Eurochocolate!

So I will talk about Eurochocolate, but first an anecdote from this morning to give you a sample of daily life.

So this morning I had class at 10 am, which occurs twice a week. Though it sounds nice and late, it means I need to move when I get up since I like to allow an hour to get to school on time with the bus and all. Well, lately I have been pushing my leave time (because that always happens to me) and still arriving on time... and I did arrive on time today but here is what happened.

I arrived at my first bus stop just in time to catch a bus from there, however I took the line that comes less frequently instead of the more frequent one. The one I took today also takes a slightly different route to the stop where I catch my next bus. Normally it doesn't make a difference, but in morning traffic, what is normally a 5 minute ride turned into a 10 minute ride... we were really quite backed up. I think if I had taken the other line from the original stop AFTER I took the other one, I prob would have arrived earlier. I did get a chance to pull out my rusty French though. An old woman sitting across from me asked if the bus finished its route at the Duomo. I said no, it goes by the Duomo but finishes at the station, which was translated for her by a French speaking man sitting across the aisle (I said it in Italian). She also seemed to ask me if I could show her where it was, but I said I was getting off before. However during the rest of the ride, I realized I could tell her that the Duomo was only two stops after where I got off... and managed to remember basically how to say "two more" in French. It's quite sad actually, I took French for 6 years but now I feel like I barely know it. I think a lot of it is still up there (in my head) but whenever I try to think of a word or phrase, it automatically pops up in Italian, and to find the French is much much harder. Anyway, I said "Deux en plus" as I got off the bus and she seemed grateful. I also realized at that point that the French speaking man was actually with her, which wasn't clear to me at first.

So, I got off that bus and saw my bus to school across the piazza - it usually sits at the stop a bit before departing at the scheduled time, since that is one end of the line. However, as I was partway across the square I saw the doors closing. "Noooooo!" I thought to myself. But this had happened before, at least twice, and a desperate run toward the bus and a wave of the arm usually does the trick. As it turned out, not today. The bus driver looked at me, shook his head, and chuckled a bit. I was stung, left to watch the bus drive away and wait 15 minutes for the departure of the next, with only the solace of my iPod to comfort me. Okay, so I over-dramatize a bit, but I seriously thought before that ALL drivers stopped for runners, at least within reason! Now I know that isn't so... sigh. I mean in the end it was fine - the next bus arrived pretty soon (though it stayed there stopped for a bit) and I got the chance to take my favorite seat on the bus since I was one of the first on board. I arrived at school right at 10:00, but when they say 10:00 it means class really starts at 10:15... so the timing was perfect. And, as I rode off toward school past the Duomo, I saw the French-speaking man on the sidewalk, so I was comforted to know that he (and probably the old woman) found the Duomo successfully.

Now I can rewind to Perugia. As it turned out, I ended up only going with Cindy, the Swiss student with whom I have been on a few daytrips now. She was also the one who endured the hoard of Americans at Cinque Terre with me early on in my stay. I got up at the "ungodly" hour of about 6:15 to get ready (quoting Kristin Thomas, who saw me online before she went to bed over across the ocean). We had to take a train at 8:09 because the next wasn't until about two hours later and we needed that early start! I figured I could sleep in on Sunday, because I wasn't about to miss all the chocolate. The train was pretty crowded but we found seats across an aisle from each other. After the man next to Cindy got off at an early stop, we were able to sit next to each other.

It took about two hours to get to Perugia, and I knew that the center of town was a 2-km, uphill walk away from the station. I told Cindy that we could take a bus, but she preferred walking, so I went along with that. Thing was, the station wasn't actually ON the small map in my guidebook, only an arrow pointing to the station. So, we started following signs for the "centro" and I was just sort of following the feel of going uphill. At the end, we somehow twisted and turned our way up, followed some other tourists who actually asked for directions, did some trial and error, and then found the "Scala Mobile" that takes people up to the actual history city. That's right, there are public escalators you can use to get up to the center of town! I thought that was pretty cool... Once we got to the end of the escalators, we saw the first "Eurochocolate" decorations and stands, but we were still underground, beneath a bunch of stone that felt like we were in some sort of underground castle village. We walked through all the stands, noticing that it was all chocolate to buy and wondering if there was anything else as part of the festival... is it all underground? is what we were asking ourselves.

As it turned out, the answer was no. Eventually we found our way back to open fresh air, and even more stands of merchants and companies selling their diverse chocolate wares. We wandered around one little section to start. We also saw the beautiful view, as we had climbed quite a bit to get to the historical center. As we wandered, I suggested we get some hot chocolate since I had seen others with it, and it looked like real melted chocolate, all liquidy and thick and smooth... There were various flavors like orange, cinnamon and a couple others, but we both got "classic". It was really yummy, and it was even better because we sipped hot chocolate while enjoying (and taking pictures of) the gorgeous view. Perugia is in Umbria (same region as Orvieto) and the country side was just as beautiful and impressive!

After finishing the hot chocolate, we viewed more of the stands and continued down the street. It was packed with people and stands, but that made for a festive atmosphere. At a certain point, we saw fresh roasted "castagne" (chestnuts) which are pretty typical here. Cindy really likes them, and I had never had them before but always intended to since I got here and saw them the first time. She was pretty shocked that I was new to them, and we got a bag to share. They were good - the texture wasn't what I was expecting but they were definitely tasty. Cindy said she thought maybe smaller ones had more flavor, as these were slightly less flavorful than others she'd had. But of course, I had nothing to compare to.

We ate our chestnuts while continuing on down the street toward the "Fontana Maggiore" fountain and Perugia's Duomo. When we got there, we took pictures, then Cindy sat outside while I took in the decor on the inside. From the outside, it was really medieval and nowhere near ornate as Duomos in Orvieto or Florence for example, but inside it was gorgeous. The entire ceiling had painting and decoration, along with various chapels and pieces of decoration throughout the rest of the church. I spent a couple minutes taking it in, then joined Cindy outside, where we sat for a while to people watch and rest a bit. After that, we wandered a bit through a few streets that weren't entirely taken over by the festival, getting more of a feel for Perugia. After we grabbed some water (must stay hydrated!) we wandered back in our original direction down the main thoroughfare of Perugia, and the festival. I saw some people with chocolate covered bananas, so of course I just had to have one. I tracked down some more and eventually found the source, and procured one for myself. Yum! There is a photo on picasa...

We headed back to the place where we originally emerged from underground, with Cindy making a purchase along the way. I wanted to buy some chocolate at one of the underground stands, and did that. I got pieces of three types of chocolate for me and my Italian family. One piece of dark chocolate with "riso soffiato" (think rice krispies), one piece of white chocolate with hazelnuts, because I know Federico really likes white chocolate, and one piece of milk chocolate with figs! Everything was to order so the woman serving me literally chopped hunks of chocolate off of bigger pieces for me and I paid by the weight. It was nice to take a piece of Eurochocolate home with me!

At that point Cindy and I descended back down on the escalators. We had been thinking of taking a bus back to the station, but we had TONS of time before we were thinking of leaving, so we decided to walk back, always with our navigation by feel more than actual knowledge! On the way, we encountered a beautiful little park where we enjoyed the trees, the weather, and nature... which was nice. From there we walked down some more and eventually recognized a street where we'd been coming up! Success! We were near the station, but still had plenty of time, so we sat down at a cafe waiting for a menu or a waiter or something... as we waited and talked we saw a McDonald's across the way and started talking about it in general.

This is where I need to interject a confession. Yes, I talked about how sad it is that there are McDonald's here (or at least referenced it in a photo of Bologna). But some weeks ago, I went to the McDonald's in the Florence train station, mostly out of curiosity. And you know what, I immensely enjoyed getting a Big Mac, some fries, and a Coke. It was delicious, I think mostly because of the familiarity factor. I felt like I was about 10 years old eating from the drive thru in my hometown in CT... because the food tasted exactly the same! Say what you want (or what I want) about McDonalds' hegemony abroad... but I have to admit I really enjoyed that moment of nostalgia. So there you have it, I can't be superior about McDonald's because I have fallen to that level and partaken here in Italy. But it's still true that I almost never go in the US anymore, and the last time I went it literally almost made me sick. Still, those childhood memories are hard to erase. And cravings for French fries are powerful.

So we return back to Cindy and I sitting at the table at the cafe. She said she wanted something salty, and no waiter was coming. Eventually she suggested we go to McDonald's! And so that is what we did! We both got cheeseburgers and French fries, then took the food outside to eat. There was something sort of fun and surreal about it, eating McDonald's with my new Swiss friend in Perugia after a day at the chocolate festival... certainly not what I would have predicted but oh so fun! So I guess I will have to begrudgingly put McDonald's in the category of (occasional) guilty pleasure for the time being... oh well. And Dad, I thought of you as I took the pickle off of my cheeseburger and told Cindy how I always used to give them to you to eat when I got a cheeseburger in my Happy Meals!

So there it is, the cold hard truth about my relationship with McDonald's, exposed to all you blog readers to judge as you will.

After that point in the day, we didn't do much aside from get on the train to head back to Florence. I slept part of the way home, as I was pretty tired from the week and getting up at that "ungodly" hour. It was nice to get back to Florence so early (around 5) and rest at home the rest of the day. I had some chocolate with Federico and Lisa after dinner - Cristina was out of the house that night. They both definitely seemed grateful for the treat from Perugia!

Now, I am looking forward to Kristen's visit (she gets here the day after tomorrow!) and also trying to force myself to put in the necessary work to prepare for my exam in one of my courses - which will take place on the last day of class, Nov 6. I think in the end I will be fine, but it is a little more nervewracking than one might think at first, with the second language thing and that I am just not very familiar with the format and expectations of Italian exams. I did meet with my tutor yesterday though, and that helped me focus in on what I should do as far as studying.

Alright, that will be it for now... sorry that I am ever slower in updating! But it happens eventually! :-)