(no subject)
I went to Perugia and Assisi this weekend. Perugia was a great city (with underground escalators through the old -Roman, I think- city since the town is built around a hill with the roads winding around it making direct walking from the bottom to the top difficult without the escalators). I wouldn't mind living in Perugia, the surrounding area (Umbria) is beautiful and it's a young feeling city with the Perugina chocolate factory (which I visited and ate too much chocolate at) just 10 minutes outside the city. I also went to Assisi, which was beautiful despite the hoards of tourists and pilgrims. The Basilica of Saint Francis is now one of my favorite churches in Italy, just the feeling of calmness and happiness I felt in there despite all the people would put it high on the list and then you have to include the the frescos by Giotto (who did the Capello degli Scrovegni here in Padova) and all the other beautiful artwork in there. We had a free tour of the city (nearly everyone taking the tour was from Padova or the provincia of Padova) and the tour guide was incredibly nice and interesting. She was a former archeologist and she gave a ride back to Perugia from Assisi so we didn't have to take the train since she was going to Perugia herself. I'll put pictures of the trip up soon.
Today I'm not in the best of moods. There's no reason I shouldn't be feeling ok - I just had a good weekend and I'm wearing my pretty new pink shoes,but I still feel kind of crappy. I'm worried that I don't have summer work plans or real future post-graduation plans like other people do, I'm worried about my housing for next year, I'm sad that I left my penguin pajama pants at the hostel in Perugia (which was very nice for a hostel - there were even frescos on the ceiling and a great view of the city), I am suddenly bothered by the fact that I'm single (my because more than half my program here is involved in fairly serious relationships), I'm sad that I'm going to have to leave this country in a bit more than a month, I'm stresses that I have my oral exam for my photojournalism class at the University of Padova, a presentation for my EU class, and my final paper and presentation for my Modern Italian history class all next week.
I guess I should make a list of things that are good so I don't dwell on the things I wrote above: I'm wearing my cute pink shoes, it's a beautiful day out, the happy and perfectly content to the point of giggling feeling that I sometimes get just walking around town here, I'm going to be able to do an idependant study with my Arabic professor next semester, I think my Italian is really improving, I bought Breakfast at Tiffany's in Italian yesterday, I've been to some amazing places this semester, the fact that random strangers can be wonderfully nice and really make a place great, I'm reading a children's (actually YA if they had that here) fantasy book in Italian, I ate so much chocolate this weekend (I'm including monday in this weekend since it was a national holiday here in Italy and everything was closed so it felt like a sunday), watching the Italian countryside go by from a train window, Italian pop songs.
That's enough for now, there's more that I could probably put in each catagory, but I should go to the library to get a book (more difficult to do in Italy than back in the States) before the library closes. Ciao tutti!
Today I'm not in the best of moods. There's no reason I shouldn't be feeling ok - I just had a good weekend and I'm wearing my pretty new pink shoes,but I still feel kind of crappy. I'm worried that I don't have summer work plans or real future post-graduation plans like other people do, I'm worried about my housing for next year, I'm sad that I left my penguin pajama pants at the hostel in Perugia (which was very nice for a hostel - there were even frescos on the ceiling and a great view of the city), I am suddenly bothered by the fact that I'm single (my because more than half my program here is involved in fairly serious relationships), I'm sad that I'm going to have to leave this country in a bit more than a month, I'm stresses that I have my oral exam for my photojournalism class at the University of Padova, a presentation for my EU class, and my final paper and presentation for my Modern Italian history class all next week.
I guess I should make a list of things that are good so I don't dwell on the things I wrote above: I'm wearing my cute pink shoes, it's a beautiful day out, the happy and perfectly content to the point of giggling feeling that I sometimes get just walking around town here, I'm going to be able to do an idependant study with my Arabic professor next semester, I think my Italian is really improving, I bought Breakfast at Tiffany's in Italian yesterday, I've been to some amazing places this semester, the fact that random strangers can be wonderfully nice and really make a place great, I'm reading a children's (actually YA if they had that here) fantasy book in Italian, I ate so much chocolate this weekend (I'm including monday in this weekend since it was a national holiday here in Italy and everything was closed so it felt like a sunday), watching the Italian countryside go by from a train window, Italian pop songs.
That's enough for now, there's more that I could probably put in each catagory, but I should go to the library to get a book (more difficult to do in Italy than back in the States) before the library closes. Ciao tutti!