Travel Blog Posts
March 6th 2008
I decided I want to do another update. My last one was so utterly incomplete, and I now feel better able to reflect a little, as well as update you all on how things are being back. The last night in Perugia was incredibly bittersweet. We all finished our Italian finals and spent the day packing and getting ready to go. We had until 1:00 am to get to Piazza Italia to load the buses and leave. By about 11:00 we headed with our bags down to Corso Vannucci (I carried/rolled my things entirely by myself--which, if you didn't realize, is pretty impressive--I was pretty pleased with myself, and really sore) to put them in Filippo's apartment. (Filippo is Sarah's boyfriend, and he's actually visiting her in Pennsylvania this week!) Once we had our things locked ... read more
December 13th 2007
I'm pretty busy this week. I had five finals. I now only have one left, and it's Friday morning Italian. I just thought I'd put up pictures from the Christmas lights around town. They're all basically the same picture/place; I was aiming for pictures that weren't blurry. It's Corso Vannucci, Piazza IV Novembre/the fountain.... read more
December 4th 2007
So, I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s less important for me to give a detailed update of all the places I’ve gone and things I’ve seen than it is to just put something up and, most importantly, let the pictures tell the story. Last weekend I went to London, and it was fantastic. I visited friends from Macalester, staying with my friend Molly, and sightseeing with her on Saturday. Friday night I went to Harrod’s and walked around for two hours by myself listening to The Postal Service and keeping myself entertained while Molly was at work. I found my way back to her apartment in the cold rain and entertained myself with episodes of The Office. We got to the Apollo Victoria Theatre for Wicked tickets, which went on sale at 10am, at 9:15. ... read more
November 27th 2007
I'll start with this last weekend and work backwards. (This entry is backdated, since I wrote most of it in a word document last week.) There is a train strike in France going on, which made me a little nervous, because I was taking an overnight train to visit Ann. I knew I was going to want to see someone from home around Thanksgiving, and, though I’m sure I would have been fine, it was really nice to know I was headed to see Ann when I was feeling particularly homesick Thursday evening. I left my apartment around seven and went to the Perugia train station. I brought my diary on the trip and spent the train ride from Perugia to Florence writing a long entry about study abroad, since I haven’t written in there since ... read more
November 15th 2007
Our landlord made us pretty happy today. Internet is down at the apartment, which is contributing to why I haven't updated, or been on skype, or e-mailed the past few days. Mauro, our landlord, came over and called the company in charge of the phone/internet line, and they're working on it. We also couldn't figure out why our stove stopped working, and he showed us the switch we had apparently flipped off. He also told us that we could leave our heat on all day (we had been hearing otherwise) and explained how the system works. It was so cold in the apartment! The internet should be back up in another day or two, by next week at least. Today felt like roughing it (I recognize how spoiled we are). Julianna and I just sat and ... read more
November 6th 2007
Welcome to my self-indulgent ramblings that often exceed eight hundred words. :) This last week it was really nice to just be back in Perugia. Shannon and I didn't go out celebrating Halloween, instead we stayed in the apartment and watched How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days. It was very cozy. I have a hard time celebrating Halloween if I haven't had some time in advance to think about a costume. Next year, maybe. This weekend Karly came to visit. It was so much fun having her here. I really liked showing her around Perugia. We had gelato, and the first night we baked an apple pie after we went to dinner at Perugia's best kept secret. We slept in the next morning, then went to a market that happens around this holiday in ... read more
October 30th 2007
Today is the first time I've walked through the rain and been soaked. Thank goodness. I miss rains like that, even in Minnesota it's not quite the same. I've been doing this internship the past few weeks at a library that is part of a private foundation here in Perugia. Basically what I'm supposed to do is write short summaries of the 95 children's books they have. Most of the books are from the turn of the last century. Today I read parts of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Through the Looking-Glass, and Peter and Wendy, as well as a couple of books of nursery rhymes. It was kind of interesting how many of the rhymes I recognized, but wouldn't be able to recite back. I've never read Peter Pan, and that was really fantastic. I just ... read more
October 29th 2007
Getting back into Perugia yesterday was such a relief. Today we started classes back up. My Italian disappeared startlingly quickly over the break. I almost started speaking in Spanish, and nearly threw out a "merci" when Francesco handed out a worksheet. Pathetic. It's nice to just be relaxing. I thought I'd put an entry up and just add some photos that I didn't put up before. My midterms went okay, so far. I have a feeling the political science midterm didn't go too well, just like Renaissance Art, but the two psychology midterms and Italian went well. That's all the news I have. Today, for the first time, I started to get an almost nostalgic feeling about how we're now past the half-way point, and study abroad will be coming to an end soon. I'm going ... read more
October 28th 2007
We got into Barcelona just fine. We took the metro from the train station, and found our way to our hostel. Barcelona is a huge city. Their metro is really easy to figure out though, and once we got off at our stop we asked someone for directions and checked into the hostel. We dropped off our bags and walked down La Rambla, which is a tourist attraction in itself. The street is lined by stores and restaurants, and when you walk down the middle of the street you're surrounded by tourists, street performers, and pets for sale. There's nothing like seeing pigeons, chickens, and chipmunks for sale across from a woman dressed up like some terrifying statue. We ate lunch at a Hard Rock Cafe, which is one of the very few times we have ... read more
October 23rd 2007
I’m on a train right now to Barcelona. It’s Tuesday night and the three of us (Becky, Stephanie, and I) are in a sleeper car, a la White Christmas, on our way from Granada to Barcelona. There’s an elderly Spanish woman sharing the room with us. It’s rocky, but kind of nice to have an excuse to get a good 10 hours of sleep. The ride itself should be just under 12 hours. The trip so far can best be summarized as a delicate balance of complete chaos and disaster and fantastic sightseeing. We left for Seville Saturday morning, taking three trains to Pisa, and flying Ryanair from Pisa to Seville. We couldn’t book a hostel Saturday night in Seville online, so we figured we would just sleep in the airport, or find something once we ... read more
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