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.