Here are some pictures of our apartment. I'm horrendous at taking pictures with my camera. The picture on the left is of my room and on the right is of course our kitchen. None of them too big or nice but they both suffice. This past weekend we were supposed to go to Florence however a train strike de-railed our plans, gorgeous play on words there. However, this weekend was enjoyable. Friday night me and Mike participated in a "beer challenge" at one of our favorite bars. Of the 74 people who tried before us only 4 had succeeded, none of which were American and one of which was canadian. We figured we needed to bring pride back to the States and that's what we did as we completed the challenge with ease. I'll spare you the details of what the challenged entailed but if your curious you can ask me and I will tell you. However, our name, home country, and quote will forever be engraved into the VIP section of La Tana dell'orso. Saturday we decided to stray from the italian cuisine and try a chinese restuarant. It was very good and cheap but I was disapointed to see that apparantly chinese restaurants don't have fortune cookies.

Couple more things to mention about Rome. It is easily the most complicated and dangerous city to drive in. There are no traffic lines or traffic lights for that matter and almost every street is a one-way street that’s about 100 feet in diameter. There are also little motorbikes that go anywhere they want in the city and have no rules apply to them. The tour guide told us 10 people die a week on motorbikes within the city every week. I'm not sure what these people are thinking. Second, Rome is absurdly expensive. For example, granted it was in a restaurant outside of Trevvi Fountain, I paid the equivalent of $12 for a cup of tortellini that was reheated in a microwave right before I got it. Also, a double cheeseburger is $3 euro at McDonalds, there's no dollar menu here. Lastly, this gypsy thing is pretty overrated. I saw only one gypsy; I guess you could call her. We were eating lunch outside of the Vatican and this old lady, dressed in all black, shaking, desperately holding on to her cane to hold her up (she basically looked like the old lady in thinner) and she came over to our table and said something we could not distinguish but was clearly asking for money. We said no but she wouldn’t leave and kept saying something and kept showing us a picture of Mary like that was going to persuade us to give her money. Eventually after she wouldn’t leave mike threw her a euro coin and eventually she left and went on to the next table. Eventually one of the waiters at the restaurant came out and saw her and yelled something at her, with that she miraculously started to walk fine and briskly strolled across the street to another restaurant. I was not impressed with the gypsies.

Saturday we decided to head to the vatican and see all the sights they had to offer. I was pretty proud of us as we woke up at about 7:30 to make sure we got there by 8 so we wouldn't have to wait hours in line to get in. The same tour guide we used at the coliseum we also used at the vatican. The vatican was very very impressive and I can now say unlike Will Hunting that I know what the sistine chapel smells like. Ranking in the top 5 most bizarre things I've ever seen was pope John XXIII undecomposed body in St. Peter's Basillica. Apparently he was a solid pope and should be canonized pretty soon. Although the body hasn't decomposed 40 years since his death, our tour guide admitted that the Catholic Church will help treat the body and help make sure it doesn't rot away.

This past weekend we ventured off to rome. It was a very enjoyable trip as we saw just about everything you would want to see when you traveled there. The city was alot busier and crowded then i expected, 4 million people live there, and it reminded me alot of a city like New York. I'm pretty content I ended up in Perugia rather then Rome after making the trip there. We arrived in rome around 3 p.m. and after checking into our hotel we went out looking for familiar structures and after about a 10 minute walk we ran right into the coliseum where we got there just in time to take the last tour of the colisuem. The tour was well worth the extra $5 as we were able to skip the 30 minute wait in line. A couple interesting things I learned on the tour; over a million people died in the coliseum and the winningest gladiator ever was Maximus, who won basically every day and stayed alive for 14 straight years, he then retired and became one of the wealthiest men in Rome.

Rome verse Milan. Apprarantly this soccer match was more important to the thirty or so Italians then the steeler game. I was able to watch the first half of then game however Estaban decided to switch over right before half time, I believe the game ended the same exact time as the steelers, it worked out perfect. I was pretty happy. Anyway I'm almost 100% convinced the steelers will win the super bowl this year, I'm pretty confident this would happen when I'm in Italy.

St. Francis of Assisi Church buit in the 13th century. You weren't allowed to take pictures of the inside but it was pretty impressive. I went down to the basement sanctuary to see the tomb that hes buried in. Pretty surreal little scene; a small candle lit sanctuary with monks and nuns praying to the tomb. Almost felt akward going in but I saw about 5 chinese tourists walking around so I figured I was all right.
Picture of the tomb where St. Rufino's body had been laid; St. Francis church from atop Rocca Maggiore.

\ St. Rufino church in Assisi and the crypt in the basement of st. Rufino,

Pictures of Rocca Maggiore a 12th century fotress/castle in Assisi. We were able to climb to the top of the tower however none of my pictures came out that well.

Wednesday January 11th
Tonight Arcadia treated all of the Arcadia students in Perugia to dinner at the La Rosetta hotel. Probably the best meal I’ve had yet; a mushroom lasagna dish, turkey, and tiara misu for desert (possibly the most delicious desert I’ve ever had). At the Dinner people from Arcadia gave us some tips about living in Perugia. We were told it’s a crime in Perugia to use your heat at night, plagiarism is really bad, and we were sternly told not to go to Turkey because of the prevalence of Bird flu. Fortunately, Mike actually has bird flu medication he brought from home in case we contract the disease so I’m not concerned. At night we went out for a little bit with these girls who live right next to us and their apartment window is about 10 feet away from our. They hollered over to us in broken English and asked if we wanted to go out with them, we were pretty excited and surprised because they had told us the first night that the last Americans were annoying and they weren’t big fans of American guys. But we accepted their offer and eventually realized there not even Italian but rather from Belgium. We were a little disappointed and I don’t think we even saw them again once we arrived at our destination. We’ll see how it unfolds. I decided to buy my first authentic italian article of clothing, a nice soft grey sweater. It was originally 90 euro but it was 1/2 off and also since delta lost my luggage for a couple days they pay for half of my purchases. So a 90 euro sweater for 20 euro, im a legit shopper.

Saturday, January 7th

This morning we got a taxi to our apartment, via Podiani 25. It’s a pretty nice place, doesn’t have much of a view, but it’s close to the school. There is also a little bakery right below our apartment so it usually smells very good. We decided to walk around the streets by our house and basically everything we need is very close to us. There’s a bakery, Butcher shop, pizzeria, and also an Irish Pub. The town is usually very busy with people walking everywhere. We went to a pizzeria a couple blocks down from our house. This is where we first tried to speak Italian to a lady who only spoke Italian. It was a little awkward at first but ultimately she understood that we were trying to say and we got our pizza, prosciuto with cheese within 15 minutes. It was solid. For dinner we decided to be adventurous and make our own little Italian pasta dish. Mike went to the bakery to get a loaf of bread while me and Guy ventured to the butcher shop and got 5 links of spicy sausage for the pasta sauce. Although I’m certain everyone knows were American, they seem to be able to understand us and usually get us what we ask for. Usually all I say is Vorrey _________ Per favore (May I please have whatever) At night, we went to an Irish Pub, Shamrocks, that we had also been to the night before. There are pictures of some of the frequent customers on the wall. We all made it a goal to get our picture on the wall before we leave Perugia. The workers there recognized us and we ended up getting some free drinks on the house as well. We also befriended two Italian guys at the bar as well, Paolo and Frencenso. They spoke little English but for the most part we could communicate pretty well. They go to the main college in Perugia but aren’t from here. They were probably the friendliest Italian’s we’ve met so far, not that any have been mean or anything, but they were pretty interested in talking to Americans. . It was a pretty good and long night, as I believe we returned pretty late, solid 2nd night.














Sunday, January 8th

Today was our orientation day, which began at about 10:30 this morning. The meeting was held at a large hall in the center of Perugia, which used to be where the city councils were held. The building was one of the largest in towns and the walls were lined with frescoes dating back to the 13th century. I probably would’ve taken pictures however you’re not allowed to take pictures because it would diminish the quality of the frescoes. Orientation was somewhat pointless as they basically reiterated what was given to us in our handbooks the first day. After orientation we decided go home and make some lunch. We made pasta with some kind of tomato sauce that we bought from the mom and pop store down the street from our apartment. One of the good things about the location of our apartment s is that it’s near a grocery store that’s open on Sundays; not many stores are open on Sundays especially during the day. Our apartment is pretty nice; better then what we expected to get for only 3 people. We have two bedrooms, one single and one double, and also a full kitchen where there’s a Television. The biggest complaint I’ve heard from other students is that they are limited to only 6 hours of heat a day and that there apartment is constantly cold. However in our apartment we can have the heat on as long as we want but the landlady suggested we don’t do that. For the most part the heat has been on but we’ve started to limit our heat usage because its been getting pretty stuffy and apparently you pay extra for excessive utility use. Tonight for dinner we went to the little pizzeria right outside our apartment. The pizza was pretty decent. I got one slice (the slices are much bigger here with less sauce, more cheese, and more toppings) of mushrooms and also a slice of cheese pizza. Each slide cost about two euro. We have decided to start collecting the bottles of wine we drank and put them above our kitchen cabinets. I’m assuming we are going to have quite a collection by the end of our journey. We drank our favorite wine so far tonight, “Borderline” some kind of Chianti from some small town in Umbria. I got my schedule today as well. I’m pleased with it. I have one day where I have class at 8 a.m. but after that the earliest class I have is 10:30. Tomorrow I have class at 3:30 so I plan on going out this evening. Mike and me are planning to go to a bar called La Tara Dorsa. It’s a pretty nice bar and being that it shows football games I plan on going to watch the Steelers play. The game should start about 10 o’clock here but being I don’t have class until 3:30 I plan on watching a majority of the game if not all of it.

Tuesday, January 10th
Today I had an absurd day of classes. I had 3 classes at the Stranieri School, which is the all-Italian university that the foreigners go to and also a class at Umbra. At straneiri classes commenced at 8 a.m. and eventually ended at 1. After class I went home, got some pizza, and took a nap before my 3 o’clock class. In Perugia, which may be the same everywhere else in Italy, all the townspeople go home from about 1-5 eat lunch and take naps. “La reposta” I believe its called, its fantastic. The streets will be very crowded up until one then once the businesses’ open back up again around 7 the streets will then be crowded until about 10. The classes at stranieri are somewhat difficult, they speak only Italian and I don’t believe any of my teachers speak any English so it gets frustrating at times. However, being that I am taking the easiest Italian here I pretty much understand what the teacher is saying. I don’t believe many of my other classmates took any Italian so they struggle and eventually I have to answer the question for the class. It gets somewhat embarrassing answering most of the questions but I already have girls lined up asking for me to tutor them, so it works out. I was under the notion that there would be a lot more foreigners in our classes at stranieri but in a class of about 30 I only have 4. A 40 year old man from Iran, a younger girl from Syria, and two Australian women in there fifties. I’m not sure what any of them are doing taking this class but whatever. The classes I take at Umbra are much better and have a much more relaxing environment. The teacher, Francesco, actually speaks English and it pretty entertaining so it makes for a pretty good class; also the building is very close to our apartment. We’re probably going to make pasta again for dinner with some fresh bread from the bakery outside our apartment, I’m probably also not going to enjoy the Perugia nightlife as I foresee myself staying in and reviewing some applications and resumes from girls wanting me to be their tutor.