Saturday

I'm typing this on my Blackberry right now, but I wrote it Saturday. Enjoy!

10:05
I'm writing this blog on the train. I left Perugia at 10:01. I will arrive at Riomaggiore, the first town of the Cinque Terre, at 3:30. I have to change trains twice, but my ticket cost much less than I expected!

I didn't sleep enough last night. Umbria Jazz Festival started, so I listened to live music and drank wine in the piazza until around two AM, and I woke up very early to pack up my stuff. I'm going to miss the students in Perugia a lot. For a week, they were my friends, who I saw and hung out with every day, and even if it was only a week, they were closer geographically than anyone else! But now I'm leaving with more great memories of Perugia.

In the spirit of Umbria Jazz, I'm listening to Aretha Franklin. I'm almost done with Love in the Time of Cholera. And I used the Italian post office this morning!

2:45

Looking at the departure schedule in Florence, my first exchange, I discovered that I had about 2 minutes to get to the next train passing Sarzana, my second exchange. I panicked, rushed to the train, and got on, belatedly wondering why this train was scheduled to arrive in Sarzana sooner than I had expected. Even though I knew I wqould make it to Sarzana, I spent about an hour praying that I got to Sarzana before the conductor checked my ticket and fined the crap out of me for some foreign ignorance. But my first instinct was fine, my ticket was valid, and I got to Sarzana an hour early. I now have to wait an hour and six minutes in Sarzana, which, from what I can tell, is a pit. I have to pee, and the bathrooms are closed for work. I suspect this issue is not receiving prompt attention. And everything in sight is closed. As Barrett learned to say last night, "fanculo la pausa."