Apparently on Monday, July 4, America's Independence Day, it was raining and storming in my hometown of Alpharetta, GA, but here in Castellammare the weather was great and the water was beautiful! I went to the beach with my cousins Monday morning, and since this is a town where everybody knows each other, we encountered one of my cousin Carla's teachers when we were swimming in the ocean. He already knew who I was, since Carla had mentioned me in class, but for some reason he thought I spoke German, not English...? Haha. I met my cousin Bruno's friend Vittorio, who had been to New York for Model UN once or twice so he practiced his English with me. Bruno is a huge basketball and NBA fan, and when the conversation turned to America and Atlanta he and Vittorio were telling me all these things about the Atlanta Hawks, the team members, the Philips Arena, etc. that I didn't know even about! Bruno says his dream is to go to America and watch an NBA match live and couldn't believe it when I told him I had never been to one!
After we got back from the beach and had lunch, I watched some American TV with Guido and Lara, which, as they told me, is the only kind of television most Italians like to watch. Guido told me that he doesn't even like Italian actors, and Lara said that young Italians are fascinated by what they see on American sitcoms such as cheerleaders, football players and glee clubs, because those things don't exist in the schools in Italy. While we were discussing the entertainment industry Sylvester Stallone's name came up, and I asked my cousins if they knew that Sly's father was not only from Sicily, but from Castellammare del Golfo. They were convinced I was joking, but I Googled it for them to prove it :) They were surprised because they didn't know anybody by the name of Stallone in town!
Later that afternoon we took the boat out again and I got to hold a sea urchin and even taste a little bit of the inside! I don't much care for seafood anyway and it left a pretty weird aftertaste, but at least nowI have tried it :) On the boat on the way back to the marina, Carla, Lara and I were sitting up at the front of the boat and at one point just broke out into song, singing both popular American and Italian songs (like American TV, American and English songs are even more popular in Italy than Italian ones). This moment was probably one of my favorite memories of the trip thus far and it's a memory that I know is going to stay with me forever, because the lyrics to the songs we were singing seemed to fit my life at that moment exactly. The songs we sang were Muse's "Starlight," which is a song that already reminds me of my family in Connecticut (shoutout to Dan, who introduced me to the song!) because of the lyrics "This ship is taking me far away, far away from the memories of the people who care if I live or die..." and while singing Aerosmith's "I Don't Wanna Miss a Thing," I nearly burst into tears when we sang "Every moment spent with you is a moment I treasure..." together. We had a blast singing Black-Eyed Peas' "The Time" ("I've... had... the time of my life...") as well :)
Guido and I skyped with my mom and sister later that day, and once again I tried to get Guido to tell me what he would like from America, since my mom wants to send the family gifts for having me and showing me a wonderful time in Sicily, but he told her the same thing he told me earlier - that he doesn't want anything material, he just wants me to enjoy myself and that when he comes to America one day in the future, we can host him, and that will be his gift. How heartwarming is that? And earlier that day, Guido's father Gaspare told me that the only thing he wants is for me to remember them and my time spent here with love. I miss everyone so much already, I can't even put it into words. It's like staying with a host family in another country, but these people are actually my family, so it's even more special :) That night Guido took me to his favorite outdoor bar called Silos, where we sat on little cushions in the grass, each spoke the other's language, and took turns teaching each other words, phrases and slang in our native languages.
The next morning (Tuesday, July 5) Guido and I left early for Palermo, where his university is, because he is still in school - he had a project to work on with his classmates this week and next week he has a couple of exams. It's crazy to me how different the start-and-finish dates are for Italian and American universities and schools; here they finish the year at the end of July and don't go back until the end of October, whereas I'm done at the beginning of May and return in the middle of August. Anyways, I poked around Palermo during the day while Guido was working on his project with his classmates. I saw some of the main attractions and landmarks but spent the bulk of the day shopping :) The city was nice, but it was so incredibly hot! I came back to Guido's apartment and took a nap while I waited for him to finish his work. He and his roommate Giovanni returned after a couple of hours, and Guido made chicken for dinner, which was delicious! All the food I've had here has been absolutely spectacular, my Zia Rosalia is a fantastic cook and everything tastes so authentically and classically Italian, much better than any restaurant in America that claims to be Italian could ever do! At dinner I was asking Guido to recount certain Italian words in English that I had taught him in the days before, including "whipped cream," "traffic light," and "landlord." (In Italian, the words are panna, semaforo, and padrone di casa, respectively.) Later that evening we watched Jersey Shore in Italian, which was hilarious :)
Guido had classes early the next day (Wednesday, July 6), which meant I got to spend the morning sleeping in :) I finally left the apartment at about 1:00 in the afternoon and walked around a little bit before Guido picked me up to take me to the bus stop, where I took the bus back to Castellammare. I knew that my cousin Bruno wanted to take me out with his friends that night after I got back so I was going to get in touch with him to see what the plans were, but when my Zia Rosalia picked me up from the bus stop she told me that Bru had already called and told her when he would be by to pick me up :) At dinner that night I tried arancine, which is a typical Sicilian dish made with either rice, beef and vegetables or rice, ham and cheese. It was so yummy :) Also that night at dinner, I realized I was not only following the conversations at the table much better as the week went on, but contributing more and more as well! Bru picked me up after dinner, took me to meet his friends (he is younger than me, but a lot of his friends are around my age), and after hopping around town a bit we went to get some gelato by the marina. Bru said that he couldn't believe that after only a year and a half of us being in contact with each other, here he was eating a gelato in his hometown in Sicily with his American cousin :)
Thursday (July 7) was another day spent at the beach on the Sicilan shore, and Friday was another day spent on the family's boat on the beautiful Tyrrhenian Sea. Thursday afternoon I went shopping with Lara and Carla and picked up some pretty souvenirs at a cute little place in town :) We also walked down by the marina and hung out at Vogue Bar, where I saw all the waiters walking around with a t-shirt I had seen people around town wearing the past few days, and I had been wondering where I could get one. On the shirt it says "I <3 Sicily," except instead of the heart shape being there, there was a picture of the island of Sicily, which I suppose could look like a smushed, stretched-out heart if you look hard enough :) I asked one of the bartenders about the shirts and he returned a minute later with two of them in his hand, as a gift for me :) And that was just one of three (material) gifts I received during my time in Sicily! When I bought some souvenirs in Palermo they gave me five free postcards, and when I was souvenir-shopping at that cute store in Castellammare the cashier took 5 euros off my bill. I love Sicilians! :)
After we went shopping, Carla, Lara and I climbed on some rocks by the marina with a couple of their friends, and as we were hopping from rock to rock, I had one of those moments where as I was talking with my cousins and their friends, since I was understanding and responding to everything, I momentarily forgot that I wasn't speaking my native language! I know that my competency and fluency in Italian is increasing with each day I spend here, and each conversation I have in the language :) Guido was still in Palermo until Friday for school, so on Thursday night I went out again with Bruno and his friends, this time to a dance club that was right on the beach! Of course, about 90% of the songs we were dancing to were in English, and I was asked to translate the main choruses of a lot of the songs. I had so much fun!
Saturday, July 9 was my last full day in Sicily, and just thinking about that fact made me teary when we were out on the boat :( Lara and I were taking a break from baking in the sun and decided to relax in the interior of the boat while listening to some music, and one of the songs was "The Scientist" by Coldplay. The lyrics to this song say, "It's such a shame for us to part... oh, take me back to the start." You could say I shed a tear or two :( But for the rest of the day I just remembered how blessed I was to be able to be in Sicily with my family here, and there was no reason to be sad about that :) That evening, before we left for Giacomo and Angela's to go have dinner, Lara came to me with a small rainbow-colored string bracelet that was identical to one she and Guido both wore, and told me that they were popular in Castellammare for close friends and family to wear identical ones, much like a friendship bracelet in America. They each have about five of them that they share with friends of theirs, and I was honored that they wanted me to have the same one as them :) Lara told me, in English, to remember her whenever I look at the bracelet. She has had some of hers on for 5+ years without taking them off, and I intend to keep my bracelet on for just as long, if not longer :)
We had dinner at Giacomo and Angela's that night (my cousins' grandparents, who are my nonna Jane's first cousin and his wife) and on this evening we were joined by our cousin Giuliano, another of the Sicilian cousins I had been in contact with for a year and a half and had been waiting to meet! He was at his university until Saturday afternoon/evening, and he had been telling me all week how much he wanted to be done with school so he could come down to Sicily and see me :) His parents were there too; his mother Mimma is my mom's second cousin and they have met once, when Mimma came to America when she and my mom were both about 13-14 years old. As I was sitting at the outdoor dinner table with five of my Sicilian cousins and several aunts and uncles, I just took a moment to think about how great of an experience this whole week was. I was sitting at the same table as my extended family, in another country, some of whom I didn't even know existed 12-18 months ago. This experience is undoubtably one of the best things to ever happen to me. Giacomo kept raving about how I looked so Castellammarese, and I just responded by reminding him that I am Castellammarese! :) Everybody also raved about how tan I had gotten since the time I arrived in Castellammare - I have to say, I haven't been as tan as I am now in years, if ever!
After dinner, Guido and I went out with some of his friends for my last night in Sicily. I introduced my cousin and his friend Alessio to a drink consisting of just limoncello and Sprite, which my friend Maria and I had tried at a restaurant back in Siena last month. I was certain it had to be a popular Italian drink, because they love their limoncello, so how could they have never tried it with Sprite? Well, not only had neither Guido nor Alessio ever tried it, but they had never even heard of the combination before, so I convinced them to try it Saturday night :) It was a great last night in Sicily; I spent a lot of time talking to my cousin's friends Ignazio and Antonio, and Ignazio told me how great he thought it was that I speak Italian, since most Americans who come to Italy just speak English everywhere they go and don't even try to use Italian. Again, I was following and comprehending everything very well, and wasn't even taking a few seconds to think about how to respond, what words to say, in what order, what tense, etc. They were starting to roll right off my tongue! I want to say I'm at the beginning stages of fluency :) And I still have six more weeks of classes to go here in Italy!!!
On the morning of Sunday, July 10, the day of my flight, I awoke at about 9:00 am to say good-bye to Lara, Rosalia and Gaspare, who were going out for the day. I thanked them for their generous hospitality, and told them that when (not if, never if) they want to come to America, they will surely have a place to stay and be treated just as well as I was here in Castellammare :) I went back to bed for a couple of hours and when I woke up again and started to pack, I noticed a piece of paper lying in my suitcase. It was from Lara, and it was a note telling me how much she loved me, to remember her whenever I looked at the note, and to not say good-bye but say hello. I burst into tears right then and have done the same every time I've read the note since then. My entire family is so amazing, those from Italy all the way to America, and I couldn't ask for better people in my life :)
Guido drove me to the airport in Palermo so I could catch my 3:10 pm flight to Bergamo, a city about 30 minutes outside of Milan. I said good-bye to him in the parking lot and he promised me that we would see each other in America, and I promised him we would also see each other again in Sicily, since I am 100% certain I will be back, next time certainly with my mom and sister :) My flight this time was a little late, which I let my cousin Luca know before the plane took off, since he was picking me up at the Bergamo airport and taking me back to Milan, where he lives and where I will be studying for the next three weeks. How perfectly convenient is it that I should have a family member in the very city where I am taking classes? Again, I'm fairly certain my great-grandpa Luca had something to do with it :) Since my cousin Luca got to the airport in order to be there for my original arrival time, I saw him immediately after I exited the baggage claim area. I hadn't even been with Luca for five minutes when his cell phone rang and it was his grandfather, Giacomo, calling to make sure Luca had found me okay at the airport :) After we hung up with Giacomo, Luca let me know that his grandfather had called him the night before to remind him that I would be arriving in Bergamo at such-and-such a time, and gave him a description of what I looked like, which were all things Luca obviously already knew. I found it very sweet that Giacomo felt the need to call his grandson to make sure that I would find my way to Milan okay :)
Luca brought me to his apartment in Milan, where I have stayed the last two nights. I have my own apartment in a student residence that I am going to check out later today after class, especially since Luca has to go out of town for work on Wednesday. Anyways, I was starving when I got off the plane, so after we unloaded all of my stuff Luca took me to a place to get an apperitivo, where all you pay for is your drink and then you get an all-you-can-eat buffet for free. I had five plates of food. They were small, but still - I was that hungry! While we were dining and talking with each other, Luca realized that he had yet to say something in Italian that I didn't comprehend or didn't recognize. From that point on he gave me words he knew the English translation for (he lived in Ireland for a year - not fair) and asked me for the Italian word for it, and I would give him Italian words that I knew and ask him for the English translation. The first thing he pointed to was the straw in my drink, which I had actually realized myself minutes earlier that I didn't know the Italian word for... but I do now! Canuccia :) I decided to try out the one vocabulary word Guido had the most difficulty remembering - the English word for panna (whipped cream). This stumped Luca as well! I think we ended the game deciding it was a tie... but I'm bound and determined to beat him later on! :)
He took me to see Milan's Duomo and the Galleria after dinner; the Duomo was stunning and the Galleria was oozing with places to shop! It was about 10 at night so all the stores were closing, but I will definitely be coming back at some point to do some shopping :) On Monday, July 11, I had to be at the university for my placement test at 9:30, and Luca had given me directions regarding which underground metro route to take to get to the university the night before, and it ended up being very easy to find. It was here that I saw Maria, Alvaro and Haley again (my friends from my university back home that I'm taking the classes with); they had arrived in Milan a week earlier while I was on vacation in Sicily. By the time we had finished both the written and oral portions of the exam we were starving, so I went to get something to eat with Maria, her boyfriend Ryan (he's here visiting her for a couple weeks), and a girl from England named Nieve (no idea if I spelled that right) who will be in our class. We ended up spending the entire day walking around the city, getting lost, finding our way, and taking the metro about a gazillion times.
I'm about to leave for class now! Hope you enjoyed this novel of a blog post :) Thanks for reading!
Chloe
