It's the small things

According to one of my teachers, the number one reason why students come to study at the University (that only offers courses for learning Italian) is not to learn Italian. I think he said the primary reason is that people have time in their lives in between work and school and this is a good "filler" activity. There was another reason, as well, I forget what that one was.

I can't imagine becoming good at this language if that's not a primary reason for being here. It's really easy to get by in class, know the grammar, etc, but have no idea how to put the words together in complete sentences. I'm very fortunate to have very patient Italian-speaking friends. Considering I'm a former English-language perfectionist, I can really appreciate their willingness to hang out with someone who still does very uncool things with a beautiful language.

It just occurred to me that it's been two months since I've heard a bad word. I find this very refreshing. Of course, I've heard lots of bad words, I'm sure, but I don't know it! Ignorance is bliss. Seriously.

Last night one of my roommates and I enjoyed a dinner almost completely served up from Sunday's Gran Fondo. She offered her mother's tuna & tomato sauce for the pasta. Yummm and a good conversation with my roommate. I understood most of what she had to say.

The big conversation around here lately has been about the internet. It's broken in 3 different ways right now. This is not the country for technology (can't say I am that distraught), there have been internet issues all over since I've been here. I'm "borrowing" internet for the moment, the only reason why I can do anything at all online.

Tonight's dinner was a treat--food typical of Perugia in a very traditional trattoria. They serve everyone the same courses during the same night. So it's all done to perfection since the chef isn't juggling 16 different things at once. The picture above is my hand with a sticker from the restaurant. The meal was with one of my dear bike-riding friends who I couldn't understand at all 2 1/2 weeks ago. It was quite an enjoyable time with only a few moments of me being puzzled.

Yes, I'm still wearing the fake ring. I've found that I like it for more reasons than being able to use the "I'm married" excuse in case someone is trying to make unwanted advances. I appreciate it when someone asks about it...says a lot when someone shows concern over it. Maybe I need to take it off--my dating life hasn't been this non-existent in a very, very long time. Pretty hilarious because this is polar-opposite from most of the stranieri (foreigners) in this town. And this is Italy! We spent 45 minutes in class today discussing love and the meaning of what true love is. I can live without this discussion. I'd prefer to keep my head in the sand on the topic. It reminds me that even though this is pretty much the perfect life right now (with the exception of my family and friends being too far away), there's something big missing.

Back to training tomorrow if the weather holds up (tons of rain most of the day today). It's great to be back into a full training routine. Finally, I think my racing burnout period is officially over and there's a real chance that this former criterium-lover has turned into a road racer who enjoys climbing in races.

Don't expect another blog update until this weekend...the rest of this week should be fairly humdrum. (Something I'm sort of hoping for!) Ci vediamo!