With a Three Day Weekend Ahead

I love that when I go into stores, even if I don’t sound Italian, that I am capable of talking with the people there and understanding the majority of what they say. It’s nothing too complicated but it still feels good.

I don’t like the group of homeless men that hang out with dogs in the piazza. For some reason I’m always afraid that they’re going to use the dogs to attack me or something. However, I do like that people always leave you alone when you ignore them, unlike in other cities where the homeless people or men trying to sell flowers, and things like that, persist in their attempts.

I’m excited to be starting classes soon, they all seem really interesting and I’m looking forward to seeing what they’re like.

We had gelato last night for the first time, right down the road from my place, and it was delicious. I got chocolate and it was nice and rich, which is always appreciated by me. We then walked with it over to the beautiful panoramic view on the street over and it was quite the Italian experience.

I’m glad to be done with the “intensive” Italian week. It wasn’t hard at all but it gets tiresome being in the same class all day. Our teacher is really funny so I think the class will be enjoyable. Today while we were waiting for some other people to finish up he was explaining to us how with some words in Italian a small difference can change the word to something more inappropriate. His English isn’t very good so it was funny seeing him try to explain what words were bad in a way that wouldn’t be too blunt. He’s lucky that he only has to talk in Italian in our class. At one point he grabbed my shoulder and told me I was very thin and that I should watch out because it’s windy in Perugia. He also likes to randomly pick on Chris, getting in his face all of a sudden and asking a question and then laughing when Chris has no idea what’s going on. This will probably grow as it looks like Chris is going to be the only boy in our class now that leveling is complete.

This weekend on Sunday is the field trip for Arcadia (the university we applied through). I guess we’re all going to a farmhouse and making pasta and eating two big meals or something. I’m not quite sure. Chris and I also plan on going to the open air market at the last stop on the MiniMetro to see what that is like. My Italian teacher said that it’s really big and that there is a ton of fresh food, as well as all sorts of other things. I also have a less concrete plan with Jamie and a group of people to see Piazza Dante, where there are some Etruscan ruins, possibly on Saturday. I hope to at some point get pizza from this place down the street that is well talked of and will probably be getting more gelato. Good thing walking around here is so intense...