Update

Well I thought I'd give an overall update on life in Udine.

The last 2 weeks of glorious sunshine has ended today. It's not quite raining, it's not even cold but the sky is overcast. And there was me planning more trips to the beach all winter. I guess I could still go.

Friend-wise, well I've made some good ones now. We seem to have developed a great little international group of us, canadians, belgian, dutch, swedish, brazilian, germans and poles. All of them speak better English than me of course but that's standard. I try to speak normally so they understand me more. Some would say I sound a little bit rah...not good. Of course the main people we're lacking, apart from the French and Spanish who seem to only talk to each other is Italian's but we have a few of them who join us too and even more who want to talk to us when we're out because "It's fantastic that you are all learning Italian, che bello".

On top I get to boss Italian's round in their own language when I'm playing rugby. It's one of the best things about my position and of course it's difficult but I'm slowly learning more and more rugby-related vocabulary. The standard's pretty reasonable too. There's some things that I disagree with the coach on (such as holding the ball in 2 hands ALL THE TIME) but I understand he's trying to coach a lot of guys who played a lot less than me.

I'm boxing too. I still can't hit people until next friday when I have my brain scan but for now I'm getting super fit hitting punch bags as hard as I can for 3 minute rounds. It's certainly more intense than Tigers and hopefully once I can spar I'll learn a lot more. There's some good boxers there including a couple of women who box internationally for Italy. Those are a couple of girls you don't mess around with.

Still no internet in the flat, though if I position my laptop at an exact point by my bed I can steal it sometimes but it's poor. We've ordered some now so hopefully the box for me to install will arrive in the next few days.

Lessons. Well I've been to 3 lectures on "the History of Latin-American Art" because it's the only thing which vaguely (i use this strongly) interests me that started this week. It's hard, not so much because I don't understand enough of the Italian but just because I know nothing about art in general and especially not the latin-american kind. It's also hard not to fall asleep in a 2 hour lecture when the room seems the perfect light and temperature to sleep. Next week I'll start normal history modules which I know about and hopefully understand.

We went to the beach the other day. It was mint. There's even a photo of me half naked on facebook which my white body out and a couple of some random italian woman with her boobs out. Good times haha.

Feel free to comment/ask questions either on this or on facebook. I miss people loads but judging how quick 2 weeks have gone it won't be long until I see everyone again.

Ciao amici!

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