I warned y'all that yesterday's blog could be a two-parter! I can't believe I forgot to mention some of my favorite characters in the town, but I suppose it's better to just dedicate an entire blog to them, so here goes.
On the weekends, these three men appear - one is an accordion player, another is a flute player, and the third is a mime. They don't work together, but they wander the streets, entertaining the people. When we walked around Taormina Saturday and Sunday, it just seemed very cliche European to have an accordion and a flute playing in the background. (It's not really a flute, but a flute-like instrument made of wood).
It's a bit similar to the people who play guitar on the sidewalks in big American cities, except I didn't see anyone give these guys money. And the accordion man actually just walks around and plays, so there's no way to give him money, but the flute player did put his cap on the ground, but from what I could tell, no one bothered to pay him anything.
I wonder if most Italian towns have these sort of "entertainers." Since Taormina is a tourist hotspot, it is oftentimes difficult to figure out what things here are typical of other Sicilian (or Italian) cities, and what things are only being done in tourist towns. I just can't decide about these musicians, but I enjoy them nonetheless.
As for the mime, well, that's a different story. I'm not a big fan of his, and he's not a very good mime either. He's often taking coffee breaks, and during his breaks he's chatting up a storm! Now I realize everyone deserves a break, and I suppose performers shouldn't have to stay in character during their break, but still, he just hangs out in plain view, talking away! It ruins a bit of his credibility if you ask me. Besides talking during his frequent breaks (I see him on break as often as I see him doing his miming - is miming a word?), he's a bit creepy; I suppose all mimes are a bit creepy really. One of his bits is to try and shake your hand. I had been warned of this bit before by our American friends who were here two weeks ago. When he shakes your hand, he will often times not let it go, and he'll grab you. Then, he won't let you go until you (or your companions) pay him some money.
So Clay and I were walking down the street this past weekend, and the mime puts his hand out to me. I completely forgot about the warning, and I thought I'd be polite and shake it. Thankfully, as soon as he grabbed it, I remembered that he might try to kidnap me, so I yanked it away. He tried to hold onto Clay's, but Clay was a bit stronger than him. Needless to say, I'll remember next time to just ignore the creepy mime.
Another familiar face in Taormina is the town drunk. I don't know his name, but everyone knows who he is. He's an older man, and he actually looks just like a bum would back home. Messy, unshaven, etc., except he doesn't actually carry around liquor in a brown bag. I guess some stereotypes cross the ocean. I hope that wasn't politically incorrect. Anyways, one evening, I was window shopping, when he randomly started yelling at me. I have no idea what he said, and even if I knew Italian, I'm convinced I still wouldn't know what he said! We walked away from him, but later that evening, we saw him again. He likes to hang out in front of one of the ATMs, and he just yells and yells until he gets tired of yelling. His speech is slurred, and I'm pretty sure no one can make out what he says. But I frequently see him, smoking and yelling in front of the ATM.
The last character of Taormina is definitely creepier than the mime, though, and by far my least favorite. I believe this guy is a local as he's out on Corso Umberto every night. While he may live here, or at least nearby, he's not Sicilian as his skin is darker than the Sicilians. He has these hollow, empty eyes, and he just looks incredibly sad. Yet he doesn't look like an approachable person. He's more on the scary-sad side. Just so empty looking. I almost get the feeling that if I get too close, he'll try to suck my soul out or something (he could probably be in a Harry Potter book or something). Anyways, so he walks up and down Corso Umberto, and he always has these pitiful looking flowers with him. He tries to walk up to people and give them the flowers. He never says anything to you when he approaches. He does mumble under his breath, but I don't think he's actually mumbling any words - it's more of like a grumbling combined with a whimper. Very odd. He just walks up to you real fast, and holds out the flower, almost laying it in your arms. Most people really recoil when he approaches them, and the only people that ever accept the flowers are tourists. So the locals are obviously familiar with him, and there's either something really wrong with him, or it's some sort of a scam. Who knows.
I don't understand the ritual at all, because it seems like if you take a flower, you should pay him. It looks to me like he's a vendor of sorts, but I've seen people take a flower and not pay. Maybe he just hopes they'll pay. Either way, it's very odd, but he is on Corso Umberto every night, and he tries to give me a flower at least two times a night. I've even seen him out late a night when not many people are around. I'm very confused by him.
So those are the most interesting characters in Taormina. Everyone else I've met is extremely nice and helpful. Well, that's enough for now. I'll try to update tomorrow, but we're taking a walk down to the beach with some other students and Pepe (Pepe is a teacher here who also handles all the afternoon activities and daily excursions. He might deserve a blog entry all to himself one day. We'll see). If I don't update tomorrow, I'll be back on Friday!
Ciao!
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Everything Taormina
Ciao!
I know I said today I would describe Taormina, and I will, but I have to begin by describing a situation that occurred last night. I mentioned in my blog about politics that I thought perhaps Italians don't know that there are lots of presidential candidates - not just Hillary and Barack. This suspicion was confirmed last night when Aurelio asked me who I had voted for - Hillary or Barack.
At first, this question took me a bit offguard. I didn't explain to him that in the States, it's a bit inappropiate, and often even rude, to ask someone who they vote for. It's a private matter, and rarely it is discussed among mere acquaintances. But, I didn't explain any of that. I figured it would take plenty of effort anyways to explain that there were other candidates besides those two. I told him I hadn't voted for either, but this answer didn't satisfy him. When I finished explaining my decision, he then asked me who I preferred - Hillary or Barack. Obviously, those are the only two that matter here I suppose.
Then in class today, Carlo (one of my teachers this week), asked me essentially the same question. We had a political discussion that included America, London and Italia, and Carlo said he thought Hillary or Barack would win. I just found it very interesting since just last week I had a nagging suspicion that most folks here think there are only two candidates. I'd love to know what will happen in July when the two parties have selected their candidate, and all of sudden either Hillary or Barack (or possibly both) are no longer in the race, and instead there's another main name. They will be utterly confused.
Just wanted to share that. Now on with Taormina. I realize this blog probably should have been the first or second one I wrote, and I've given bits and pieces of life here through other blogs, but hopefully this will give you an overall view of life here. I should also note that pictures of my weekend and pictures of the town have been uploaded, with captions, at dropshots.com, so after reading this, you can see a little bit of what I'm talking about.
Taormina is a small town - smaller than Auburn I would say, and it's very compact. You can walk most places within 15 minutes, easily. Technically it stretches down to the beach and up to Castelmola, and those walks take about 30 to 40 minutes, but primarily because you have to climb up or down a mountain. No matter where I go in Taormina, though, I have an absolutely incredible view of the beach, or the mountain, or towns below.
Taormina is also a big tourist town. The more we're here, the easier it becomes to pick out the tourists. There aren't too many here right now because it's the down season, but in the summer, this place is packed. Because it's a tourist town, it's a bit more expensive here, so we won't buy any clothes or things here, as many shops are merely tourist traps. And because it is the down season right now, many shops are closed. The business owners have left for their own vacations, and plenty of stores have signs in the window that say they won't be back until February or March!
Even the stores that are open are often closed on random days or at random times. This appears to be the Sicilian way of life - very laid back and fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants. All the stores close during siesta (2:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.), and then they open back up usually until 8 or 9 p.m. But I'm convinced that half the store owners wake up from their siesta and decide they don't want to go back to work, so they never reopen their store. That's just how it works, I suppose. It's neat that they can just do as they please, but at times it's frustrating for us, as we often have to really troll for an open eating establishment. Or we'll plan to go to a store, and when we go, it's closed for the rest of the day or the week.
The people here, though, are incredibly friendly. And they see many tourists, so they are very patient with our terrible Italian (although the ones that speak English usually immediately switch to English so they can practice, and probably show off a bit too). Everyone seems to know everyone here (like Monroe, no doubt), and I've started seeing the same faces over and over, especially at night when I cruise Corso Umberto. During the nightly cruise session, I also always see people walking down the street, running into one another, and just chatting it up. Like I said in my first blog, cruising the Corso is the social event, especially on weekends, and I've joined in on the fun.
The town is centered around Corso Umberto, and on either side of Corso Umberto is Porta Messina (which faces Messina) and Porta Catania (which faces Catania). Porta means door in Italian. Off of Corso Umberto are lots of smaller "streets," and I put that in quotations because many of the roads are actually just stairways. I suppose they have to technically be streets, though, since folks have their houses on these stairwells. Seriously, there are front doors in every imaginable alleyway or street here. There are two piazzas on the Corso, and the piazzas are filled on the weekends (and at night) with people hanging out and children playing, riding their bikes, etc.
The town is also very clean and safe. The garbage picks up about every other day here. Every morning, the streets are swept by workers, which is wonderful since there always seems to be confetti from the children. And I've only seen one rat (which was enough to make me scream anyways).
The only unclean part of the town is the animals. There are tons of feral cats running around here. Apparently, the Italians (and many Europeans from what I've been told) think it's inhumane to spay and neuter the animals, which means the animals keep producing more animals to just run around and reproduce again. The cats are also extremely loud. They scream and cry at you. I swear these cats don't meow or purr. They make sounds I've never heard coming from a cat. I'm not a cat lover, and Taormina is not helping that at all. Several people do have dogs as pets, though, and the dogs cruise the Corso with them. Most of the dogs are small since the houses here aren't very big. Despite the number of dogs, there are no grassy areas or yards, so the dogs poop in the streets. Everyday is like walking through a mine field, and I just have to hope I don't step in anything that would ruin my only pair of tennis shoes.
The roads here are very narrow, even the two-way roads. I have seen only one stop sign in the entire town (so of course I snapped a picture of it). I also rarely see yield signs, and I've been told that in Italy, all the signs and driving rules are merely suggestions - suggestions that aren't followed I should add. Right around the corner from my house is a blind intersection (there are no traffic lights here, only in big cities). The apparent rule of thumb is to honk as you approach the intersection, and if you hear someone honking, you should maybe stop, or at least slow down. I'm constantly afraid I'll be hit by a car. There are rarely sidewalks, so I must walk on the side of the road, so cars fly by me probably going 30 or 40 miles an hour, and they are a mere 6 inches from me. What if I happen to trip right when they drive by?? I don't care that they all drive Fiat Pandas; it's still going to hurt.
Clay and I have found our two favorite intersections, though, which we have affectionately dubbed The Intersection of Death and The Practice Intersection of Death. I posted pictures of both, but unfortunately, they don't adequately show how dangerous they are. The Intersection of Death is at Porta Messina, and it consists of five roads that all intersect together. Not a single one of them has a yield sign (or if they do, no one yields). For four of the five roads, it is impossible to see the other roads until it's too late. I'm quite amazed I've never seen an accident, as cars come flying through there, and then slam on their brakes at the last minute. It's also dangerous as a pedestrian, and we frequently must cross the Intersection of Death. Some of you may be familiar with the videogame Frogger, and I must say I feel like Frogger every time I have to run across without getting killed. The Practice Intersection of Death is a bit smaller, but still dangerous.
The last thing to note is that the houses are typically built up, not out. The house I live in has 5 floors, but it is probably smaller than my parents' house, which has two. Those people who own cars or scooters just park them on the road somewhere (making the streets even more narrow than they already were). I should also note that the houses aren't built to keep out noise, so it's difficult to fall asleep some nights since my room overlooks the street. I can hear everything, and it seems like the window is open, even though it's not. I can hear conversation, music and of course, the cats screaming. I've adopted the practice of sleeping with earplugs.
That is probably enough for now. I realize this blog was incredibly long. A domani!
I know I said today I would describe Taormina, and I will, but I have to begin by describing a situation that occurred last night. I mentioned in my blog about politics that I thought perhaps Italians don't know that there are lots of presidential candidates - not just Hillary and Barack. This suspicion was confirmed last night when Aurelio asked me who I had voted for - Hillary or Barack.
At first, this question took me a bit offguard. I didn't explain to him that in the States, it's a bit inappropiate, and often even rude, to ask someone who they vote for. It's a private matter, and rarely it is discussed among mere acquaintances. But, I didn't explain any of that. I figured it would take plenty of effort anyways to explain that there were other candidates besides those two. I told him I hadn't voted for either, but this answer didn't satisfy him. When I finished explaining my decision, he then asked me who I preferred - Hillary or Barack. Obviously, those are the only two that matter here I suppose.
Then in class today, Carlo (one of my teachers this week), asked me essentially the same question. We had a political discussion that included America, London and Italia, and Carlo said he thought Hillary or Barack would win. I just found it very interesting since just last week I had a nagging suspicion that most folks here think there are only two candidates. I'd love to know what will happen in July when the two parties have selected their candidate, and all of sudden either Hillary or Barack (or possibly both) are no longer in the race, and instead there's another main name. They will be utterly confused.
Just wanted to share that. Now on with Taormina. I realize this blog probably should have been the first or second one I wrote, and I've given bits and pieces of life here through other blogs, but hopefully this will give you an overall view of life here. I should also note that pictures of my weekend and pictures of the town have been uploaded, with captions, at dropshots.com, so after reading this, you can see a little bit of what I'm talking about.
Taormina is a small town - smaller than Auburn I would say, and it's very compact. You can walk most places within 15 minutes, easily. Technically it stretches down to the beach and up to Castelmola, and those walks take about 30 to 40 minutes, but primarily because you have to climb up or down a mountain. No matter where I go in Taormina, though, I have an absolutely incredible view of the beach, or the mountain, or towns below.
Taormina is also a big tourist town. The more we're here, the easier it becomes to pick out the tourists. There aren't too many here right now because it's the down season, but in the summer, this place is packed. Because it's a tourist town, it's a bit more expensive here, so we won't buy any clothes or things here, as many shops are merely tourist traps. And because it is the down season right now, many shops are closed. The business owners have left for their own vacations, and plenty of stores have signs in the window that say they won't be back until February or March!
Even the stores that are open are often closed on random days or at random times. This appears to be the Sicilian way of life - very laid back and fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants. All the stores close during siesta (2:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.), and then they open back up usually until 8 or 9 p.m. But I'm convinced that half the store owners wake up from their siesta and decide they don't want to go back to work, so they never reopen their store. That's just how it works, I suppose. It's neat that they can just do as they please, but at times it's frustrating for us, as we often have to really troll for an open eating establishment. Or we'll plan to go to a store, and when we go, it's closed for the rest of the day or the week.
The people here, though, are incredibly friendly. And they see many tourists, so they are very patient with our terrible Italian (although the ones that speak English usually immediately switch to English so they can practice, and probably show off a bit too). Everyone seems to know everyone here (like Monroe, no doubt), and I've started seeing the same faces over and over, especially at night when I cruise Corso Umberto. During the nightly cruise session, I also always see people walking down the street, running into one another, and just chatting it up. Like I said in my first blog, cruising the Corso is the social event, especially on weekends, and I've joined in on the fun.
The town is centered around Corso Umberto, and on either side of Corso Umberto is Porta Messina (which faces Messina) and Porta Catania (which faces Catania). Porta means door in Italian. Off of Corso Umberto are lots of smaller "streets," and I put that in quotations because many of the roads are actually just stairways. I suppose they have to technically be streets, though, since folks have their houses on these stairwells. Seriously, there are front doors in every imaginable alleyway or street here. There are two piazzas on the Corso, and the piazzas are filled on the weekends (and at night) with people hanging out and children playing, riding their bikes, etc.
The town is also very clean and safe. The garbage picks up about every other day here. Every morning, the streets are swept by workers, which is wonderful since there always seems to be confetti from the children. And I've only seen one rat (which was enough to make me scream anyways).
The only unclean part of the town is the animals. There are tons of feral cats running around here. Apparently, the Italians (and many Europeans from what I've been told) think it's inhumane to spay and neuter the animals, which means the animals keep producing more animals to just run around and reproduce again. The cats are also extremely loud. They scream and cry at you. I swear these cats don't meow or purr. They make sounds I've never heard coming from a cat. I'm not a cat lover, and Taormina is not helping that at all. Several people do have dogs as pets, though, and the dogs cruise the Corso with them. Most of the dogs are small since the houses here aren't very big. Despite the number of dogs, there are no grassy areas or yards, so the dogs poop in the streets. Everyday is like walking through a mine field, and I just have to hope I don't step in anything that would ruin my only pair of tennis shoes.
The roads here are very narrow, even the two-way roads. I have seen only one stop sign in the entire town (so of course I snapped a picture of it). I also rarely see yield signs, and I've been told that in Italy, all the signs and driving rules are merely suggestions - suggestions that aren't followed I should add. Right around the corner from my house is a blind intersection (there are no traffic lights here, only in big cities). The apparent rule of thumb is to honk as you approach the intersection, and if you hear someone honking, you should maybe stop, or at least slow down. I'm constantly afraid I'll be hit by a car. There are rarely sidewalks, so I must walk on the side of the road, so cars fly by me probably going 30 or 40 miles an hour, and they are a mere 6 inches from me. What if I happen to trip right when they drive by?? I don't care that they all drive Fiat Pandas; it's still going to hurt.
Clay and I have found our two favorite intersections, though, which we have affectionately dubbed The Intersection of Death and The Practice Intersection of Death. I posted pictures of both, but unfortunately, they don't adequately show how dangerous they are. The Intersection of Death is at Porta Messina, and it consists of five roads that all intersect together. Not a single one of them has a yield sign (or if they do, no one yields). For four of the five roads, it is impossible to see the other roads until it's too late. I'm quite amazed I've never seen an accident, as cars come flying through there, and then slam on their brakes at the last minute. It's also dangerous as a pedestrian, and we frequently must cross the Intersection of Death. Some of you may be familiar with the videogame Frogger, and I must say I feel like Frogger every time I have to run across without getting killed. The Practice Intersection of Death is a bit smaller, but still dangerous.
The last thing to note is that the houses are typically built up, not out. The house I live in has 5 floors, but it is probably smaller than my parents' house, which has two. Those people who own cars or scooters just park them on the road somewhere (making the streets even more narrow than they already were). I should also note that the houses aren't built to keep out noise, so it's difficult to fall asleep some nights since my room overlooks the street. I can hear everything, and it seems like the window is open, even though it's not. I can hear conversation, music and of course, the cats screaming. I've adopted the practice of sleeping with earplugs.
That is probably enough for now. I realize this blog was incredibly long. A domani!
Monday, January 28, 2008
From Taormina to Etna and back
Ciao,
I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend. Mine went by fast (of course they all do), but it was good. Before I detail my adventures this weekend, I should note an interesting thing I learned about laundry here. As I noted in a previous blog, I handwash my clothes, and usually leave them on a heater to dry. On Friday afternoon, I did another batch of clothes - this time all my socks as I was about out of clean ones. By Saturday afternoon, they were all dry, so I gathered them up from the various heaters on our floor and began pairing them together. What do you know, but at the end of that task, I had two unmatched socks! Apparently the disappearing socks have nothing to do with the washing machine or dryer. They must disinegrate into thin area somehow, as even when I handwashed them, two went missing. Non è logico. (It is not logical).
After marveling over the mysterious sock disappearance, I had dinner, and then a bunch of us headed to a bar (one of the two open right now) to have drinks and say goodbye to Randall and Inge who left on Saturday. This is one thing I've decided I really don't like here - the constant good-bye party Clay and I must have. We said bye to our American friends from George Mason two weeks ago, but for some reason, that didn't hit us as hard as Randall and Inge. They are both incredibly friendly and kind people. I think what bothered us more is that every week we will have to do this - say bye to someone else. Most people come to Babilonia for only 2 or 4 weeks. I don't think it's structured for a 3 month stay really, so we are the ones here the longest. So as soon as we make friends, they leave us.
Saturday morning was nice as I had the chance to sleep in. Then Clay and I walked around Taormina and took lots of pictures to show folks back home what the town is like. I promise to get those uploaded soon. We then headed up to Castelmola, a small village perched on the hill above Taormina - I think technically it's still part of Taormina. Anyways, it was a gorgeous walk and it gave us a beautiful view of Taormina, which looks a bit larger from up above. Part of the way up the hike, we stopped at Madonna della Rocca, a small church on the hill. It's very beautiful inside, although I'm not sure if they have services there anymore. And the ceiling is made of rock. It actually looks like the church was built underneath a rock, but I'm not entirely sure of the history or how it was really built.
After resting at Madonna della Rocca, we headed up to what we thought were the steps to Castelmola. As we started out, a man was coming down and said "Sopra chiuso." We knew both of those words. Sopra is up and chiuso is close (we know that word quite well actually as many of the stores here are closed right now). But when we put the two together, it was "up-close." We thought perhaps he meant the pictures I was taking of this dog trying to get a cat in a tree. So we laughed and headed up the steps, all the while coming of with different meaning for "sopra chiuso." Less than 5 minutes later we reached a locked gate and realized that the man was trying to in fact tell us it was closed. My Italian is not the best, but I'm convinced his wasn't either, as the phrase was not a sentence. Perhaps he should have said "è chiuso sopra qua," which I would have interpreted to be "It is closed up there." Regardless, this made no sense to us as we thought Castelmola was a town, and why on earth would a town lock its gates.
The walk didn't take us long, so instead of taking the shortcut steps back to Taormina, we went down on the road. We walked down Corso Umberto a few times, then stopped for granita, which is a special Italian dessert that I will describe more in another blog. I spent the early evening just resting and reading, and then headed upstairs to dinner, where I proudly used all the Italian I knew to explain to Aurelio and Angela that Castelmola was "chiuso."
They of course looked at me like I was speaking Chinese. I tried to rearrange the words and say something else in Italian, and finally we had to resort to English. That's when Aurelio realized that I had said exactly what I meant in Italian, but unfortunately it made no sense. He then patiently explained to me that the castle (il castello) is almost almost closed, with the gates locked. But it was impossible for the village to be locked, and we obviously didn't see the steps that went up to Castelmola. Va bene. The walk wasn't bad, so we'll just do it again sometime.
After dinner, I watched Walker Texas Ranger with Aurelio (dubbed over in Italian of course). He offered to switch it to English, but I told him I preferred to hear in Italian so I can learn. I should add that even when he's dubbed over in Italian, Chuck Norris is still a badass. I watched the entire movie, and only understood what I could see, but perhaps it was a good bonding experience for Aurelio and I. (Although I'm not sure how much he likes Walker Texas Ranger because when I first came to dinner, he was watching Gilmore Girls in Italian).
On Sunday, Clay and I went with two other students, Romy and Thomas, and we drove around Mt. Etna, which is the nearby (active) volcano. I see Mt. Etna everyday from the window of the kitchen, and then at school, we have a terrace with a gorgeous view of it. I should first perhaps describe what it was like to go with Romy and Thomas. They are both young (in their 20s). He is from Switzerland, and she is from Germany. Romy is fluent in English (and French apparently) , in addition to German of course. He speaks really good Italian (and obviously German as well), and he understands some English. But every conversation we had typically was spoke in 3 different languages (not including Swiss German, which Romy informed us is its own language). We would try to speak in Italian, but I'm not that good, and Clay and Romy are both in the beginner class. So when we didn't understand each other in Italian, we would revert to English, and Romy would translate into German for Thomas, who would then speak in German to us, and Romy would translate back to English. Bless her heart, I'm sure she was exhausted by the end of the day.
Anyways, Romy and Thomas have a car, and they are basically driving around Italy for two months, so we rode with them. I'm mentioned the driving here, and I have to say this was the most nervewracking yet. Thomas wasn't a bad driver, but everyone else was. And we were driving through the mountains, so there were constant curves, and most drivers apparently take the curve fast, and they drive straight down the middle. I thought for sure I was going to die of a car accident, and if not a car accident, then a heart attack. We somehow missed the road we were looking for and we drove halfway around the mountain, which I didn't mind as it was really neat to see it from all sides.
We finally found a road that we thought took us up, but we actually ran into snow, so here we are, driving up a curvy road on snow (thankfully we did that for all of 2 minutes before we turned around), and that's when I knew I was going to die. We evenutally found the road we were looking for, but at the point, it was later in the afternoon and there were a ton of people trying to get up to Mt. Etna, or at least to the highest point you can go without actually climbing the darn thing.
We stopped at the huge traffic area for lunch, which was an interesting experience. We ate lunch at the one restaurant there, and it didn't open until 12:30, so everyone was standing around, waiting to be let in, and when they opened the doors, everyone just wandered around the dining room, trying to find a seat. The waiters seemed to be in a hurry, unlike all the other restaurants here, and they actually threw the menus (and later the dishes) at us. Then when he brought the bill, he stood there and waited while we counted out enough money. The whole situation was bizarre, and as Thomas said, a good memory.
We then headed back to Taormina at that point, and we had some coffee and ciocolatta before we went to our separate houses to rest. Around 5 p.m., Clay and I then took lots of pictures of the sun setting over Mt. Etna, and some pictures of the cruising that occurs on Corso Umberto. There is actually a mad rush for the bus station around 7 p.m., so I believe that on weekends, some people actually ride the bus to Taormina in order to cruise the Corso. Just a guess, but it's obviously the thing to do here. I should note that during the weeknights, there are fewer people out cruising the Corso.
For some reason, yesterday evening, many of the children were dressed in costumes. Romy explained that in Germany, this week is Carnival, which is a huge celebration before Lent begins. Romy wasn't sure, though, if Italy celebrated it as well, but maybe that's why all the children were dressed up. Regardless, there was confetti all in the streets, which seems to happen every Saturday and Sunday. From what I gather, parents buy bags of it for their children, and the kids just throw it all over the place, so that by the end of the night, all the kids, the streets, and the dogs are covered in confetti. I don't know if this is related at all to the Carnival, or it they do this every week just to do it. Perhaps I will ask Carlo (one of my teachers this week) to explain this to me.
I finished the evening by just relaxing and finishing my book, Love in the Time of Cholera, which was a fantastic book that I would highly recommend. So that was my wonderful weekend. Pictures of the weekend and of Taormina will be up by tomorrow, and tomorrow's blog will be dedicated to all things Taormina as I realize some pictures might need further explanation, and I haven't spent much time actually writing about my observations of the town.
I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend. Mine went by fast (of course they all do), but it was good. Before I detail my adventures this weekend, I should note an interesting thing I learned about laundry here. As I noted in a previous blog, I handwash my clothes, and usually leave them on a heater to dry. On Friday afternoon, I did another batch of clothes - this time all my socks as I was about out of clean ones. By Saturday afternoon, they were all dry, so I gathered them up from the various heaters on our floor and began pairing them together. What do you know, but at the end of that task, I had two unmatched socks! Apparently the disappearing socks have nothing to do with the washing machine or dryer. They must disinegrate into thin area somehow, as even when I handwashed them, two went missing. Non è logico. (It is not logical).
After marveling over the mysterious sock disappearance, I had dinner, and then a bunch of us headed to a bar (one of the two open right now) to have drinks and say goodbye to Randall and Inge who left on Saturday. This is one thing I've decided I really don't like here - the constant good-bye party Clay and I must have. We said bye to our American friends from George Mason two weeks ago, but for some reason, that didn't hit us as hard as Randall and Inge. They are both incredibly friendly and kind people. I think what bothered us more is that every week we will have to do this - say bye to someone else. Most people come to Babilonia for only 2 or 4 weeks. I don't think it's structured for a 3 month stay really, so we are the ones here the longest. So as soon as we make friends, they leave us.
Saturday morning was nice as I had the chance to sleep in. Then Clay and I walked around Taormina and took lots of pictures to show folks back home what the town is like. I promise to get those uploaded soon. We then headed up to Castelmola, a small village perched on the hill above Taormina - I think technically it's still part of Taormina. Anyways, it was a gorgeous walk and it gave us a beautiful view of Taormina, which looks a bit larger from up above. Part of the way up the hike, we stopped at Madonna della Rocca, a small church on the hill. It's very beautiful inside, although I'm not sure if they have services there anymore. And the ceiling is made of rock. It actually looks like the church was built underneath a rock, but I'm not entirely sure of the history or how it was really built.
After resting at Madonna della Rocca, we headed up to what we thought were the steps to Castelmola. As we started out, a man was coming down and said "Sopra chiuso." We knew both of those words. Sopra is up and chiuso is close (we know that word quite well actually as many of the stores here are closed right now). But when we put the two together, it was "up-close." We thought perhaps he meant the pictures I was taking of this dog trying to get a cat in a tree. So we laughed and headed up the steps, all the while coming of with different meaning for "sopra chiuso." Less than 5 minutes later we reached a locked gate and realized that the man was trying to in fact tell us it was closed. My Italian is not the best, but I'm convinced his wasn't either, as the phrase was not a sentence. Perhaps he should have said "è chiuso sopra qua," which I would have interpreted to be "It is closed up there." Regardless, this made no sense to us as we thought Castelmola was a town, and why on earth would a town lock its gates.
The walk didn't take us long, so instead of taking the shortcut steps back to Taormina, we went down on the road. We walked down Corso Umberto a few times, then stopped for granita, which is a special Italian dessert that I will describe more in another blog. I spent the early evening just resting and reading, and then headed upstairs to dinner, where I proudly used all the Italian I knew to explain to Aurelio and Angela that Castelmola was "chiuso."
They of course looked at me like I was speaking Chinese. I tried to rearrange the words and say something else in Italian, and finally we had to resort to English. That's when Aurelio realized that I had said exactly what I meant in Italian, but unfortunately it made no sense. He then patiently explained to me that the castle (il castello) is almost almost closed, with the gates locked. But it was impossible for the village to be locked, and we obviously didn't see the steps that went up to Castelmola. Va bene. The walk wasn't bad, so we'll just do it again sometime.
After dinner, I watched Walker Texas Ranger with Aurelio (dubbed over in Italian of course). He offered to switch it to English, but I told him I preferred to hear in Italian so I can learn. I should add that even when he's dubbed over in Italian, Chuck Norris is still a badass. I watched the entire movie, and only understood what I could see, but perhaps it was a good bonding experience for Aurelio and I. (Although I'm not sure how much he likes Walker Texas Ranger because when I first came to dinner, he was watching Gilmore Girls in Italian).
On Sunday, Clay and I went with two other students, Romy and Thomas, and we drove around Mt. Etna, which is the nearby (active) volcano. I see Mt. Etna everyday from the window of the kitchen, and then at school, we have a terrace with a gorgeous view of it. I should first perhaps describe what it was like to go with Romy and Thomas. They are both young (in their 20s). He is from Switzerland, and she is from Germany. Romy is fluent in English (and French apparently) , in addition to German of course. He speaks really good Italian (and obviously German as well), and he understands some English. But every conversation we had typically was spoke in 3 different languages (not including Swiss German, which Romy informed us is its own language). We would try to speak in Italian, but I'm not that good, and Clay and Romy are both in the beginner class. So when we didn't understand each other in Italian, we would revert to English, and Romy would translate into German for Thomas, who would then speak in German to us, and Romy would translate back to English. Bless her heart, I'm sure she was exhausted by the end of the day.
Anyways, Romy and Thomas have a car, and they are basically driving around Italy for two months, so we rode with them. I'm mentioned the driving here, and I have to say this was the most nervewracking yet. Thomas wasn't a bad driver, but everyone else was. And we were driving through the mountains, so there were constant curves, and most drivers apparently take the curve fast, and they drive straight down the middle. I thought for sure I was going to die of a car accident, and if not a car accident, then a heart attack. We somehow missed the road we were looking for and we drove halfway around the mountain, which I didn't mind as it was really neat to see it from all sides.
We finally found a road that we thought took us up, but we actually ran into snow, so here we are, driving up a curvy road on snow (thankfully we did that for all of 2 minutes before we turned around), and that's when I knew I was going to die. We evenutally found the road we were looking for, but at the point, it was later in the afternoon and there were a ton of people trying to get up to Mt. Etna, or at least to the highest point you can go without actually climbing the darn thing.
We stopped at the huge traffic area for lunch, which was an interesting experience. We ate lunch at the one restaurant there, and it didn't open until 12:30, so everyone was standing around, waiting to be let in, and when they opened the doors, everyone just wandered around the dining room, trying to find a seat. The waiters seemed to be in a hurry, unlike all the other restaurants here, and they actually threw the menus (and later the dishes) at us. Then when he brought the bill, he stood there and waited while we counted out enough money. The whole situation was bizarre, and as Thomas said, a good memory.
We then headed back to Taormina at that point, and we had some coffee and ciocolatta before we went to our separate houses to rest. Around 5 p.m., Clay and I then took lots of pictures of the sun setting over Mt. Etna, and some pictures of the cruising that occurs on Corso Umberto. There is actually a mad rush for the bus station around 7 p.m., so I believe that on weekends, some people actually ride the bus to Taormina in order to cruise the Corso. Just a guess, but it's obviously the thing to do here. I should note that during the weeknights, there are fewer people out cruising the Corso.
For some reason, yesterday evening, many of the children were dressed in costumes. Romy explained that in Germany, this week is Carnival, which is a huge celebration before Lent begins. Romy wasn't sure, though, if Italy celebrated it as well, but maybe that's why all the children were dressed up. Regardless, there was confetti all in the streets, which seems to happen every Saturday and Sunday. From what I gather, parents buy bags of it for their children, and the kids just throw it all over the place, so that by the end of the night, all the kids, the streets, and the dogs are covered in confetti. I don't know if this is related at all to the Carnival, or it they do this every week just to do it. Perhaps I will ask Carlo (one of my teachers this week) to explain this to me.
I finished the evening by just relaxing and finishing my book, Love in the Time of Cholera, which was a fantastic book that I would highly recommend. So that was my wonderful weekend. Pictures of the weekend and of Taormina will be up by tomorrow, and tomorrow's blog will be dedicated to all things Taormina as I realize some pictures might need further explanation, and I haven't spent much time actually writing about my observations of the town.
Friday, January 25, 2008
Politics - Italian and American
Hello to everyone!! (I felt that Ciao was getting a bit repetitive). It is officially the end of my second week here. This week went even faster than the last! I don't know how much international news y'all read - we don't even get that much international news to begin with in the states, but I thought today would be dedicated to all things political as the Italian government essentially fell yesterday.
Perhaps I should preface this blog by stating that I might have misunderstood some things. I have pieced together what happened based on the news (in Italian), my host family (speaking in Italian), CNN (in English, but written in the States), and my friend here Randall (and Australian). So, hopefully I've at least understood something, but it's quite possible I'm all backwards now.
From what I gather, the Italian government is always unstable and corrupt, and this was their 61st government (not type of government, but 61st leader/party in charge) since World War II. That's a lot if you do the math. The current (well, not anymore), prime minister, Prodi, has only been in office less than 2 years. My understanding (thanks, Randall), is that the prime minister is elected within the dominant party in parliament (it sounds exactly like how our Speaker of the House is chosen, except their prime minister has a lot more control). And the main problem from what I gather is that there are a million little parties here, and they bond together with the larger ones to form a majority. The latest issue started when one of the smaller parties withdrew its support from the majority, which caused the majority to no longer be a majority. So essentially, nothing could get done. The apparent solution to this problem is to hold an election and re-elect everyone, and start over. (The alternative I believe is for the president - and don't ask me how he fits in here - can set up an interim government to run things while they hold off an election). And this type of situation has happened constantly here! It's a miracle they actually survive.
The entire thing is incredibly confusing, and I still don't understand. I also realize I've probably confused everyone who just read the above paragraph. I always thought American politics were confusing, but this is insane! While the political system may be in shambles here, it is far more entertaining than anything in our Congress. Granted, I often didn't understand what was being said, but those representatives get very heated. They would yell, pound their fist, yell at each other directly, boo one another - it was very fascinating to watch (they show snipets on the news here every day). When I read an international newspaper today (in English), I read that one senator was called a traitor and a coward, and someone else spat on him. Incredible.
That's all I know about Italian politics, and that's not much, so I'll try to explain American politics! Just kidding. But I did want to share with y'all the interest they seem to have over here in American politics. On the news every night is at least one clip from something that happened in the states. If it is the day of a primary or the day before, the clip is almost always of the candidates campaigning, and information about how the candidates are doing. One interesting thing to note is that they almost always show Hillary Clinton. I don't think I've seen a clip of Obama yet, and they rarely mention his name, and they haven't mentioned any other Democratic candidates. They also rarely mention the Republicans, and the only two people they've shown or mentioned was Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee. I think it's very interesting that they are so fascinated with Hillary. I don't know if it's because of Bill, or because she's a woman (plenty of European countries have had women leaders, so maybe they think we're behind the times?). But they seem to love her. (Or maybe they hate her - I don't really know as I don't understand enough Italian to figure out what kind of slant they're putting on these news stories).
The days that they don't show the candidates, they usually show President Bush and they quickly remark on whatever he said. Unfortunately, they always pick a clip where he's stuttering and sounds very untintelligent (He's not a very good public speaker to begin with, so I realize it's probably difficult to find a clip where he is articulate). Anyways, I'm always embarassed when they show him. We went out last night to play cards, and began talking with a very nice couple from London. One of them mentioned how Bush didn't know anything and I laughed and said "Don't get me started." He remarked that every American he had ever met tried to distance themselves from Bush, and were a bit embarassed he was the president. He asked us some questions then about his approval ratings, and why people have problems with him now. The whole situation was just strange as they seemed to know a lot about what was going on in America. I never would know enough to ask questions about what was going on in England.
As a funny side note, the big American news a few days ago was that Bill Clinton fell asleep during an MLK celebration. They showed the clip on the news and it made the front page of the paper. Was it funny? Yes. The most important thing of the day? Probably not, but I guess it's what the Italians wanted to see!
Anyways, that's enough politics for now. I wish I had more funny language stories, but I really only have one this week (maybe that means I'm getting immensely better at the language?).
Ever since I arrived here, my two favorite words/phrases have been "Si" (which means yes), and "Va bene", which doesn't literally translate into English very well, but essentially means everything is good, or OK. Anyways, when someone asks me a question and I don't understand or am unsure, I usually just try to be polite and respond with Si. This means I've said yes to lots of things, and half the time, I don't even know what I'm agreeing to. This finally backfired on me this week. Before dinner one evening, Aurelio asked if I liked anchovies, and if I'd eat them at dinner. I didn't know what he asked, but I knew it involved food and eating, so I just responded "Si, si", like I always do. (I decided it's much more polite to say yes than no when you don't really know what's going on). About 15 seconds later I realized what I had agreed to (the word for anchovies sounds almost exactly the same in Italian and English, so it didn't take long at all for that one to click). But it was too late, Aurelio had moved on to another topic, and was very happy that I ate anchovies. About 15 minutes later, I chowed down on some bruschetta topped with cheese, a tomato, and a nice fat anchovy. It wasn't all that bad, but still a bit slimy. My main problem was that it was spicy. But that's one word I won't forget (and when he asked me later in the week if I wanted anchovies on my pizza, I quickly responded with "No, grazie.").
I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend. Our plans for the weekend are still up in the air, but one the list of things to do is to take lots of pictures in Taormina to post for you on Monday. Until then, Ciao!
Perhaps I should preface this blog by stating that I might have misunderstood some things. I have pieced together what happened based on the news (in Italian), my host family (speaking in Italian), CNN (in English, but written in the States), and my friend here Randall (and Australian). So, hopefully I've at least understood something, but it's quite possible I'm all backwards now.
From what I gather, the Italian government is always unstable and corrupt, and this was their 61st government (not type of government, but 61st leader/party in charge) since World War II. That's a lot if you do the math. The current (well, not anymore), prime minister, Prodi, has only been in office less than 2 years. My understanding (thanks, Randall), is that the prime minister is elected within the dominant party in parliament (it sounds exactly like how our Speaker of the House is chosen, except their prime minister has a lot more control). And the main problem from what I gather is that there are a million little parties here, and they bond together with the larger ones to form a majority. The latest issue started when one of the smaller parties withdrew its support from the majority, which caused the majority to no longer be a majority. So essentially, nothing could get done. The apparent solution to this problem is to hold an election and re-elect everyone, and start over. (The alternative I believe is for the president - and don't ask me how he fits in here - can set up an interim government to run things while they hold off an election). And this type of situation has happened constantly here! It's a miracle they actually survive.
The entire thing is incredibly confusing, and I still don't understand. I also realize I've probably confused everyone who just read the above paragraph. I always thought American politics were confusing, but this is insane! While the political system may be in shambles here, it is far more entertaining than anything in our Congress. Granted, I often didn't understand what was being said, but those representatives get very heated. They would yell, pound their fist, yell at each other directly, boo one another - it was very fascinating to watch (they show snipets on the news here every day). When I read an international newspaper today (in English), I read that one senator was called a traitor and a coward, and someone else spat on him. Incredible.
That's all I know about Italian politics, and that's not much, so I'll try to explain American politics! Just kidding. But I did want to share with y'all the interest they seem to have over here in American politics. On the news every night is at least one clip from something that happened in the states. If it is the day of a primary or the day before, the clip is almost always of the candidates campaigning, and information about how the candidates are doing. One interesting thing to note is that they almost always show Hillary Clinton. I don't think I've seen a clip of Obama yet, and they rarely mention his name, and they haven't mentioned any other Democratic candidates. They also rarely mention the Republicans, and the only two people they've shown or mentioned was Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee. I think it's very interesting that they are so fascinated with Hillary. I don't know if it's because of Bill, or because she's a woman (plenty of European countries have had women leaders, so maybe they think we're behind the times?). But they seem to love her. (Or maybe they hate her - I don't really know as I don't understand enough Italian to figure out what kind of slant they're putting on these news stories).
The days that they don't show the candidates, they usually show President Bush and they quickly remark on whatever he said. Unfortunately, they always pick a clip where he's stuttering and sounds very untintelligent (He's not a very good public speaker to begin with, so I realize it's probably difficult to find a clip where he is articulate). Anyways, I'm always embarassed when they show him. We went out last night to play cards, and began talking with a very nice couple from London. One of them mentioned how Bush didn't know anything and I laughed and said "Don't get me started." He remarked that every American he had ever met tried to distance themselves from Bush, and were a bit embarassed he was the president. He asked us some questions then about his approval ratings, and why people have problems with him now. The whole situation was just strange as they seemed to know a lot about what was going on in America. I never would know enough to ask questions about what was going on in England.
As a funny side note, the big American news a few days ago was that Bill Clinton fell asleep during an MLK celebration. They showed the clip on the news and it made the front page of the paper. Was it funny? Yes. The most important thing of the day? Probably not, but I guess it's what the Italians wanted to see!
Anyways, that's enough politics for now. I wish I had more funny language stories, but I really only have one this week (maybe that means I'm getting immensely better at the language?).
Ever since I arrived here, my two favorite words/phrases have been "Si" (which means yes), and "Va bene", which doesn't literally translate into English very well, but essentially means everything is good, or OK. Anyways, when someone asks me a question and I don't understand or am unsure, I usually just try to be polite and respond with Si. This means I've said yes to lots of things, and half the time, I don't even know what I'm agreeing to. This finally backfired on me this week. Before dinner one evening, Aurelio asked if I liked anchovies, and if I'd eat them at dinner. I didn't know what he asked, but I knew it involved food and eating, so I just responded "Si, si", like I always do. (I decided it's much more polite to say yes than no when you don't really know what's going on). About 15 seconds later I realized what I had agreed to (the word for anchovies sounds almost exactly the same in Italian and English, so it didn't take long at all for that one to click). But it was too late, Aurelio had moved on to another topic, and was very happy that I ate anchovies. About 15 minutes later, I chowed down on some bruschetta topped with cheese, a tomato, and a nice fat anchovy. It wasn't all that bad, but still a bit slimy. My main problem was that it was spicy. But that's one word I won't forget (and when he asked me later in the week if I wanted anchovies on my pizza, I quickly responded with "No, grazie.").
I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend. Our plans for the weekend are still up in the air, but one the list of things to do is to take lots of pictures in Taormina to post for you on Monday. Until then, Ciao!
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Quick Follow-up
Ciao!
Today's blog probably won't be as long as I have lots to do today. I thought of a few things I forgot to mention yesterday, so before they slip my mind, I'll continue my topic from yesterday.
Many people here know English and speak English, some are fluent, and others only know a little. Regardless, most of the English I hear is with an accent, and oftentimes it's broken English. Since I often don't know every word or correct conjugation to complete a sentence, I realize I'm speaking in broken Italian - the problem is that I've also started speaking in broken English! If I switch from Italian to English in the same thought or paragraph, I start speaking very slowly in English, and oftentimes not completing sentences correctly. It's really weird as I now sound like a dumb foreigner both in Italian and in my native language!!
The other thing I forgot to mention yesterday was the structure for questions here. There are some interrogative words like what, how, who, etc., but there is no word for "do." So when you want to ask "Do you have a pen," the sentence is "Hai una penna?", which without the question mark means "You have a pen." So the only way to tell if something is a question is by the inflection of one's voice, which has been difficult for me. When I read something in Italian, I have to focus on each individual word, so sometimes I reach the end of a sentence, and that's when I realize there's a question mark, but it's too late at that point as I've been reading the sentence like there's a period at the end.
I mentioned yesterday that it was difficult for me to pronounce words in Italian, but I did get one helpful hint today. We learned that every vowel in Italian is pronounced. If there are two or three vowels next to each other, you pronounce each vowel, unlike in English when many double vowels form one sound. I wish someone had told me that earlier!
Ok, that's enough about the language now. This afternoon we are playing Italian cards with other people from school. Clay and I learned how to play Italian cards last week from an American professor who was here. It's a lot of fun, and we've played almost every afternoon since. There are two games we play, Briscola and Scopa. The deck is different than an English deck (and I got ripped off when I bought a Sicilian deck for 5 euro from the Auteri. They also ripped me off when I bought an alarm clock, so I don't care how nice Sergio is, I'm not buying anything else from him.)
Anyways, I really enjoy playing cards, and I've falsely given Clay the impression I'm quite good at them (in reality I continually get good hands and always beat him). But it'll be fun to play with more people and in partners today. Since my family is a huge card-playing family, I can't wait to bring my deck home and teach them how to play!
One other thing to note. It's really a call for assistance. Clay and I have a week off to travel throughout Italy in February. We've decided to hit up Rome, Florence and Venice (Roma, Firenze, e Venezia). We also have two long weekends off, and we'd like to go to Athens, Greece and Cairo, Egypt, neither of which are that far from Sicilia. Anyways, we're looking for suggestions for cheap airfare. We haven't found anything cheap for Cairo or Athens. The cheapest we've found to Venice and Rome is about 50 euro. We're also starting to plan out our itinerary of what things we'd like to see in these cities. If you know of any cheap travel options, or of places we should definitely see, I'd love to hear from you! You can e-mail me at brockse@auburn.edu, or leave your comments here on the blog!
Thanks for reading! A domani! (Until tomorrow)
Today's blog probably won't be as long as I have lots to do today. I thought of a few things I forgot to mention yesterday, so before they slip my mind, I'll continue my topic from yesterday.
Many people here know English and speak English, some are fluent, and others only know a little. Regardless, most of the English I hear is with an accent, and oftentimes it's broken English. Since I often don't know every word or correct conjugation to complete a sentence, I realize I'm speaking in broken Italian - the problem is that I've also started speaking in broken English! If I switch from Italian to English in the same thought or paragraph, I start speaking very slowly in English, and oftentimes not completing sentences correctly. It's really weird as I now sound like a dumb foreigner both in Italian and in my native language!!
The other thing I forgot to mention yesterday was the structure for questions here. There are some interrogative words like what, how, who, etc., but there is no word for "do." So when you want to ask "Do you have a pen," the sentence is "Hai una penna?", which without the question mark means "You have a pen." So the only way to tell if something is a question is by the inflection of one's voice, which has been difficult for me. When I read something in Italian, I have to focus on each individual word, so sometimes I reach the end of a sentence, and that's when I realize there's a question mark, but it's too late at that point as I've been reading the sentence like there's a period at the end.
I mentioned yesterday that it was difficult for me to pronounce words in Italian, but I did get one helpful hint today. We learned that every vowel in Italian is pronounced. If there are two or three vowels next to each other, you pronounce each vowel, unlike in English when many double vowels form one sound. I wish someone had told me that earlier!
Ok, that's enough about the language now. This afternoon we are playing Italian cards with other people from school. Clay and I learned how to play Italian cards last week from an American professor who was here. It's a lot of fun, and we've played almost every afternoon since. There are two games we play, Briscola and Scopa. The deck is different than an English deck (and I got ripped off when I bought a Sicilian deck for 5 euro from the Auteri. They also ripped me off when I bought an alarm clock, so I don't care how nice Sergio is, I'm not buying anything else from him.)
Anyways, I really enjoy playing cards, and I've falsely given Clay the impression I'm quite good at them (in reality I continually get good hands and always beat him). But it'll be fun to play with more people and in partners today. Since my family is a huge card-playing family, I can't wait to bring my deck home and teach them how to play!
One other thing to note. It's really a call for assistance. Clay and I have a week off to travel throughout Italy in February. We've decided to hit up Rome, Florence and Venice (Roma, Firenze, e Venezia). We also have two long weekends off, and we'd like to go to Athens, Greece and Cairo, Egypt, neither of which are that far from Sicilia. Anyways, we're looking for suggestions for cheap airfare. We haven't found anything cheap for Cairo or Athens. The cheapest we've found to Venice and Rome is about 50 euro. We're also starting to plan out our itinerary of what things we'd like to see in these cities. If you know of any cheap travel options, or of places we should definitely see, I'd love to hear from you! You can e-mail me at brockse@auburn.edu, or leave your comments here on the blog!
Thanks for reading! A domani! (Until tomorrow)
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Learning Italian
Buon giorno! I can't believe it's Wednesday already - time is really starting to go by fast here. I'll apologize up front for any errors in this blog. I have a few every time, but don't have time to reread it, so errors aren't corrected until the following day when my Mom e-mails me any problems (thanks Mom!). So if you want an error-free blog, wait a day! :) Just an FYI, I uploaded more pictures to dropshots (www.dropshots.com/sebrock). After I finish this blog, I'll go add some captions. The pictures are more from this past weekend. I'll try to remember to let you know here at this site whenever I add more pictures so you don't have to check both sites every day. Pictures will most likely be added at the beginning of the week since weekends are reserved for trips/new things.
I thought today I'd talk more about what it's like to learn a new language. I realize most people have learned a new language at some point in school, but this is completely different. When I learn a language at Auburn (I've taken both Italian and Spanish), I only attend class three days a week, for one hour each day. When I leave the classroom, I immediately begin speaking English. Even if I wanted to speak a foreign language, where would I be able to? I obviously can't walk into Moe's and order a burrito in Spanish or Italian, or ask for directions from a Tiger Transit driver. When I leave class here, however, I walk outside and usually the only language I hear is Italian. I have the chance to use my new vocabulary every day, which is really exciting. Between four hours of class and living in the country where Italian is the native language, I learn a lot more than I would ever learn in Auburn, even if I was taking four hours a day in Auburn.
The downside of course is that I have to really concentrate on every conversation. I can't tune out for an instant or else I'll be lost. Understanding every word, every sentence and every conversation requires 100% concentration. If I don't understand a word or a sentence, I can't spend too much time on it or else I won't hear the rest of the sentence. It's a very different way to have a conversation. It's just so weird to think about how easily the words fall out of the Italians' mouths. They don't have to think about every word, which verb to use, how to conjugate it, and which of the million and one articles should go with which noun. They just speak. But not me. I have to think through every word and every article and every preposition.
Because every word out of my mouth is a concentrated effort, I obviously speak slower. This doesn't bother me too much, except when someone gives up on me. In school, the teachers and the class will sit there until you say your sentence. But at dinner with the Ferraris (and the other students, the cooking students, their friends, or whoever happens to be over that day), they often don't have time to wait 3 minutes for me to say two sentences. So, I might get out two words before they interrupt and finish the sentence in Italian for me. Or, when they ask me questions in Italian, sometimes it takes me a few minutes to fully process what was asked and how I should respond. Sometimes I think my long pause suggests to them that I didn't understand, so they'll repeat the question in English, which doesn't help. I really wish they would just give me a minute to think. But Italians don't speak slow, so if I can't hurry it up, I'm cut out! Which in the long run will improve my ability to respond and think quickly.
Living here also motivates me to learn more. At the dinner table, I feel left out when I can't understand the conversation, and it's frustrating when I don't know the right words to respond to a question. My survival here really depends on my ability to communicate with those around me, and obviously that depends on how much and how quickly I learn. In addition to learning in class and through the Italians, I have found another very useful (and surprising) learning device: the TV.
The Ferraris always have the TV on during dinner (which is actually quite annoying. It's hard enough to focus on an Italian conversation when Italian isn't my native language. It's even harder to focus when the TV is on loudly, so there are two loud Italian conversations going on). But, when we're just sitting around before and after dinner, we'll usually watch the TV. Typically around dinner time, the news is on, followed by this Italian variety show that they love (and I wish I could tell you what it was about, but after 2 weeks, I still don't understand the point of the show, but they dance a lot. I can tell you that). The news is incredibly helpful because the language is accompanied by pictures and graphics. It is much easier for me to understand what is being said when I can watch it happening, so it's actually been a helpful way to pick up some more of the language. The other night, they were watching COPS in English, but it had Italian subtitles, so I was able to pick up all sorts of words (most of which I've already forgotten. But "crack" is apparently the same in English and Italian).
That sort of leads me to my next point: because I learn so many new words, I also forget so many new words. I'm probably exposed to at least 50 new words a day. In reality, I obviously hear more than 50 new words a day, but I probably only learn the definitions of 50 new ones. Some of them are words I don't hear for another few days, which means I forget them. Just yesterday we were working on an assignment and I didn't know a word. When I asked for the meaning, Simona told me I already knew it, I just didn't remember. I was a bit upset and frustrated with myself as I wasted time and energy trying to figure out the meaning of this word for a second time in one week.
I probably do best with grammar. Italian grammar is not difficult, and since I've always enjoyed English, it seems to come easy for me. Pronuciation, however, is not so easy for me. Perhaps it's my ugly American accent (with only a little bit of Southern in it), but I can never pronounce words correctly. I struggle with any word that has a double "r" or a "br". My tongue just can't form those sounds. And I also always put the accent on the wrong syllable. So, my teachers are constantly correcting me. I have yet to figure out a pattern or a way to decipher which syllables get the accent. Maybe one of these days it'll click.
Everyday is filled with little frustrations, but I also stop to celebrate the victories. For instance, last week, I had to go into the bank to change money. The ATMs here spit out 50s, but for some reason, some stores here won't break 50s, and everyone thinks it's quite odd if you pull out a 50. So, I headed into the bank to get 10s for my 50s. I was a bit nervous. Clay was with me, but he knows no Italian (he started in the beginner's class this Monday). We walked up to the counter, and in what I like to think was perfect Italian, I asked if we could change our money. The banker didn't correct me, didn't look at me like I was crazy, and simply asked if I wanted 10s. I said yes, please. And 30 seconds later we were back on the street. Clay turned to me and told me what a good job I had done, and I paused and realized that was the first time I had succesfully completed a transaction all in Italian. It wasn't even broken Italian, or Italian-English. It was all in Italian, and the banker understood. I was very proud.
There are other instances like that. I ordered deli meat and cheese from the butcher at the grocery store on Monday. On Sunday, between Randall and I we managed to ask for directions to every bus stop and train station necessary to get home. Every story like that gets me excited, and I realize I'll soon have more and more of those. I hope that by the end of these three months, I can write an entire blog in Italian (which will of course do you no good!).
Well, it's a chilly day here, which means it's a perfect day for a ciocolatto. Ciao! Ciao!
I thought today I'd talk more about what it's like to learn a new language. I realize most people have learned a new language at some point in school, but this is completely different. When I learn a language at Auburn (I've taken both Italian and Spanish), I only attend class three days a week, for one hour each day. When I leave the classroom, I immediately begin speaking English. Even if I wanted to speak a foreign language, where would I be able to? I obviously can't walk into Moe's and order a burrito in Spanish or Italian, or ask for directions from a Tiger Transit driver. When I leave class here, however, I walk outside and usually the only language I hear is Italian. I have the chance to use my new vocabulary every day, which is really exciting. Between four hours of class and living in the country where Italian is the native language, I learn a lot more than I would ever learn in Auburn, even if I was taking four hours a day in Auburn.
The downside of course is that I have to really concentrate on every conversation. I can't tune out for an instant or else I'll be lost. Understanding every word, every sentence and every conversation requires 100% concentration. If I don't understand a word or a sentence, I can't spend too much time on it or else I won't hear the rest of the sentence. It's a very different way to have a conversation. It's just so weird to think about how easily the words fall out of the Italians' mouths. They don't have to think about every word, which verb to use, how to conjugate it, and which of the million and one articles should go with which noun. They just speak. But not me. I have to think through every word and every article and every preposition.
Because every word out of my mouth is a concentrated effort, I obviously speak slower. This doesn't bother me too much, except when someone gives up on me. In school, the teachers and the class will sit there until you say your sentence. But at dinner with the Ferraris (and the other students, the cooking students, their friends, or whoever happens to be over that day), they often don't have time to wait 3 minutes for me to say two sentences. So, I might get out two words before they interrupt and finish the sentence in Italian for me. Or, when they ask me questions in Italian, sometimes it takes me a few minutes to fully process what was asked and how I should respond. Sometimes I think my long pause suggests to them that I didn't understand, so they'll repeat the question in English, which doesn't help. I really wish they would just give me a minute to think. But Italians don't speak slow, so if I can't hurry it up, I'm cut out! Which in the long run will improve my ability to respond and think quickly.
Living here also motivates me to learn more. At the dinner table, I feel left out when I can't understand the conversation, and it's frustrating when I don't know the right words to respond to a question. My survival here really depends on my ability to communicate with those around me, and obviously that depends on how much and how quickly I learn. In addition to learning in class and through the Italians, I have found another very useful (and surprising) learning device: the TV.
The Ferraris always have the TV on during dinner (which is actually quite annoying. It's hard enough to focus on an Italian conversation when Italian isn't my native language. It's even harder to focus when the TV is on loudly, so there are two loud Italian conversations going on). But, when we're just sitting around before and after dinner, we'll usually watch the TV. Typically around dinner time, the news is on, followed by this Italian variety show that they love (and I wish I could tell you what it was about, but after 2 weeks, I still don't understand the point of the show, but they dance a lot. I can tell you that). The news is incredibly helpful because the language is accompanied by pictures and graphics. It is much easier for me to understand what is being said when I can watch it happening, so it's actually been a helpful way to pick up some more of the language. The other night, they were watching COPS in English, but it had Italian subtitles, so I was able to pick up all sorts of words (most of which I've already forgotten. But "crack" is apparently the same in English and Italian).
That sort of leads me to my next point: because I learn so many new words, I also forget so many new words. I'm probably exposed to at least 50 new words a day. In reality, I obviously hear more than 50 new words a day, but I probably only learn the definitions of 50 new ones. Some of them are words I don't hear for another few days, which means I forget them. Just yesterday we were working on an assignment and I didn't know a word. When I asked for the meaning, Simona told me I already knew it, I just didn't remember. I was a bit upset and frustrated with myself as I wasted time and energy trying to figure out the meaning of this word for a second time in one week.
I probably do best with grammar. Italian grammar is not difficult, and since I've always enjoyed English, it seems to come easy for me. Pronuciation, however, is not so easy for me. Perhaps it's my ugly American accent (with only a little bit of Southern in it), but I can never pronounce words correctly. I struggle with any word that has a double "r" or a "br". My tongue just can't form those sounds. And I also always put the accent on the wrong syllable. So, my teachers are constantly correcting me. I have yet to figure out a pattern or a way to decipher which syllables get the accent. Maybe one of these days it'll click.
Everyday is filled with little frustrations, but I also stop to celebrate the victories. For instance, last week, I had to go into the bank to change money. The ATMs here spit out 50s, but for some reason, some stores here won't break 50s, and everyone thinks it's quite odd if you pull out a 50. So, I headed into the bank to get 10s for my 50s. I was a bit nervous. Clay was with me, but he knows no Italian (he started in the beginner's class this Monday). We walked up to the counter, and in what I like to think was perfect Italian, I asked if we could change our money. The banker didn't correct me, didn't look at me like I was crazy, and simply asked if I wanted 10s. I said yes, please. And 30 seconds later we were back on the street. Clay turned to me and told me what a good job I had done, and I paused and realized that was the first time I had succesfully completed a transaction all in Italian. It wasn't even broken Italian, or Italian-English. It was all in Italian, and the banker understood. I was very proud.
There are other instances like that. I ordered deli meat and cheese from the butcher at the grocery store on Monday. On Sunday, between Randall and I we managed to ask for directions to every bus stop and train station necessary to get home. Every story like that gets me excited, and I realize I'll soon have more and more of those. I hope that by the end of these three months, I can write an entire blog in Italian (which will of course do you no good!).
Well, it's a chilly day here, which means it's a perfect day for a ciocolatto. Ciao! Ciao!
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Bathroom, Laundry and Heat
My hands are red and chapped right now because I just spent the last hour handwashing some laundry in the bathroom, so I've decided to dedicate this blog to all things related to the bathroom, which probably means this will be an awkward blog, but I simply cannot leave out this part if I want to really share my experiences with you.
I'll begin by explaning the bathroom. We have the largest sink I've ever seen, which is where I did my laundry. I do like the sink because unlike American sinks, you can actually get your face close to the water to wash. That's about the only thing I like the bathroom (which is why I started there).
Perhaps the most fascinating thing is the bidet. I had heard of these things before I came over, but of course had never seen one until I got here. I really don't want to have to explain what they are used for, so if you don't know, please visit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bidet. So, I finally worked up the nerve to try it out last night. I will try almost anything once over here, just for the experience. (side note: Ours is actually across the room from the toilet, which makes no sense to me). Needless to say, I think this is the weirdest invention ever, and it's one experience here I will not be repeating.
Moving on, let's discuss Italian toilets. I really don't understand, but every toilet here is different. I have yet to encounter a toilet that is the same as another one I've seen. This is quite frustrating to be perfectly honest as I sometimes spend several minutes trying to figure out how to flush the darn thing. Some toilets have flush buttons on the back of the toilet, others are on the wall, some are actually camoflauged on the top of the toilet so you can't see it. On some toilets, you must hold the handle down for 10 seconds, for others three, and others you don't hold it down at all. Again, it makes no sense to me.
Now the shower situation. Our shower is very interesting (and again, it's not like other showers I've seen). The ceiling for the shower is very short. Now I'm not the tallest girl in the world at 5'4", and there is only about 3 inches between my head and the shower ceiling. I have no idea how taller people (which there's not too many here in Sicily) manage a shower like this one. Furthermore, the spout is even lower, so it's always a maneuvering game each evening. And the tub itself slopes up everywhere. My shower back home is flat. This one has a strip down the middle about 4 inches wide that is flat. Once you get on either side of those four inches, the tub slopes up, and I'll slip and fall. So essentially when I take a shower, I can only stand in one location, praying the water eventually hits me everywhere. It's very difficult.
Now I'll briefly explain the laundry situation. I have to pay my host family in order to do laundry, and it's 5 euro each time, so I prefer to just wash it myself, which is what I did today for the first time. In an hour, I only managed to wash two pairs of jeans, 10 pairs of underwear and three shirts. It's a bit frustrating, but really my only option (plus, it'd be weird for my host family to have to handle my personal items . . .). Once I finished washing, I then I have to try and hang it. No one here has a dryer. They all just hang their clothes out to dry, so everyone's underwear is just fluttering in the breeze over the streets. There is only a small line outside the window of one of the rooms on my floor, so only my jeans fit, which means everything else is drying in front of heaters or on heaters, which makes me wonder if they might catch fire, but surely if they're wet, they should be fine. Plus, the heaters here are different, which brings me to my last topic.
The weather here is very nice, so there isn't a need for the heat to be on all day, every day. Our family turns the heat on on our floor usually between 2 and 4 p.m., and it's turned off again before they go to bed. Sometimes they forget, and in that case, we freeze until dinner. Unlike heaters in America that give off hot air, these heaters are really just big rocks that heat up. So, it takes a while for the room to actually heat up. Normally when I'm cold, I climb under my covers, or just go stand against the giant rock. And because it's like a stone, I don't think my underwear will catch fire (plus my roommates have used the same drying method with no problems).
Ok, the school is closing so I must end this awkward post. But again, I simply could not leave Italy without explaining all this to you! Ciao, Ciao!
I'll begin by explaning the bathroom. We have the largest sink I've ever seen, which is where I did my laundry. I do like the sink because unlike American sinks, you can actually get your face close to the water to wash. That's about the only thing I like the bathroom (which is why I started there).
Perhaps the most fascinating thing is the bidet. I had heard of these things before I came over, but of course had never seen one until I got here. I really don't want to have to explain what they are used for, so if you don't know, please visit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bidet. So, I finally worked up the nerve to try it out last night. I will try almost anything once over here, just for the experience. (side note: Ours is actually across the room from the toilet, which makes no sense to me). Needless to say, I think this is the weirdest invention ever, and it's one experience here I will not be repeating.
Moving on, let's discuss Italian toilets. I really don't understand, but every toilet here is different. I have yet to encounter a toilet that is the same as another one I've seen. This is quite frustrating to be perfectly honest as I sometimes spend several minutes trying to figure out how to flush the darn thing. Some toilets have flush buttons on the back of the toilet, others are on the wall, some are actually camoflauged on the top of the toilet so you can't see it. On some toilets, you must hold the handle down for 10 seconds, for others three, and others you don't hold it down at all. Again, it makes no sense to me.
Now the shower situation. Our shower is very interesting (and again, it's not like other showers I've seen). The ceiling for the shower is very short. Now I'm not the tallest girl in the world at 5'4", and there is only about 3 inches between my head and the shower ceiling. I have no idea how taller people (which there's not too many here in Sicily) manage a shower like this one. Furthermore, the spout is even lower, so it's always a maneuvering game each evening. And the tub itself slopes up everywhere. My shower back home is flat. This one has a strip down the middle about 4 inches wide that is flat. Once you get on either side of those four inches, the tub slopes up, and I'll slip and fall. So essentially when I take a shower, I can only stand in one location, praying the water eventually hits me everywhere. It's very difficult.
Now I'll briefly explain the laundry situation. I have to pay my host family in order to do laundry, and it's 5 euro each time, so I prefer to just wash it myself, which is what I did today for the first time. In an hour, I only managed to wash two pairs of jeans, 10 pairs of underwear and three shirts. It's a bit frustrating, but really my only option (plus, it'd be weird for my host family to have to handle my personal items . . .). Once I finished washing, I then I have to try and hang it. No one here has a dryer. They all just hang their clothes out to dry, so everyone's underwear is just fluttering in the breeze over the streets. There is only a small line outside the window of one of the rooms on my floor, so only my jeans fit, which means everything else is drying in front of heaters or on heaters, which makes me wonder if they might catch fire, but surely if they're wet, they should be fine. Plus, the heaters here are different, which brings me to my last topic.
The weather here is very nice, so there isn't a need for the heat to be on all day, every day. Our family turns the heat on on our floor usually between 2 and 4 p.m., and it's turned off again before they go to bed. Sometimes they forget, and in that case, we freeze until dinner. Unlike heaters in America that give off hot air, these heaters are really just big rocks that heat up. So, it takes a while for the room to actually heat up. Normally when I'm cold, I climb under my covers, or just go stand against the giant rock. And because it's like a stone, I don't think my underwear will catch fire (plus my roommates have used the same drying method with no problems).
Ok, the school is closing so I must end this awkward post. But again, I simply could not leave Italy without explaining all this to you! Ciao, Ciao!
Monday, January 21, 2008
The Volcano Climb
I hope everyone had a fantastic weekend! I've heard the South got some snow, and I must say I'm quite glad I missed it. The weather here has been amazing, and I spent my Saturday climbing a volcano! But before I get to that, let me direct you to another Web site where I will be posting pictures.
Go to www.dropshots.com/sebrock. When you get to this Web site, click on Isola Vulcano under "Albums" to view pictures from the volcano I climbed this weekend. I would not view the pictures "By date" as they upload in a random order. I will continue to post other pictures as I get a chance, but they don't upload incredibly fast, and I must rely on Clay's computer to upload them. I will work more on that this week, but hopefully these can at least give you some idea of what the volcano was like. OK, now for my weekend:
Last Thursday, I heard of a few other students who were headed to isole eolie - the islands north of Sicilia (for a map, which may be needed after reading this entry, visit http://www.eoliearcipelago.it/cartaisoleeolie.gif). So, the trip sounded really exciting as it involved seeing active volcanoes. I should pause here and note that Taormina is right by Mt. Etna, which is an active volcano. In fact, from where I sit now, I can see the snow-capped Etna glistening in the sunshine. We will definitely be taking a trip there at some point, and I will be getting some pictures of that at some point as well. Anyways, after hearing rumors of this adventure, I was trying to plot ways to get myself invited along. Thankfully, the other students are so nice, that they invited Clay and I to go.
Saturday morning at 6:30 a.m. we left Taormina in a rental car. Our group consisted of myself and Clay, Alisia (my housemate who was born a Swiss, and now lives in Uraguay), Christoff (who is swiss), and Randall (and Australian who is also Clay's housemate). Christoff was driving as he is used to these insane roads apparently. In the car, we drove up to Milazzo. It was a gorgeous drive and we were fortunate enough to watch the sun rise over various small Sicilian towns. Once in Milazzo, we took a ferry to Isola Vulcano. Essentially the entire island is a volcano, but there are some houses, shops and restaurants.
We stopped at a grocery store and purchased food for sandwiches, and then we headed up the volcano. It took about two hours to get to the top. The men walked much quicker, but Alisia and I took our time, stopped for breaks, and snapped lots of photos (I took 250 photos on Isola Vulcano alone). Saturday was the first time in my life I've ever regretted not listening in Geology. The rock formations were incredible, and I actually really enjoyed looking at the crevices lava flows have made over the years.
Near the top, there is a helicopter landing pad, and from there, you can see down into the crater, which was smoking while we were there. It looked incredible, and the sulfur smell was somehow cool as well. I did take a picture right in front of the smoke, and I think I probably took a few years off of my life breathing in the sulfur for that quick minute.
From the helicopter landing pad, we walked another 30 minutes to the very top, and then we headed back down and had lunch on the pad. As we ate, Randall made the comment about how odd the entire situation was. Here we were, five foreigners who didn't know each other last week, and we were having lunch on top of a volcano. It was a pretty awesome experience to say the least.
We trekked back down the volcano, which was much easier than going up. We only had to make sure we didn't slip and fall down the entire mountain. We reached the port and relaxed on the beach until the ferry came. The sand on the beach is black, from all the ash I suppose, but it still feels like sand. We then took the ferry from Isola Vulcano to Stromboli.
Stromboli is a much larger volcano, and I believe more active. The last eruption was February of last year. There are villages on two sides of the volcano. While on the ferry, Christoff found us a place to stay at this very nice couple's house. They had two rooms, and enough beds for all of us. It was bizarre though how easy it seemed to find a place to stay. As we got off the ferry, Christoff just turned to us and said he had found a place to stay (thankfully he is fluent in Italian - and about a million other languages). We spoke with the family for awhile while Christoff set off to find a guide to take us up Stromboli. He wanted to see at night, but we couldn't go up Saturday night.
We did walk about an hour up to get to a viewing point where we could supposedly see some activity. It took us about an hour, in the dark, to get to this point. Along the way, we met up with three American navy men, who are based outside of Catania. So the eight of us walked up to this point, but it was a cloudy night, so we didn't see anything. We did, however, hear a rumble. It sounded like thunder, but you could tell it came from the volcano. Then the eight of us shared a bottle of wine the family had given us to take up.
When we got back down to the town, we ate at the only restaurant open, and we had a marvelous time! On Sunday, Randall, Clay and I walked around Stromboli for awhile, and had again made lunch from the supermarket. It was interesting to talk with the family with whom we stayed. We asked them what they do when the volcano erupts, and Anna (the woman), said they don't worry about it. Apparently when it erupts, the sea gets so rough, that the ferries can't come, so everyone just sits around and waits it out apparently. When we walked around the town, we saw signs that pointed people into the direction to a "waiting area" in the event of a volcano. I suppose they all chill in their homes, or run to this piazza and hope the lava flows around them. But Anna was really not concerned, and they've lived through several eruptions, so I suppose it works. But I could never live on an active volcano - I would be too nervous.
Christoff was very set on hiking up Stromboli at night, so he and Alisia decided to stay another day. So Randall, Clay and I left Stromboli at 3:45 p.m. on a Ferry. I say this is when the real adventure begins! The ferry took two hours to get to Milazzo (we had to stop at every island along the way). So we got to Milazzo a little before 6 p.m. We then took the bus from Milazzo to Messina, but the bus didn't leave until 6:45, and it stopped at several stops on the way out of town. By the time we got to Messina, it was about 8:30 p.m., and there were no more buses to Taormina (The Sunday bus schedule is a bit different from the week). So, we took the last train to Taormina, but it really only goes to Noxos, which is the town below us. We arrived in Noxos at 9:45 p.m., and of course, there were no more buses up to Taormina, so we walked. Up steps. For 30 minutes. At night. After an exhausting weekend. Thankfully, there was a full moon, and the thought of my warm bed and a warm shower at the Ferrari's house kept me going.
Needless to say, after this weekend, I slept well last night. To see pictures from the trip, visit the Web site above. I know this has been a long blog, so I will end it now! Ciao Ciao!
Go to www.dropshots.com/sebrock. When you get to this Web site, click on Isola Vulcano under "Albums" to view pictures from the volcano I climbed this weekend. I would not view the pictures "By date" as they upload in a random order. I will continue to post other pictures as I get a chance, but they don't upload incredibly fast, and I must rely on Clay's computer to upload them. I will work more on that this week, but hopefully these can at least give you some idea of what the volcano was like. OK, now for my weekend:
Last Thursday, I heard of a few other students who were headed to isole eolie - the islands north of Sicilia (for a map, which may be needed after reading this entry, visit http://www.eoliearcipelago.it/cartaisoleeolie.gif). So, the trip sounded really exciting as it involved seeing active volcanoes. I should pause here and note that Taormina is right by Mt. Etna, which is an active volcano. In fact, from where I sit now, I can see the snow-capped Etna glistening in the sunshine. We will definitely be taking a trip there at some point, and I will be getting some pictures of that at some point as well. Anyways, after hearing rumors of this adventure, I was trying to plot ways to get myself invited along. Thankfully, the other students are so nice, that they invited Clay and I to go.
Saturday morning at 6:30 a.m. we left Taormina in a rental car. Our group consisted of myself and Clay, Alisia (my housemate who was born a Swiss, and now lives in Uraguay), Christoff (who is swiss), and Randall (and Australian who is also Clay's housemate). Christoff was driving as he is used to these insane roads apparently. In the car, we drove up to Milazzo. It was a gorgeous drive and we were fortunate enough to watch the sun rise over various small Sicilian towns. Once in Milazzo, we took a ferry to Isola Vulcano. Essentially the entire island is a volcano, but there are some houses, shops and restaurants.
We stopped at a grocery store and purchased food for sandwiches, and then we headed up the volcano. It took about two hours to get to the top. The men walked much quicker, but Alisia and I took our time, stopped for breaks, and snapped lots of photos (I took 250 photos on Isola Vulcano alone). Saturday was the first time in my life I've ever regretted not listening in Geology. The rock formations were incredible, and I actually really enjoyed looking at the crevices lava flows have made over the years.
Near the top, there is a helicopter landing pad, and from there, you can see down into the crater, which was smoking while we were there. It looked incredible, and the sulfur smell was somehow cool as well. I did take a picture right in front of the smoke, and I think I probably took a few years off of my life breathing in the sulfur for that quick minute.
From the helicopter landing pad, we walked another 30 minutes to the very top, and then we headed back down and had lunch on the pad. As we ate, Randall made the comment about how odd the entire situation was. Here we were, five foreigners who didn't know each other last week, and we were having lunch on top of a volcano. It was a pretty awesome experience to say the least.
We trekked back down the volcano, which was much easier than going up. We only had to make sure we didn't slip and fall down the entire mountain. We reached the port and relaxed on the beach until the ferry came. The sand on the beach is black, from all the ash I suppose, but it still feels like sand. We then took the ferry from Isola Vulcano to Stromboli.
Stromboli is a much larger volcano, and I believe more active. The last eruption was February of last year. There are villages on two sides of the volcano. While on the ferry, Christoff found us a place to stay at this very nice couple's house. They had two rooms, and enough beds for all of us. It was bizarre though how easy it seemed to find a place to stay. As we got off the ferry, Christoff just turned to us and said he had found a place to stay (thankfully he is fluent in Italian - and about a million other languages). We spoke with the family for awhile while Christoff set off to find a guide to take us up Stromboli. He wanted to see at night, but we couldn't go up Saturday night.
We did walk about an hour up to get to a viewing point where we could supposedly see some activity. It took us about an hour, in the dark, to get to this point. Along the way, we met up with three American navy men, who are based outside of Catania. So the eight of us walked up to this point, but it was a cloudy night, so we didn't see anything. We did, however, hear a rumble. It sounded like thunder, but you could tell it came from the volcano. Then the eight of us shared a bottle of wine the family had given us to take up.
When we got back down to the town, we ate at the only restaurant open, and we had a marvelous time! On Sunday, Randall, Clay and I walked around Stromboli for awhile, and had again made lunch from the supermarket. It was interesting to talk with the family with whom we stayed. We asked them what they do when the volcano erupts, and Anna (the woman), said they don't worry about it. Apparently when it erupts, the sea gets so rough, that the ferries can't come, so everyone just sits around and waits it out apparently. When we walked around the town, we saw signs that pointed people into the direction to a "waiting area" in the event of a volcano. I suppose they all chill in their homes, or run to this piazza and hope the lava flows around them. But Anna was really not concerned, and they've lived through several eruptions, so I suppose it works. But I could never live on an active volcano - I would be too nervous.
Christoff was very set on hiking up Stromboli at night, so he and Alisia decided to stay another day. So Randall, Clay and I left Stromboli at 3:45 p.m. on a Ferry. I say this is when the real adventure begins! The ferry took two hours to get to Milazzo (we had to stop at every island along the way). So we got to Milazzo a little before 6 p.m. We then took the bus from Milazzo to Messina, but the bus didn't leave until 6:45, and it stopped at several stops on the way out of town. By the time we got to Messina, it was about 8:30 p.m., and there were no more buses to Taormina (The Sunday bus schedule is a bit different from the week). So, we took the last train to Taormina, but it really only goes to Noxos, which is the town below us. We arrived in Noxos at 9:45 p.m., and of course, there were no more buses up to Taormina, so we walked. Up steps. For 30 minutes. At night. After an exhausting weekend. Thankfully, there was a full moon, and the thought of my warm bed and a warm shower at the Ferrari's house kept me going.
Needless to say, after this weekend, I slept well last night. To see pictures from the trip, visit the Web site above. I know this has been a long blog, so I will end it now! Ciao Ciao!
Friday, January 18, 2008
One week down!
Hello everyone! First let me start by a quick vent/apology. I have no control over the design of this blog. I cannot move anything around, and apparently I can't change a lot of the settings, I can't indent paragraphs, and there is no good way to upload photos without making the entire think look like a mess! As a journalism major, this is driving me insane. Everything on the blog looks terrible design-wise, but there is nothing I can do.
Ok, onto Italian things. I thought I would share about my classes here because the structure is very different from anything I've ever experienced. I attend Babilonia, which is a language institute. We have students from all over the world who come to study Italian very intensively, usually only for a few weeks. In fact, Clay (the other Auburn student) and I are the only ones here for such a long time. The classes are small. This week, there have been about 20 students at the school, but a group of 11 students from George Mason University leave tomorrow, as will a few other students, so there will only be 6 of us next week.
I am studying language, so I do four hours of Italian language every day (as does everyone else). Later in the semester, Clay and I will begin a culture class (which technically began at our arrival, but we will receive formal lectures later). We spend two hours a day on grammar and another two hours on conversation. The grammar portion of the day is more formalized. We do homework (only one worksheet a day), and they are stricter about pronounciation and sentence structure. During the conversation portion, it is more informal, with the goal being to simply speak in Italian and improve our vocabulary. I enjoy the conversation portion more. Right now, most of the grammar concepts are review for me as I was placed in the beginner class (I've already taken one semester back home of Italian).
At the end of every week, you change teachers and classes. If you progressed enough, you move up, if not, you stay where you are. The good thing about changing teachers is you get to meet all the teachers, and if you decide you don't like one, you're only stuck with them for a week (although Clay and I are here for so long, we will have all of them probably several times). This week I had Anita and Simona, who were both very very nice, and class was fun.
We usually have class from 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. with a 20 minute break between classes. However, if there are less than three students in a class, you don't go for the whole four hours. If there are two students, you do three hours, and if there is only one student, you only do two hours. This week there were three students in my class, and there will three next week as well, so I will go the full four hours.
The classes are taught all in Italian. When I don't understand something or don't know the meaning of a word, I have to ask in Italian, and then the teacher will see if another student understands. If another knows what is going on, or the definition of the word, whatever the case may be, he/she must try to explain it in Italian. This can be incredibly funny/frustrating at my level when I don't know much vocabulary to help explain anything! But it's a good way to get better at it.
I hope that explains the classes and the school a little bit. One interesting thing is that we are some of the youngest students. All the other students are older. They came here on their vacations from their jobs to learn Italian. I told my mom that she could have come over and learned with me! (There is in fact an American family of three here right now, but they leave tomorrow as well).
I have officially finished my first week here, which feels good. I know that time will go faster the longer I'm here, although this week did seem to take awhile, and there were moments when I wondered what on earth I was doing here.
I think I've decided to end each week by retelling any funny misunderstandings I had with the language (hopefully I have some each week, but I'm sure I will). I have three for this week:
1. At a restaurant on Wednesday, I was ready to ask for the bill (you have to ask here or else they just assume you want to hang out for another two hours like the Italians do). I was very proud of myself because I knew the verbs and the sentence structure. So when the waiter walked by I asked if we could have "il contorno." He looked at me as if I was crazy before he caught on, and he said "il conto?". Hmm. Si, Si. Il conto. The difference? Il contorno is a side dish, and il conto is a bill. I had just asked for a side dish at the end of our meal.
2. In class earlier this week we were reading a sentence that had the phrase "un bagno in piscina." I knew all the words - bagno is bath and piscina is pool. But that made no sense to me. Why would you take a bath in a pool? So I asked Simona, who confirmed that the sentence in fact meant To take a bath in a pool. I looked dumbfounded, and kept repeating the phrase. Finally, I did some motions for a bath, like scrubbing myself, and Simona laughed, and said no. Apparently the phrase doesn't mean you literally take a bath in the pool. It means more like a dip or swim. Who knew.
3. And my favorite one (which my family will understand why) involved a homework assignment. The sentence said "We know 'poche persone' in Florence." Again, I knew the meanings of the words. Poche is like poco, which is little. Persone is plural for people. I literally translated it to mean We know little people in Florence. So I thought by little people, the sentence was referring to midgets. It took me about five minutes of dictionary flipping before I realized that it meant a few. We know few (or a little in amount) people. Not midgets, unfornutately, as that would have been more entertaining.
That is all for now. I realize this is a very long blog, but it'll have to last you through the weekend. We're going on a trip to a nearby active volcano, so I should have lots to share in Monday's post.
Ok, onto Italian things. I thought I would share about my classes here because the structure is very different from anything I've ever experienced. I attend Babilonia, which is a language institute. We have students from all over the world who come to study Italian very intensively, usually only for a few weeks. In fact, Clay (the other Auburn student) and I are the only ones here for such a long time. The classes are small. This week, there have been about 20 students at the school, but a group of 11 students from George Mason University leave tomorrow, as will a few other students, so there will only be 6 of us next week.
I am studying language, so I do four hours of Italian language every day (as does everyone else). Later in the semester, Clay and I will begin a culture class (which technically began at our arrival, but we will receive formal lectures later). We spend two hours a day on grammar and another two hours on conversation. The grammar portion of the day is more formalized. We do homework (only one worksheet a day), and they are stricter about pronounciation and sentence structure. During the conversation portion, it is more informal, with the goal being to simply speak in Italian and improve our vocabulary. I enjoy the conversation portion more. Right now, most of the grammar concepts are review for me as I was placed in the beginner class (I've already taken one semester back home of Italian).
At the end of every week, you change teachers and classes. If you progressed enough, you move up, if not, you stay where you are. The good thing about changing teachers is you get to meet all the teachers, and if you decide you don't like one, you're only stuck with them for a week (although Clay and I are here for so long, we will have all of them probably several times). This week I had Anita and Simona, who were both very very nice, and class was fun.
We usually have class from 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. with a 20 minute break between classes. However, if there are less than three students in a class, you don't go for the whole four hours. If there are two students, you do three hours, and if there is only one student, you only do two hours. This week there were three students in my class, and there will three next week as well, so I will go the full four hours.
The classes are taught all in Italian. When I don't understand something or don't know the meaning of a word, I have to ask in Italian, and then the teacher will see if another student understands. If another knows what is going on, or the definition of the word, whatever the case may be, he/she must try to explain it in Italian. This can be incredibly funny/frustrating at my level when I don't know much vocabulary to help explain anything! But it's a good way to get better at it.
I hope that explains the classes and the school a little bit. One interesting thing is that we are some of the youngest students. All the other students are older. They came here on their vacations from their jobs to learn Italian. I told my mom that she could have come over and learned with me! (There is in fact an American family of three here right now, but they leave tomorrow as well).
I have officially finished my first week here, which feels good. I know that time will go faster the longer I'm here, although this week did seem to take awhile, and there were moments when I wondered what on earth I was doing here.
I think I've decided to end each week by retelling any funny misunderstandings I had with the language (hopefully I have some each week, but I'm sure I will). I have three for this week:
1. At a restaurant on Wednesday, I was ready to ask for the bill (you have to ask here or else they just assume you want to hang out for another two hours like the Italians do). I was very proud of myself because I knew the verbs and the sentence structure. So when the waiter walked by I asked if we could have "il contorno." He looked at me as if I was crazy before he caught on, and he said "il conto?". Hmm. Si, Si. Il conto. The difference? Il contorno is a side dish, and il conto is a bill. I had just asked for a side dish at the end of our meal.
2. In class earlier this week we were reading a sentence that had the phrase "un bagno in piscina." I knew all the words - bagno is bath and piscina is pool. But that made no sense to me. Why would you take a bath in a pool? So I asked Simona, who confirmed that the sentence in fact meant To take a bath in a pool. I looked dumbfounded, and kept repeating the phrase. Finally, I did some motions for a bath, like scrubbing myself, and Simona laughed, and said no. Apparently the phrase doesn't mean you literally take a bath in the pool. It means more like a dip or swim. Who knew.
3. And my favorite one (which my family will understand why) involved a homework assignment. The sentence said "We know 'poche persone' in Florence." Again, I knew the meanings of the words. Poche is like poco, which is little. Persone is plural for people. I literally translated it to mean We know little people in Florence. So I thought by little people, the sentence was referring to midgets. It took me about five minutes of dictionary flipping before I realized that it meant a few. We know few (or a little in amount) people. Not midgets, unfornutately, as that would have been more entertaining.
That is all for now. I realize this is a very long blog, but it'll have to last you through the weekend. We're going on a trip to a nearby active volcano, so I should have lots to share in Monday's post.
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
La famiglia Ferrari
While in Italy, I'm staying with a family - The Ferrari family. I already told you a bit about Aurelio and Angela in the last post, but I thought I'd tell you a bit more about them. They are very nice people. Both are retired, and they speak English, which is helpful, but most of the time they speak to us in Italian, and repeat in English if we don't understand.
They have three children - Paulo, Teà and Gaia. Paulo is older and doesn't live with them. Teà is 20, and she leaves Friday for Japan, where she is studying. Gaia is 17. Both girls seem really sweet. I really only see the family at dinner time. We live on the second floor of the home, and the family lives on the third and fourth floors. (Floors here are usually only one or two rooms, unlike houses in America). It's kind of like living at a bed and breakfast really. They feed us dinner and breakfast. But we don't socialize with them except at dinner really.
One huge benefit of staying with the Ferrari family is that Aurelio is a wonderful cook! He actually teaches the cooking courses here at the school. So far, we've had three nights where students have come in and cooked for us as part of their course. We eat very well here! I haven't found something I don't like at the table.
I think when I first got here, I disappointed Aurelio because I wasn't very hungry yet as my body wasn't used to this time zone. I couldn't ever eat very much, and he didn't understand. But now I clean my plate every night, and usually have seconds!
Like I said, I live on the second floor, and in addition to me, there are three others living with the Ferraris. Alicia (pronounced Elisia) is from Argentina. Michelle and Jeanette are from Virginia and are here with George Mason University. They'll leave on Saturday, and I believe we'll get two new people then. I have a room to myself. It's small, but so is my room back in Auburn. All four of us share a bathroom. In another blog I'll have to explain all the issues with the bathroom. It has been an adventure to figure out my way around the bathroom!
That is all for today. I won't update on Thursday as we're going on an afternoon trip to a nearby town, but I'll update Friday! Ciao!
They have three children - Paulo, Teà and Gaia. Paulo is older and doesn't live with them. Teà is 20, and she leaves Friday for Japan, where she is studying. Gaia is 17. Both girls seem really sweet. I really only see the family at dinner time. We live on the second floor of the home, and the family lives on the third and fourth floors. (Floors here are usually only one or two rooms, unlike houses in America). It's kind of like living at a bed and breakfast really. They feed us dinner and breakfast. But we don't socialize with them except at dinner really.
One huge benefit of staying with the Ferrari family is that Aurelio is a wonderful cook! He actually teaches the cooking courses here at the school. So far, we've had three nights where students have come in and cooked for us as part of their course. We eat very well here! I haven't found something I don't like at the table.
I think when I first got here, I disappointed Aurelio because I wasn't very hungry yet as my body wasn't used to this time zone. I couldn't ever eat very much, and he didn't understand. But now I clean my plate every night, and usually have seconds!
Like I said, I live on the second floor, and in addition to me, there are three others living with the Ferraris. Alicia (pronounced Elisia) is from Argentina. Michelle and Jeanette are from Virginia and are here with George Mason University. They'll leave on Saturday, and I believe we'll get two new people then. I have a room to myself. It's small, but so is my room back in Auburn. All four of us share a bathroom. In another blog I'll have to explain all the issues with the bathroom. It has been an adventure to figure out my way around the bathroom!
That is all for today. I won't update on Thursday as we're going on an afternoon trip to a nearby town, but I'll update Friday! Ciao!
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Aurelio's 70th Birthday!
Buon giorno!
I hope everyone is doing well back in the states. I've gotten some e-mails from folks requesting to know more about my host family, the town, classes, food, what I do, etc. I promise I will get to all that eventually. There is so much to explain and describe, and I want you to keep reading! So, on days where I don't have much to say about what I've done, I'll choose a topic and tell you more about that. But today, I have to tell you about the party we had last night at my host family's house.
I stay with la famiglia Ferrari (although they don't have anything to do with the car company). And yesterday, Aurelio, the host father, turned 70! Sidenote: He looks only 60. So there was a huge party at the house, and it was loads of fun. For those of you who have seen the first Lord of the Rings movie, it reminded me of the scene where Bilbo Baggins has his birthday party.
The Ferraris invited over about 35 people, mainly family. The party happened on the terrace, which is actually enclosed, and has a separate kitchen. I'm amazed we all fit into the terrace as it's only the size of a normal living room back in the states.
Aurelio and Angela, my host mother, had been cooking since Sunday to get ready. And there was so much food, and it was all amazing. Everyone was incredibly nice, and a few people even ventured to speak to us (some in English, some in Italian). Sidenote: Right now there are four of us staying with the Ferraris, so at least I have some company when I don't understand what's being said.
So we all ate a bunch. Don't ask me what I ate. I usually don't know what I'm eating; I just know it's good! The whole place was loud and fun, and we had a huge cake that was also excellent. There was also the obligatory kid who was misbehaving the whole time and always trying to be in pictures, help with the cake, blow out the candles, etc. It wasn't much different from a large American family reunion, except for the language.
When Aurelio blew out the candles (they only put on 7), they set off firecrackers and sparklers from a window in the terrace. They had actually placed the sparklers in some plants, so I'm quite amazed the whole place didn't catch fire!
One thing that did amaze me was that they played lots of music, and most of it was American! And they all knew the words too. It was a bit odd to see a bunch of Italians singing along getting into Cindy Lauper, Johnny Cash, Frank Sinatra, and the Beach Boys!
There weren't people dancing really, but it was fun to watch Aurelio open some of his presents and just enjoy the company of his family. The party didn't end until about midnight (it didn't start until 9 p.m. actually), and I have to say I don't think we would ever have such a huge party on a weeknight in America. But it was fun.
I apologize for the lack of pictures right now. Apparently on blogspot, I can upload photos, but they are placed in the blog, instead of in a separate album, which I don't think I like. Furthermore, it takes forever to upload. So, I will most likely end up only putting a few photos up here, and directing you to another Web site where you can see lots of photos if you like. That is something I will have to work on later in the week.
That is all for now! Ciao!
I hope everyone is doing well back in the states. I've gotten some e-mails from folks requesting to know more about my host family, the town, classes, food, what I do, etc. I promise I will get to all that eventually. There is so much to explain and describe, and I want you to keep reading! So, on days where I don't have much to say about what I've done, I'll choose a topic and tell you more about that. But today, I have to tell you about the party we had last night at my host family's house.
I stay with la famiglia Ferrari (although they don't have anything to do with the car company). And yesterday, Aurelio, the host father, turned 70! Sidenote: He looks only 60. So there was a huge party at the house, and it was loads of fun. For those of you who have seen the first Lord of the Rings movie, it reminded me of the scene where Bilbo Baggins has his birthday party.
The Ferraris invited over about 35 people, mainly family. The party happened on the terrace, which is actually enclosed, and has a separate kitchen. I'm amazed we all fit into the terrace as it's only the size of a normal living room back in the states.
Aurelio and Angela, my host mother, had been cooking since Sunday to get ready. And there was so much food, and it was all amazing. Everyone was incredibly nice, and a few people even ventured to speak to us (some in English, some in Italian). Sidenote: Right now there are four of us staying with the Ferraris, so at least I have some company when I don't understand what's being said.
So we all ate a bunch. Don't ask me what I ate. I usually don't know what I'm eating; I just know it's good! The whole place was loud and fun, and we had a huge cake that was also excellent. There was also the obligatory kid who was misbehaving the whole time and always trying to be in pictures, help with the cake, blow out the candles, etc. It wasn't much different from a large American family reunion, except for the language.
When Aurelio blew out the candles (they only put on 7), they set off firecrackers and sparklers from a window in the terrace. They had actually placed the sparklers in some plants, so I'm quite amazed the whole place didn't catch fire!
One thing that did amaze me was that they played lots of music, and most of it was American! And they all knew the words too. It was a bit odd to see a bunch of Italians singing along getting into Cindy Lauper, Johnny Cash, Frank Sinatra, and the Beach Boys!
There weren't people dancing really, but it was fun to watch Aurelio open some of his presents and just enjoy the company of his family. The party didn't end until about midnight (it didn't start until 9 p.m. actually), and I have to say I don't think we would ever have such a huge party on a weeknight in America. But it was fun.
I apologize for the lack of pictures right now. Apparently on blogspot, I can upload photos, but they are placed in the blog, instead of in a separate album, which I don't think I like. Furthermore, it takes forever to upload. So, I will most likely end up only putting a few photos up here, and directing you to another Web site where you can see lots of photos if you like. That is something I will have to work on later in the week.
That is all for now! Ciao!
Monday, January 14, 2008
Ciao!
Ciao!
I arrived in Taormina four days ago, and am just now getting around to type this. For those of you who don't know, I will be in Taormina for 3 months (or 12 weeks as I like to say). I am taking 9 hours of language courses at Babilonia, a language institute. I came over here with one other person from Auburn - Clay, and I'm very thankful I know at least someone!
Thursday was a long day for us, and I've never been on a plane for 9 hours straight before. Somehow it was exhausting just sitting there. We flew from Atlanta to Milan and then caught a connecting flight to Catania, which is only an hour away from Taormina. A car was sent to pick us up, and we rode to Taormina. I thought I would have a heart attack on the drive over as apparently Italians have their own unique way of driving. We were on a two-lane highway, yet sometimes there were three cars across. No one likes to stay in between the lines, and they speed up and slow down whenever they feel like it. They also don't like to use their turn signals unless of course they aren't turning. Then, the left blinker must always be on. But we arrived in one piece.
We were shown around Taormina on Friday and Saturday I went with some other students on a school excursion to Siracusa, a nearby city. We saw a teatro greco (greek theater) and a grotto. Plus, we walked through a fresh air market, which was lots of fun.
On Sunday we walked down to the beach at Taormina, which is a mere 593 steps down from where we live. I should be in excellent shape when I get home since I walk everywhere. I've probably walked at least 3 miles a day, and this place is hilly.
Taormina is a very small town, and I'm not quite sure what I will do with myself every afternoon for the rest of my time here. I've already finished one of my three books, so hopefully boredom doesn't set in. I know that sounds odd since I'm in Italy, but this place is smaller than Auburn, so really, there's not much to do.
Everything moves kinda slow around here. No one is in a hurry, and restaurants can take forever. All the stores close from 2:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. for siesta, which I plan on taking later this afternoon. The stores open back up at 4:30 (or whenever the owner arrives), and between 5 p.m. and 7 p.m., everyone in Taormina comes to Corso Umberto (the main street) and walks up and down it. It's quite a phenonemon. And I'm not kidding either. Everyone and their brother go out for the evening stroll. And the whole town just walks up and down the street (it's about a mile long), and they'll occasionally go into a store and buy something, or stop for some gelato (ice cream) or a drink at a bar (bars at open during the day, and some are open at night, but not late like in the states). When we met an Italian at the beach on Sunday, he asked us if we went to il Corso, to just hang out. Well, I suppose now I do. There's really nothing else to do but cruise down the Corso, so it will probably become part of my nightly ritual as well.
That is probably enough information for now. I will try to update as often as possible, or as interesting things happen. I hope to take some pictures this afternoon and upload them to the blog as well! Ciao!
I arrived in Taormina four days ago, and am just now getting around to type this. For those of you who don't know, I will be in Taormina for 3 months (or 12 weeks as I like to say). I am taking 9 hours of language courses at Babilonia, a language institute. I came over here with one other person from Auburn - Clay, and I'm very thankful I know at least someone!
Thursday was a long day for us, and I've never been on a plane for 9 hours straight before. Somehow it was exhausting just sitting there. We flew from Atlanta to Milan and then caught a connecting flight to Catania, which is only an hour away from Taormina. A car was sent to pick us up, and we rode to Taormina. I thought I would have a heart attack on the drive over as apparently Italians have their own unique way of driving. We were on a two-lane highway, yet sometimes there were three cars across. No one likes to stay in between the lines, and they speed up and slow down whenever they feel like it. They also don't like to use their turn signals unless of course they aren't turning. Then, the left blinker must always be on. But we arrived in one piece.
We were shown around Taormina on Friday and Saturday I went with some other students on a school excursion to Siracusa, a nearby city. We saw a teatro greco (greek theater) and a grotto. Plus, we walked through a fresh air market, which was lots of fun.
On Sunday we walked down to the beach at Taormina, which is a mere 593 steps down from where we live. I should be in excellent shape when I get home since I walk everywhere. I've probably walked at least 3 miles a day, and this place is hilly.
Taormina is a very small town, and I'm not quite sure what I will do with myself every afternoon for the rest of my time here. I've already finished one of my three books, so hopefully boredom doesn't set in. I know that sounds odd since I'm in Italy, but this place is smaller than Auburn, so really, there's not much to do.
Everything moves kinda slow around here. No one is in a hurry, and restaurants can take forever. All the stores close from 2:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. for siesta, which I plan on taking later this afternoon. The stores open back up at 4:30 (or whenever the owner arrives), and between 5 p.m. and 7 p.m., everyone in Taormina comes to Corso Umberto (the main street) and walks up and down it. It's quite a phenonemon. And I'm not kidding either. Everyone and their brother go out for the evening stroll. And the whole town just walks up and down the street (it's about a mile long), and they'll occasionally go into a store and buy something, or stop for some gelato (ice cream) or a drink at a bar (bars at open during the day, and some are open at night, but not late like in the states). When we met an Italian at the beach on Sunday, he asked us if we went to il Corso, to just hang out. Well, I suppose now I do. There's really nothing else to do but cruise down the Corso, so it will probably become part of my nightly ritual as well.
That is probably enough information for now. I will try to update as often as possible, or as interesting things happen. I hope to take some pictures this afternoon and upload them to the blog as well! Ciao!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)