Ridiculous weather

So. Yesterday morning we woke to fog. complete fog, it was like being in the clouds. then, while leaving class at 5, it was beautiful and sunny, with the beginnings of a really pretty sunset. i walk into the internet point, and an hour and a half later, emerge to go home.
it was hailing. and not kinda hailing, COMPLETELY hailing. the balls of ice are as big as m&ms, and while me and gabby run for cover, i start getting concerned my umbrella will get holes blown straight through it. we hide under an arch for a bit, and during a lull in the hail intensity, we venture out a couple feet, only to be pelted once again by a torrential downpour of hail. now, it takes all our strength and tact to get back up the two steps, because the hail has now made a layer of ice balls that threaten to make both of us fall down the street steps and crumple at the bottom into the middle of a busy intersection.
but, we make it back to the arch, and after a couple minutes, we leave again. we walk down a street which happens to be one way and very very narrow. a bus comes by, and we start to think oh no. its over. we escaped the hail, the thunder storm, and now we are going to get squashed against a wall. we squish ourselves against the wall as much as possible, when the bus reaches us, stops, and the (very cute) driver says something to us. we dont really understand, but wander over to the opposite side of the street, where the bus stops and opens the doors. YAY!
so we hop on. the driver and his (very cute) friend make small talk, where are you from, etc etc. but me and gabby are so frazzled we dont even comprehend whats going on, we just say oh we need to get off at this street here please! and the bus stops, and we hop off into the hail and rain (that had in the meantime decided to start again). then me and gabby look at eachother and realized how we majorly failed the last 15 minutes of our lives. not only two ragazzi talk to us, but the driver stopped the bus in the street solely to pick us up. needless to say, we were very upset by our failure.
and today, we wake up to a gorgeous day. me and caitlin ate lunch on the steps, and while getting ready to pack up, the sky gets pitch black, and we hear rumblings. and then it started to snow and sleet. and here we are now, getting sleeted/snowed on.

all it made me feel really, was miss new england. i miss the snow! i miss leaving the house in the morning with boots and a t-shirt and getting snowed on in the afternoon.
anyways. hopefully the next bus experience will be better (and hopefully no more hail. it hurts)

bacci!
-chloe

continuation...

SO.Major updates to be done.Chronologically, here it goes: Wednesday we had another Tandem meeting, where I met a really nice guy named Simone, who taught me basically every historical anything about Italy. We discussed the Mafia, how the French have way more in common with Italy (then both would like to admit. For example- the Italians must give the French props for their flag. HA.) and other interesting things, such as dialects. He is from Pulia, and to say 'Andiamo' its something like...um. 'something something amazone'. I'll ask him again so that my story is a little better than that.Then Gabby the roomie met a really nice girl who invited us to aperitivo at her house that evening, and we met her roomates and a couple friends. We talked for hours, they were extremely nice, and I'm sure they are people we will see again. All in all, a very very good day.Thursday class, which was magical (as always), and then that evening Chiara (italian roomie) invited us to go to dinner with her and her friend at this nightclub/cafe place called Velvet. We dressed up really nice, because at this place, you will get stared down if you dress even slightly casual. We got there, and eventually (around 11) the place got full and busy and turned into a night club. it was ALOT of fun, they played lots of good songs and it was really nice to spend time with Chiara. She had just finished some exams and gotten 25 and 27 (both out of 30) on them, so it was time to celebrate.Friday...we went to the Baci factory! Yes, I imagine most of you are mad because you think that the experience was lost on me (being a chocolate factory and all) but it wasn't. It was very cool to see, and I took extra care in enjoying the moment just for all of your sakes. We got TONS, and i literally mean it, TONS of free chocolate. You could just grab handfuls. We watched a documentary on the Bacione, which is in the Guiness book of world records for largest chocolate (weighing in at 6000 kilos). Ew. I mean...delicious! Friday night was a quiet one.Saturday I went to Gubbio, a little medieval town an hour from Perugia with Gabby, Sara and two friends Giustina (polish) and Roberto (chilean). It was a lot of fun, and many pictures will ensue.My ramblings about everything in italy looking like something out of LOTR is officially justified: not only did Gubbio look like Minas Tirith (as did Assisi) but there was also Rivendell, Bilbo's house in Hobbiton, the tree from Minas Tirith AND....a license plate that said 'Orc'. My life is complete.

plans for the future: Firenze saturday to sunday, and next week....VENEZIA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

bisous!

-chloe

Gubber-town, Rivendell and a really, really fat cat

ok so my extremely long and detailed post of my excursions of the past week was deleted because the internet stinks. but here are some pictures! the long ramble will be added tomorrow.

Orc. enough said.

Bilbo's house.

RIVENDELL!!

The tree from Minas Tirith.

The largest cat on the face of the earth.

My happy latte macchiato.

MINAS TIRITH.

Veni, Vidi, Vici

I've survived a month so far while acknowledging that the french and italians have a mutual dislike for eachother. The italians always make a snobby face when the french are mentioned, and then when I say that I'm in fact french, they pretend they have no problem with it. However my mad italian skills paired with my italian heritage paired that I have the last name to prove it makes them calm down.
This mutual co-existence came crashing down last night. The roomates and friends from class and I went to a pub called 'Downtown' (I thought, when I was told we were going downtown, that were going into downtown Perugia-wherever that was). Out of curiosity, I asked the bartender if he knew what pastis was. He said no, and I described that it was kind of like sambuca, but not as sweet. He started listing sambuca like brands, some were Greek, others Turk etc. But then he asks me where pastis hails from...and I inform him. France.
An eye roll. A slight head shake. A shrug. This meant war. I wasn't letting this one go. I'd put up with that one too many times.
"So what about the french? What's wrong with that?"
"All they have is good wine" (which, I will point out, is INSANE that an Italian would concede that the French had good wine)
"Oh, just wine? We have excellent wine, champagne, cheese and pastries and PASTIS."
"We have cheese too. Do you guys have Parmeggiano?"
"No. But you don't have brie or camembert or good swiss. So...what now?"

More head shaking, and yes I was getting pretty worked up. I love both the Italians and the French, why can't people just humor me and pretend they love my other country? Honestly. The bartender himself said that sambuca was too sweet and syrupy, so now that I've talked the talk..I have to walk the walk and somehow get him to try pastis and award me the official victory of Pastis v. Sambuca in which the home team wins.

HO VINTO. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

More Assisi

Here is more Assisi, as promised:

I liked this because it looked like those two people were perched on the edge of an abyss (or a huge cliff, whichever).

Totally not an accidental choice of colors.

3/4 of the roomies!

This panorama is thanks to Caitlin and her wonderful photo stitching skills (Stephan-read my camera manual and tell me how to do that!!)

In other equally exciting news...we have booked an apartment for Venezia for the carnevale. The apartment is for 6 people, and it has a kitchen and it is right on the water. At first we all thought we'd stay in Perugia for the carnevale festivities, but when we started looking up Venezia...it didn't help that I had gone previously for carnevale, and some of my best memories of Italy are from the carneval. So it's official: we are all going!! Next up: finding a memory stick with enough space to hold the enormous amount of pictures I will take.

This week looks to be a rainy one, hopefully we can make Deruta or another little town on Saturday, and on Thursday we are planning to go to an authentic Perugian restaurant. We went to a restaurant called da Caeserino on Friday and it was absolutely delicious (and cheap!).

A presto tutti!!

Technology...

The internet is sadly not cooperating right now so I will have to continue picture posting tomorrow.
Hope you enjoyed Assisi so far!!

Assisi pictures!

Chiesa St. Anna sopra Minerva. Originally a church for Minerva, a Catholic one was built over it (notice the greek-ish columns). Check that story though...my world history is rusty.

The backyard of one of the (many) churches.

Beautiful :-)
Notice the random four cars parked perpendicular to every. other. car.