Word of the day: soppresso. It means “cancelled,” and in the case of an-all-too-frequent Italian sciopero dei treni, or “train strike,” this also means that a headache is coming on! Italian laborers go on strike ALL THE TIME, and this weekend there happened to be a train strike for any trains going in/out of/through Firenze from 9 pm on Friday to 9 pm Saturday. My friends Lauren, Carly, Angie and I were planning on going to Pisa and Cinque Terra, so we made sure we left before the strike on Friday to get safely to Pisa, and then figured we’d be fine going to Cinque Terra the next day since it’s not a train that goes through Firenze. We had a hostel for 2 nights in Pisa, and were just planning taking a train to Cinque Terra Saturday morning and coming back Saturday night. Friday night, we got to the hostel, which was very clean and nice – we had our own room with two double beds and our own private bathroom. The only thing was that the hostel was on a really tiny back street that had a bunch of abandoned apartment buildings with broken windows and smelled like a variation of pee/poo/vomit. But thankfully the hostel itself was very clean, had lots of locked doors, and was next to a little piazza on the other side of the building, so there were always people there! That night we grabbed some pizza and went to the Leaning Tower of Pisa while it was getting dark – it was actually pretty neat to see the Tower all lit up in the dark, but the cathedral, cemetery, and the tower itself were all closed.

Saturday morning the excitement began: we got to the train station really early, and EVERY SINGLE train, except for ONE was soppresso! We didn’t realize that either they expanded the strike to almost all the trains, or that almost every train going through Pisa also went through Firenze at some point. There weren’t any buses to Cinque Terra, and the one train still going to Cinque Terra we didn’t want to take it as we didn’t know if we’d get a guaranteed train back to Pisa, so alas, no Cinque Terra for us! We had to stand in a tediously long line to get a refund for our tickets - but just to prove how tiny the world really is, while we were waiting in line, we started talking to the people behind us, and two of them happened to be nurses from Saint Paul! Small world, indeed!

So instead of Cinque Terra, we walked down the main pedestrian street in Pisa and browsed through the artists’ and clothing vendors. We then went back to the Leaning Tower, and saw the cathedral there, and took stereotypical touristy photos - the cathedral is gorgeous and FULL of paintings depicting different biblical stories. Finally, after not eating lunch, we were getting quite hungry, so we ate gnocchi at a little, cheap restaurant by the Tower, got the best gelato I think I’ve had so far, and went home properly stuffed! It ended up being a relaxing weekend, and we got to see more of the Tower, along with it being a cheaper weekend than if we had had to buy train tickets to/from and around Cinque Terra. It also was cloudy and a bit rainy, so the beaches wouldn’t have been too comfortable.

The other good thing about this weekend was that it got me out of Perugia long enough to where I was relieved in coming home – although fun, Pisa is a much dirtier and sketchier city in some parts. It was also full of tourist venues, which is fine, but made me appreciate the lack of such things in Perguia! So taking the train back to Perugia yesterday felt more like going home, which is good – it means I’m finally settling in!

Otherwise, classes have been going really well – the only one I haven’t had yet is Drawing, which I will have Tuesday. They all seem really interesting, if not maybe a little bit more difficult than I had thought! That’s ok with me – I’m always up for a challenge! :) My Culture of Food in Italy class is going to have a lot of history involved in it, along with a class trip where we go to a traditional Tuscan restaurant and have a huge, multi-course meal. We also have a wine tasting day, a bread tasting day, and finally, but not least, an olive oil tasting day! We don’t actually do any cooking – it’s all about the effect culture has on food and vice versa, with an emphasis on Italy and its food! My Italian class is with the same professoressa that I had for my week of Intensive Italian, which is great, because I love her! :) My Creative Writing: Italy of the Imagination class is going to be the easiest class, I think. I was really excited about it, because that’s what I would have liked to major in if the U of M had an undergraduate program in Creative Writing, but I think the teacher is pretty laid back and is going to grade easily, possibly because there seem to be a lot of people in the class who think that the class is just an easy A. This frustrates me, of course, because it’s not EASY to write well, and I’d rather have a teacher who pushed us, but oh well. Maybe she’ll turn out to be a harder grader than I thought! And either way, that doesn’t mean I have to take it easy! :)

So there you are – caught up on everything! Hope all my friends in school are having a great semester back home – I’m starting to miss the U of M – I love the campus feel it has. Here we only have two buildings (only 150-200 students in the school), and the two buildings are in completely different areas of the city center, so there’s no campus feel. Having only 200 students max in the school also make me pine for the huge student population of the U of M campus which makes for endless new friend possibilities, and you don’t have the drama that comes with smaller college communities. Oh well – it’s still a good school, and I’ve got a great little group of friends with Lauren, Carly, and Angie, so I’m satisfied! :) Everyone else, hope you’re having a great fall, and EMAIL ME!! Keep me updated – I miss you all!