Coop... or is it Co-op?

So today we went shopping. Well we tried to at least. This morning we took our placement exams and after going to the wrong building the first time (oops!) we finally found where we were supposed to be. The test was okay, I actually understood a lot of words but that doesn't really mean anything since the test was multiple choice. I could have gotten a 100, I could have failed. The head of the italian classes (who I think is also going to be my professor) told me that it doesn't matter how you do this week because we just take full immersion italian for the week to get us prepared, then we meet with him to discuss how we are feeling about our placement (based on the test) and whether we should move up or down in class.
I'm pretty excited about the classes, I want to learn how to speak Italian really well so I can feel less silly when trying to talk to people. However, most Italians we've actually talked to have been really nice. The man in the organic fruit market gave us free clementines and introduced us to his son (ha). Italians are so used to having the Umbra (American) students here in town that they expect us. They don't speak english perfectly well, but that's good because we can switch back and forth. I'm learning lots of good vocab words and I think by the time I come home I may be close to fluent (I hope).
So today we went to shopping street which is where the less expensive stores are. The stores all have saldi (sales) because the holiday is over and like in America, everything goes on sale! I didn't buy anything because I know I will be here for 4 months so I want to make sure I absolutely want something when I buy it. Plus, it's not like it's going to go anywhere or I am going to go anywhere. I haven't gotten to the fair trade store yet (it rained today) but I will soon. Today we went grocery shopping and that was quite an experience.
First we went to the open air market which is basically on a cliff. When I describe where I am now, you have to just picture an entire city on a hill. Perugia has stairs and steep walkways and you are constantly walking up and downhill. So the open air market was on several floors that you could just walk up and down. They had clothes and lots of other random things, fruits and vegetables, dead animals (ew), cheese, wine, you name it. However, I wasn't sure what I wanted and ordering a giant cow was out of the question. So we went to Coop, which is like this tiny grocery store and they had EVERYTHING and it was CHEAP CHEAP CHEAP. I bought proscuitto (which is like really thin sliced ham, kind of like bacon almost), fresh mozzerella, bread, yogurt, eggs, nutella (of course), farfelle (bowtie pasta), and organic carrots. All of which came to a little under 12E. Amazing. The food here is delicious AND cheap. And it's all so fresh. Everything is delivered in the mornings and you can see all the trucks on the street. Everything in the little pastry shops is made fresh every day and you can see them setting it all out in the morning.
After shopping and eating my food, I wandered around with my friend Jackie and we found the Etruscan arch (which is right by my house--it's a house by the way) and the most amazing shortcut into town... that DOESN'T involve steps.. hooray!!
I am loving this experience so much. I cannot think of any other place that I would have rather studied abroad. Italy is just perfect for me, their attitudes, way of life... everything!
Tonight we are going to dinner at "the secret restaurant" which EVERYONE keeps talking to us about because it's right by where we live and apparently it's amazing. It's "secret" because it doesn't have a sign, apparently it looks like a house and you would just walk by it if you didn't know it was there. The people that work at the Umbra told us about it right away when they found out we lived on Luppatelli since we are a) so far away from the center of town and b) the only ones living on this street (there are people on the street parallel to us though).
Tomorrow begins our full immersion classes so I'm looking forward to that. So far I've been really cheap with money, but it's not like I haven't been buying anything. The Arcadia people bought us dinner a few times and everything else I've been doing has been cheap.
Well that's plenty of information for now. Hope you enjoyed this latest installment, and don't worry, I will find some more police officers and take pictures of them for all those who requested it!
Buona sera! (Goodnight!)