Classes start tomorrow!

Haha... I can't believe this: I got all frustrated the other day because I posted a long entry and then checked the blog, only to see nothing. Turns out, I accidentally made 2 blogs and got confused about which one I posted on. Sooo this means that the blog you're reading now is the correct one, and the tinainperugia one is not. There's not going to be anything new on that one, even though it's a better name :)

Best news of the week: my luggage finally arrived! I got in on Wednesday evening and nothing could have made me happier. This means that I was without my luggage and living off my carry-on stuff for a grand total of 6 days. It was fine until about the 4^th day and then I started to get really sick of it. I wouldn’t recommend flying Alitalia since, it turns out, this luggage losing thing is very common. I could have cared less though that they actually lost my luggage once I got it. I changed 3 times that day just for the heck of it!!

Mom wanted to hear about my classes, apartment, etc.. so here goes. My first real week of classes starts tomorrow and I am more than ready for it. (Yes mom, they are all in English. Italian is my only class taught in Italian.) This past week was ok but it was pretty boring. It was “intensive Italian,” but was not too strenuous. Not too easy either, I don’t want it to sound like that, but definitely not “intense.” The good thing is though, my teacher speaks 90% in Italian. Francesca (my Italian teacher at home) did that every now and then, but for the most part, spoke in English. Nope, not here. No one speaks English. They know bits and pieces of the language, but if you want to communicate anything, or buy a bus ticket for example, you have to know Italian.

I can definitely tell that my language skills have improved a ton since being here. It’s only been a week but I am amazed at how much more Italian I can understand. Speaking is still not good, but listening skills have improved a lot.

I asked the ticket counter for our tickets to Gubbio (more on that later) in pretty darn good Italian the other day and have been going into different coffee shops and talking a little bit to the café owners, so I’m getting a little practice outside of class. I am going to make more of a concerted effort this week to get out and speak.

Apartment is nice, and definitely not too cold. That was one of the things I was really worried about before I left, but maybe I just got lucky because it’s not too cold. Actually got hot the other night! We have a TV and the only channel that comes across in English is MTV. The Italian stuff is funny to watch with the volume off and try to put words in the characters mouths. Listening to it is good for me I guess, but I get enough of hearing Italian on the streets. When I go home I kind of want to relax and take a break.

Grocery shopping is fun here. Cheese, for some odd reason, is the best “deal” compared to what price it is at home. It’s very low-cost here, as is bread. But the bread here isn’t very good unless you make sure to get a specific kind. And whatdoyaknow, history has the answer! Perugia is famous for its nasty salt-less bread because it got into a nice little Salt War with the Pope in 1540. Long story short, the city had been getting its salt for half price from Pisa, the Pope got tired of it, and invaded the city to make them play more for the salt. Over night, the price of salt doubled, and Perugia came under papal control for a looooong time. And, in protest of the high salt prices, apparently they decided to not make their bread with salt. I think this is a nice story and probably has some truth to it, but definitely some fabrication as well. I liked the explanation though.

The roommates and I have been having a lot of fun cooking together at night. We usually do lunch on our own though, which either means fixing something at home or getting 1 euro pizza at a local pizzeria. Soooo good! The pizza is totally different here. You can absolutely, no problem, eat a whole pizza by yourself. The crust is much thinner and the sauce and ingredients just taste ridiculously good.

Italians have a very weird way of eating pizza. They eat it on the go at lunch, standing up, and fold it. Always. Folding pizza is a must. This standing thing was strange to me too at first, but it makes sense because by standing, you avoid incurring the cover charge fee at a restaurant. I do the same thing at bars (what we think of as café’s) when I order coffee. You just order, and drink the coffee right there at the bar, without sitting down. Everyone does this. It saves you about a euro each time. To be honest though, this practice drives me crazy. Part of what I like about coffee drinking is sitting DOWN with it and enjoying the process of drinking it. And slowly. They don’t do that here. But then again, most Italians get espresso, so that’s quick anyway.