The Victory Lap!

I have successfully lived in Perugia for four months.

Wow.

I've lived in another country with a different language from my native tongue away from my friends and family.

(Ew, that sentence was SO CLICHE. But I couldn't be bothered enough to really change it. What is this? A watered downed crappy travel blog for a university? You know, those links on study abroad websites that say "Click here to read the banal and cliched blogs of our former student Sarah M.!" I can't tell you how many terrible facebook statuses I had to read last week when the English Program students from my Institute left. I never want to see the words "awesome", "amazing", "unforgettable" and "experience" put together ever again. It was actually funny because they all were EXACTLY the same... while also being forgettable and un-"amazing." Sorry to be a hater, but someone had to say it. As Suzanne would say, "Sucks to suck." Haaaahahaaa.)

I've also lived in my first apartment and enrolled in my second foreign university. I've finally been to Spain and Germany! I survived daytime weather below 30 degrees and bought my first real down coat and snow boots. I know Florence better than I know Perugia...

Don't worry, I somehow managed to be miserable 40 percent of the time. So many times, I wanted to go home or cancel my second semester. But because I was chicken and America is so dang far away, I stayed! Lest we forget, I must also thank my mother, Suzanne and various chums who encouraged me to tough it out!

I also am now at B2 level for Italian! I'm so happy! If you have no idea what that is, here is a link to the European Framework for language levels.

But What Does It Mean For Louisa To Have Just Spanked B1 Real Good? Click here!

Last night, I was messaging Alex and said something completely wrong in English. It was because I just got off the phone with my aunt who speaks Italian, I was messaging my cousin Natasa in Italian, listening to American music and talking to Suzanne in English. Strugggggle bus.

I can't tell you how hard it just was to not call English "Inglese." I'm sure this blog has weird mistakes in general. I've noticed some for sure! Mi dispiace, parlo e scrivo in italiano spesso!

I'm anxious about next semester but there are promising things coming up! I will be taking challenging classes. I'm moving to a new apartment. My school offered an internship teaching English at a local high school. My Italian will improve!

But in between now and then, I GET TO GO TO AMERICA! To quote my soul sister Honey Boo Boo:

Packing? Do I have to?

Packing is the worst.

Packing would be the best. I am staying the entire year! What could I possibly have to pack? Oh yeah.. I HAVE TO MOVE. (%$#$%#$#$%#$%^$%^$%^$%!!!!!!)

All the perks of staying here? Gone.

And it gets better. I have a weird 3 hour period to do it. Kill me. My new apartment is at the bottom of 150 stairs. Cabs can't get there.

So I have four things to pack for: my overnight trip to Florence (easy), my new apartment (terrible. must include clothes, toiletries, books, everything from my kitchen.), my last week of Perugia (because I have to move all my possessions seven days before I leave. WHAT?!) and my trip home.


I have a stress rash. Additionally, I'm playing hookey... a lot recently... so my stress rash is also living off my semi-irrational fear that my attendance hasn't been sufficient to take my final exam.

I just want to go to home SO BADLY. I would go home now even if it meant leaving 80 percent of my possessions behind. I accumulate so much crap so that's saying something. All the American students get to go home in the next two days. I'm SO JEALOUS. I've wanted to go home for over a month.

Just when I feel totally wretched, I think of everyone else who have to do finals. You guys are the real sufferers here! I may be stuck here for another week but at least I have no intelligent hurdles.

Italian Men Just Wanna Dance

My mom emailed me today.

"Did you have a crazy adventure this weekend?"

Nope, I didn't... but then I thought about it and I did a fair amount of things. Haha. I'm just so used to living in Perugia and thinking nothing of our little escapades. Friday night I went to a birthday party that turned into "Let's GO OUT IN THE CITY CENTER" (aka 10 feet away from where we live) that then turned into "LET'S GO TO A CLUB 20 MINUTES AWAY NOW THAT IT'S 12:30 AM!"

So we did. A bunch of the Italian guests drove us there where we paid 8 euro to dance until 4 am in the smokiest club EVER. It was surprisingly not very sketchy. People JUST WANNA DANCE, OK?!

My two favorite things from my time in Italy: Accented, bad English and how straight men here really just want to dance.

You don't believe me. But I promise I see this phenomenon every time I go into a bar, even if it isn't a club. Straight boys here like to boogie. And they are HILARIOUS, I mean, very musical indeed.

I was giggling at one guy dancing by himself once on the dance floor. I turned to my friend from Thailand and said "Look! Baha!" and my Thai friend Nate said "Ah, come on, we've all been there. He's just dancing." I give him a weird look and said, "Do you realize straight men NEVER dance alone in the States? They barely dance even with other people." His mind was blown. He had no idea that was unusual. Ha! Here, bartenders dance to songs they like while behind the counter.

Here is a musical treat for you.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iw4oRym4HSM