Trip to Pollino and Paul visits Perugia!!

This blog has been brought to you by my Roman Empire history class.

Friday morning started bright and early at 6 am.  We had to get to the Piazza d'Italia to catch our bus to Rome, which from there took us down in southern Italy about 6 hours away.  After sleeping for the entire bus ride, which I am still amazed I did that, we arrived at the first national park of the weekend.  Here we saw a lot of aquaducts and bodies of water that were used for electricity? It was kind of boring so that part, not so clear. But after that we got to go explore inside of this living cave. It is one of the biggest in Italy.  It takes something like a million years for the rock to form a square inch. pretty wild. But we started off on a boat in a river inside of the cave. Then we got out and explored within the cave. We weren’t supposed to take pictures so I didn’t take my camera, but then everyone ended up taking pictures so I was pretty upset.  When we finished our cave tour we drove for another 3 hours to get to the park of Pollino. We got to our hotel around 9 and had an amazing dinner. I think the waiter thought I was an alcoholic because I was the only one who knew how to ask for more wine in Italian so I kept asking for everyone.  That night I roomed with a girl from my program who I hadn’t hung out with much yet so I was glad I got to get to know her. Also in our room was this girl Brittany from Florence- now I have somebody to stay with when I go!  The next morning we got up and went to the mountain to hike.  We were the first group of Americans to ever set foot on these paths which was pretty cool.  It sucked because it was kind of raining and they tour guides said if it was clear we could see forever from the top of the mountain. However we still saw so much and had a gorgeous view. We went up so high we were in the clouds at some points.  It also got veryyyy windy at the top and the tour guide was yelling at me and my friends for taking self timer pics of ourselves near the ledge, “Do not make dangerous picture!” For lunch they gave us the best bagged lunches ever. We each got a slice of pizza, a prociutto and cheese sandwich and an eggplant sandwich. I at all of it, obviously.  Then we hiked back down the mountain and had nap time.  When we regrouped we went “orienteering”.  I teamed up with my two roomies and we had to go around the town and hit all of the check points by means of a map with no street names or anything.  At the first check point there was a mushroom spread on a piece of bread. I tried it but got grossed out and threw it away.  The next one we got a spinach calzones and wine, which were both delicious. Next we to a shop and got salami and cheese, the fried dough and then we tested all these different kinds of homemade honey.  I bought one that was great for sore throats but it has an after taste that’s like menthol.  Then we were done and did a little bit of shopping around the town.

          At dinner that night we had a three man band came in (an accordion player, an instrument like an oboe, and one like a bag pipe, but made out of goat skin) and we all danced! After dinner we went to bed early to be ready for the next day.  We left at 7 am and went further south to the heel of the Italian boot.  We then got to a small village and had to descend down into the canyons.  We were going down at almost a 90 degree incline, it was pretty intense.  But it was so worth it because it was definitely my favorite part of the weekend.  We were inside of the canyons going through rivers, climbing around obstacles, etc.  Within the first few minutes I tripped over some rocks and got some serious eggs on my shins.  Then about ten minutes later I tried to climb up this mini waterfall and got sucked down a little vortex of water.  I thought I was going to go right under but I somehow stopped myself but I couldn’t get out because I was laughing to hard haha. 

          After we were done in the canyons we had to climb up all of the hills we came down. It was absolute misery.  On our way up we got a little lost and encountered this old Italian lady who reminded me of my yaya, (short, huge boobs, waddles, tried to feed us, and couldn’t speak English).  While she was trying to feed us, her cat escaped.  So we all sat and watched this lady chase her cat around, being unsuccessful. She then waddled back to her house and came back with a box of cat food and started shaking it at the cat.  She finally got the cat cornered, went to grab it, but it ran away and the lady fell head first into the wall! It was kind of sad but once we saw she was fine we all started laughing.  We then made it to the bus, and the crazy lady Dora was freaking out, per usual, about where everyone else was.  While we waited for her heart attack to pass, we went and got what might have been the best gelato I have had since I’ve been here, besides Grom of course.  After we got back on the bus we headed to the last stop of the weekend, an iconic museum.  It was so boring it showed us how to make icons through a ten minute instructional video.  I did notice that there were a lot of similarities however with the icons that are in Greek churches.  After this museum we were all starvinggggg but we were not allowed to eat on the bus, so we had to wait an extra hour.  We then stopped at a reststop on the highway and were given our lunches and told to eat outside. But it started to rain. So we all had to go inside the convenient store and eat because this Dora lady was so freaking crazy.  We finished eating and then got on the bus, traveled for what seemed like for days, then made it back to Perugia late Sunday night with a visitor. 

         My dad had arrived in Perugia late that afternoon while I was rotting my life away on the bus.  But he had also been traveling for a couple days so he was sleeping when I got back.  The next morning I met him at his hotel at 8 and we went to a café, had some café e cornette and explored Perugia.  He then came into my Italian class with me and my Italian teacher had my class help teach him key Italian phrases like “Dove il bancomat?” ” Vorrei una botiglia di vino rosso” Il conto per favore, etc. After class we had pizza at Pizza Mediterraneo  , my favorriteee and then we just decided to go to Assisi for a few hours.  It was a really cool town, but it was so touristy there wasn’t really that much to do.

          That night we went to dinner at the restaurant on my street that Vittorio owns (the man that we met the first day who also has the Gelato shop who wanted to teach us all Italian).  It was absolutely amazing. The architecture inside was unreal and I would have never expected it looking at the outside.  The ceilings were 1000 yr old brick.  We started off with some homemade creations by Vitorrio.  I could not even tell you what we ate, but it was all very good.  Then we had prociutto and melon, then we each had a pork tenderloin dish with some kind of vegetables and sauce.  We ate dinner over a four hour span, but we also were talking to Vitorrio and he was showing us around the restaurant, the wine cellar, telling us the history, etc.  After being well fed, we went to La Tana D’Orso because it was the first DJ per Chance night and me and all my roommates we DJing.  So we got there, and all of my friends were hanging out with my dad more than me?  He took a particular liking to my friend Leo from Australia, who works at La Tana, Keegan, Blake and Max.  He kept buying everyone drinks, and I made them a lot of shots as well.  Then I think at some point we all danced and were playing oldies classics for Paul, aka the beatles and queen.  We then walked Paul back to his hotel, and we got in trouble by the people who work there because it was around 3 am, I think, and the hotel was closed. 

          The next day he did not join our Italian class… I wonder why.. and everyone was telling me they were still drunk thanks to my dad from the night before.  After I went out to lunch with him at Café di Perugia.  I got gnocchi and he got some type of pasta too.  He then left L and I went to the rest of my classes for the day.  That night we made gnocchi at Bar Milano with my Italian class.  Last night we had Tandem again and I made some new Italian friends.  When it was over I went to La Tana for the night to bartend.  We had the Beta House there again, but it did not last for very long.  All night I kept making screw drivers for this really nice American man.  He was hanging out at the bar and being really friendly with us, complaining about his jetlag.  He was also the only person who tipped me that night, and he put 5 euro, not in the clearly marked tip jar but in the bucket of sangria.  I later found out that this man was Amanda Knox’s dad.  Lucy, my bar manager, told me he comes to Italy for a few months at a time to keep Amanda company, and I assumed he had just arrived due to his jet lag.  It was pretty weird/sad.  But now the weekend has begun and I need to go do more things to blog about! Ciao tutti!

(I will post pictures later because the internet at the school is not working right now)

First weekend away to to Napoli, Sorrento and Capri 17/9/10

This past Thursday my friends and I finally became motivated on picking somewhere to go for the weekend, researching it and booking it. We originally wanted to go to Cinque Terre, but the weather report for the weekend there was all rain. So we decided to go south, towards the Mediterranean. It started Friday morning at 8:30 with a four hour bus ride to Napoli.  The part of the city where the bus/train station was was disgusting. We were literally there for 3 minutes. We ran in, saw the next train was leaving in 2 minutes and rain to the train.  On the 10 yard sprint to the train, my bar was clipped! We were not even in Napoli for 5 minutes, and I was almost robbed! Thankfully I felt it and my roomie was behind me and yelled at the guy.
    The train ride was about an hour long. But we were entertained by accordion and keyboard players.  Both of which had the cutest little boys with them collecting money for them. We got to Sorrento soon after, and had to hop another bus to our hostel which was about 40 minutes away.  But it was worth it. We got there around 4 and it was amazing. We were right next to a beautiful little beach and we all went swimming immediately.  But it was weird because they don't have sand at their beaches? There were just thousands of these pretty white rocks. And the water was the prettiest and clearest blue ever.

So when we checked in we found out that the hotel had done their trip to the Amalfi Coast that day! I was pretty upset because Michael's family had told me how beautiful it was and I was really excited to go! Instead we signed up for the trip to Capri that they were doing. So that night we all ordered pizza, obviously ate it and went to bed after hanging out for a while. When we went to bed we were looking for a kitten we had seen earlier who was very friendly. We heard it meowing and couldnt find it, but we soon learned it got stuck in the tree! The poor thing was so scared so we told the hostel owners, and they were like it will be out in the am.  Our friend JJ tried to be a hero and climb the tree to save the kitten, but broke the railing in attempt so he quit. The next morning we walked by the tree and the cat was still there but we left for the Island of Capri, which was absolutely gorgeous.  

On the left is a picture coming onto the island, and the right was the saint, or god of Capri welcoming tourists (I was a little sea sick at this point) As soon as we got there my roomie Ali and I laid down to tan and everyone else went to explore.  I am so mad  I didn't go because I guess Kim Kardashian and her mom were shopping in the main Piazza! But I got some serious rays and color instead. The beach we were at were all of those white rocks again, and the water here was even more amazing! 

 We were jumping off of these rocks too for the majority of our swims

After a day of tanning and swimming we headed back to the boat towards our hostel, and we actually were waiting right in the middle of an Italian photoshoot! It was pretty cool because the model was doing her shoot on this really cool authentic Italian boat! We then headed back and found that the kitten had made it out of the tree, and he slept on our laps and purred for the whole night :) We drank some wine, and had a nice dinner, I had calamarri fritti, which was delicious and very fresh, and gnocchi which was also great. We went to bed early and traveled allllll day today. We got to walk around the center of Sorrento for a bit, it was very pretty but very touristy.

When we stopped in Napoli we went to get some famous pizza, but it really wasnt anything different from any other Italian Pizzerias. And on the way home on the train we drove by Mt Vesuvius!
The weekend in whole was amazing to say the least!!

tantissimi cose

So Saturday I bartended, in Italy. Ahah. How the hell I actually got this job I have no idea, but it was such a good time. It was open bar for 10 Euro, so all of my friends and people from my University came out, and in addition there were obviously A LOT of Italians. I guess there is no better way to have to know what the hell people are saying and how to respond back than bartending.  I ended up having a lot of fun because it is much more laid back here and I got to have free drinks while I was working J It was weird because they don’t tip here, but I ended up getting paid a good amount of Euro at the end. And essentially I got paid to drink? So I defiantly lucked out with the situation.  The bar manager at La Tana D’orso is from England and he is the man. He told me how he just moved here, knowing no Italian, or anything about alcohol. And now of course he is fluent in both Italian and mixology. Basically I aspire to be him.  But he is letting myself and one of my other roommates, Ali, be bartenders when he needs extra help, and he wants my other roommates to help out with cocktail waitressing. So it is definitely great to have it to fall back on once we go on too many trips and buy too much pizza. Chris also wants us to help organize all the events and themed parties at the bar. This Wednesday we are going to “Americanize” the bar and have a beruit, flip cup, and chandeliers tounrnament which my roommates and I are promoting, and we will get our pitchers of beer free for the night for helping out. Thanks to our neighbor Vas that DJs here, we are pretty set for the semester.

Sunday morning we left for our day trip to Lago Trasimeno. This place was absolutely gorgeous. It was about a 25 minute bus ride and I was pretty upset to find out that nobody swims in the lake, even though it was one of the cleanest lakes in the world. But we started with an orientation with Arcadia, aka talked about our feelings and what we wanted to get out of the trip- lame. After we learned how to make pasta! It was fun and very authentic because we were in the middle of the country and everyone was old and couldn’t speak English.  But one lady had a power balance bracelet on? Weird.  Any, after we got a tour of the estate.  It started with the water systems and how they worked.  It is depicted on this shed.

Then we saw the self sustainable buildings and sheds made out of mud and straw.  They cost nothing to make and were completely green with solar panels.  The man who was giving us the tour was a part of a group who were building a self sustainable village for the people of India!  It should be done in two years.  After we had an amazing 5 course Italian lunch, and went back home were we were too stuffed to move for the night.

                

Monday was our first official day with classes.  All of my classes seem very easy and they should be fun as well.  After classes Noelle and I went to the grocery store.  It was not as miserable as the first time because now we knew what to do, where everything was, etc.  Once we left, it started to rain, so we sprinted to the mini metro stop.  Soaked we waited for our stop, when we got out it continued to pour.  So we waited for a little because it seems to pour briefly here then stop. But it just got worse after all of the waiting.  So we ran for it. Ten minutes later and bags of soaked groceries it looked like we had just showered.  But we salvaged everything. 

                Last night we were invited to dinner by our neighbors and some of their friends.  We had an amazing Italian 4 course dinner at a restaurant called Argentina  (the same owners as La Tana D’orso.)  It was great food and good company.  Greek and Italian were spoken during the meal.

                Today after classes I did all of my homework out on our roof because it was so warm and sunny out.  Tonight we had our first “Tandem” at Birrario.  It is an event organized by the school for the Italian and the American students to meet.  Angie and I were grouped up with four Italians; Sonia, Marta, Andrea e Giovanni.  They were all so nice and so funny! We organized a study group between all of us to help each other with our English and Italian homework. Currently I am waiting for my roomies to get ready (Lauren takes forevvvverrr) to go to La Tana D’orso.  We organized the night for tonight which entails a lot of American drinking games, i.e. Ruit & flip cup.  And we invited our new Italian friends to come, since of course they don’t ever play these games.  Next time I will try to find more time to post a blog for everyday.  I apologize for this mega long blog, I’ve been molta preoccupata! Ciao tutti!

9/11 Italian Electricity Blows..

Yesterday, after doing nothing all day, my roomates Ali, Noelle and I started to go for a run. We started with a huge loop around the outskirts of the city. It was absolutely gorgeous. Noelle went back after that but Ali and I continued for another 45 minutes. It was weird how far we ran, i just felt like we couldnt stop because all of the scenery was so amazing and it was a great way to explore. After that we came back to shower and get ready for the night. I was making a pizza, (which was the best freaking frozen pizza ive ever had) doing laundry, and had my laptop plugged in. So apparently our appartment cant take that kind of voltage so the power went out, and of course Ali and I had no idea what to do. We finally found the breaker box and fixed it. But the power went out again when we had the hairdryer on and the iron plugged in (we have yet to buy a straightener so we use the iron). But we fixed it again. Then we all went outtttttttttt. wooo! We went to L'antana D'Orso, which is the bar that our neighbor DJs at. It was kind of slow when we got there so the bartender pulled me behind and was having me make drinks! So needless to say I guess I am working there tonight and I'm getting like 40 euro to work, which is pretty legit. After that we just hung out around in the piazza with everybody. Then we called it a night and headed home. Currently me and some of my roomies are at our friends house mooching the internet. But I think we are about to go for a walk and explore so hopefully my first bartending experience in Italy goes well!

9/10/10 il primo weekend!

Today is such a great bumming around day. I just ate about a fourth of our jar of Nutella, and we are all just sitting in our common area and sharing stories from last night while listening to our new favorite Italian song, "We No Speak Americano" by Yolanda Be Cool.  Yesterday during class our professoressa brought us to the bus/mini metro stop and taught us how to buy tickets and use the bus systems. Yesterday was such a nice day. I sat on our roof and read my book and shortly after Noelle and Ali joined me and we were just laughing and talking for hours, my stomach was killing me.  Then we went out and got some ingredients and made some Sangria! it wasnt exactly the best but we also didnt let it sit as long is it was supposed to. It was finally the first real weekend here! And even though it started to pour, we didnt let it ruin the first Thursday.  So we went out to the bars and I guess I have a bartending job now? I am going to try and bartend at the bar that our neighbor DJs at on Saturday. Just for fun, and if it works out i might do some weekends and make some extra euro. It stopped raining when we left the first bar so we hung out outside for most of the night in the piazza. We got some early morning pizza and came hommeee. Today I finally got to sleep in, I think I have finally adjusted to the sleep schedule here. This afternoon I went and got lunch with Lauren. We sat outside at Lunabar. We got bruschetta and gnocchi.  

And now my roommates and I are listening to the learn Italian cds that I have, while the men from next door are yelling at us through the window.

Me and my roomie Lauren at one of the best places to over look the city.

9/8/10 Andiamo al bar per un spuntino

Today I was exhausted. I think walking up the hill to la piazza where the school is was the most miserable it's been.  The phrase I have to keep teaching my roommates that are in beginner Italian is, "No possiamo respirare", we are unable to breathe. Last night we didn't even go out but I was falling asleep in Italian, I felt pretty bad considering there are only 10 of us in my class.  During our daily cappuccino break, i utilized the coolest cappuccino/ espresso vendor we have at the school and then when and got a stamp at the local "Tedeschi" for my Permesso to stay in the country. During our lunch break i had to stand in line for TWO HOURS to get it, but now at least i'm technically a legal immigrant? quando siamo ritornati dopo pranzo we went to il bar for a lesson. Our teacher ordered us two types of drinks- martini melo,which is a "womens drink" and lo spritz which is Aperbol (type of Italian alcohol) their version of champagne, and soda water. We also tried gli spuntini, which were esentialy pastry puffs, one similar to pizza bagels and the other was stuffed with veggies. We also found the most amazing view today, which has seemed to be happening a lot, pictures soon to come... Tonight was our first school organized event, and we went to a restaurant and got served pizza, snacks and some amazing sangria. I also got to know some more students in the program which was pretty great. 

Buona Notte! 

9/7/10 our journey to the supermarcata

So yesterday we had our first day of the week of intensive Italian. The only class we have all week is basically a 5 hour crash course of Italian per day. We learned a lot of useful "survival italian" even though everyone in my class is basically set. our new favorite phrase is "Ubriaca in Umbria" aka I am drunk in Umbria. We also learned that when you say "come stai", "how are you" isnt used the same as it is in the states. It literally means, how are you feeling? in the sense of being sick and Italians never really use the phrase. And its embarrassing because of course us trying to act all italian and speak with the natives and we are all asking them essentially if they have stomach aches...  Our college isnt exactly the same as most colleges, its really just a building with a few classrooms but its still nice. 

 After class we went to the bookstore to check out books for our classes and i found the ENTIRE harry potter series, in Italian. So of course I bought the Sorcerer's Stone, and I also bought Fight Club in Italian book form.

When we walked out we ran into a marching parade that we ended up following and watching for a while. It was pretty sick.

 roomie Ali and I walked to the edge of the city to go to the track to run! when we got there the guy wanted us to pay 1.50 euro to use the track, but we had no money so he just let it slide. the scenery around the track was so cool. Everything was very antique and ancient looking, and a lot cooler than anything around tracks at home. On the way back, we got lost, but i am so glad we did because we found the most amazing view of the rest of the city. On the way back we stopped at the macelliao (butcher shop) and a market and made dinner for la nostra famiglia.

And here is my room! That is my roommate Noelle's bed, and I am in the nook in the back

Apparently Italians are super tall because all of our closets are enormous. I also have a great view into a terrace and I brought all of my loves from home and hung them up on my door :)


After dinner we went out to the piazza and sat and drank wine with the whole city of Perugia and its students.  At night everyone congregates on the steps.  Our neighbors that we met the first day were there so we hung out with them. One is named Vasili and he is from Athens and the other is Giorgio and he is from Mehico. Vas is a DJ and I possibly have a job bartending at the bar tomorrow...
    Todayyy we had Italian again and then we took a field trip with our professor on the mini metro to the market across the city. We did some serious grocery shopping. But it was our first italian grocery store experience, and it was very eventful. You have to pay 1 Euro to take a shopping cart, the way all of the meat is packaged is  DIGUSTING, there are bones and full animals everywhere. Even the way the seafood is packaged is reallly weird. But I bought the equivalent to a Digiorno pizza in the frozen food section, thought it was kind of funny.  One of our roommates bought a membership card to the grocery store so we could get good discounts but we had to go back home to get her passport to sign her up, and i had to translate everything because everyone that was helping us was speaking "velociamente", very fast.  But everything was purchased successfully. Coming back with all of that food however was miserrrablleee. we had to take the mini metro and walk through "il centro" the center, with all these bags on the verge of ripping. But everything worked out for the best because we had another nice family dinner and we are now all down the street at our friends apartment mooching off of his internet. Oh and today i bought internet so i can finally have it at my own apartment. okay time for bed. Buona Notte! A domani!

9/5 Orientation

Today we took our placement tests and oral exams to see what Italian we would be placed into the advanced. 

In between we went to the townhall of Perugia and had our orientation. We met the Umbra staff and una polizia di Firenze came and told us about safety and country laws. He also told us how the national sport of Italy is women, and then Soccer. haha sweet

For dinner I had a spinach and cheese flatbread panino and some gelato from GROM!!!!! I was so excited when i found out we had one here. Right now there is a huge group of us down the street in our friends apartment because they are some of the only people who have wireless, so we are all mooching off of them :)

But I am going to bed because this week we have intensive Italian crash course all week and it starts at 9 and I am exhausteeedddd! i love and miss everybody! 

9/3 Move in Day!

After breakfast I was with one of the first groups to move into our apartment.  I ended up having four different roommates than I was supposed to, but it ended up being great because they are all so great! 

My roomies and I eating our first dinner in Perugia at the restaurant, Luna. Of course we had pizza!
(From left to right- Me, Ali, Lauren, Ania and Noelle!)

soo yummy :)

The Name of our street is Via Deliziosa (it means delicious, with a feminine gender)

Our apartment is enormous with three doubles and one single. 

  Here is the entrance to our apartment!

9/2 Traveling and new friends

After traveling for about two days now we have finally arrived in Rome! A lot of us in the program have met throughout the connecting flights. My roommate is adorable and we have a lot in common so I am excited to be living with her.  But I have yet to meet either of my other two roommates from University of Denver.  Our connecting flight was in Germany, and they had all sorts of weird things there, i.e. Jack & Coke premixed in a can? We were there for a couple hours then we boarded for Rome.

                In Rome two of the people on our flight did not get their luggage.  So Angie and I stayed behind to see if we could use our Italian and help.  Except my Italian is a little more rusty than I expected it to be after spending over a week here in the spring… We found Meredith’s suitcase after about an hour.  However, Drew did not end up getting his bag.   We waited around trying to get it for a few hrs, while the bus waited for us.  The airport found Drew’s bag, but it won’t be arriving until 5:30 so they are going to ship it to our school for Tuesday.  I feel awful because he has no clothes at all, but at least he’s being a good sport about it because I would without a doubt be crying if I lost one of my two suitcases.

                The bus ride to Perugia is about three hours but I don’t really mind.  I love the scenery and I recognize a lot of things from the spring.  Tonight we are staying at Hotel Joe with our assigned roommates for the semester.  We have a welcoming dinner at 7:45 and I am so excited for Italian food J Now it’s time to enjoy the view and relax.

<-- Driving from Rome to Perugia





             The first night we stayed in Hotel Gio and once we had our welcoming dinner we all went out and explored the center of the city. It was a far walk from the hotel and everything was uphill and miserable. But it was worth it because the Piazza Italia was filled with students!