Prelude

Well!! There is so much to catch ya'll up on, and I'd really love to type everything up before I leave for Rome in the morning. I know when I return from my Roma escapade, I'll have TONS more to say! To start off, here's a brief overview of what a typical day looks like for me here in Spoleto. We have orchestra rehearsal from 9am to 12pm, I usually practice from 12pm-2:30pm, and then from 2:30-4:30pm, the entire town observes “pausa,” a pause in the day when businesses close and people go home to eat lunch or nap. During this time, practicing is absolutely prohibited, as any noise may disgruntle a neighbor, and that neighbor may very well be only ten feet from your window, ha! It's during this time that I've been able to explore, find a quiet spot to journal or read my Bible, hike, or explore local historical sites(kinda funny...the entire town is a historical site!). I really enjoy pausa, because it's teaching me to take a break, to slow down, and to savor the moments that I have here. I've reflected on the music I'm practicing, and I've just sat and reflected on the awesome awesome glory of God that is literally screaming from beautiful these rolling hills. The heat doesn't seem to bother me too much. I don't like to sweat, but I certainly haven't let that keep me indoors. Also, thanks to my marathon training, scaling the hill several times everyday is pretty simple for my legs. I'm very thankful for this, because the heat saps my energy enough, even if I don't notice it. At 4:30pm, I usually practice some more or do some kind of housekeeping business(small things like connecting to the internet, adding euro to my Italian phone, buying a ticket for the weekend trip, etc, can take FIVE TIMES as long as in the US...for instance, today I spent 3 hrs on purchasing a train ticket for my Roma trip), and then later in the evening, I find some fellow festival mates and start the long walk/search for dinner. Places don't open for dinner here until 8pm or maybe 7:30pm at the earliest. The air is much cooler in the evening, so everyone seems to sit outside on the vias or on their balconies to enjoy the breeze. As I type, I can here a group of people talking below my window. I absolutely love hearing them speak, especially since I have no idea what they're saying. It's so peaceful to hear language without the burden of one's mind automatically understanding it! (Sometimes this definitely is not true. Sometimes I really want to know what they're saying. Especially when they're speaking directly to me and requiring a response). Anyway, after dinner, I might walk by some fellow students busking, or I might walk by a gelato shop, thinking of any reason why I shouldn't go in, and rarely do any come to mind. The night life here is absolutely beautiful.

So. We're going to skip my first day here, because it was bad. It was rough, horrible, and I don't want to remember it. Suffice it to say that an ignorant, scared, emotional, and jet-lagged American twenty-something was dumped on the side of the road in a foreign country with only a few vaguely familiar faces and no one who really knew what anyone was saying. Things have definitely improved.

Day two's adventure consisted of a tour, provided by the festival. We walked all over the city, observing some of the ruins that are still left from Roman occupation, such as the acquaduct, the arc de triumph(NOT the French one), the Casa Romana(dwelling place of the mother of one of the Emperors), and a few really crumbly walls. It's amazing how the city of Spoleto provides evidences of SO many time periods, all built around/ontop of each other. We toured the Cattedrale di S Maria Assunta, which is in the Piazza del duomo, a plaza that Spoleto uses as a concert venue for their Festival del Mundi....their huge awesome annual music festival that just ended last week. I wish I could remember all of the dates for the different churches I've seen, but since so much of the information is either in Italian or simply not specified, I tend to forget any concept of age that I may have understood from some vague interaction with a local. Ha! That sentence just speaks to the vagueness of it all. We also circled around the Rocca Albornoziana, which resides at the very top of the Spoletan hill. The acquaduct creates a walking bridge between this Spoletan hill and the hill right next to it, which is the 800 ft Monteluco. I plan on climbing Monteluco sometime this month because the journey promises a great workout, a beautiful view, and an ancient, still-functioning monastery.

So far, the locals have been so wonderful. The people that work at my hotel, Hotel Dei Duchi are extremely pleasant, and they smile through my sad attempts to communicate with them in Italian, and kindly correct my poor accent. They serve an AMAZING breakfast here, with the best coffee I have EVER tasted.....sorry Starbucks! The juice they serve is something I can't describe, but I'm sure it's some kind of blend of some known fruits. They also serve fresh croissants, and some even have a delightful chocolate surprise in the middle. Besides the hotel staff, my favorite people are the little old man that works at the fruit shop in the piazza del mercato, the woman who runs the sandwich shop across the piazza from him, the sweet middle-aged man who sells gelato on Corso G Mazzini, and the nice little man (who can barely speak English) who showed me around ancient Monastero di S Ponziano in a shirt that said, “give this man a beer.” I ran into him today actually, and he recognized me, kissed my cheek and recommended several more excellent, ancient local sites.

My roommates, Korean twins Sara and Hanna Jin, have been very sweet and kind to me during my stay with them. I've been so blessed to have an welcoming apartment to return to at the end of each day. They don't mind my loud practicing or my compulsive cleaning, so I think we'll still be great friends after these five weeks! :) I'll write about my visit to the Monastero di S Ponziano and the Basilica di S Salvatore in another post. Keep in mind that all of my adventures can be reviewed pictorially here: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150254766363467.345521.500133466&l=3011f0c94d

That's all for tonight. Off to Roma in the morning!