Today I learned a word that is specifically Italian,
mammoni, which describes Italians (mostly men I
think)
who live with their parents until they marry. My
teacher commented that my faccio, my face, did not
reflect approval of this concept. Sorry mom and dad,
but I just think that's a little weird!

We made a mistake in our planning. I guess the
actual mistake was that we didn't plan! We decided to book
our reservations for Florence today, two days before
leaving! Not exactly smart. We're learning from our
mistake, however, and booking for our other weekends
as soon as possible. We are planning on going to
Venice and Milan, Calabria and Sicily and Cinque Terre and
Pisa. If anyone has suggestions for a bunch of
college students for these places, I would be happy
to hear them!

I am about to go to a "Tandem" meeting that was set
up by my school, Umbra Institute, for us Umbra
students to meet Italian students from Perugia. The
people in my class have been assigned to interview
Italian students, so this is the perfect opportunity.
We have been talking all day about how to ask students
what they do for fun and how their lives are. I'll let
you know what I found out!

After the meeting, we'll go get a good dinner. There
is a restaurant, Dalla Bianca (From the White), across
the alley from our apartment. We've been twice so far and
they already recognize us. I had the best lasagna of my
life there, but they only make it once a week, so
we'll have to wait for more of that. Last night I had
pasta all'arrabbiata (angry pasta) and my friend
Brittany had penne alla norcina, which is a specialty
of this region and has a creamy cheese sauce and
sausage. Both were reallllly good! Maybe we'll have
more tonight.

Ciao! -Ellie