Today the other Arcadia students and I took two buses to the Umbrian countryside to spend the morning and afternoon at an organic farm run and belonging to an Italian family. We were greeted by the son and his wife and his two little dusty dogs and were given a quick walking tour of the farm. The son showed us the olive trees and explained the difference between the olive branches that grow straight up, (almost extinct, but they are saving this type), as well as the trees with down sloping branches (easier to pick the olives!).

We were then taught how to make pasta dough and roll it out with our hands and a long rolling pin. Those old Italian women make it look so easy! First you create "una fontana" a fountain, with the flour, then you crack two eggs, using a fork, into the center of the flour fountain. E poi, you whisk the eggs and slowly add in the surrounding flour. Then you flatten the dough with the heels of your hands and use the rolling pin to flatten and stretch the dough, turning the little pancake every few rolls.

After our lesson we had to participate in a feedback session with the two leaders of Arcadia. Imagine thirty students sitting in chairs in a circle with two leaders and clip boards. It went something like this: "Ok so how is everyone feeling." ... "Ok lets go around in a circle and introduce ourselves" ... "Great now lets hear whats good and whats challenging, and what you expect from this semester" ..Generic responses were pretty common, but most people had funny experiences already and the leaders even had good advice. For example, the customer/employer courtesy tradition is different here then in the US. When you enter a store, bar, etc. in Italy, the it is the customer's job to greet the employer, and then he/she will be helped. A bit of a role reversal.

Ok so after the little feedback circle which was closed by "Now remember that you can call Arcadia, as well as Umbra for any and all questions, feelings, or concerns that you have.."

...

Anyway, after that we have un bounisimo pranzo with about five million corses made up of all things from the farm including the olive oil, pasta, tomatoe sauce, and wine. Tutto.
1. Bread slices with various spreads: patte, cheese, egg.
2. cup of fagiolina soup with bread slice
3. big plates of pasta noodles with tomatoe sauce and dusted with cheese.
4. some kind of meat piatto ( I skipped out on this..)
5. chocolate biscotti and piccolo slice of pound cake.

After this fantastic, organic meal we said thank you as a group to the wonderful family, took a picture, and headed by to the historic center of Perugia on our respective buses.