so 5 of us girls went to Sorrento last weekend and it was amazing! even though we left at 2 pm on friday and didnt arrive until 9 pm when it was dark and we couldnt find our cabin. I didnt book the hostel so i didnt realize that it was more of a camp ground than just a building. so that was an experience, definitely not the cleanest or warmest or luxurious but we made by. it was pouring saturday morning and we were all in a funk because we went to go see the beach and it was gross out. when we went to the front desk on our way into town, Carson asked the men working there if they thought it would stop raining. to which one of them replied "let me call God and ask him what he thinks" typical Italian response to the never ending stream of questions Americans seem to ask. so we made it into the center of Sorrento and of course none of us brought rain gear because we nievely beleived we would be on the beach. of course after buying 7 Euro umbrellas and getting 4 Euro cappacinos, the sun decided to come out. after walking around a bit and realizing just how many tourists there were we decided to go back to the beach at the hostel. we got lost a few times but finally hiked our way down the side of a cliff to the rock beach (see pictures). with a BEAUTIFUL view of Mt. Vesuvius and the Sea we layed out for a while and then went in the pool and then got ready to go back into town for a birthday dinner for Karole. It was kind of annoying though because Sorrento is so touristy that even when we tried to speak italian in the restaurants they would just answer us in English, which was a big change from Perugia where very little people speak English. That night in the hostel was a little scary because it began raining heavily and the thunder would ecco and ecco continuously for several minutes at a time. and the blankets were gross but it got very cold at night so we all ended up putting on all the clothes we brought and sleeping in the fetal position preying that there were no bugs in the blankets. we left sorrento fairly early on sunday in the rain and proceeded to take a bus, a commuter rail, 3 trains and a tram back to Perugia. it was exhausting!

classes are going well so far, they arent completely joke classes, i mean photography is pretty easy and italian isnt too bad either but my psych class and history of food class and sociology class are all really interesting and the professors are great and i have readings and research papers so dont worry life isnt too easy over here :-) the language barrier with the teachers makes it an interesting experience, they are all fluent in english but obviously their language isnt as sophisticated and their accents are heavy. but none the less i really like all of them.

Also, i decided not to join the gym because its 130 euro for 4 months which is almost 200$ and its like a little less than a mile away from my apartment and who am i kidding i dont have that motivation even in good weather. so i have gone to run around the track only twice so far and now that its getting colder i dont know how much i will be doing that either because that is also a 10 min walk. but i was definitely struggling the first time not only becausee i am out of shape but also we are so high up here the elevation really affects your breathing/oxygen intake. .

so basically i am just preying that i dont get fat, i actually dont realy snack becausee we have so little food and i am not allowing myself to have pasta for lunch and trying to do salads when possible. only problem with that is that italians dont know what salad dressing is, they dont even sell it bottled. they just pour some balsamic and oil or white wine vinegar and oil with a little salt and oregano and mix it all together and hope for the best. its not that bad but its very repetative and thats going to severely reduce the presence salads from my diet very soon. other than that i mean i love italian food but i have yet to have an AMAZING meal which is slightly dissapointing but what i am going to do from now on is stop going out so much for dinner and lunch just getting pizza's and salads and make my own food a lot but then save the money to go out to the nice places in town where i can get quality italian food. the wine here is so cheap we buy it all the time and i often have it not only with dinner but before i go to bed and of course before we go out. I am excited for the Wine workshop that i will be doing with my Food and Culture class to get a better idea for the taste of wine, luckily i have plenty of time to aquire this taste.

It has begun to rain on and off here in Perugia too which is quite dissapointing because it was so hot when i got here. I am excited for the fall weather because i actually brought more warm clothes than summer clothes, but i hope its not too cold and hopefully not wet for the nest few months. I also intend on buying some more propper footwear soon, another pair of flats and a nice pair of boots at some point. we are going to go to Rome this up coming weekend so i'm sure i can find something there!!!