The end of the first (half) week of classes and a tour of the Universita di Stranieri

Ah, la fine settimana after three whole days of class! We have classes 5 days a week but on Monday and Friday we are in class for only 2 hours instead of 5 or 6.  The classes are challenging for us and we have to concentrate so much that we are exhausted at the end of the day when all of our 20 and 21 year old classmates are out partying (actually, as far as I can tell, the Chinese girls go home and sleep or clean their rooms--at least that is what they said in class).  We have three different teachers, all women, and all very entertaining.  Our only Friday class is a 2 hour conversation class.  Today the teacher took on us on a trip around the university, starting at the roof where there are some great views.

Our teacher, Sabrina (left) points out some landmarks for the class

Tom busily taking notes on the rooftop.  In the foreground is a classmate from France.

You can see the etruscan wall in the background--our Chinese classmates were underwhelmed by this wall

Sabrina, always gesturing!

just two of the many churches whose bells we hear hourly

 After admiring the panoramic view from the roof, we toured the rooms on the top floor.  The main building of the university, where our classes are held,  is Palazzo Galenga, formerly owned by a wealthy family.  Many of the rooms, especially on the upper floors, are splendidly painted, with frescoed ceilings and  chandaliers of murano glass.

Tom, still taking notes as he admires one of the rooms with some of our classmates

As we went through four of the rooms, each representing a different season, Sabrina related the history of the room and building and discussed the elements of the frescoes, so we had an Italian lesson in painting and history.

Just one of many staircases to climb each day--this one from the first to second floor (2d to 3d US)

After the other students went on 'la pausa' (break) Sabrina showed us the Goldena room which is a theater

UW classrooms were never like this

Murano glass chandalier

She also showed us the old library.  They don't have a library now "because everyone uses internet."

The school was founded by  Astorre Pattelli  and his bust and a plaque about him are in the library (below).

Sabrina points out the statute on our 'private' tour All of the Italians
wear their coats in the building because it is fairly cold, although we
hardy Americans just wear sweaters  (Sabrina has two sweaters,
a scarf, and a down jacket)

I leave you with this picture of the symbol of Perugia, a griffin.  Buona fine di settimana a tutti.

   

First Day of School

Today was my first "first day of school" since September 1980.  It started with a written placement test that made me wish I had reviewed all those pesky little words like 'ne,' followed by a brief oral test which was really just a short conversation with one of the teachers.  Tom and I both ended up in level 2B which is the second level of the intermediate class.  The next level is 3A--advanced--and after listening to some of the other students I'm certain I didn't belong there.  Most of the students are 25 and under and about 60% are from Asia.When not speaking Italian, everyone uses English even though there appear to be very few native English speakers.   We astounded the Korean girl waiting in line in front of us by greeting her in Korean.  She then asked if we knew where she could get kimchee in Perugia--I'm afraid she is doomed to failure on that score.  After the tests we all had to go wait in a very very long line to get assigned to a group and get our student IDs.  My first student ID in 3 decades!

Our class schedule--glad there are only 2 classes beginning at 8 am.  Twice a week we have classes from 5 to 7, good thing we have gotten used to late dining Italian style.

Student id.  The bad news was we didn't know we were supposed to bring 2 pictures--must have been on the website somewhere and I missed it, since other people brought pictures.  Good news was that we had some pix at the apartment left over from getting the permesso, and Tom ran back and got them.  Bad news--they were NOT attractive pictures.

X marks the spot where our apartment is located, overlooking Piazza Andidei which has been turned into a parking area.  The blue U by the piazza braccio is the  Universita di Stranieri.  You can see it is a very short walk to the universita from our apartment.  

In honor of finishing our registration we had a celebratory lunch in a nearby restaurant.   Tom had bacala with pasta in a pesto-rosemary sauce and I had papparadelle (big wide noodles) with a cinghiale (wild boar) sauce.  The food was pretty good and the wine was excellent, a Greccho from Umbria.  Now, time to review some pronouns before bed.  Buona notte.