Here I am!

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All right, honestly I lied about the date. It's about amonth later than that, but I've been a jaded traveler and if weren't for the prodings of multiple parents I might just have never written anything. But everyone liked my London website SOOO much, I shall have to continue the tradition for my Italy experience.

First things first: The flight. It was long. There was a change in time difference, and I played the typically cool outsider with blue hair, avoiding talking to all the lame first time abroad studiers on the flight with me. It has to be noted that as I was walking from one terminal to another in Switzerland I couldn't help but overhear the conversation of the American girls behind me (what with the American tendency of being so inexplicably LOUD) and they made mention of the hair straighteners they brought with them. Having loped off my own bad experience with and American straightener in London, I just smiled to myself and just kept floating along the people mover. Who am I to try and tell them for the hundreth time that it's just a bad idea?

The first night in perugia we were bussed from Rome to a hotel outside the city center. I got all my nifty "how to get around perugia and into your apartment" information and met up with my roommates: Kelley, Natalie (the theatre arts major), and Sarah. I found out that my apartment is one of the furthest away from the school and hoped that real estate karma would at least give me a nice apartment, since there seemed to be varying degrees of amenities in each apartment ranging from a washing machine, to a tv, to (as I later found out) a maid.

That night, having already experienced the drinking in a country legally thing, I decided not to follow the lead of the rest of my American comrades determined to uphold their stereotypes. I instead chose to shower, knowing I hadn't brought a towel, and the hotel let you use them for free. Unfortunately, in return, they stole my eyesight for the rest of the night when angry, chili pepper perfume soap dripped oh so surreptitiously into my eye. It was doing to my eye what combination hotel shampoo and body wash does to your hair.

The next morning my apartment mates and I careened through the streets of Perugia to our apartment. I don't think I'll ever experience a feeling quite like that again: the simultaneous realization that I was actually in Italy, and the terror that my driver was going to pop off a side view mirror on a pedestrian.

When we reached our street the Italian driver got out and proceeded to speak in Italian thereby revealing that I was the most fluent of the girls I would be living with. When I heard

setanta sei

I grasped at it realizing it was my apartment number and probably the only thing I would understand. He nodded and pointed...uphill. So we took our 30lb weight limit bags up the hill and then up two flights of stairs to our new apartment.

To best describe our apartment would be...cozy. Small, but adequate. And smaller is better when you're not supposed to use the heat for more than 6 hours a day or higher than 68 degrees. There were two singles, one double, and two(ish) bathrooms. Here's what the bathroom looks like:


cute huh? So when I take a shower, the sink and mirror kind of hang out in there with me, like non judgemental companions.

I picked the double room, because there was a loft, and the 10 year old in me took over and claimed the bed right under it. Right now it functions as storage, occasional movie night locale, and thing to show to other people when they visit our apartment so they can go

Hey! That's so cool!

But the greatest thing by far about tis quaint little apartment of mine is that I HAVE INTERNET ACCESS so the addiction I had hoped to overcome is still in full swing.

Well I shall leave you with a few more pictures of my lovely Perugia.

The first is Down the street from my apartment.


The next one isthe closest patch of grass to my home, but imagine this being your playground.


And in that little tiny picture at the bottom we have the roomies on in front of one of the best views in Perugia. We have left to right Kelley, Me, Natalie, and Sarah.

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