Wait, it hasn't been a month already?

Almost every person I've talked to about studying abroad has told me that the time would fly by. I've been here for about 10 days and I have to say it feels like a lot longer. It doesn't feel longer in the sense that I'm completely settled in or I know my way around or that I feel like I belong here. Just in the sense that the week has gone really slowly. I don't know if this is a good thing or a bad thing. I feel like I'm living in some alternate reality. I wake up in the morning and have to remind myself that I'm in Italy. It's a very strange feeling. However, classes start tomorrow and I'm hoping that once I have my schedule as it will be for the rest of my time here that I am able to settle in fully and time will probably start to fly.

Also, I have been so tired the entire time I've been here. Often times I feel like falling asleep in the middle of the day or in the middle of a meal. I blame jet lag, but my roommates say I have to stop using that as a crutch. Someone told me that for every hour of time change you need a day to recover. It'll be nine days tomorrow so I'm hoping I wake up and am magically healed of all jet lag and ready to go.

Anyway, the last week has been spent getting acquainted with Perugia and practicing my Italian. I had Italian class every day from 9 until 12 and then again at 1:30. My professor is an Italian man named Francesco and he is hilarious. He always tells me "hai la tua testa fra le nuvole" or "you've got your head in the clouds." To be fair, I often am spacing out whenever he calls on me (tuition money hard at work!) but I've been learning a lot. The morning was spent reviewing grammar and in the afternoon we learned practical skills like grocery shopping, ordering coffee, traveling and eating at a restaurant. The practical lessons were incredibly helpful and have proved themselves useful many times over already. We actually went to the supermarket to learn about grocery shopping in Italy. We took the Minimetro which is one of Perugia's forms of public transportation. I'm pretty sure it's called the Minimetro because it's so adorable you want to put it in your pocket. I didn't take any pictures of it (yet) but I had to find a picture on google image to illustrate its preciousness.

ADORABLE!

This picture does not do it justice. You just have to ride on it to experience it. It's like riding the monorail at Disneyland but infinitely better. I'm looking for excuses to ride it again just because it's so wonderful. I'll be sure to more fully document my next minimetro adventure




Shopping at the grocery store was pretty much similar to any grocery store in the US. The main difference was there was an entire aisle devoted to pasta. I didn't realize there were so many types of pasta. My favorite moment was when I found Mr. Clean in Italian. Something about it struck me as hilarious.

Mastro Lindo!

The rest of the week was pretty uneventful. Yesterday I went on a tour of the city and it was nice to see more of the area. Zach, one of the Umbra staff members, was our guide and he provided a lot of interesting stories and tidbits about Perugia. If anything I got some gorgeous photos of the city and the views and a great workout.

Even the Boring Buildings are Awesome

The Main Fountain

The Outskirts of Perugia

Today we went to a farm to learn about olive oil and how to make fresh pasta. I have to say that Italy knows how to make olive oil. Even the bottle we bought for 3 euro at the grocery store is far superior than the crap they have in the US. Did you know olive oil is supposed kind of taste like olives? I didn't. You can imagine how great the fresh olive oil at the farm was.

Rolling Out the Pasta

She's a Pro

The pasta making presentation was interesting and fun. I didn't get a chance to make any of my own pasta. This is probably for the best because I could see it ending with someone accidentally getting smacked in the head with a rolling pin. We did get to take some of the fresh made pasta home and my roommates and I will be having it for dinner tomorrow night

 
We also spent some time with our program coordinators talking about our experiences so far in Perugia and our expectations for the semester. It was a little too Kumbaya-esque at some points, but they offered some good pieces of advice about adjusting to different customs and practicing our Italian.



In other exciting news, I booked my flight to Paris for April! I'm so excited! Sadly the trip is still 3 months away so I'm in the process of planning some more weekend adventures. I'm hoping to make it to London, Spain (Madrid or Barcelona), Prague and hopefully Switzerland along with exploring Italy more. My parents will be coming to visit for two weeks in March and two of my best friends from Villanova will be coming to spend spring break with me.

Italian Who Wants to be a Millionaire is on, so I'm off to practice my Italian

Ciao!