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October 7th 2008
Published: October 7th 2008
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COFFEE!COFFEE!COFFEE!

this is the coffee I tried!
This entry is just about some things I have done while here in Perugia during the week--otherwise I don't think all of my pictures would load...

Ok this last week was pretty eventful I went to a coffee seminar through school, the Opera, and to Tandem (a group where we get together and speak with local Italians).

The coffee seminar was led by Zach, the guy who organizes most of our local cultural activities, and we went to a cafe here in Perugia for about an hour to learn about the history of coffee and how the Italians drink it. Some of the more interesting pieces of information are...if you ask for a coffee in Italy you will receive an espresso, cafe corretto has liquor in it, cafe americano is nothing like American coffee (although they try), cappuccino was named for the cappuccian monks' robes (and usually isn't normal to drink after 11am), coffee can be very fancy and have cocoa or other yummy things in it. There were about 15 of us in the coffee place and after Zach informed us about coffee the server brought a tray with a variety of different coffees for us to sample.
Coffee groupCoffee groupCoffee group

Zach is the guy in black, he led our seminar.
I tried the Cafe Marocchino, which was espresso with foamed milk and chocolate; it was pretty good.

THe same night my roommates and I went to the Opera in town. Let me tell you what, it was like a treasure hunt trying to find out how to buy tickets! We were told we would be able to buy them on Friday--4 days before the show, so my roommate Megan and I went to buy them and of course it was La Pausa, so we were told to come back an hour later. We came back at 5pm only to be told they didn't start selling tickets until the next morning! SInce I was out of town on Saturday and the ticket booth was closed on Sunday we waited until Monday to buy tickets. I went to the office before my class at 11am and was suffled between 2 offices for about 15 minutes.
The opera was Cenerentola--aka Cinderella-- we were all pretty excited because we though "hey we will know this!" NO! the story is pretty different, so it was hard to follow. Instead of a step mother I think it is a step father and the prince pretends he is someone else, and there is a sorceror instead of a fairy godmother. All ended well between Cinderella and the prince, but it was touch and go getting there 😊 THe Opera was really good; the singing and the sets were all beautiful and I really like opera, so it was a nice time. It was really long though... it started at 8:30 and we left at midnight, we weren't expecting it to be that long.

Tandem was held on Wednesday night and I went with my roommate Jackie to go talk to some Italians. The group met at a wine bar this time and I ended up talking to two guys, Roberto and Raffaelo, who studied English over the summer for two months. They were pretty good speakers. I guess they went to class everyday for 4 hours so they learned a lot in 2 months time! It is really interesting how it works because when I go I do my best to speak Italian and they usually speak in English, so they can practice too. Sometimes things get lost in translation, but we eventually figure it out by switching from one language to the other. They
OrchestraOrchestraOrchestra

Here is the orchestra during the Opera
were trying to ask me about American slang--it was really hard for me to explain some of the things, mostly because they learned the slang from rap singers 😉 But overall it was a fun time and I look forward to going back in the next couple of weeks! Enjoy all the Pictures!


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Jackie and LaceyJackie and Lacey
Jackie and Lacey

Jackie and Lacey were across the theater from us...we had to be split up
Katie and MeganKatie and Megan
Katie and Megan

Here is Katie and Megan in our box
Opera HouseOpera House
Opera House

this is what the boxes look like
Theater CeilingTheater Ceiling
Theater Ceiling

the chandelier and paintings on the ceiling


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