Month: December 2012

While the world hovers on the brink of 2013, Umbra faculty and staff members are preparing for the incoming students, who will be met by Umbra staff at the Rome airport, Fiumicino, starting Friday morning. Upon their arrival, students will be whisked away to Perugia on a private bus, and receive orientation packets full of the weekend’s plans before eating an authentic Italian dinner (read: many courses) with their new classmates at the favorite Hotel Gio.

Enjoy the last few hours of 2012, and we look forward to meeting you, new students!

The world did not end yesterday, but the Umbra Institute Fall 2012 semester did.

The last few weeks have seen Umbra students bustling about school and city, cramming for finals, purchasing token Italian gifts, and soaking in their remaining time in Perugia.

Students were offered the opportunity to share what they learned during their semester abroad.

On Dec. 3, Creative Writing students read aloud the stories they labored over all semester before an applauding audience in the Umbra library. Fresco and Digital Photography students displayed their semester’s work at the art show in the Via dei Priori building on Dec. 11. The artists — some of whom had not taken an art class since elementary school — explained their techniques over appetizers and drinks to Umbra faculty, staff, and fellow students. The following day, students who participated in Umbra’s Community Engagement programs presented their experiences to a packed auditorium at the Baroque-style Santa Cecilia Oratorio.

To celebrate all students’ accomplishments, Umbra hosted a farewell aperitivo at the favorite Birraio last Thursday. After taking final group photos in front of the picturesque view behind the local brewery, Umbra students, staff, and faculty reminisced over drinks and appetizers.

A few short hours later, the first wave of students boarded the 1 a.m. bus to the airport in Rome, teary-eyed but happy. The final group of students left Perugia, their temporary home, in similar fashion early this morning.

Thanks for a great semester, Umbra Fall 2012. We wish you happy holidays!

After watching his work in “La Meglio Gioventù” for an Umbra Institute class, students attended a lecture by Italy’s beloved actor Luigi Lo Cascio at l’Università per Stranieri di Perugia last week.

“I stayed the whole time and was able to go get a picture and chat with Luigi a little bit — it was great,” said Effie Morway. “We just finished ‘La Meglio Gioventù’ the day before, so it was amazing to be able to see this famous actor in person right afterwards. He has been in a few of the movies we watched, and we really enjoy his work — he seems quite big in the Italian film world now.”

Morway and her classmates watched the film for Dr. Elgin Eckert’s course, “Blockbusters and Bestsellers: Italian Cinema and Literature of the Twenty-First Century.”

“It was great to see that the Italian cinema and literature course inspired several of my students to move out of their ‘comfort zone’ and attend an academic lecture held in Italian, a language several of them have only begun to study here at Umbra this semester, at an Italian university out of their own initiative,” Eckert said. “Perugia and its two Italian universities offer a lot of great opportunities of this type, and because of its manageable size and the frequent interactions of Umbra Institute’s students with local students, partaking in university classes and special lectures is a distinct possibility.”