And so it begins all over again...

Hi to all,

I've decided that seeing as I'm going to Italy for a year to live, I might as well restart this blog. It is after all, another Italian adventure, all be it one which is going to last for considerably longer!

It's now 8 days before I go (actually its after midnight so make that 7). The city I will be living and studying in is called Udine (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Udine). As you can see it has it's own wikipedia page so it's not like a farm commune somewhere in the mountains, it's a real thriving bustling place.

Some things Udine is famous for...
Football - Udinese are the local team, anyone who follows Italian football will know them.
Languages - The city has 4 official languages, Italian, German, Slovenian and Fruili. Seeing as I speak 1 it should be a laugh.
Wine - waheyyyyy
Grappa - really drunken hungover waheyyyy
Also some cheese and food I've never heard of.

Ok so why Udine, well I'm going to be studying at the University there. When I was choosing I had a lot of options and admittedly Udine is a town I know nothing about, but fom past students feedback everyone who went seems to have had a brilliant time. I think the fact that it's not a very touristy place will be great for my Italian (or maybe not if most people can't speak it) but it's a small city so seems perfect to really get a feel for local life and not just be caught up in everyone else speaking English and all the attractions.

Geographically it's a brilliant place to be. 40 minutes to the north are the Dolomite mountains which head into Austria and are perfect for skiing. 40 minutes to the south is the sea and beaches for me to top up that brilliant reddish earthy colour tan I seem to have after I've stopped burning. I'm an hour from Venice and it's canal-y, sewage-y delights and not much further from the rest of Northern Italy including places like Verona and Milan. Perhaps the most exciting thing for me is how close I am to Slovenia and the Balkans (13 kilometres). It's an area of the world I've always wanted to explore (except when they were massacring each other) and now I have the opportunity to head around Slovenia, Croatia, Montenegro, Bosnia, Serbia and the rest. There a plans afoot to do it on a bike with my main man JJ so we'll see how that pans out. He would be a lot better than me at cycling seeing as he's a triathlete. I could use my boxing skills to fight us out of any trouble!

Well aside from cycling the Balkans, what else am I going to do for the year? Study? Potentially I guess. Italian universities seem very relaxed on the whole studying thing and Ive been told not to expect more than about 6 hours a week which will suit me fine. When I do have to work I intend to carry on with the old French, throw in a bit of Cinema and my old love for Modern History. Hell I might even learn Slovenian or something daft and useless.

I also want to do lots of sport. I've set myself an ambitious target of winning the Italian University Championships at Boxing. It might not come off but hey, I'll have the talent and the application and if I want to achieve something I'll try damn hard to do it so we'll see how that goes. I know theres a club in Udine, seems pretty good so thats one aim. I also want to start playing more Rugby again, it's the one thing that disappoints me about Leeds that I never get to play anymore. Theres 2/3 potential teams I can play for so thats a bonus.

Ermm, well I obviously want to meet people and experience different cultures. Thats the main aim of ERASMUS and there will be people at Udine from all over Europe and the wider world so I hope to make some great friends and have a fantastic time doing it.

There will be other stuff I'm sure but it'a ridiculous hour in the morning while I'm awake to see if Kim phones me (she'd better now :P) so I'm going to close it off a bit. Basically, I'll be leaving at 6 in the morning from Birmingham International Airport on the 16th September to fly to Trieste. There I will be catching a bus to Udine where I have to make my way to an Italian sounding road to meet an Italian person who will "give me all the help that I need" and take me to my appartment (A shared studio with my own bathroom and kitchen I'm told - probably a cellar with a cupboard for a toilet and a microwave in the corner.

So that's it. I;m excited to go, completely unprepared though and I will hopefully see as many people as I possible can in 8 days. I want people to know that they can come and stay anytime they want, as long as I'm there obviously and it would be great to have you (though if you're a complete stranger whose stumbled on this blog then piss off you can't come).

Bye for now, my next update will be from Italia. How strange.

Ciao xxx