A casa, a Perugia!

Saluti!

Well, it's been a while so I thought I really should sort out some news about life here in the green heart of Italy. And, yes, one of these days I'll be emboldened enough to try and load up some of the multitude of photos so you can see what I'm talking about...but not today.

A quick up date about my classes. Three days a week my first class begins at 8am which is rather a shock. On the other two days I manage to start at a more reasonable 9am and 10 am respectively. A short day only has five contact hours, while a long one crams in eight. No wonder my brain gets a little frazzled! I have lectures in both contemporary and classic literature, Italian cinema, linguistics, medieval art as well as medieval history, and the history of the Italian language. So, swilling around my brain are dates about the fall of the Roman Empire, the goths, vandals and other assorted barbarians, classic greek-inspired statues, latin declensions, snippets of the Risorgimento and of course, exercises in Italian language. All of the lecturers seem nice, although the language one is so scary I had to go and invest in a grammar book just so that I have something behind which I can hide. I tell you, it's language study even more precise than I've ever done in English, let alone Italian. Still, I can't deny that I'm learning a lot!!! And I only have to stagger down the hill to Gallenga each day which is a clear advantage, rather than the trek to Prosciutti.

Most things here are reassuringly the same - like Deearna famously said, it's full of Italians here, the coffee is still good and cheap, as soon as the sun comes out people flock to the Cathedral steps, you have to watch where you walk to avoid unwanted souvenirs from all of the dogs, everyone still smokes like chimneys (but still not indoors - that law actually worked!), they still drive whilst talking on their mobiles (scary when one is on a bus going up or down Perugia's winding streets), and everything still pretty much closes down over lunch. So, life goes on....I'm off for a passeggiata.