Well... another couple of weeks in Conegliano have been quite nice. Feeling the immense guilt from endless strings of big lunches followed by big dinners, I have taken many long walks through town and around, discovering new charming sides of the city.

Mary came to visit us and stay for a week, and unfortunately brought with her a small virus, so at turns, we were FORCED to stop eating for a couple of days. We had a few outstanding dinners, one where an old guy came to cook for us, so passionate about cooking meat on the spit that you could absolutely taste it. Another, at a traditional agriturismo where we were welcomed by a Tanzanian woman, who'd moved to the area aged 18, and treated us with four courses of meat from her own animals, cooked on a fire in front of us as we were eating. Ab-so-lu-te-ly amazing, melting-in-the-mouth organic produce.
We also had Ugo, a family friend passionate about making gnocchi, over to cooks us his speciality one lunch.

I spent a couple of days at the beach of Lignano with my auntie, uncle and cousin.
I'm now getting organised to go to France, as I'm leaving in less than a week! I'll be flying to Paris with my parents on August 23rd, they will return to Perth a couple of days later, and I'll be staying on until the 31st, with Patrick, my good Austrian friend. Should be just lovely!

I'm quite worried about Grenoble, as I'm really not as organised as I should be. I don't know what to expect from the university, but UWA has informed me that it's one of the hardest and most selective French institutions, which makes NO distinction between French and international students. This, added to the fact that my current French has been infested by Spanish, is a bit worrying. But, give it a week or two and I'm sure I'll settle in fine.

Must go. Cheerio! =]

Northern Italy again.

After Barca I returned to Venice Marco Polo, to be welcomed by a very happy mother and father (and of course, nonna Gina). We're now spending a few days in the nothern Italian region called Trentino - Alto Adige (Sudtirol), visiting my mum's extended family. This was a big change of scenery as you find lots of little Austrian-style villages with just a few dozen houses, surrounded by mountains and lakes and vineyards... very different from the artificial chaos of Barcellona and Milan!

It was lovely to have lunch at Fonteklaus, a renowned and unique restaurant just oustide of Bressanone, where half the family lives. We have, however, been EATING TOO MUCH, As meals are some sort of currency amongst our relatives, for them to show how happy they are that we're visiting them.

It's really nice to be back in Conegliano, even though the town is swamped by mosquitoes and humidity. If all goes well, I'll be lucky enough to be visited by MJ and Luis from Milan, and will catch up with Fede (whom I visited in Valencia) later on, as well as some friends from Conegliano.

News is, I've been granted a roof under which to sleep in Grenoble! Because I hadn't had much time to look up an apartment with other French students, I've decided to accept a place at a student residence - it'll be a different experience, but I guess a change from living in flats (which I have for the past 7 months) will be nice. So I'm staying at the residence LA RABOT, situated on a hill in Grenoble, on the other side of the river to the university. I'm REALLY hoping there won't be many exchange students staying here, but I think the solution will be fun, although very similar to St George's College in Perth, where I stayed the past two years.