Some Downtime in Perugia

Well, I’ve successfully made it one week since my debilitating encounter with food poisoning, and physically and emotionally I feel much, much better than I did this time last week. I think a combination of factors collided to make the last week a really difficult one—first, the food poisoning itself, and then the fact that I was and have been completely alone in my apartment, since my Italian roommate left for a three-week stay at home, and also the fact that it’s been raining and cold here constantly. You really wouldn’t believe what an impact weather can have on lifting or bringing down a mood. And when you have a week straight of rain, in combination with a couple other negative situations, it can be a recipe for disaster.

I think that after more than a month of living in Perugia, I’ve realized that things here are far from perfect, and they’re not exactly how I imagined they would be. But just because everything isn’t just how I’d hoped it would be doesn’t mean there isn’t a lot for me to appreciate here, and a lot for me to learn from. And the fact that my study abroad experience isn’t exactly like my sister’s, or my friends’, or other people’s experiences I’ve heard of only makes sense. Every city and every study abroad program is different, and unique situations like who you’re roomed with or what part of the city you live in can completely spin a study abroad semester one way or another. My semester is its own individual experience, and I am learning to accept it for what it is, good and bad, and make the most out of all of it.

A lot of people are aware that I just got Internet in my apartment a few days ago. What a relief! I wanted to hope that I could go a semester without Internet in my apartment, but the reality is, living by yourself and far from reliable Internet access is just a bunch of unnecessary stress, especially when trying to stay in touch with people from home. Now I can finally Skype, respond to e-mails, look up travel itineraries and even have the luxury of finding out the 10-day forecast! All from the comfort of my own bed. I only have 50 hours a month, which I can tell already will run out fast, but at least weekend travel and spring break will help preserve some hours. Right now I’m still basking in the glory of finally having real, stress-free contact with the outside world!

Since I stayed in Perugia this past weekend, I’m not going to give a play-by-play of what I did every single day. Instead, I’ll highlight a few things I’ve been up to and give you a preview of what’s in store for me the next few weeks. Unfortunately I don’t have any pictures to share this time, but I’ll include some links here and there to make it more interactive! :-)

Friday morning I had to wake up bright and early for an appointment with the “Questura,” the Italian police who deal with immigration. At 8:30 I and two other Umbra students began a three-hour process chock full of fingerprinting, interrogation about addresses and parents’ names, and other similar enjoyable activities. For some reason Italy requires something called a Permesso di Soggiorno in addition to having a visa, so this appointment was the final step in getting that document. I learned that my fingers are particularly impossible to fingerprint—they kept having to try over and over again to get a good image of them, and for the other people I was with it only took one try…very strange!

During the afternoon and early night my medieval culture class had a field trip to a nearby town called Bevagna. This was another traditional Umbrian town, set up on a hill with a wall surrounding it. Winding, stone-covered streets, a bell tower/church and a main piazza with a small fountain-- the usual picturesque components of the medieval towns around here-- were all present. My class spent the afternoon touring a few museums in the town dealing with medieval life. We saw the remains of some kind of Roman bath, a small art museum with some paintings that were actually pretty intriguing despite being created by basically unknown artists, and a silk weaving demonstration. The silk weaving thing was more interesting than it sounds. They had this huge machine that took up an entire room and required two people to function, and it was built exactly to the specifications from some diagram made in the 1300s. I think they said it’s the only one of its kind in all of Europe, and I wouldn’t be surprised…it was so intricate, I have no idea how someone made the exact calculations for every component of it to work together just right. Later that night my class was ordered to dress up in medieval costumes and then taken to a room where we were fed a typical medieval dinner. Picture me in a long, bright pink robe wearing this crazy, braided headdress over my hair. That’s what I looked like eating dinner that night--- I only wish I had pictures! The food was actually delicious. It seemed to me more nutritious than what I usually eat here—lots of vegetables, beans, egg products. There was one thing that tasted like cream cheese on toast, and I had like three servings of it.

Something I did a lot of this weekend and Monday was wander. One of my favorite things to do here, on a sunny day, is just walk with no particular destination in mind. I love just choosing to take random streets that I’ve never been on and finding out where they lead. It’s always great to discover a part of the city I’ve never seen before. As small of a city as this is, there are still quite a few sections of it that I have yet to set foot in. During my recent adventures I discovered more of a park near my apartment that I’d only seen the entrance to, called Parco P.S. Angelo—the views of the surrounding hills and cottages, and the Perugia city wall, are spectacular. A very tranquil place to walk around or just sit on a bench, and I’m sure once it’s warm out I’ll appreciate it even more. I also explored a few churches and a medieval garden on the other side of town, and it was nice to get to know these other parts of Perugia that I hadn’t yet uncovered.

Two things I really want to do before I leave here, preferably more than once: Go to one of the theatres and see a play or opera, and see an Italian movie in one of the old cinemas. There’s a movie theatre, a really small one, right up the street from my apartment. There’s also one that’s a little bigger and more intriguing-looking about a 20-minute walk away, and right now they’re showing a movie called Il Concerto. A random lady on the street saw me looking at the poster for it and in Italian told me that she’d seen it and it was “Bellissimo!” She was very enthusiastic, so now I feel like I really have to go see it. There are several theatres in Perugia that show plays and operas. Il Pavone is right off Corso Vannucci in the city center, and then Teatro Morlacchi is a little closer to me, about a 10-minute walk away.

I have midterms coming up in the next week! Italian is tomorrow, and I’m probably least worried about that final out of all my classes except for maybe creative writing. After getting a 97 on our only quiz so far, I think I’ve got a good handle on it! Italian film I am not looking forward to, after having completely butchered last week’s presentation. Medieval culture I’m also a little nervous for, just because the material is so abstract and the professor doesn’t do a great job of explaining things. But compared to midterms back in College Park, it’s all a piece of tiramisu (like a piece of cake…get it? Haha, I know, I’m hilarious).

This Friday I leave for Rome, where I’ll be spending the weekend with my cousin Alessandra and her family. I think it will be a really nice, relaxing weekend and I’m definitely looking forward to it. Then a week from this Friday I leave for Barcelona to visit Melissa during my spring break! I’ll spend five nights there, and then I’ll fly to London where I’ll spend four nights with my friend Erica! It will be amazing to see two incredible cities and two familiar faces that I miss from home back-to-back! And after spring break, I’m more than halfway done this semester…