Snail Mail at bottom

hey!
this is megan, and you are reading my first email to all of you i miss back
home. i forgot my address book at the appartment, so some of you might get
this one twice, but i figured you'd deal.

i first got into Rome, and stayed for two days with my friend's Matt and
Teresa. They live in an amazing appartment with an open deck ontop of their
building. The best was the scooter ride to the piaza where we spent the day
eating and drinking beer -- i was amazed at how i didn't fall off as we
passed the collessium, and a church which apparentally houses the finger of
some saint who touched christ's wound when he was resurected (creepy:)
Anyway, my adventure continued as i made my way to Perugia, where i'm living
for the next 4 months. Words cannot discribe the beauty of this city.
Perugia is a mountain town with many colleges, so there's hundreds of kids
my age from all over the world studying here. Thanks to my spanish which all
came back to me, since Italian and Spainsh are so similar, I've been able to
meet lots of italians who are really fun. There's tons of night clubs, bars,
and good food, not to mention the artistic etruscan arcitecture throughout
the whole town.
Every thing I heard about Itlian boys back home is not true. They treat
women with so much respect- it's shocking.
I feel comfortable to wear whatever I want without getting harrassed on the
streets which made me realize how much of my femininity I've been unable to
express my whole life. Of course the girls in my program and I stick
together when we go out at night, till we learn the city more, but there's
just such a different sence of awarness that's nessesary here, I feel very
safe.
My friends and I have been hanging out with some boys from southern italy
who are here for school, and we have dinner parties at our house--- they've
been teaching us how to cook.
Boys here really know how to dress- everybody does.
I share an appartment really close to the main Piaza called Piaza Noviembre,
which is the center of town. Around 10 at night, the youth of the town all
gather on the steps in front of the church to meet, drink and just hang out
till 4 in the morning. Every night. No joke. It's mind blowing to be walking
down the main street - at 11 pm, and all of the clothing stores and
resturants are still open, and there's hundreds of people in the street.
Pretty cool considering Berkeley closes down at 10pm. I'm trying to make
plans to go to the beaches in southern italy, the kids here all recomend it.
Also, I want to go back to Rome, see Venice, and Florence.
There's more that I wanted to say, like about my school where I'm taking
italian classes (which I totally love!) but i can't sit down anymore.I've
never been to a place where you can be walking down the street, start
talking to somebody from the neighborhood, and spend the rest of the night
sitting at a table at the side of the road drinking wine and talking about
adventures. I miss my ferrets, and my friends, but i'm really happy here.
I have a cell phone where I can be reached anytime that i'm not in class.
the number is
+39 3357160637, i think you might need the country code 011.
my mailing address is
the umbra institute
via dei priori, 84
06123
perugia, italy

much love, hearts,
megan
ps.
I'm going to try and write the next letter in italian, so watch out!