January 11, 2008

January 11, 2008

Ciao, friends and family!

Come stai? Va bene, I hope. So, let’s continue this escapade with a taste of everyday life in Italy.

For your convenience, I’m splitting this blog into separate sections for skimming pleasure.

Apartment

Well, as I write, I am sitting on my bed in the beautiful Italian apartment that I live in. The street name is Villa dei Cupa. It has beautiful high ceilings that are rounded-like. The doors and windows are long and the ground isn't carpet so it is kind of cold but it is beautiful. Actually the apartment is pretty cold at times, as are most bulidings in Italy during this time of the year. In Italy, energy is really conserved because it is expensive. We are only allowed to have the heater on for seven hours in the day. Our landlady has the heater on a timer so we can’t control whether it goes on or off. Lucky for us, she has it set for the most important times of the day. I believe it goes on around 7am so when we wake up in the morning, showers aren’t a nightmare. I’m not here midday usually, but I think it comes on during noon time when the town is on siesta, then again after 8ish until bed time. Unless the heater has been on for awhile it is a cold apartment. You don’t really want to take off the sweater or socks unless it is time for bed. It’s not a bother though—it’s great learning to adapt to a different culture and lifestyle.

My bedroom.

Italian language

So this week we began our intensive Italian study. It was a week learning to “survive” in Italy.

One of the reasons I chose Perugia was because it was not Rome or Florence. Those towns would be great to visit and travel in, but I wanted to make sure I was in a less touristy town where they spoke the native language and I couldn’t depend on English. Perugia is exactly that. There aren’t many tourists. Most of the town is made up of locals and students. There are a couple of universities the most popular being the “University for Foreigners”… there are many internationals here. But the stores are all runned by locals who speak English only if you are lucky.

So Italian was more difficult to learn than I realized. Whoever told me that if you know Spanish than Italian is a cinch was not telling me the truth. I soon became very frustrated because it was so incredibly easily to confuse the two languages. Let me clear something up: the Italian and Spanish languages are NOT the same. Yes, they are similar and sure, they have a few words that are the same, but let me underline A FEW. Not many. Yes they sound the same but it is NOT. The grammar is different and words are different. It’s beautiful—don’t get me wrong—but don’t be misled. The fact that I’m familiar with Spanish and since Italian sounds so close to Spanish it’s confusing… I want to speak in Spanish because I know how to say all these things… yet I can’t use it. Arg.

Anyway, this week we took 2 sessions of Italian a day. I’d have class from 9-12 then siesta and another session at 3:15-5. I love learning about foreign languages so I was extremely excited about this but it became pretty frustrated around mid week and wanted to quit learning, now by the end of the week (today) I’m excited again. I’m actually beginning to catch on and I’m able to order food ranging from groceries, a coffee, pizza, sandwiches with specific fillings, various deli products etc. I’m able to mail post cards and ask for specific sizes in shoes. I can pay for things when they tell me in Italian, and ask the vital questions “where?” Dove? & “at what time?” A che ora? I can say I want __. “Prendo __.” I know how to be polite with, Please “Per favore” thank you “grasie” I’m sorry “Me despache.” And the various greetings that are very specific to the time of day and who you are talking to (formal and informal). And it’s just my first week!! Hopefully things improve even more from here, but it’ll take a lot of work.

Life here

So this week was so chill, so wonderful. I’ll start off by introducing my roommates. I live with three other girls and share a bedroom with one of them. There is Tina from Indiana. (On the right). A history major and track and cross-country runner. Her and I go running at the local track here in Perugia. We went for the first time today and it was a very… interesting experience. People in Europe aren’t used to women actually being athletic. I knew this coming into country, but we are both more determined than ever to get some running in. The local women here don’t run. They just don’t do it. So I can’t begin to describe the stares we got when Tina and I walked about 15 minutes down to the track in our running clothes. It was so uncomfortable but I’m proud of America for being a country in which I grew up on Saturday soccer games. The girl I room with is Melanie (Middle). She is a psychology major from Pennsylvania. She takes awesome pictures and brings her camera everywhere. I’m pretty sure she is planning on documenting every church in Italy and certainly every fresco. The last girl is Metra (On the left). She is a music major from Ohio (she loves opera and is going to be a singer when she grows up!) and notoriously famous for saying the most random quotes and giving everyone a side ache from laughing. She is our resident comic relief and winner of most quotes on our quote wall on the fridge. I love my roommates. They are the best.

Anyway like I said, it’s been a pretty chill week. Most nights it’s been just me and the girls shopping for food, groceries, at a pizzeria or getting some gelato. We’ve been exploring the town every night. Like I’ve said, the weather is pretty wet here, but as my close friends and family knows, this is the weather that I love best. Here are some pictures that were hard to capture, but you can get some idea of the awesome views living on a hill town offer. Shopping this week is such a pleasure. I can’t remember if I’ve already said this, but in Italy, the Christmas gift part of Christmas was done on January 6. (last Sunday) The people here believe and celebrate this as the actual day that the wise men found baby Jesus and gave him precious gifts. So needless to say… Yay for after Christmas sales!! Seriously, the whole town was on “Saldi” so I was so happy. I bought some much needed warm clothes as well as a few choice European things that I’m so very excited about!! =)

(P.S. Taisa this is for you: you know those hot grey shoes you got at Macy’s? I found some ADORABLE ones almost exactly like those, grey and everything today for 29 euro!! Can you believe it? I wanted them so bad, but I’m going to wait to see if it’s a ‘sign’ and see if they are still there next week. :D )

One word in Italian that I learned quickly. Sale=Saldi.

Besides this, we’ve been cookin up a storm this week. Check out our first dinner… it was amazingly yummy!

I’ve discovered this amazing European treat called Nutella. They don’t have peanut butter here so this is what they use. Pretty much it is chocolate in form of what peanut butter would be. It was love at first sight for Nuttella and I. I’ve had it for breakfast every day so far and I’m planning on getting some Nutella pizza next week sometime.

Speaking of pizza, there is no pizza in comparison to Italia pizza. It’s thin, it’s simple, it’s delicious.

Hot chocolate here is… literal hot chocolate. Melted chocolate that is like a drink. Can you say, Oh. My.? It doesn’t even make you feel sick like you’d think… not kidding. AMAZING!

I thought this was cool… the key to my apartment is on the left.

Might as well show you my Italy cell phone too.

(P.S. This picture is for LINDA GARCIA. I thought of you when I bought this jacket. I hope you enjoy this picture. :D )