Sicilia

I woke up bright and early to catch the bus to Sicily Friday morning. We took over almost every seat! The countryside was beautiful. It didn't get dry until we were in Sicily. I was suprised by the amount of green. But there are cacti everywhere, as well as olive trees and old, stone farm houses. It took about 3 to 4 hours to get there, including a ferry ride. Taormina is beautiful. It’s a small town that sits on a cliff above the Mediterranean. There were tourists everywhere, but when you get past that, it’s really charming. We, being poor college students in Europe, stayed in a small town a few miles away called Giardini Naxos. It was on the water, which was perfect for what I wanted out of the trip: a tan. Before going to Sicily I made sure to buy sunscreen. It was 15 euro because hardly anyone here burns, but I needed it enough to pay that much. Our hostel was only about a ten-minute walk from the beach. We sunbathed a bit on Friday once we got settled, but there wasn’t enough time to do much else. About 13 of us from the program went out to pizza for dinner. It was amazing. I don’t know if I will ever be able to eat American pizza again. We went to the beach that night to just talk and watch the waves. I was so happy! Some of us ended up not going to bed until 5 in the morning. And the next day I woke up at 8:30 to go to Mt. Etna. Sadly, there were no buses there on that day. We still don’t know why. I’m sad that I didn’t get to hike the volcano. It would have been so cool! Instead we walked around Taormina in the pouring rain. Sicily is famous for its ceramics, and I found some pretty cool stuff. Madeline and I bought a bottle opener for our family in Rogliano. I almost spent a lot of money I don’t have on some amber earrings. They were so tempting! Instead I bought a cannoli, which is a hard pastry wrapped around sweet ricotta cheese, dipped in pistachios. AMAZING. Thinking about it right now has made my mouth water. I also had a blood-orange juice that was wonderful. They don’t seem to have regular orange juice in the south. All I’ve seen are blood-oranges. And I’m not complaining. I stayed up late again, but managed to get a nap in earlier in the day. On Sunday we went to the beach bright and early. On the way I bought water, strawberries, and a banana for my breakfast. It was a nice change not to be completely stuffed after a meal. We sunbathed for about 6 hours. It was wonderful. I even swam once. But the surf was rough and I had to swim far out to get away from the big waves. I came back in pretty fast because the water was sandy and all I could think of was that sharks like murky water. Those sharks always ruin my salt-water swims. And the Mediterranean is SALTY. After getting out I had dried salt stuck to my entire body. It looked like I was shedding my skin! The sun is also much stronger here than I have ever experienced in my life. I came to Italy as a brunette and am now very much a blond. After our day in the sun, I went to bed early. The next day Madeline and I headed up to Taormina early to get some gelato and sit at the piazza overlooking the water. It was an extremely hot day, and my gelato melted all over my skirt. But I didn’t really mind because it was so pretty. We left Sicily at about 2pm on Monday. We took the same bus route back to Rogliano, and it was still beautiful. My friend and I listened to Disney songs and sang the whole way back.
The last 4 weeks have been a bit of a blur. I don’t feel like I’ve been here very long, but school is out tomorrow. I can’t believe it. I have learned so much Italian staying with a family. I’m still not very good at conjugating verbs and tenses on the fly, but I think they understand me better now. I bought all of the train tickets I need for the next 4 weeks, and I decided to go to Greece…alone. It’s a pretty big decision for me because I tend to get really nervous about that sort of thing. But I’m excited to do something completely and utterly alone for once in my life. I don’t speak the language, I’ve never been there before, and I don’t know a single person. Wow.
Here is my schedule: on the 6th of June some friends and I are going to Sorrento. On the 10th I fly out of Naples into Athens. I will be there until the 13th, when I fly out of Athens to Corfu City in Corfu, an island on the west side of Greece. I will be there until the 15th, when I take a night ferry to Bari, Italy. It’s a 9 hour ferry ride on which I will be sitting outside. That is going to be an adventure in itself. I arrive in Bari on the 16th and take a train to Rogliano. I will be back here for about 4 days before I go to Rome on the 21st. My friends fly in on the morning of the 22nd. We will stay in Rome until the 25th, when we go to Venice. On the 26th we leave Venice for Munich. We will be there until the 28th when we take a night train to Paris. We leave Paris on the 30th for London. On the 6th of July we will fly home and get to Seattle on the 7th! I’m excited to do all of this stuff, but at the same time I miss home. I also don’t want to leave Rogliano. I love my family. Right now my little sister is sitting on my bed playing with my iPhone. I’m going to miss them a lot! But I guess I should be more excited since my summer officially starts in about 22 hours…I love not having finals!

Taormina, Italy