The British Are Coming! The British Are Coming!

Ciao ragazzi!

It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood! I'm wearing short sleeves for the first time today, and I'm very excited. Interestingly enough, my teacher thought I was crazy and she had on a sweater today. I do have to watch out a bit for the sun, though. I don't burn easily, but the sun feels more intense here, especially since it's usually reflecting off the ocean and the snow on Etna (or "The Etna," as they say here). So, I have a few random topics to blog about today that really don't go together, but perhaps don't deserve their own blog, so here goes:

I don't know what happened two days ago, but it's like we've had an explosion of English speakers (not just British, but American and Australian too). Once I leave the school, I hear more English than I hear Italian, which is driving me crazy! You have to understand that about 80% of the time, I don't comprehend what's going on around me. As I walk down the street, it's very difficult to understand the conversations of the Italians. This means that most of the time, I'm off in my own world, my own head (it can sometimes be a scary thing to be left in your own head for awhile). So most of the time, everything sounds like background noise to me when I'm in the streets and in shops. I only understand Italian when I'm in the middle of a conversation, or paying attention to something. It's virtually impossible to pick up bits and pieces of conversations here and there when I don't know the language that well.

So here I am, in my own little quiet world, when two days ago, the English speakers descended to Taormina. Now as I walk down the streets, their conversations are constantly intruding into my thoughts as I can actually understand what's being said without even trying. As soon as I hear something, I turn around to see where that English came from. And then two seconds later I'll hear someone else speaking English. It's very bizarre, and I really wish they'd all go away, although I realize that in fact, we'll only be seeing more English-speakers. I guess the upside is that Clay and I like to try and trick other English speakers and make them believe we're Italian. So we'll often speak Italian to each other when other Americans/English are around us. I guess we'll only be speaking to each other in Italian from here on out.

Next random thought: marzipan! I tried marzipan for the first time Tuesday. It's a Sicilian sweet - actually it's an Italian treat that was taken from the Arabs. It is one of the few sweets I hadn't yet tried until we had our culture class on it this week. Anyways, marzipan is made from almond oil and sugar. That's it, so basically it's pure sugar. In Sicily, they shape the marzipan into fruit shapes and then paint it with food coloring. I'll have to take a picture to show you sometime, but in all the shops here we see very colorful marzipan "fruits." I think it's a bit ironic they chose to make the marzipan look like fruit since it's about the most unhealthy thing you could possibly eat. Other places shape the marzipan into little animals, especially around Easter time, but I have yet to see little animals in Taormina.

As if I haven't said it enough, I absolutely love Sicilian sweets. I'm probably turning myself into a diabetic actually with as much sweets as I eat here. I never eat this much sweets back home, but they are just so good here!! Despite my love for sweets, though, I'm not a fan of marzipan. It's not horrible, but it's pure sugar!! It's like cotton candy, except it's more solid and about twice as sugary. I can't even think of anything close to it in the states. I do like the marzipan on cassatta siciliana, though. They use sheets of marzipan on wedding cakes and other cakes. The cassatta has a thin layer of it for icing, so it's not overpowering like the fruits are.

The shop we visited to try the marzipan was a cute, small shop. They consider people who make the marzipan to be real artists. We didn't get to actually see the man make any, but he explained it to us some and we tried some. I had a "fig" and some other form of marzipan not in the shape of a fruit. The guy was excited once he found out we were from the states because Bill Clinton came into this shop once while he was president!! He then sent him a thank-you note with the presidential seal on it, and the guy has it displayed front and center on the display window. I wonder what Bill Clinton was doing in Taormina . . .

So, that's marzipan. Onto something else in Taormina I hadn't done until yesterday: visit Teatro Greco. I had put it off for quite sometime as I didn't want to rush around Taormina and see everything right away. I figured if I left a few things until later, I wouldn't feel like I had seen everything. Plus, I could perhaps appreciate it more.

So I finally went yesterday since we had gorgeous weather. I've seen one other greek theater in Sicily, and that was in Siracusa (Syracuse). I think this one is more impressive in Taormina. It's very much still intact. And the view on all sides is magnificent. From the back of the theater, I could see the beach and the ocean. From the front, I could see Etna, Taormina and Castelmola. I spent the afternoon there, just relaxing and listening to music. As students here, we get in free, so if the weather stays nice, I can go as often as I like.

The only downside to the theater is the tour groups - both outside tourists and Italian school groups from nearby. The theater has great acoustics still, so as the groups of school-aged children come in and out, it gets very loud, even when I'm sitting on the other side of the theater.

So my last random topic of the day: The Influenza. I had completely forgotten about this until today, so I better blog about it now before I forget. The Sicilians are a bit dramatic when it comes to illnesses. Everything is The Influenza.

Back in February, a classmate of mine got sick the same time I did. He was out of school for a few days and the teachers told us he had The Influenza. I got really worried since I was starting to get sick, thinking maybe I had caught it from him. All I had was a little cold, but when I told the teachers I didn't feel well, they asked if I had The Influenza. I said no, just a cold, but they would repeat that I had The Influenza. When my classmate, Tomohiro, returned I told him I was sorry he had gotten the flu. He looked at me like I was crazy and said he only had a little cold. I was reminded of this today when my teacher told me she didn't feel too well. She didn't have any blatant symptoms of even a cold, yet she called it The Influenza. I swear every illness here is considered the flu! If you just feel a little off, you have The Influenza!

The flu in the states is something that really knocks you out for like a week. It's more than just a runny nose and a headache. Not here. If just sneeze accidentally, they immediately think you've got the flu. They do love the dramatics here. I've also heard that when you go to the pharmacy, the pharmacists give you like 8 different medications. (I've never been, so I can't confirm this). One for your cough, one for your runny nose, one for the headache, one for the fever, one for the stomach, one for the sore throat, one for the congestion, etc, etc. Anyways, I think it's quite hilarious and now I find it hard not to laugh when someone tells me they have The Influenza.

Ok, Basta! (Enough!) Ciao ciao!