Perugia, moving to Santa Chiara, and Mister Rogers

Friday, 2/28/03
We leave Assisi in about thirty minutes. It's been a good trip and I would love this city without restraint if it weren't for the Basilica charging to talk, and having to search the town for hours to find an internet place. We're going to Perugia today, then back to Castiglion to move into SANTA CHIARA!

Reflections on the Hotel Park
Cons: small rooms, too much smoke, flooded shower drain, running out of toilet paper
Pros: warm showers, real towels, warm blankets, secret passageway to the roof, warm room, comfy bed
More Cons: not so tasty food, more smoke, Gianni's makeup, rotten fruit, repetitive food, manager
More Pros: cats riding the elevators, awesome roommates, Gianni's theme song, catwalk between balconies, refrigerator window, telephone and television
More Cons: locking ourselves out of the room, light going out, walking up the hill to class.

Exactly Midnight---
I'm in a rather mellow mood tonight. There's a reason why, though today has been a packed and eventful day. We found out that Mister Rogers died yesterday. I feel like it's the death of the eighties children. I really miss Mister Rogers, especially after he made a cameo on the Arthur the aardvark cartoon. But shall I describe the day?

We left Assisi this morning at 9:30, for Perugia, the only large city in Umbria (the region east of Tuscany) and none of us liked it very much. We just went to an art museum (religious art) that would have been neat had I not been so tired. I ate lunch with Morgan at a pizza place. We bought chocolate because the best chocolate in the world is supposed to be from Perugia. The thing is, though it was made in Perugia, most of that chocolate you can buy elsewhere anyway. I accidentally got cooking chocolate and it was really hard. Morgan said I should melt it and cover strawberries, but I don't know a safe way to melt the chocolate.

We met up with the architecture group and went down to a very ghetto square that was deserted. Peter up and decided that we should redesign the square to liven it up in the 45 minutes we had. I didn't have my sketchbook, so I went down the steps into the square and found a giant Co-op directly under it. So Kate and I went grocery shopping. I got bananas and strawberries (for the chocolate). Finally, we rode back to Castiglion and went to the bus station, not far from Santa Chiara. No more walking up the hill (except for trains or groceries)!

Saturday, 3/1/03
It's March! And it's noon! I love the church bells. They remind me of The Sound of Music. I can't believe I slept so late, until 11:15. The reason was because with our window shutters closed it's impossible to tell what time it is. I had another flying dream last night. I could float but I was too scared to fly really high. Then I fell in love with a boy who could fly to the top of a mountain. He helped me fly up too, and I flew through a cloud.

Back to yesterday. I didn't finish writing last night not because I was too tired, but because in order to write an entertaining entry my mind has to be alert and I didn't want to waste good memories with boring narration. Not that my narration is by any means that great.

So we moved back to Santa Chiara. All of us were so excited we couldn't handle it, to borrow Karin's phrase. She must have said "I can't handle it" at least 6 or 7 times in the hour and a half we were unpacking before dinner. We were able to unpack! We have drawer space, wardrobe space, shelf space! We have a real, though small, shower! There is a little dust, but no smoke! We all went down to dinner wanting to hug and cheer. The dining hall is wonderful. It has brick arches and lantern lights on the walls.We were served home style (instead of waiters) with a dish to pass all around our table. We had an official welcome, we clapped and cheered.

The pasta was wonderful, with more kick than at Hotel Park. When we were eating our second course (turkey and salad) Britt came by and told us about Mister Rogers very seriously. We were all downcast. Then Edit said that she knew Mister Rogers, that he used to take her to Luby's when she was little and couldn't speak English (she's Hungarian). We were all really feeling for her. She said she didn't know him that well, but was getting tears in her eyes anyway. We sat like that, sad for a few minutes, and even sang the Mister Rogers' Neighborhood theme song. Then Edit burst out, "Wait! I didn't know Mister Rogers--it was Mister Peppermint!"

We laughed our lungs out for fully five minutes and more. Britt nearly fell on the floor. None of us have laughed like that in years, and some of us (including me) laughed so hard we cried for the first time in our lives. Everyone else stare at our table like we were nuts. Edit's mascara was so smeared it was hopeless. She said that Mister Peppermint sometimes used to tell dirty jokes on his show that none of the kids got, but that their parents were horrified. He apparently sometimes got into a little trouble. I was still sad about Mister Rogers, though. "Won't you be mine, won't you be mine." How he always used to change his shoes and sweater to go outside.

So after dinner I found Valerie and Carmen upset because a few students had their rooms in a building across the street because there just barely wasn't enough room in Santa Chiara (the south wing is still not open). They feel excluded, and I completely understand. We wandered into the TV room because we heard Life is Beautiful was going to be watched at 9:30. Valerie and I poured over the fiction-filled bookshelves. There was some good stuff. A lot of John Grisham, Michael Crichton, Tom Clancy, and the like. A few classics, more random stuff.

The movie was as good as ever. All the girls (including me) were wiping our eyes at the end. Has there ever been a movie with such drastic change in tone that still seemed so artistically even and unified? That's what put me in the mellow mood last night. I can't watch it, at least the second half, so often. I love how it plays off what you already know about the holocaust. They mention the gas showers and you believe it because you've already seen it in movies like Schindler's List, but they don't have to show it in La Vita E Bella.

After the movie at bed time, we began to see the downsides of Santa Chiara. Our room is cold. We have no bath mat. There is no phone in the center except one for emergencies. And I discovered that I don't have a pillowcase. But that should be remedied today. This morning the shower was only lukewarm until the very end, and the pressure isn't so good. But the shower doors are translucent, so someone else can use the restroom while I am in the shower if needs be. That's a plus.