And the adventures continue

Hello all my readers.  Apparently I had more than I realized!  It warms my heart every time someone comments on something they read... so keep the comments coming!  Also, if anyone has been to Italy (anywhere in Italy as I plan on traveling frequently) please let me know if you have any recommendations of places I "have" to go.  Be it restaurants, cafes, bars, museums, sites, etc etc.  Any advice you have, I'd love to hear it!  Also if anyone has specific questions about things that I haven't mentioned or elaborated on, let me know.  I can definitely tell you anything you want to know, I just sometimes forget that other people are interesting in more than food and scenic pictures.

The weather here has been rainy for the past few days.  But Italy is even beautiful in the rain.  It's much better than the brutal winter I hear people are facing back home.  Stay warm everybody!  Also for anyone who is interested, here is the link to Megan's blog.  http://megandoesperugia.blogspot.com/ It's a lot of the same information because we pretty much do everything together, but if you were curious about another perspective, her blog is really interesting and well written.

It's been a pretty great week here, despite the weather.  I had my first Italian pastry and when I tell you if I died in that moment I would have been fine with it, it is no exaggeration.  Sadly I did not have a camera on me to take a picture of the masterpiece that was my "pasta con cioccolato" (Yes, pasta here means how we use it in America and it means pastry.  They just really, really love pasta in Italy).  I'm certain I'll continue to experiment with all the pastry's they have to offer here until I am either broke or fat.  And that might even stop me if they are all as good as that one was!

One interesting aspect I've noticed about Perugia is there are tons of dogs, everywhere!  I'm not sure if they are strays or if owners just don't keep them on leashes.  I love it though.  They are all friendly and adorable.  Since the majority of them are mutts, a lot of them look like my Tootsie!  My only problem with the fact that they run around on their own, is no one cleans up after them (if you catch my drift).  This has yet to be a problem for me (as I've been very careful to look where I'm stepping).  But the first time I accidentally get some dog poo on my shoes you can fully expect a long, angry rant on this blog!

Aside from pastry's and dogs, I started all of my classes this week.  I'm looking forward to my Italian cinema class and Renaissance art class the most.  I've always been interested in foreign films but never got into them as much as I would have liked to.  I think this class will open a lot of doors for me as far as discovering renowned Italian directors (and will probably help with my Italian in general since everything will be subtitled).  My art class is supposed to be primarily for "beginners," which in my case is a very good thing.  I've never taken an art class, but I've always enjoyed museums and exhibits.  This class will definitely give me a greater appreciation for how talented the famous artists of Italy truly are, without being completely over my head.  The best part is that I'll be going on an over-night field trip to Florence to go on 2 days worth of private tours of museums all over the city!  It's at the end of March so expect to hear all about that when the time comes.  My other two classes are Italian literature and the History of Early Christianity.  Both I am not sure how I feel about yet.  While I'm sure I will enjoy my literature class, that is primarily because I have a deep love of literature in general.  I have the feeling that I won't learn much from that class that I couldn't have accomplished on my own.  But that's fine, it will at least be enjoyable work for me.  As far as history goes, the information is a bit dry as of this week.  But I'm going to stay positive and chalk that up to it being necessary background information we need to learn before getting into the "good" stuff.

As everyone knows, this week we had the momentous occasion of Barack Obama being sworn into office as our 44th President.  Anyone that knows me I'm sure knows what a huge Obama supported I was this year.  Even going so far as campaigning for him in New Hampshire (in the pouring rain nonetheless).  As much as I wish I could have been in the United States to experience something this huge (and something I truly felt part of) it was pretty incredible to experience it while in Italy.  First of all, Italians LOVE Obama.  Megan and I (and a few other friends) all went to a local bar to watch the inauguration as they were playing it on CNN in English.  The bar was packed with students and Italians alike.  I took a moment to look around the room during his speech and it was dead silent.  Everyone was just mesmerized staring at the television.  I snapped a few quick photos just to memorialize that moment, hoping to capture the feeling in the room.  It's was pretty unbelievable to see the way that people were affected, American or otherwise.

But the best part of my week was going to dinner with Megan.  While this may not sound too special, let me give some background information for you readers.  When all us abroad students arrived in Italy we were given a Perugia guidebook.  It included everything from who to contact if you have a question about the trains, to what days museums are open.  My favorite section was of course about food.  It included the best gelato places, pizza places and restaurants.  The first restaurant was called "Osteria del Tempo Perso" and it was described and some of the best and cheapest food you will find in Perugia.  Sounds perfect for us broke students, right?  Well the catch was it's a "hidden" restaurant.  They don't advertise, it's literally just a door with the name lightly carved in, located in a nondescript alley.  The school, out of respect for the restaurant, refused to give away it's location.  The idea was that if you could find it on your own, then you deserved to be able to go.  I pretty much came to terms that I was never going to find it on my own, and I didn't.  I can take no credit for it's discovery.  However, Ms. Piccirillo DID find it!  I won't put it's location on here incase other Umbra students read my blog, but it was as good as they said it was.  When we went (and it truly is hidden, she stumbled across it when taking a wrong turn one day) it was completely empty and tiny!  We each had a "primi" (First course of pasta.  Hers' a shell noodle with mushrooms and almonds.  Mine a penne with gorgonzola and walnuts), a "secondi (Second course of meat.  Hers' a pork with curry sauce.  Mine a swordfish.) and lato piatto (Side dish.  We shared fried mozzarella).  UNBELIEVABLE!  Anyone that comes to visit, I promise you, I will bring you.  The funniest part was the lights went out (apparently it's very common to blow fuses in Perugia) and we had dinner by candle light.  Very romantic, haha.

Time for my last class of the week.  Then it's time to attempt at another homemade dish this evening!  (We also made a fantastic lasagna this week.  And by we, I mean Megan.  I passed her things.)  Have a great weekend everyone.  I'll be in Firenze this weekend!  (Italy word for Florence.)  When I'm back I'll update with a nice, long blog and probably way too many pictures.  Ciao!