figure out where the heck to go, so we caught a cab to our hotel. It took about 15-20 minutes, and he charged us 20€. He gave us some simple directions to get there, but it took us about 30 minutes to find the stinkin' hotel. The roads change names every block, and the address numbering jumps all over the place. We finally found it and checked in. The woman at the hotel gave us some maps and good information about what to do and where to go.

Our room was at the end of the hall. After we opened the door, we had to stick a special key into a hole in the wall to turn on the electricity for the room. That was interesting, but I guess it's very efficient. Electricity must be very expensive out there. People are very anxious about conserving it, unlike here in the USA where people consume, consume, consume. Anyway, it was small and had two single beds, which was nice since we were expecting one double bed. The "balcony" wasn't even big enough to turn sideways on if the door was closed, and our "view" was about a foot of grass and a big ugly wall. The bathroom was VERY cute, but not very practical. The shower was a raised stall, but there was no ledge around the bottom to keep the water in... so the water went all over the place when we showered. There was no shampoo, so we ended up having to buy some the next day (Carey tried to wash her hair with soap, but it didn't work out too well).

For a late lunch, we ate at a restaurant that was on the second floor above a fitness club. It was very cute, and the food was really good. I had a fatty steak that had a great flavor, part of Carey's tomato salad (tomatoes, olive oil, and basil), and mozzarella carozza (fried mozzarella things). We were so tired after getting up at 3am, so we napped for a little while and then walked around town a little. For dinner, we ate pizza at a small place. He talked us into wine, limoncello, and chocolate cake. It was a pretty good deal, although not nearly as good as the first restaurant. After talking to Mom and Dad for a while, I went to bed at about midnight.

Saturday 6-10-06

We got up early to make it for breakfast in the hotel. Breakfast included a croissant, some toast with jam, and a choice of either capuccino, tea, or hot chocolate. I had capuccino, which basically tasted like hot milk (I think he forgot the coffee part).

After some bus confusion, we managed to get down to the Marina Grande (the main port where we had come in) to look for information about a boat tour around the island. We found it, but we had to wait in line for almost an hour to get a ticket. We took a 2-hour tour around the entire island, which was really neat. He took us through the tunnel in one of the Faraglioni rocks, into some really neat little coves, and then we went to Grotta Azzurra, which had to have been the biggest tourist attraction on the island. It's a water cave that has white sand on the bottom, so when the sun shines through the hole into the cave, it makes the water glow with the most amazing blue color. Carey and I got in a boat with a VERY flirtatious row boat guide - he asked us if we wanted to go swimming, and when I told him that I didn't have on my bathing suit, he said, "Oh, that's not a problem! We can go with nothing! We can be free!" haha - I should've known better than to say something like that ;) We had to lie down in the boat to get through the small opening into the cave, and once we were in, it was completely dark... except, when I turned around, the water near the tunnel was glowing - it was AMAZING! It looked just like the pictures I had seen. Inside, there were a dozen other boats, and all of the guides were singing Italian love songs. Their voices echoed inside the cave, which was way cool. We got back onto our main boat and made our way back to the port. At one point during the tour, the boat driver wasn't looking, and we were headed straight toward another boat. A few of us started yelling at him, "HEY! HEY!" and he finally turned around and steered the boat around. It was pretty funny!

After the tour, we were both really tired from being in the sun all day, so we were lazy for the rest of the afternoon. I wish I had gotten off my butt to do something, but I was just so tired. We went to dinner at the same restaurant - this time I had a filet, the mozzarella stuff again, and a beer.

We went back to the room and passed out - we were so tired. In the middle of the night, I dreamed that mom was torturing one of our cats, and I yelled out in my sleep, "Stop torturing her!!" I woke myself up and laughed at myself for about 10 minutes. hehehe.

Sunday 6-11-06

That morning, I took the contact solution I had brought with me and tried to remoisten my contact, and when it touched my eye, it felt like my eye was on fire. It turns out that it wasn't solution... it was enzyme cleaner. Brilliant! And yes, it was from America, and the label was in English... so I had no excuse. So, we packed, had breakfast, and checked out. I left my watch at the hotel, and I regret not going back to get it, but oh well - it was a cheap Wal-mart watch that drove me nuts, so I guess it's time for me to get a new one anyway. We took the bus down to the marina, had some "lemon ice" (unsweetened lemonade), and I bought some contact solution from the pharmacy. We took a ferry to Sorrento, which was a really neat looking town. I wish we had stayed there instead and spent a day in Capri. I'd like to go back there. The bus ride to the train station and the train ride to Pompei cost a total of 1.80€. There was a guy on the train playing saxophone, which was really cool. It started raining, and by the time we got to Pompei, it was really raining. Luckily they had rain ponchos for sale.

We bought tickets to enter the Pompei ruins (10€). Everyone had a map, but I couldn't find where to get one. We wandered around for about 20 minutes, and Carey was being such a pill that we ended up leaving. I think she was getting sick, so she wasn't feeling well at all. I got a map and a book to see what else was there, and there were some really cool things I wanted to see, but Carey was whining, so we left. I was really mad for a while, but I got over it. We took a train to Naples and bought tickets there to get back to Perugia. We were sneaky and got on a bus to Piazza Italia without paying (they rarely check tickets here - we could've come all the way back from Pompei without paying. They never checked our tickets). We ended up getting off at the bus station since it's closer to our apartment. It was nice to get home. I cooked some ravioli that had mushrooms in it, looked through my photos, called home, and went to bed.

Monday 6-12-06

I was so lazy on Monday. I had two midterms to prepare for, but I was so tired - I studied some but mostly napped, ate, and played computer games. I made some chicken for dinner, ate some pistachios, and had cherries with Nutella for dessert. hehe. Later on, there was a lot of commotion in the street. I figured there must be a game on, but I couldn't find it on TV. I decided to get dressed and go down to the pub across the street to see what was going on. There was a soccer game on - Italy vs. Ghana. I got there during a break (it was 1-0 Italy), got a beer, and chilled in the corner until the game started back up again. The bartender painted green-white-red stripes on my face, and I cheered Italy on with the locals. There were no commercials during the game, which was nice - SO different from America!! Everything is SO commercialized everywhere you go. Anyway, there weren't that many people in that tiny pub, but they sure did make a racket with their horns and yelling. It was so much fun, even though I just sat in the corner taking pictures. Italy won 2-0, so the place was nuts. They sang the national anthem multiple times, blew horns for hours, popped balloons, and yelled in the streets. After a couple of beers, studying was difficult, but I figured the experience was worth the consequences. Lots of fun! I'll try to post videos I took. They sure have a lot of pride for their country. I guess America does, too, but they don't get as excited and animated about it, I guess.

today

WHEW. One oral presentation and two midterm exams are over with. The exams weren't bad, but (as always) I should've studied more. The second one was especially difficult since I was braindead from the first one. At least they're finished. Now I think I'm going to go shopping for a new watch and then go to the grocery store.

I just got out of my history and politics class... good lord, I am SO SCARED about the midterm on Tuesday. There is so much information, and we have to write five essays about five different subjects... and we don't know what the questions are going to be about. He gave us a VERY general study guide that is hardly helpful... ugh!

Carey and I booked a trip yesterday to go to Pompei and then to spend 2 days in Capri. I'm really excited! I've been to Capri before, but only for a brief day trip... and I've never been to Pompei. It's going to be interesting finding our way around, but I think our trip last weekend to Terni was a good warm-up. Oh well, we'll see what happens! We have our train bookings and our hotel in Capri (which was actually cheaper through a general website than through the hostelworld.com website - for the same hotel!)... so the only gap we have is for getting from Pompei to Sorrento, but I've heard there's a train, so we'll see when we get there, I guess :)

I finally broke down and left Anna a note yesterday (yay for me and my notes) asking her to contribute to groceries (I was very nice about it). She went grocery shopping, and she and her sister cooked a yummy dinner for us. Carey and I were still a bit hungry afterwards, so I later cooked some chicken rolls that I made with pesto, Swiss cheese, prosciutto, and rosemary. They were okay, but I wish I had used a different type of cheese and less rosemary. Goat cheese would've been great, but I haven't seen it around yet. Maybe I just don't know the translation yet. hehe.

Well, my next class is about to start - we have some lecture time, and then we're going to a wine tasting! woo hoo! Then it's to bed early because our train leaves at 4:30am tomorrow!!! I hope you all have a great weekend!

and... GO CANES!!!!!
 

I finally found chicken and beef at the meat market!! How exciting! It was interesting to watch a woman slice the chicken breast for me while I stared intently at the chicken heads and feet in the coolers... and to watch a man package my ground beef while I stared intently at the entire pig head and huge pig feet in front of me. haha!

Some interesting Italian tidbits:
- When you order water at a restaurant, they ask you if you want it with or without gas, and they bring you a big bottle of it to pour in your glasses (they don't serve tap water).
- Stores tend to be very specialized - it's rare to come across a one-stop-shop sort of place. No Wal-Marts or Targets around here!
- Most of the grocery stores here are the size of my living room as opposed to the super duper grocery stores in the US.
- Printer paper is a weird size - it's longer than 11 inches. I guess it's in centimeters?
- Most stores close from about 1pm until 4pm every day. Americans complain when something isn't open 24-hours. Ha!
- The meat and fruit/veggie markets are only open until 1:30pm on weekdays.

That's all for now... the laptop is low on juice. More later!

Friday 6/2/06 - Giorno della Repubblica (holiday in Italy to celebrate the end of the monarchy and the beginning of the republic). Most places are closed today to celebrate a major day in Italian history. There are parades and festivals going on in town. I guess it's sort of like America's 4th of July.

I slept in - got up at about noon. There were some bags of popcorn in the cabinet, but we don't have a microwave... so I cut open a bag, dumped it in a pan with a lid, and cooked the popcorn on the stove. It turned out really well! And popcorn with Nutella is pretty freakin' good.


Carey and I went to have coffee at Cafe Roma at about 1pm. We went to underground Perugia and toured the small museum that's down there. They show models and information about the pope's fortress that he buried that section of Perugia to build. The section was inhabited by the Baglioni family who was a prominent family in Perugia. To protest the salt tax, the town of Perugia refused to use salt, which is why sometimes you get unsalted bread here. Perugia was pretty rebelious against the pope when it was under his rule, so the pope had that fortress built as a symbol of his power. It was a pretty pointless structure and was removed after they were freed from papal rule. The museum made it seem unfortunate that the fortress was removed (for historic reasons), but the more popular sentiment seems to be that the fortress was a symbol of oppression from papal rule and that removing it was a sign of freedom and sovereignty, which makes sense to me (Fischer).

Anyway, then Carey and I went around shopping for a while. We also ventured down the OTHER direction on Corso Cavour and found lots of neat stuff - there were some really neat stores and a really cool garden/park (Giardini del Frontone). On the way back, we stopped at Pizzeria Pompei and had dinner. I had a margherita pizza that wasn't as good as I was hoping, but I saw a pizza Italia that looked really good (I'm getting that next time). I also had a huge beer and some limoncello gelato. Yum!

Saturday 6/3/06

Carey and I got up early and left at about 7am to find a way to get to Terni to go see the waterfalls near there called Cascata delle Marmore. There was no bus to Terni, but we got a bus to the train station and bought train tickets to Terni. The train stations here are very confusing! We had tickets to Terni, but we had to get on the train to Rome, get off in some town called Foligno, and change trains to go to Terni. I'm not even sure how we figured that out, but we did! We got to Terni and wandered around for probably an hour trying to find a bus schedule and a place to buy tickets. After asking several people, we found the bus station. We bought bus tickets to get to Cascata delle Marmore, and the next frustrating task was to figure out which bus to take. After reading the bus schedule and map for 15 minutes trying to figure out what the hell was going on, we went back in and asked the guy who sold us the tickets. He told us that the bus didn't come to the bus station - we needed to go several blocks away to catch the #7 bus. haha... thanks for telling us! We finally managed to flag down the #7 bus and get on our way. The next challenge was trying to decipher the bus route map and whether we were on the solid red line #7 route or the dotted red line #7 route. A woman on the bus tried to help us, but judging by her bad eyesight, fishnet stockings, and constant rambling that made no sense, I figured she must've been slightly off her rocker. She got off, and a young guy helped us out - he pointed on the map to where we were and even pushed the stop-request button for us to get off. We rounded a corner, and there it was - a HUGE waterfall! We thanked him and got off. It felt like it was about 50° out there, but the falls were AMAZING! After wandering around for a few minutes, we found the ticket office, bought our entry tickets, and went into the park. The waterfalls were so awesome (pictures)!! We hiked around, and I managed to talk Carey into hiking all the way to the top of the mountain with me to the observatory, which was a little stone building that overlooked the falls (it was built in the 1700s). As we made our way back down the mountain, we noticed that the falls were MUCH weaker than they were when we were going up. It turns out that they "turn off" the waterfall for a few hours each day for some reason - we never quite figured out why. There were warning signs everywhere that said something like, "When the siren sounds, clear the pool area because the falls are being turned back on." We ate lunch at a restaurant across the street on the second level of a building so we could see the falls. In the information booklet about the waterfall, it showed a schedule of when they turned on and off the waterfall. It was about 2:00, and they were supposed to turn it back on at 3:00. Well, judging by all the warning signs and sirens, I got excited - I thought it was going to be quite a show to watch the falls come back on! After an hour of anxious waiting and grabbing my camera every time the siren went off, we watched the falls slowly grow back to their original size. I was disappointed since I had been expecting the water to explode out of the mountain or something... but it was still pretty neat :)

We waited for the #7 bus to take us back to town, but the driver told us that we needed to take the #21 bus to get back to the station. We got back to the bus station with no trouble, got to the train station, and had another difficult time trying to figure out which bus to take back to Perugia. We asked a man at the station, and he told us which platform to go to and what time the train left (since the ticket didn't say anything). We walked through the underground tunnel to platform 5, and we came up to the most ghetto-looking train I've ever seen - rust, graffiti, the whole bit. I laughed and said jokingly to Carey, "I hope that's not our train!" thinking that surely this train was not functional enough to carry people. A woman standing there said, "Perugia?" We said, "si..." and she pointed to the ghetto train. I tried not to react, but I'm sure my face showed the horror I felt when I realized that it really WAS our train. The inside was not quite as bad as the outside, but it was interesting! Carey and I both slept for most of the way back. I woke up right before we arrived at a train station in Perugia called S.Giovanni. We were supposed to be getting off at S.Anna, so we stayed on. Then, the driver and attendant came out of the cockpit (or whatever it's called) and walked toward the back of the train. There were a few other people still on the train, so we stayed on to see what was going to happen, although we were a little scared that we had missed our stop. Suddenly, the train started moving backwards. Then we really started flipping out! We were definitely on a different track this time, and we started going up a steep hill. We crossed our fingers and hoped that we were going up into Perugia (since it's on a big hill/mountain). We finally started seeing familiar landmarks and were VERY relieved when we pulled into the S.Anna train station. We took the escalator up, crossed over to the road that our street is off of, stopped at a store for toilet paper, and made our way back home. We ate dinky dinners and went to bed early. I heard them play "YMCA" at the pub down the street yet again before I fell asleep :)

Sunday 6/4/06

I woke up at about 9:30am, had some leftover seafood risotto, did laundry, dropped one of my socks on the street below when I was trying to hang it up to dry, and got some croissants for me and my roommies at the bakery when I went to get my sock.

We were very lazy all day - I organized photos on my computer, munched on Nutella and popcorn, and did some sudokus. Carey and I went out to dinner at a place called Victoria Ristorante - we were severely craving meat since we had been eating so much pasta, pizza, and croissants, so we had steak dishes that were really good. I had a Peroni, and we split a piece of tiramisu for dessert. We chatted with the restaurant owner and some Italians who had come in for dinner, which was fun. They also gave us some free champagne, which the owner said was NOT champagne - he said it is Prosecchi, which is ITALIAN, and champagne is FRENCH. haha - so much pride! It was really good, though! I might have to buy me some before I leave.

That was about the extent of the excitement on Sunday. It was nice to relax after our long adventure on Saturday!

today

I've been up for a couple of hours... I'm still pretty tired. When I got up, Carey had left me a note with a croissant that she had gotten from a bakery downstairs. We've been out of food at the apartment for a few days, so she got me one so I'd have some breakfast - how sweet! It was a Nutella croissant, of course - yum! My tastebuds sure love all this Nutella, but my stomach hasn't appreciated it too much ;) Oh well, it's been worth it!

I'm going to get some groceries today, but it's Anna's turn to get groceries (she's hardly contributed so far), so I'm not going to get too much - just some necessities. I'm going to go to a different store this time because the last couple of times I've gone to the Coop, they've been rude. I'm also going to try out this meat and fruit market I keep hearing about, if I can find it. We really need to eat something other than pasta!! :) The grocery stores have TONS of cheese, prosciutto, salame, pasta, produce, and then shelf stuff - like sauces, bread, and cookies. They don't have chicken, turkey, or beef... it's kind of strange.

It has been SO FREAKIN COLD HERE! It gets down to about 40° at night, and it's been in the 60s during the day. I think it's slowly getting warmer during the day, and the sun tries to come out every now and then for a change... but it's JUNE! I wish it would warm up! I'm tired of bundling up and wearing a coat every time I go outside!

Well, that's enough for now. I'm uploading more pictures, and then I'm off to find meat. Ciao!

( sources )

 

the rest of yesterday

Well, I chickened out of the tandem event... I left school at 7pm, and the tandem started at 7:15. I was just really tired and wanted some time to myself, so maybe I'll go to the next one.

Instead, I got dressed up in my new pants, an Italian shirt my momma bought for me a few years ago, my new necklace, and a pair of earrings that a family friend made (who used to live in Rome, actually). I went to dinner with some girls for Diana's birthday. We went to a restaurant here in Perugia called Il Settimo Sigillo (The Seventh Serpent). It was old dungeon-looking place with really neat decor including medieval chandeliers and knight armor suits. For dinner, I had Brasato di Cinghiale (wild boar) and Verdure alla griglia (grilled vegetables). The wild boar was surprisingly tastey! It tasted a lot like regular pork. And not expensive either - after "cover charge" (the tip that is included), house white wine, bottles of water, and dinner, it cost about 16€ total. I spoke to the waiter in some Italian, and later on, he told me that I speak very good Italian... the funny part was when he said that, I misunderstood him. haha!

After dinner, Anna and I went with Diana to a local pub called Merlin's (Brie apparently works there). I had the drink on special ("Extasy" - gin, vodka, and sweet orange juice). As we were leaving, that place got really packed all of a sudden! We had to squeeze our way out the door. We walked Diana home, which was a LONG walk! It took about 30 minutes to walk to her apartment, and it took us a little longer coming back because we got a little lost... hehe. I am so glad I live so close to the middle of town! It's only a five-minute walk to most places for us.


On our way back, we ran into some sketchy Italian guys who kept bothering us. We were almost home, and this one guy in a group of people said, "Ciao, Bionda!" ("Hello blondy!") I responded, "Sera," which is short for "buona sera." The guy said mockingly, "'Buona sera!' HAHAHAHA!" and the whole group of people started laughing. I have NO IDEA why they were laughing at me! It bothered me for a while, but who knows... maybe it was too late to say "buona sera" or something... it was about 12:30am. I have no idea!

Going to bed at 1:00am was very late compared to what I'm used to these days!

today

I was very tired this morning for class, but we just went on an historical/political walking tour that was really interesting. We went into Palazza dei Priori, which is the main city government building in Perugia. We saw the cabinet meeting room (giunta comunale), the vice mayor of Perugia, the parliament meeting room (sala del consiglio - often called "sala del malconsiglio" to make fun of them), Sala dei Notari (Notary's hall) where kids were singing the Italian national anthem, and underground Perugia which used to be the Baglioni quarter but was buried by the pope so he could put a military fortress on top of it. It was really interesting.

Next, I have my Food Cultures class, and we're also going on a tour. We're going to a brewery (yum!) and some other places of culinary interest ;) so I'm excited about that, as well.

It is SO COLD here right now! It got down to 41° last night, and right now it's about 60° and WINDY. brrrrrrr! I'm wearing pants and a jacket, and I'm still cold. I wish I had brought a wool sweater. Apparently this type of weather is very unusual for this time of year, though.

As I walk around Perugia, I still can't believe I'm actually here. This place is just amazing - going back home to Raleigh is going to be tough! Although there are plenty of things I miss... like my clothes dryer (as much as I hate that thing), dishwasher, my bed, my blanket, my pillows, my shower, my tennis shoes, T-SHIRTS!!!! haha.

Okay, I'm going to go grab a cappuccino before class... ciao!

Tuesday 5/30/06

Yesterday, I got home, chilled with Carey for a while, and then someone rang the doorbell... it was Caterina from Umbra to inspect our apartment. She only speaks Italian, but she speaks very clearly, so I actually understood a lot of what she said. She said our apartment was in good shape and gave us a green card (green = good, yellow = not so good, red = bad) - she said it was the first green card so far! If we get 3 green cards, we get into a competition for the "best apartment" and we have a chance at winning a free dinner. woo hoo! Catarina is really nice.

Anna said she was going out for free gelato last night, so we all bundled up (it was cold outside!) and went to get gelato. I got wild black cherry and kiwi. Afterwards, a few girls came over to check out our apartment, so that was kinda fun. I went a little later than usual - about midnight. haha - I feel like such an old lady going to bed so early! ;)

Today

This morning, I woke up at about 7:30 and went with Carey and Anna to get breakfast at a local bakery. I had a swirly roll thing and a croissant with Nutella on it ;) yum! Then we met up with some other girls and went to a festival thing that's going on in Piazza Italia for the next few days. There were people selling things from different places - France, Germany, and of course Grand Rapids, Michigan and Seattle!! haha - that was funny. They were also cooking American "barbeque" in one tent. It sure smelled good! I bought a couple of gifts. Then I wandered around town and did a little shopping for myself - I bought some great new pants, a cute bag, a necklace (6€), a headband thingy (2€), a book (3€), and an Italian version of "Crash" on DVD (8€). Some great deals! The pants are nice and long, and comfortable too - I think they're made out of linen or something (Mom will be jealous).

Tonight, they're having a "Tandem" at one of the campus buildings, which is when American students meet Italian students and chat in Italian. I'm going to check it out, but I'm a little nervous since my Italian isn't very good... although, I'm sure other people will be coming whose Italian is worse than mine :)

After the tandem thing, a few of us are going out for dinner for Diana's 21st birthday. That should be fun. I haven't gone out to a restaurant for a real meal yet since I've been here, so I'm excited. I've only ordered panini or gelato at small delis.

My classes are pretty tough. He assigns so much reading, and I have him for two classes on the same day! ack! Speaking of which, I still need to do my reading for tomorrow...

Last night, I helped Carey with her Italian homework again. I sure hate doing my own homework, but there's something about helping someone else with their homework that's more fun. haha.

They seem to like the song "YMCA" here - I've heard it 3 times in the past couple of days. They play it at the bar up the street from here, and everyone sings along. haha! Good times.

Well, there's not much else going on right now... I need to run home before I come back for the tandem dealio. I've taken some videos, so I'm going to add those to my online photo album. Hope everyone is doing well! Buona giornata!

Well, I decided not to go to Venice to visit George and Richard. It would've been great fun, but a 5-hour train ride each way is just a bit too much!

I had a scare this morning - apparently I had left my wallet in the Umbra 1 building, but I had no idea where it was. Luckily, I went back and found it on the table right where I had left it with everything still inside. Whew!!

It's time for class #2... more later! Ciao!

Wow, what an amazing trip! I have started posting photos, so keep checking back :)

Friday 5/26/06

We boarded the bus at 6:30pm and started on our way to the port in Civitavecchia, which is just north of Rome. The bus ride was amazing... it was long and boring, but the landscape was so magical. Watching the sun set over the mountains and through olive trees was just incredible. When we arrived in Civitavecchia, we boarded the ferry at about 9:30pm, and the ferry left at 11pm. It was an overnight ferry, so it was more like a cruise ship. Our room had two bunk beds and a bathroom. They had a movie theater, restaurant, lounge, etc. I didn't sleep very well; I think I was excited or something. I bought a croissant for 1€ for breakfast, and we docked at 6:30am. The bus ride to our destination (Baia Sardegna) was about an hour. What a breathtaking place! The croissant wasn't enough to hold me over until lunch at 1pm, so I had a bowl of fruit with lemon gelato at a local cafe.

Afterwards, Carey, Anna, and I walked around a little. There was a path that went along one side of the bay where there were lots of neat rocks and a secret little beach area. The water was freezing, so I didn't go in, but the views were awesome!

We finally checked into our hotel (Carey, Anna, and I were in room 410). Our room was so nice - we had a great view of the pool area, and we could see the sea, as well. There were two single beds and a set of bunk beds - I slept on the top bunk.

For lunch, I had some pasta with veal (yeah, I broke down and tried it), fresh bread, and vanilla gelato with fresh fruit for dessert (YUM). Carey and I went out to the beach and chilled out there for a while... I chased lizards and took a nap.

Later on, we went to the bar and had a couple of drinks. First, I had a drink that the bartender made up - lampone (raspberry), orange juice, and gin. Then, the bartender made up another drink that was very interesting - Mirto rosso (a local liquor made out of myrtle), lemon juice, and soda water. Most people didn't like it, but Carey and I did, so we shared it and chatted with the bartender.

For dinner, I had yet another pasta dish with veal (seasoned differently - much better than lunch), salad (yes, I had salad), more fresh bread, and a "chocolate log" that had Nutella on it. After all that food, we were supposed to also have fresh fruit and cheese, but we left because we were already too full!

Throughout the trip, we always sat with the same people for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I sat with my roommies (Carey and Anna) as well as a few other nice girls: Diana, Molly, and sometimes Brie.

That night, Carey and I chilled on the balcony of our room for a while and went to bed early (as usual). Some stupid girl next door started hollering on her cell phone at 2am; Carey and I spent the rest of the trip trying to figure out who it was by listening to all the other girls' voices. haha :)

Saturday 5/27/06

Breakfast at 8am. I had a croissant (Yum! so soft and flavorful), yogurt, fruit, bread with cheese & ham, toast with mirto jam, and Earl Grey tea.


This was the day we went on the day trip around L'Arcipelago Maddalenino (Maddalena Archipeligo). The boat picked us up at 9:30am, and the ride was beautiful! The weather was perfect, and the water was calm. We arrived in the town of Maddalena and took a short bus ride to the Garibaldi Museum on the island of Caprera. Giuseppe Garibaldi is a hero of Italy - he was one of the main guys who helped to unite Italy into one nation (as opposed to the highly fragmented nation it was before). The museum was neat - it was where he lived and where he is buried. It was a quick tour with no guidance (I don't think any of the guides spoke English), but it was really interesting. I bought a book to give me more information.

We went back to the town of Maddalena... I bought a silly bandana with the Sardegna flag on it to keep my scalp from getting sunburned... tee hee. It was goofy looking, but it did the trick!

We got back on the boat to leave. As we started leaving, apparently a few girls had missed the directions as to when to be back on the boat and were still in town. Someone had to call them and tell them to come back, and then the boat had to return to the port to pick them up. How silly!

We ate a delicious pasta lunch that they cooked on the boat, and our next stop was Spargi, an island with BEAUTIFUL beaches (Costa Smeralda). I took a nap on the beach and tried to ignore all the obnoxious girls on the beach. hehe.

Then the captain gave us a tour of some surrounding islands - Budelli, Santa Maria, Piana, Barrettini, Maddalena, Caprera, Pecora - then we returned to Baia Sardegna at about 5pm. What a great day trip!

I shopped around some when we got back. There was a book store that had all kinds of books that I recognized (in Italian, of course). I bought a few books, a magazine, a comic book to work on my Italian (my prof at Meredith suggested this), and some other goodies.

I tried a new beer called Deher. The name isn't Italian, but apparently the beer is. I liked it! We had a discussion one night at dinner about the beer Nastro Azzurro - the name means "Blue Ribbon" - the Italian PBR!

For dinner, I had a pasta dish with a mystery sauce that turned out to have fish eggs in it, fried calamari with a tartar sauce, and a fruit tort for dessert.

Sunday 5/28/06

After a great night of sleep, I had another tastey breakfast, packed, took a quick nap, checked out of the hotel, and wandered around town some more. I decided to be adventurous and try some mirto gelato. It was VERY interesting! It was like a mix between a berry flavor and a juniper-ish flavor... I don't even know how to describe it.

I was very lazy this day - I had had enough sun, and I was exhausted from all the travelling, so I just took it easy.

At 3:00pm, we boarded the bus to go to Porto Cervo for a few hours. We took a tour on this goofy train thing that took us around town. We saw some great views, as well as a house that is owned by Berlusconi (valued at 40,000,000€), a house owned by the Putin family, and a hotel that is 15,000€ where George Bush had his birthday party two years ago. We walked around some, but everything was very snobby and expensive (Gucci, Prada, Louis Vuitton, etc), so there wasn't much for us to do.

At 6:30pm, we loaded back on the bus and went back to Olbia to get back on the ferry. I did some homework reading on the ferry and fell asleep at about 9:30pm.

Today: Monday 5/29/06

We had to be up at 6:30 this morning to get off the ferry and load the bus to go back to Perugia.

When we got home, I called my former boss from Pharaoh's, George, at his hotel in Venice. I am planning to take a day trip there on Wednesday to visit - although, I just found out that the train ride is 5 hours one way, so I need to decide if it's worth it.

Carey wasn't expecting to get back early enough to make it to her Italian class, so she was scrambling to try to get her homework done. I helped her some - it was pretty hard for a beginning class! It was fun helping her, though, and it sorta helped me some, as well :)

I unpacked, ate a sandwich, and then went to the grocery store to restock our fridge. The lady at the deli counter was kind of mean to me, and since I was so tired, it sort of upset me. I got a little homesick for the first time since I've been here. I've gotten a little teary a couple of times, but mainly because I wanted to be able to share my experiences with my parents. I've gotten a little frustrated today at the time difference and only being able to call home at certain times, and at the amount of work it takes to communicate with people around here. It's usually a fun challenge, but I feel sort of bummy today, so I just haven't wanted to deal with it... especially after that woman rolled her eyes at me because I couldn't speak better Italian. The men are nice to me about it; the women are mean. Go figure.

Not much else to say right now... I should decide whether or not I'm going to Venice and get the rest of my photos from Sardegna posted.

In the handbook we got before the trip, they emphasized the need for us to be quiet after 10:00pm and that neighbors won't hesitate to call the cops if they hear noise. Um... someone needs to tell all the locals that, as well. haha. They are always up partying until 1:00 or 2:00am. Last night, they were playing music and singing - they even played the YMCA. haha! So... I don't know what the deal is with the noise rule. Perhaps we're just in a location with bars around... and also, everything is made of stone, so the sound travels very well.

Another thing about what I had expected - everyone talks about how Italians dress in dark, plain clothes and wear stylish shoes, etc. Well, a lot of them do, but a significant number of Italians here wear tennis shoes, t-shirts, clothing with stuff written on them, white socks... everything they told us NOT to wear! The tennis shoes are more often like those bowling-shoe-looking shoes, but they are still tennis shoes. I've also seen quite a range of styles - from hippies, to punks, to slobs, to stylish. I guess this is a smaller town, so perhaps it's different here than it is in bigger cities like Rome.

It's funny - Italians usually answer their phones by saying, "pronto" (ready), or "dimmi" (talk to me). You would think they would say, "Ciao" or something.

The food is so fresh here. People go shopping mostly every day because the food doesn't last as long (the food has fewer or no preservatives). It's also just as cheap if not cheaper than food in America that is loaded with chemicals and preservatives. To get food this fresh in the US, you have to pay an arm and a leg. Not fair!

Yesterday was a great day - since I got up so early, I had the entire day to explore and poke around. I walked around town to get to know the streets a little better, I bought my books for school, I bought a cool book about Perugia for myself at a book store, I hung out with my roommates for a little while... nothing really exciting, but everything seems exciting because of the environment! oh, I got some lemon gelato the other day, and boy was it yummy.

I had bought some tortellini the other day, so I decided to cook that for dinner last night. While I cooked, Anna and I watched part of the soccer game on TV (Italy vs. Denmark). It was fun to watch - Italy scored once, and I cheered for them. haha. It's ALMOST as exciting as ice hockey... boy do I miss ice hockey. I hate not knowing the scores until I get online and read my e-mail. The Canes lost the last game, so now the Sabres are ahead in the series 2-1. I wish I could listen to the games, but they don't start until about 1am Italy time, and I'm not about to go sit outside the school building in the middle of the night to listen to a hockey game. haha.

Anyway, the tortellini was pretty darn good - it is stuffed with beef, prosciutto, and some other stuff, and I added asiago cheese and garlic to it as well. Anna really liked it :) Carey has been kinda quiet recently - she was leaving yesterday when I got home, and when I asked her where she was going, she said "I don't know," and just left. Maybe she just needed to get out by herself or something. I haven't really talked to her much at all since then. She was gone when I got up at 9:30 this morning - I bet my terrible snooze-button-hitting habits got on her nerves. haha. I had bought a small battery-powered alarm clock, but it wasn't loud enough, and it stops after 1 minute - not enough to wake me up! So I bought one at a store yesterday that works a little better.

Last night, I decided to shave my legs before the trip to Sardinia, but the hot water tank is very small, and hot water doesn't last very long. So before I showered, I filled a bowl with warm water and sat on the edge of the shower stall and shaved my legs with the bowl of water, a washcloth, shaving gel, and a razor. It was kinda tricky, but it was definitely better than ending up with a cold shower.

I leave for Sardinia tonight at 6:30!! It's going to be a long journey to and from, but it's going to be very cool. ( Here is what the itinerary looks like... )

Lengthy trip, but I'm really excited! I'm going to check on train tickets to Venice for next week - my old bosses from Pharaoh's will be there for part of the week, so it would be really cool to meet up with them! And I want to go to Venice sometime anyway because I've never been there.

I'm in between classes right now - my first class this morning was at 10:45 - History and Politics of Modern Italy. The professor is German, but he speaks pretty good English. He's very interesting to listen to, but he talks a lot and speaks very quickly, so that keeps me on my toes! Which is good because the class is over three hours long (he cut it short today). He also teaches my next class, Food Cultures of Italy.

My first class in Italy

We're basically going to be learning about the time from the reunification of Italy as a nation in 1861 (Risorgimento) to the present. We learned a few quick facts - the previous Prime Minister, Berlusconi, owns 90% of the public and private media in Italy. I knew it was a big chunk, but 90%! That's a LOT! Also, there are between 15 and 20 political parties. I actually thought it was more, but that's still a lot.

It's so neat to be learning about Italian history and to be right in the middle of it. Perugia is a very old city that was built in around 300 BC by the Entruscans (they were famous for building towns at the tops of hills).

We learned a very brief history about the Roman Empire, the Papal states, the Crusades, the Renaissance, world exploration (Amerigo Vespucci, Giovanni da Verrazano), and up to the beginning of the reuinification of a very fragmented Italy. We will be covering the reuinification more in the next class (Tues). Also, next Thursday, we're going on a tour through Perugia to learn about different historical landmarks - that should be really interesting!

Well, that's enough for now. If I spend my whole time typing, I'll miss the good stuff! Plus, my next class starts in a little bit - I should eat and stretch my legs. Ciao!

Well, I finally managed to get online! I don't have internet in my apartment, but the school has wireless that I can access from Caffetteria Priori across the street.

WHAT AN AMAZING PLACE! I've been keeping a journal for the past couple of days so that once I got online, I could post it without forgetting any important details ;)

the journey over

The flight from RDU to ATL was uneventful. However, when I looked at my boarding pass for my connecting flight to Rome, I realized that it was NOT a boarding pass - it said "Seat Request." It said something along the lines of, sorry for the inconvenience, but please check in with the attendant at gate E35 when you arrive. Yikes! As soon as we landed, I booked it over to my gate and ran up to the counter as soon as an attendant showed up. I was second in line... it turned out that the flight had been overbooked by THIRTY people! Luckily, I was able to get a seat fairly easily. I went to eat at a yummy restaurant called Marche Bistro, and by the time I got back to the gate, about 40 people were standing in line waiting (and hoping) to get seats on the flight. THANK GOD I got there so early!

The flight to Rome was about nine hours, and we left about an hour later than scheduled because of the seating issues. I sat next to a really nice guy, but he snored like a monster. No sleep for me! I watched part of "King Kong" in Italian, and part of it without sound. After the movie, they kept the TVs on, so that also made it hard for me to sleep. I put on my sunglasses and tucked folded tissues between the lenses and my eyes to block out the light. haha... I must've been quite a sight for sore eyes, but it worked.

Highest altitude I noticed: 36,000 ft
Lowest temperature I noticed: -74°F

Once I arrived in Rome, a woman "checked" my passport (took it, stamped it, gave it back to me), and my luggage came out fairly quickly. I found some other girls with the same group, so I hung out with them and played cards for a little bit. We went out to find a place to get a drink and ran into the woman who was there to meet us. We got on a bus, and it took about three hours to get to Perugia. I thought we'd NEVER get here!

arrival in Perugia

We stopped at a hotel, got a packet of info, ate a quick bag lunch, and a woman came and dragged me off to a shuttle to take me to my apartment. There were three other people in the car, but they dropped me off first. My apartment is on a street called Via Podiani. There are several apartments with the same front entrance - ours is on the third floor.

The man who let me in was, I think, the landlord's son. He seemed quite young and very nervous. His English was not very good, so we spoke to each other in some English and some Italian. I tried my best to make it easier for him ;)

our apartment

Our apartment is super cool! The front door has some major locks on it that are hard to open, but I guess that's a good thing. When you walk in, there is a small hallway with a map of Italy on the wall.

At the end of the hallway to the left is the bathroom fully equipped with a toilet, bidet, sink, and a tiny corner shower stall.


Just to the right of the bathroom is our kitchen, which is very nice! We have a small washing machine (luxurious! most people don't have one), sink, oven, stove, refrigerator, freezer, toaster, and a table with chairs. We don't have a dishwasher or a clothes dryer - those are both extremely rare around here. They see them as being unnecessary, especially with electricity being as expensive as it is for them. They are really into efficiency for monetary and environmental reasons. I saw on the information sheet in the apartment that if we were to use heat, we can only use it for 7 hours per day. Also, very few places have air conditioning.

To the right of the kitchen is my room - I got there first, so I claimed the single room! I have a small single bed (the single sheets are even too wide for it), a desk, a wardrobe/chest of drawers, and a bedside table. I have a window that I leave open - there are no screens or anything, so it's like a fairy tale window... hehehe.

At the end of the hallway to the right is the other bedroom - it has two beds, a desk, some shelves, two windows, and a bigger wardrobe with more drawers.

The apartment is so much nicer than I was expecting. And the location is great - it's not far at all to a bunch of shops, delis, and restaurants. Although, the walkway that goes to the main streets is basically a huge stairway that goes for billions of miles it seems ;) I should be in great shape by the time I leave here!

what's going on

One of my favorite things so far is sitting in my bedroom and hearing people on the street below speaking Italian. I was worried that there would be a lot of Americans when I first got here, but I rarely hear people speaking English. A good number of locals speak English, but it's quite limited, and many don't speak any at all. I have managed to have some productive conversations in Italian ;)

Monday evening, I walked around to see what was around. I stopped at a beer kiosk and had a Nastro Azzurro beer, which was pretty good. I sat on some steps and watched people go by. A young hippy Italian woman came and sat next to me and rolled a cigarette with tobacco in about 20 seconds flat - I was really impressed! haha. I went back and ordered a Stella and had a brief conversation in Italian with the woman at the kiosk. She's originally from Poland, but she's lived in Italy for 16 years. I told her that I'm from the US, and that I've had Stella there before. heheh... I was all proud of myself for having a conversation in Italian!

When I got home, I PASSED OUT. I had gotten about 4 hours of sleep over the past two nights, so I was VERY tired. Carey, my roommate from Meredith College, arrived with a woman who was apparently very loud in the apartment, but I never heard a thing.

Carey, my roommate, is really cool - she's my age (24), so we get along well. We seem to have a lot in common, and she's very laid back like I am, so I think living with her will be good. Our other roommate, Anna, arrived yesterday. She seems very nice, but I haven't talked to her much. She has a broken foot which must really suck in a hilly place like this!

I went to bed on Monday night at about 10:00. I woke up at about 4am, and at about 4:30, I smelled the bakery at the end of the street baking bread. IT SMELLED SO GOOD! I had to get up and eat a piece of bread. hehe.

I got up at about 8:40. Carey and I went to get breakfast at a small deli and somehow managed to find the location of our orientation. Nobody told us where it was, and there were no signs. I had to ask several people for help finding it.

After orientation, we went to a small grocery store to get groceries. We bought bread, proscuitto, salame, asiago cheese, swiss cheese, fruit, yogurt, water, dijon mustard, and mayo. Some of the groceries were so cheap! Proscuitto and salame in the US are expensive, but they are really cheap here - and fresh! I also had bought a bottle of wine on Monday for 1.50€. I haven't tried it yet ;)

At 1:00, we went on a walking tour with a group of people from Umbra - Marco was our guide. He showed us around town - some cool spots, the three Umbra buildings (spread out around town), ATMs, post office, bus station, underground Perugia, etc.

Underground Perugia is very cool! It's literally part of the city that's underground. It used to be above ground, but at some point (a long time ago), the pope got mad because that part of the city wasn't paying taxes or something, so he had that section buried. Now it's open to go down there and look around, but it's still underground.

Carey has an amazing memory - after walking around the city once, she remembers where EVERYTHING is. It's UNBELIEVABLE! I'm glad she's my roommate :)

I went to bed really early last night by accident - about 7:30pm. I woke up at 6am and couldn't go back to sleep, so I watched and old Daffy Duck cartoon in Italian on TV, ate a proscuitto and asiago sandwich, and listened to the pigeons outside. I got dressed and walked over here to the cafe across the street from the school so I could get on the internet. It's pretty chilly outside and has been raining a little. I'm wearing pants and a long-sleeved shirt, and I'm still a little chilly. The weather has been really nice so far - it's slightly cool because we are up in the mountains a little bit. I was worried that it would be hot in our apartment with no AC, but it's perfect. It's nice and cool at night, so I sleep like a baby.

That's all for now. I'll upload photos and post them ASAP. Ciao!

I leave in about 36 hours... wow!


I was good for a while about keeping up with Italian politics and such... I followed the PM election a little bit. I've gotten a bit lazy about it lately, but I am going to try to get back on it.

Italian politics is very interesting - I'm glad I'll be taking that course in History and Politics of Modern Italy. I don't know much about the history of Italy, other than vague knowledge of the Communist era and problems with the Mafia (Cosa Nostra). However, one day last semester, I got into an interesting discussion with my Italian professor, Max Creech, about Italian politics. There are numerous political parties in Italy. I don't even know how many there are; I would guess dozens, but it could be in the hundreds for all I know. In order to win the majority of votes, they have to join parties and form coalitions. Then after they do win the majority, the different parties within the coalition disagree on some issues, so it's very difficult to get things accomplished in the government.

Sylvio Berlusconi was the last PM of Italy. The first time I ever heard about him was when there were rumors circling that he had had a hair transplant. He was wearing a white bandana on his head all the time, even to formal meetings with other world leaders. There had also been rumors that he had a face lift, but he denied that (even though it's totally obvious looking at pictures).

Berlusconi is a member of the Go Italy party (Forza Italia), a centre-right party that was part of the coalition called House of Freedoms (Casa delle Libertà). He served for a few years in the 1990s, and he has served for the past five years (2001 - 2006). He is the richest man in Italy, and owns all kinds of businesses, including ones that run a large percentage of the Italian media. He is often in court for doing dirty business, but seems to be let off most of the time. In this year's PM election, he was running against Romano Prodi of the l'Unione coalition, which is more centre-left. It was a very close election, but Prodi was declared the winner. Berlusconi continued to fight it for the weeks following the election, but he eventually conceded.

I'm not terribly knowledgeable about this situation, but honestly, Berlusconi sounds like a nut. He has compared himself to Napoleon and to Jesus Christ. He gets cosmetic surgery. He owns most of the Italy media. He's the richest man in Italy. He is certainly not the type of person I would want in power, but I guess lots of people say that about George W. Bush as well :) But Berlusconi loves the spot light, and he's very articulate. Prodi is not as articulate - he's more softspoken and quiet. His speeches are not as interesting to listen to, but he seems to have a more realistic head on his shoulders. I was glad to hear that Prodi won - I think he will do good things for Italy (at least in my opinion). Only time will tell.

I also followed a few stories here and there. A top Mafia boss was caught in a town called Corleone (which, oddly, is the name of the family in The Godfather). Also, a while back, there was a young boy named Tommy (il piccolo Tommaso) who was kidnapped and murdered - he was the big news story for a while.

I go to the Corriere della Sera website to catch up on news, but my Italian is still not quite good enough to really understand what's going on. I'm working on it, though...


Italy is mainly Catholic - especially since the Pope and Vatican City are right in the middle of the country. From what I hear, they tend to be very religious.

I still have a lot of cleaning and packing to do... I guess I should get back to work for a little bit before I go to bed. Buona sera!

( sources )

 

photos of the Umbra Institute! - wow, it looks small, but how NEAT!

I went ahead and signed up for the side trip to Sardinia - I hope I get to go! We won't find out until we get there.

I have been shopping, packing, and getting ready for this trip. I bought some less-American-looking clothes at Target, and some new luggage since mine is falling apart :) I'm starting to get nervous about the trip - I'm traveling by myself, and I don't know anyone else who is going. But there will be others in the same situation, I'm sure, so it will be cool. I hope I don't end up with crazy roommates.

I received my cell phone contract information - what a great deal. The phone rental is free, and the school is covering the initial processing fee... so all I have to pay for is usage. All incoming calls are free, local calls are super cheap, and calls to the US are about 35 cents per minute - not too shabby! I also have a Skype account (carrieob), so I will be good to go.

I almost had a heart attack today when I realized that I probably won't be able to watch NHL games in Italy! Thank God for the internet - I can listen to Chuck Kaiton's play-by-play on the NHL.com radio. hehehe ;)

That's all for now... I leave in about 5 days! eeek!

Flights are booked. FINALLY!

5/21/06
RDU to ATL: depart 1:25 PM / arrive 2:49 PM
ATL to FCO: depart 5:15 PM / arrive 8:55 AM (next day)

6/30/06
FCO to EWR: depart 9:55 AM / arrive 1:15 PM
EWR to RDU: depart 5:00 PM / arrive 6:37 PM

And I'll be able to meet up with the group to travel between Rome (FCO) and Perugia each way, so that's good.

I received an e-mail about an optional trip to the island of Sardinia (Sardegna), which would be really awesome... beaches, boat rides, a museum... but it's $400, so I don't know. We'll see :)

Last night, I went to the Arcadia site to book my seat on the group flight, and it was sold out. Ugh! So now I'm having to search through all airlines and flight sites to find a flight to Rome so I can meet up with the group... but they are all at least $500 more than the group flight was. And it's so ridiculous how they price plane tickets - you can get a $900 ticket with $300 of taxes, or a $1000 ticket with $200 of taxes, etc... it all comes out to be the same. Those "cheap flights?" Yeah, that's a bunch of bull. There are few things more aggravating than searching for flights online. Oh well, I'll get there some how or another. I just hope Arcadia will be a little more helpful than they seem to have been so far.

Ciao!

I have been accepted to the summer study abroad program through Arcadia University in Perugia, Italy. I don't leave for over a month, but I'm really excited, and I'm starting to prepare for the trip. I will use this journal to keep my friends and family updated on my day-to-day adventures... and I think this will be a great way to document my trip so that I can remember the fun details when I get back.

This is it for now... stay tuned!