The food!

If you are even remotely aquatinted with me, you'll know that I love two things with a passion:

1.) trying new things

2.) food

If you have the slightest idea of the two things that Italians love it's these:

1.) talking 

2.) food 

It seems as though we're off to a fairly mutual start. 

If we pass by anywhere that sells any type of food, Vittoria just says: 

"You'll try all of that." 

And I reply: 

"Okay." 

I have tried so many different types of food, and yet haven't even scratched the surface of what I have been told to try. 

 The pizza is, of course, delicious. 

It's so different from American pizza. 

So much better. 

This is typical Sicilian barbecue. 

Fresh calamari. The smell is so amazing when it's cooking. Also a very delicious plate. 

 

Here is a closer look. The taste is great, but it was somewhat difficult to get over the texture of the tentacle. 

I got over it. 

The only thing I haven't been able to eat is the muscles. 

I did try them, but it was no use. I'm not destined to eat muscles. 

The water melon is the same as it is in America. 

I still love it. 

This is a Sicilian soda, I can't decide if I like it or not. 

It tastes good at first, but then bitter, then good, then bitter again. I'm still taking a sip every now and then to test my opinion. 

After our week at the beach we spent 2 days at the town house. Even when we were at the town house we spent both days with friends at the beach. 

Again, how can I complain?!

Now we are spending a week in the mountains! 

I'll keep you updated with more pictures and stories!

Thanks for the information.

It's Saturday. We have nothing planned. 

I wake up and come downstairs to eat. Once we finish eating and I clear the table, I head back upstairs. I have plans to do absolutely nothing for the day... This will be the first day of nothing since I've been here. 

I spend my day reading, listening to music, just hanging out. To be completely honest, I haven't even put pants on except to eat. 

Around 7:00, I come downstairs to say hello to Roberto because I can hear him speaking. 

Don't worry... I put pants on for this activity. 

I come down the stairs and say hello to Roberto in the hallway. He's wearing a dress shirt and slacks, not uncommon for just getting home from work. Then I meet Claudia in the kitchen... She's wearing a dress. I'm beginning to get suspicious. 

It all comes out when I see Vittoria walk out of the bathroom dressed nicely as well. 

"Where are we going?" I ask. 

She replies with, "To the Rotary dinner I told you about on Monday." 

Oh I see now... "Were you planning on reminding me?" 

"I thought you knew." 

Yes, of course I knew. That's why I came downstairs looking similar to this: 

...minus the beard.

I did manage to get through the shower, get dressed, and do my hair and makeup before everybody else was ready. 

It's quite an accomplishment, if you ask me. 

I went from a hobo-haired person wearing socks, boxers, glasses and an oversized t-shirt to somebody acceptable be the general public. All in less than 30 minutes. 

Welcome to my life.

Seriously! How many people can say this?!

Alright. I want everybody to answer the following question honestly.

How many of you can say that you've ridden a banana through the Mediterranean Sea? 

Lets have a show of hands. 

None?! 

I know you're probably asking yourself why I'm asking this question.

...lets just say that MY HAND IS RAISED. 

Seriously. It's true. 

I rode a banana similar to this one yesterday. 

The fact that I can say that I rode a banana is a great story by its self. The fact that I was in the Mediterranean Sea is a great story by itself. 

But when you put them together.... 

IT'S AN ADVENTURE!!!

Hello?

My Italian, although improved, is not good. I can understand what people are saying, when they're talking to/about me, and I can even answer them sometimes. 

Last night there was this baking contest, it happens every year in the mountains. Vittoria, Angelica, Costanza and I decided to enter some "American Cookies". Honestly, we used a mix that Vittoria bought in Nebraska. 

We got second place. 

Yes, you read that correctly. 

Second place.

We were asked to come to the front and say something about the cookies. 

Keep in mind that this wasn't an official contest or anything... The majority of the audience was family or close friends. Vittoria's uncle was the announcer and he asked me to come over to the megaphone he was holding, not microphone, they were using a megaphone. 

Now he begins to tell the audience, in Italian of course, how well I can speak Italian and how much I've improved and so on. He then hands me the microphone and asks me to talk to the audience in Italian. 

"Ciao!" 

That's all, folks. 

And they laugh and clap and laugh some more. 

I'm a hit. 

Then Vittoria did the actual speech and we ate the rest of the desserts. 

It was a good night.

Great idea.

Today is my second to last day on the mountain. I've been here an entire week and I have never seen it rain any more than a slight drizzle. 

Please keep this in mind throughout the following story. 

Everyday when I wake up, I eat breakfast and then go for a walk. Today I eat my breakfast and then realize that it's raining so I stay inside to read until the drizzle stops. About 20 minutes later, Vittoria and her friend who is staying with us, Angelica, come into my room and ask if I want to go for a quick walk with them. I say sure because, well, why not?! We grab out hoodies and head downstairs. Once we are outside, Angelica realizes its raining and freaks out about her hair getting wet. Vittoria and I spend about half of the walk laughing at her need to keep her hair covered from the one raindrop that comes every 3 minutes. 

The rain is picking up now. We should head back home. Good idea. We wouldn't want our hair to get wet. 

Within the next 10 steps we take, it starts to rain. Really rain. 

We can take it. We'll survive. 

10 more steps. Pouring.

Now we have to take a left turn and begin walking into the pouring rain. 

Hoods up! Lets go! 

10 more steps... Was the a hail stone?! 

5 more steps... That was definitely a hail stone. 

ALRIGHT IT STOPPED RAINING. EVERY DROP IS HAIL 

We start running. 

Into the hail.

It's raining again. The hail continues. 

OH HAIL NO! 

We're sprinting for the house now. Into the hail. We're soaking wet by the time we get into the door way. All we have to do is climb one flight of stairs and knock on the door and we are home at last. 

I take one look at Vittoria and we both know that her grandmother will kill us if we walk inside dripping wet from head to toe. 

Alright. Lets make this fast. 

Shoes come off... Water dumped out of them. 

Socks off... Wrung out. 

Hoodies off... Wrung out. 

Jeans off... Wrung out. 

Tshirts off... Wrung out. 

We scoop up our wet clothes and start to make our way upstairs, we knock on the door. 

The look on Vittoria's mothers face was priceless. 

Confused. Trying not to laugh. We're shivering. 

Just let us inside!! 

We get inside and her mother, father, grandmother, grandfather, and sister begin to laugh. 

They can't stop long enough for us to explain so we just slosh up the steps to find something dry to put on. 

 

Great idea guys. 

"Let's go for a walk, it's only raining a little bit!" 

Where to begin?!

Once we arrived in Sicily, we immediately left for their house on the beach. 

How could I complain?! 

Just to clarify... There are two types of beaches surrounding Sicily. 

There's sandy beaches very similar to those in America. Smaller waves, of course, due to the fact that we are surrounded by sea, not ocean. 

The second type of beach is the rocky beaches, where we have spent the majority of our time. 

At the rocky beach, you use these types of ladders to get in safely. Once you're in the water, you must swim out clear out into the deep water if you don't have water shoes on. You must do this because of the creatures that live on the rocks, and also so you do get pushed into the side of the cliffs. (Ouch!!) 

The pipe that you see on the right side of that picture is pumping water straight up the cliff, and into the pool. 

Beautiful. 

If the sea water looks clean enough, we swim in the sea until we're tired, then go relax in the pool until lunch. 

Are you ready to move here yet?!

This is the view of our house from down at the sea.

And from our house, looking down at the sea. 

The housing complexes somehow add to the beauty of everything. It's strange, but undeniable. 

When the sky is clear, you can see the outline of Mount Etna. Etna is an absolutely beautiful volcano in Sicily. 

*spoiler alert* 

I'm typing this blog from a house in the "mountains". The mountains around here are what they call 'sleeping volcanos' meaning that they aren't active anymore. 

They are absolutely indescribable. 

Welcome to Italy. 

I only wish that the pictures did it justice. 

Here I am!

I've officially been in Sicily for one week! I would have updated my blog sooner, but this is the first place we've been that has had wifi. So many things have happened since I've arrived!! This has been an amazing experience so far, and I can't wait to see what happens in the weeks to come! 

At first, Vittoria wasn't too excited to be going back home. 

 The idea grew on her though. 

Everything went surprisingly smoothly with out flights. All of our baggage checked clear through, and nothing was delayed. We had a 3 hour layover in Chicago though... Followed by a 9 hour flight overnight. 

When they showed how far we'd traveled... Everything felt so far away. 

I got my first stamp in my passport! YAY! 

Soon to be followed by a pizza stain...(When in Rome) 

By the time we landed in Catania, I'd had about 10 hours of sleep in the past four days. I was so excited and busy packing that I could sleep for the 3 days leading up to our adventure, and I got about an hour total on the flights. 

I'm here now, though. I've tried so many new things that I will tell you all about in the blogs to come!

 Hugs and kisses to everybody!