I am going to apologize in advance for this long blog post but in order to do these last few days justice I must. First, I will fill you all in on my very first weekend here in Perugia. We have no classes on Fridays here at the Umbra Institute to allow us more time to travel and just enjoy living in Italy. So on Friday my roommate Erin and I had to go to the post office to get our permit of stay. In Italy, when you stay more than 90 days you must register yourself with the local authorities. So after about 2 hours of waiting and a mountain of paperwork we received our permit of stays to live here in Perugia. In addition to our permits we have an appointment with the local police to be fingerprinted (kind of scary). But those appointments will not take place for another 2 weeks. So to reward ourselves for successfully surviving our permit of stay experience Erin and I took a journey on the minimetro with no real plan in mind. The minimetro is the best way to get around Perugia. It is fairly new (began in 2008) and it was designed to resemble a cable car on a ski lift. It's my new favorite form of travel here in Italy. While on our journey we discovered a big grocery store and a McDonald's! Having not eaten any meat since our arrival in Italy we both got a cheeseburger off the Euro Menu (no dollars here!). And let me say it was the best cheeseburger I have ever had, so far anyway.
Our Saturday was basically the same as Friday. All of my roommates and I took the minimetro again to the local Saturday Market. The market takes place every Saturday and it is filled with many vendors selling fruits, vegetables, clothing, and even animals. We are planning to go again very soon!
Sunday morning we all slept in for the first time! Then we met some fellow Umbra students and headed out to Assisi. But before we went to Assisi Umbra treated us to a full Italian lunch. It was the best meal I have had so far! But I must explain to everyone what a full Italian meal consists of. The first course is a plate of pasts (a full serving), second course is salad, third course is meat and in our case we had 3 different kinds of meats to choose from, the final course is dessert! It was so yummy and oh so filling.
After we were all too stuffed to move we traveled to Assisi by bus. Assisi is about a half hour bus ride away from Perugia and it is situated atop a hill, very similar to Perugia. When we arrived we met one of Umbra's Italian professors and she took us on a guided tour through the town.
Our first stop was at St. Chiara's church. Because we visited Assisi on a Sunday it was quite full. And in Assisi you are not allowed to speak in any church. So it was difficult to know what everything was because our tour guide could not talk to us until we were outside of the church. Our second stop was St. Francis' church. This church is probably what most people think of when they think of the town of Assisi. The church was beautiful! There is no photography allowed in any churches or museums in Italy so instead we all bought postcards of the inside. We also got to see the tomb of St. Francis and a mass that was taking place while we were walking around the church. It was such an amazing experience to be able to see such a famous church. As one of my roommates described it is almost like going back in time when you enter these churches. It's very surreal!
On Monday we started classes here at Umbra. It's still hard for me to comprehend that we have homework to do here in beautiful Perugia. But my classes were amazing! I am taking 5 classes this semester. Human development in culture, contemporary Italy: culture and society, Italian 101, history and politics of modern Italy, and survey of Italian renaissance art.
Before starting classes I figured all of my professors would be Italians but I was surprised Monday. I only have 2 Italian professors. I have a British professor for my history course, an Irish professor for my psychology course, an American (from Pennsylvania) for my art course, and Italian professors for the rest of my classes. I have a feeling it's going to be a great semester with some amazing professors! I couldn't be happier about the classes I have chosen. I hope I am still saying this once my exams start coming :)
Before I go I have some pictures to share with all of you! Here are some of the many photos I have taken over the past few days. And right now I am working on getting an account on shutterfly.com so you can view all of my pictures instead of a select few. But for now here are a select few..enjoy!!
the minimetro
the 5 LVC students studying here in Perugia for the Fall semester
I hope everyone has a wonderful week!! I will update again soon :)
Italian word of the post:
grazie - thank you
Morgan :)
P.S. If anyone would like to skype with me my username is Morgalittle. I am working on getting a video up here on my blog as well so stay tuned!
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