Is this really my life?!?!

I'm back! I know you're thrilled :) Anywho, after returning from an insane week full of new countries, accents, cultures and the use of every single mode of transportation possible, I am currently in a serious state of sensory overload again! It was an absolutely amazing week, jam packed with beautiful views, fabulous food (that wasn't pizza or pasta!) and yes of course, travel mishaps and hang-ups. I had a fabulous time and enjoyed being able to speak English for an entire week (getting lost and asking for directions is a lot easier to do when you speak the same language as the person you're asking haha), but I thought I'd be more depressed about being "home" in Perugia. But I've got to say, I'm pretty much floating on cloud nine! Not only did I just get to have and amazing United Kingdom adventure (the who, what, where and how will be explained in later posts), but I still get to spend a month and a half studying in Italy! How lucky am I?!? And as it turns out, I missed Italy - and surprisingly enough it's beautiful language - a lot! AND to top off an absolutely amazing Fall Break trip, my favorite boys of summer, THE BOSTON RED SOX won the World Series! Now this would be fabulous news to any baseball fan, that their team won the World Series. But until three years ago (as I know most of you are aware) we hadn't won one in 86 years! So to go from no wins to two wins in four years is beyond phenomenal. I mean I had faith in my Sox, we did have the best record in baseball this summer, but just hearing (at 5:30 in the morning, mind you) from my mom that we had in fact swept the Colorado Rockies and were world champs again, made me want to jump for joy!
So yesterday, I was clearly and quite frankly obnoxiously sporting my Boston Red Sox pride. My hat was firmly on my head and my "Calzini Rossi" (Italian for Red Sox) t-shirt that I got as a present before I left was proudly on my body as well. And more than the other two, a smile as big as the Green Monstah itself was stretched across my face! I was literally beaming all day long! Sorry other baseball fans, I don't mean to gloat, but man I was (an still am) unbelievably excited! And unfortunately there's no stopping me this week, forget cloud 9, I am currently on cloud "Red Sox/UK/Italy" and it's going to take a HUGE wind to knock me off!

Midterms

I'm a little embarrassed to say it, but occasionally I forget that I'm here for school. I travel a lot, spend time enjoying my city - a lot and just genuinely enjoy my time here with the friends I've made. So this being midterms week, is seriously putting a cramp in my new found Perugian style. The tests I've taken so far have been on the easier side, I was far more prepared than I probably needed to be, but the constant reading and up until the wee hours of morning nights I've had this week are taking me right back to good old NU. And what's the point of coming all the way here just to feel like I'm back home? No, I mean I'm glad to be learning, don't get me wrong, but much like the rest of the student body here, I will be happy when this week is over and I can enjoy some European life once again, stress free!
Speaking of European life, after about 3 o'clock tomorrow, I am officially free of these dreadful midterms and it is off on Fall Break! We've been planning so long I can't believe that it is finally here! London, Dublin, Edinburgh, Glasgow and back to London is going to be a crazy crazy week! We already have some great itineraries lined up, with some golf in Scotland (and yes we're getting the full golf garb!), a trip to the Guinness factory in Dublin, and a musical, the London Eye and another really exciting, yet at the moment secret event in London! I don't want to jinx myself on this last minute addition to my travel plans, so I won't divulge the details yet, but as of right now, let me tell you, I am thrilled! Not only do I get to not have any stress, class or homework for a week, but I get to see 3 new countries and get to have soooo many new experiences (especially this new one in the works that I will recount detail for detail when I return!).
So it's off for trip numero due out of Italia for me! Sorry but I might be MIA on the posts for a few days. But I'll have A LOT to say when I get back, so never fear you will be swimming in stories of the Adventures of Brittany next week!
And for those of you who are also taking mid terms this week - In Boca della Lupo! Or 'In the mouth of the wolf"! aka Good Luck! :)

CHOCOLATE!

As the capital of the Umbria region, Perugia is the home to many different festivals throughout the year. Already in the short time that I have been here, I have seen a science festival, a puppet festival and another children's festival. The city seems pretty small, but apparently it's huge, because it's been the home to all of these interesting happenings! And this week, once again, the city is buzzing with excitement and bustling with people as Perugia prepares for the 100th annual Chocolate festival!!! By far, the most exciting in my opinion, this one also appears at this stage to be the biggest!
The town square, home to the fountain has a huge stage set up on the middle of it, almost eclipsing the huge fountain! And all of the main streets are now filled with stands and cases for the chocolate that is coming! The Perugina Chocolate factory is here in town too, and they're sponsoring most of the stands, but you can already tell that there are far more companies involved. And thats music to my ears, because the more types of chocolate I can try, the better! I've been told that they make literally everything out of chocolate this week, including but not limited to a house, flowers, cds ... EVERYTHING! Much like the ice sculptures that you see in Boston during New Years Eve celebrations, these stands and cases will be the new home chocolate sculptures and I couldn't be more excited! I mean chocolate makes pretty much anyone happy, but having all of these cool sculptures and creations made strictly out of the velvety goodness that is chocolate, in all types of varieties is beyond thrilling. And rumor has it that while the sculptures are working on their creations, they throw the scraps and non integral peices to passers by. Needless to say I will be making several trips to be one of those passers by so that I can grab just a little taste of this crazy tradition.
I can't but wonder though, why don't we have more chocolate festivals in the US? I think it would make us a much more pleasant country if we could all get a little chocolate in our lives :)

The happiest place on earth

Soo I'm just back from another exciting weekend of travling! This time it was my frist trip out of the coutry and it was off to Munich for the world famous Oktoberfest! And let me tell you that I can barely describe the place! We got to munich on Friday (after having to sleep in the airport - my first experience with that and take a 645 AM flight haha) and checked into our hotel and things and then it was off to the fairgrounds. I walked around for the first like 20 minutes with my mouth like wide open - I've never seen anthing like it before! It was an enormous fair grounds (much like an annual fair near my hometown, the Topsfield fair, but on steroids) it was covered in people, crazy carnival rides, games, and foooooood! And of course 8-10 beer tents that had beer gardens outside which were insane! Each beer tent can hold between 8500 and 10000 people! and then the gardens, which is the outdoor section is full of
benches and can prob hold another like 600-2000 people as well! People drink these ridiculous huge beers called steins and eat some of the weirdest foods! I got to the festival and first it was time for a sausage! Delicious! And then, I had to get my first stein! The first beer we tried was by far the best, from the beer house Augstiner. My group was not pushing our luck with multiple steins, so we just walked around through the tents we could get into, trying different sausages and roasted nuts! We stayed until closing, at about 11 or so then it was home to sleep and prepare for the Saturday! We had to be up early because we wanted to get into a beer tent and unless you make a reservation you have to be in line super early or you wont get it. So we had to be to the fair grounds by 8AM and then we had to stand in line -in front of the Hoffbrau house becuase we were told it was the best and one of the biggest - literally pressed up against people and everytime the door even remotely opened you'd get surged forward
and it was basically like a panic attack waiting to happen. We've basically equated it to getting to see a favorite rockstar or waiting in line at like the door the the Tweeter Center if you have lawn seats. Needless to say we get shoved and pushed and directed like cattle into this big open space and its a mad rush for seats! We didn't find any so we end up standing at this one kind of bar like table but it wasn't bad as there are a bunch of these tables. So about 9:30 AM (doors open at 9) and almost everyone is already getting their first beer! Again, we were in the tents for the full Oktoberfest experience, so beer was not quite a 9:30 AM priority, so our group kind of just watched and hung out and let it be at least a little while before we tried this other type of beer. At 11 AM the band, an authentic
German oom - pa -pa band as they call them starts playing and the crowd is cheering and cheers-ing and everyone starts to get a bit loosened up and its just literally madness the rest of the day! The band even played some american tunes like Sweet Home Alabama, New York New York, the twist and this one they loved that goes like "heyyyy hey baby oo ahh i wanna knoooooowwww if youll be my girl" unfortunately that the ONLY line they know so they repeat it the whole time! It was fun though! The beer maids carry anywhere from like 4-10 steins at a time and literally people keep blowing right through them! It's insane! I myself was not that quick with them, they're huge mugs! And I wanted to stay in the tent as long as I could, because they're so popular once you leave, you can't get back in. And two of the people I met were in authentic German costumes of leiderhosen and a drindl, the outfits that most natives were also wearing! We met alot of people this weekend beyond our little group because most people are really nice (though it might be the beer talking!) and a lot of people speak english. Also at our table was a group of 3 men from Denmark, Mikel, Mes and Alexander who are currently interning in Germany and we spent the day with them too. They were alot of fun, and very good dancers! It really is just a very happy place! I mean everyone is in such a good mood and the tradition of the festival is almost 200 years old! So its a really fun celebration! On Sunday we got to do a bit of sightseeing in Munich. Which is a beautiful city! My Grampy told me to go see the glockenspeil so i couldnt dissapoint him! So we walked around and I ate more sausage and some potato salad which was delicious! And then beore I know it, it was back on the plane home! Though things got a little confusing and I got off the train from rome to my town and I ended up having to wait an hour then take another train and wait another hour and take
a bus back to Perugia and then a taxi home! So it was a long trek home but well worth it for my fabulous
weekend!
It was so fun to see another country other than Italy and it makes me excited for my fall break coming up! Things are a little frustrating travel wise, but ALWAYS worth the hassel! I love Europe and I love traveling and I can't wait to do it again next weekend!

October? Already? No!!

Well I can't believe it is October already! It seems like legitimately yesterday that it was August 30th and I was packing up and flying off to this beautiful country! My roommates and I were discussing this exact phenomenon last night. One of them has been in Italy since July, so for her, her time in Italy is more than half over. More than half over! I can't even fathom that. I am reveling in the fact that I still have two and a half months left! And I am unbelievably excited for it to be October, because my weekends are already FULL of travel plans!! This weekend I'm off to Oktoberfest in Munich! What an experience! I've been hearing nothing but good things from all of m classmates that have been there the past few weekends. Then I have a class trip to Florence, then its midterms and Fall Break! And during fall break, its off to England, Scotland and Ireland! I can't even believe it! I don't think I truly realized just how much traveling I'd be doing here, but so far, that's all that my weekends have consisted of! I am here there and everywhere!
But I guess not being in one place for too long is just one of those things that I've had to get used to! And let me tell you, there are a lot of things that you can learn to get used to. Definitely including certain body odors of other citizens (haha), not being able to talk to friends and family on a regular basis, use the Internet whenever you want, or watch your favorite TV series, or having to take 2 buses just to get to the mall! But its also been great to know what I can and can't handle, change wise. All of those things, don't even phase me anymore. And whats more, they've taught me about the fact that change isn't as scary as I once thought that it was. I used to pretty much run in the opposite direction of change. Now I say, BRING IT ON! I'm ready for whatever life has to throw my way, and I can't wait to see what it has in store for me next!