It's A Small World

A boy from my fifth grade class is also going to school here. What are the chances that someone from Guilford would also be studying in Perugia and in one of my classes? It took me a while to finally realize that it was him, and at one point Chris saw him write his name and said it wasn’t what I thought. However, he was in one of my later classes so I made sure to pay attention to the roll call and then began talking to him about it after class. It’s so strange that I would see someone here in Perugia that I hadn’t seen since middle school.

Yesterday Chris and I went to the bookstore to return some books for a class that we're both in because we realized it wasn’t necessary for each of us to have the books, as they are not used all the time. In Italy you can’t get money back from a store, they only permit exchanges. Long story short, we ended up spending over two hours in the store as they had so much troubling realizing that we had a discount for the books and were adding things up wrong, and we also had to pick out the books right then, rather than receiving store credit. It was quite stressful, especially when they would start rapidly talking in Italian or when they were initially acting like it was our fault that so much time was being taken up. Still, it ended up working out and by the end they were a bit friendlier. Also, at one point while we were picking out books in the English section a man came up to me and began talking really quickly. I got that he was asking me for a recommendation but I didn’t catch enough so I asked him to repeat himself. He then asked something about if he should ask one of my superiors, something like that, and I started to apologize to him when he realized that I was not Italian and didn’t work there. I guess I just have that bookish air about me...heh.

Last night Chris and I made pizza in a pan, as we don’t have an oven, and it actually ended up working out very well. The first one was a more like a calzone, with the sauce and mozzarella inside a thin crust folded over that he flipped in the pan. For the other one we tried just frying the dough first and then adding the sauce and cheese once both sides were done and cooking it a bit more. It’s a bit like fried dough and was quite delicious.

Today was a good one for adventures. Chris and I walked up many, many stairs to see yet another gorgeous panorama of Perugia, this one with an even wider scope and including some views we hadn’t seen yet. We then went to the center of town to try out gelato that Jamie and her roommates had recommended. I got dark chocolate and Chris got that and rose petal. The dark chocolate was good but not as amazing as the gelateria near us. The rose petal tasted really good at first but then had a certain acridness for an aftertaste, which definitely took away from it. I didn’t like this place as much as the one near my apartment, and it also costs a bit more, but I want to go back to try the apple flavor and the lemon sorbet. We ate the gelato on the steps of the Duomo and then walked into a few shops to warm up. On the way back we were passing the Universita per Stranieri (literally, University for Foreigners, a really renowned school for learning Italian) and heard really loud drums and saw a man outside wearing bright red pants with orange dragons on them. I was curious so we went inside and there was a Chinese New Year’s celebration going on, with a big drum, cymbals, and four people as two dragons dancing around. The people inside the dragons must have very good stamina as they are always crouched over and doing very rapid movements and jumps. The dragon costume itself was very beautiful and elaborate and had a mouth that the first dancer would also move. It was really fun to watch, I wish I had had my camera. Quite the random experience.

My roommates have left for the weekend to go to Rome so I just finished cleaning the kitchen so that I can enjoy it for the next two days before it gets gross again. Right now we’re making potatoes, carrots, and uh hotdogs (no kielbasa here, unfortunately). Later we're making some cookie dough, just without eggs, since there's no oven. This will have to be done by eye since we have no measuring cups. Certainly learning how to get around things here.

This weekend I want to check out some famous sites around Perugia, eat at another pizza place, probably get more gelato, and hopefully go to church for the first time. I also have to do reading for two of my classes, study for a quiz in photography, and write an Italian composition about a childhood memory (any ideas?), and will probably be working on my essay for photography class on Dorothea Lange, even if it isn't due until much later. I figure I might as well get it done with.

I hope you're all doing well!