Driving, McDonalds and moving

Ciao!

So after touring other Italian cities for eight days, I have to say I returned to Sicily with new eyes! I thought I would just explain some differences between northern Italy and the island, but first I'll talk about the Sunday we returned (March 2, which seems so so long ago).

By the time we got on the plane to head back to Sicilia, I was ready to be back in the place where I've made my home for two months. When we landed in Sicily, the weather was in the 70s! How nice to be back! Miraculously, the bus at the airport was on time, early even, and we started to think that a lot had changed since we'd been gone. I think we just got lucky in riding at least one bus that was on time in Sicily.

Taormina is really a different town, as I said yesterday. When we got back, there were loads of tourists, and shops that we hadn't even seen because the doors have been closed. It was nice to get back to the people we know as well. Aurelio and Angela were excited to see me, as was Salo who gave me a huge Ciao! when I walked by the Osteria. And I already told you about Martina who immediately lit up when we went into her bar for a real Sicilian treat!

My excitement quickly decreased, though, when I got some bad news. I found out Sunday when I got back that I would have to move out of the Ferrari house. I'm moving out this Sunday because they leave for vacation next week. They'll be gone for two weeks to Japan, but I'll be moving in with a new family for the last three weeks as it doesn't make much sense for me to have to move twice, especially just for that last week. I'm moving in with Clay's family, actually, Elsa and Ninni. I've met them before, and they're very nice people, but let's be honest here . . .Clay and I see enough of each other! But Elsa is also supposedly a very good cook, so I'll still eat well!!!

I was quite upset when I found out, for many reasons. I really like them, number one. I'm also a routine kind of person, and I've settled in and made a routine here, and now I have to move and establish a new routine and re-adjust to life here for my last three weeks. And I've enjoyed not having to share the family with too many other students. When I move in with Elsa and Ninni, there will be Clay and then two other Americans there as well. It will be like Attack of the Americans really. I also, unfortunately, had to hear about the move from Clay. I was a bit upset that he knew before I did. The Ferraris didn't even tell me - I had to wait for the school to tell me. After a week of thinking about it, though, I'm OK with it (what choice did I have really). I'll have the opportunity to experience a different family and see which things are unique to different families. Plus, it'll be different cooking, and Ninni makes his own limoncello, which I'll get to try!

Anyways, enough about that. Some general observations from the trip:

1. Life in the northern part of Italy moves faster. Transportation is on time. People walk faster. Everyone seemed like they have somewhere to go, which never seems to be the case here. Here, we could walk up and down the Corso for an hour or two with no real direction or purpose. I think that would drive the people up north crazy to not have a destination in mind. Then again, that sounds a bit like the U.S. really. I've never spent much time up North, but it does seem like life goes slower in the South.

2. The people aren't quite as nice up there. In Sicily, I think anyone would stop to help me if I needed help. They are patient and kind, and are usually willing to wait for me as I stumble through my Italian vocabulary to ask a simple question. The Sicilians love to be helpful and explain things about their culture. While most of the people we ran into up North were nice, there are a lot of people that are just out to make a buck off of you. And there are even more people who were not patient when we spoke Italian.

3. McDonalds:Italy::Waffle House:The South. I heard about the McDonalds stereotype when I first got here, and I've heard it over and over. Europeans think that all we eat is McDonalds, everyday. After being here for two months, I've decided that the Europeans eat way more McDonalds than any American I've ever known, and it's wearing off on me!!! We ate at McDonalds three times on our trip, sad, I know. Here is my justification, though (or excuse, whatever you want to call it). There is almost always a McDonalds in a train station or airport, which accounts for two of the times we ate there. Oftentimes there is only a McDonalds and a crappy fast-food pizza place. McDonalds is supposed to be crappy. Pizza in Italy is not. So I cannot bring myself to knowingly order a crappy pizza. McDonalds are also convenient. Besides train stations, they are also often in areas with less food options, which is what happened when we ate there in Rome. We also know what we're getting into with McDonalds. No cover charge, but there are bathrooms - two key items when it comes to selecting a lunch locale in a strange city. But I think the real reason we've eaten there so much is that we are becoming Europeanized while we're over here, and the Europeans eat McDonalds. A lot. I have eaten more McDonalds here in the past two months than I usually eat back in the states! There was a student here several weeks ago who said that she and her friends eat at McDonalds every day. Anyways, it's not like I love McDonalds, and if I can help it, I won't eat it here again!

4. The driving gets progressively worse the farther South you go. We've met a friend this week who lives in Rome, and he believes in a different theory. He says that Naples is the center of bad driving, and it gets progressively better the farther you are from Naples. Since I haven't been to Naples, I can't comment on that. We didn't really see any cars in Venice as you can't drive on the islands. Although, I think you drive a motorina, maybe? I don't know. I didn't see any cars. Then in Florence there are tons of motorinas and cars, but everyone seemed to follow the rules. There were stop lights and yield signs, and there weren't five cars across on a two-lane road. Once we hit Rome, the driving got a little bit worse, though. The cars went a bit faster, and they enjoyed slamming on their brakes at the last minute. And I've already discussed the crosswalks the the likelihood of dying from a car-pedestrian accident. Sicilia still has worse drivers, though, so that's how we came to decide that the closer we got to Sicilia, the worse the driving became.

I think that's probably all my main observations. I've written about everything else as far as what we saw and the experiences we had. So I'm officially done blogging about the trip! Only a week and a half later or so! I'll move on to more mundane topics tomorrow! (Just kidding - it can't be that mundane if it's in Italy, right?) A domani!