Festival of Santa Lucia and Agrigento

Most of the month of December is celebrated as the Festival of Patron Saint Lucia in our town. Each town in Italy has their own Patron Saint and have a festival during the year. The festival goes on for a few weeks, with cannons and fireworks like I said last time. On the day of the Patron Saint, Dec 13th, everyone in the town and surrounding towns gather at the mother church to present the statue and have a procession through the town. We went to church and were then in a crowd of probably 5 or 6 thousand people watching as 30 or 40 people in white robes carried the statue out of the church and placed her onto a carriage ( think Cleopatra) and pulled her along the streets of the town from church to church for 24 hours. It was unreal. The christmas lights through the center of town are pretty awesome too- big arches of colored lights the entire length of the street.There have been street vendors every day with candy, italian christmas sweets which I can't remember the name of but are like fried dough with honey and sugar and crepes. Nativity scenes are a huge deal here, we went to a contest where you voted on the best one that people made by hand.











On Saturday we took one of the base tours to the city of Agrigento, on the southwest side of the island. It is famous for the ancient Greek Temples. They date all the way back to 463 B.C. and most are still in pretty good condition. It was a really cool trip.

Addendum to last blog.

Julie- the turtle's name is Loafie. He only comes out when it is sunny and we can't figure out his cold weather hiding spot yet.

Mom- You can absolutely spend a whole week in Sicily. We have been here for 2 months and have only seen about 10% of the Island. The really awesome thing is because it has such historical significance, every city is very very different. Influences from Greek, Arab and Roman architecture are so different and present all around the island.

O.k so we figured out a few more things, the 'Truck fair" Is actually called "Blessing of the Vehicles". We are in the middle of the celebration of our town's Patron Saint. Each town in Italy has a Patron Saint that becomes equally important and represented in each church like Jesus or Mary. As part of the three week long celebration each day there are canyon blasts ( at 4:30 am), fireworks, and random events such as the vehicle blessing. We have been attending Mass in town at the "Chiesa Madre" ( Mother church) and since figured some of these things out.

I still don't have a picture of our new car, because 10 miles into Gabe's drive home on the first day, it died. Shit. So after a lot of frustration and a little negotiation the guy who sold it to us chipped in and contributed to the 472 euro repair. We dropped it off at the repair shop that was recommended to us near base, the man was very friendly and said he would call with an estimate. Apparently as estimate means "this is how much you will pay later", not necessarily " let me check with you before i start the work", because I stopped by after work to get the estimate and he had already taken apart the car and sent a part to Catania to be welded. Ay Mama Mia. Hopefully we'll get a little more life out of our new crappy car, should be ready by Monday but we are on Italian time, so that may mean next month.

Large trucks and fireworks??

So sorry its been a while, we've finally gotten into a groove of a normal routine over here and I can say its pretty nice. I was feeling a little crazy with the whole unemployment business! We've been getting out and about every weekend and every once and a while can get somewhere without getting lost! But let me catch you up on a few things;

Our home: We finally have all of our belongings! It was like christmas and torture on the same day. It's so nice to have our bed and couch and other comfort items. However, we packed up our good ole American 3 bedroom home with a garage and shipped it here to our 2 bdrm Italian apartment with no basement, no attic, no garage, and ONE closet. Thats right folks, ONE. In the whole place. So our living room and kitchen are pretty well unpacked, but our extra bathroom and extra bedroom are a makeshift garage/storage. We can't wait for visitors, but please give us plenty of notice so we can sell half of our belongings. We've discovered that we have a pretty awesome rose garden in the back, and another family pet.



Vehicles: The volvo is doing great, we've been carpooling to work on base everyday which is somewhat of a pain because our hours don't always match up, so as of this week we are now the proud owners of a 1999 Lancia Y. Your standard European teeny tiny crap box. Just to give you some perspective, my car gets 240 HP. Gabes new ride- 56 HP. It will be a big adjustment for him coming from his big truck! Haha. Pictures soon to follow.

My job: Started last week. I work for the Fleet and Family Support Center on base. Most larger military bases have one. Its a collection of social services including counseling, parenting support, life skills, advocacy programs and deployment support. So far I am totally loving it. All of my coworkers are friendly, helpful, professional and a pleasure to work with. I think its going to be great! My role is a home visitor with the new parent support program, offering education, suport and resources to new Moms on infant care etc. Its a little different for me, but a good challenge and very rewarding.

Traveling- Two weeks ago we visited the village of AciTrezza. Its a small fishing village and its beautiful. The three rocks are the Island of Cyclops and are very famous in Greek Mythology we are told. The town is only about 30 min from us and has lots of great seafood places to eat.





Last weekend we visited Taormina and did all of our christmas shopping. It is by far my favorite city. It is so clean and beautiful, you feel as though you are walking through Epcot or something. It is one of the more touristy areas of the island, so many restaraunts are open all day ( usually places do not open until 8pm, it is hard to find a place to eat lunch in most towns). This is where most scenes for the "Godfather" were flimed and where celebrities come when they come to Sicily. Its about 45 north of us on the coast.






Holidays: We spent Thanksgiving with friends from Gabe's kennel, and had a really good time. We will probably do something similar for xmas. Its nice because everyone is in the same boat, as far as being away from family, so people really bond together and support each other for the holidays. Our town where we live is also preparing for the holidays with some traditions we just can not figure out. Every morning since last weekend there are fireworks. Big, loud, booming fireworks, at 5am. Today they brought in about 30 tractor trailer trucks, and set them up in the town center square . Almost like a car show? Everyone gathered around and looked at the trucks. ( Think : Target or Shaws delivery trucks. On display) There were no food vendors or anything else, just trucks. And people looking at the trucks. Merry christmas.

All and all we are still adjusting well, missing some modern conveniences of the states, but enjoying every minute of this awesome experience. Today we went through the Drive in at the Mcdonalds just to order fountain sodas because I haven't had one in two months. With the exchange rate, I think I paid about 4 dollars for a medium diet coke. On the other hand, I paid about 3 dollars for a half carafe of red wine last night. I promise to post more often from here on out!!!

Rules of Driving in Sicily

So since our car arrived last week and we've moved off base, we started to experience the joys of the road in Sicily. Here are some of the rules we have learned so far:

1. There are no lines to divide roads ever. This might prevent people from passing at any time.
2. As previously stated, I will pass you on any road, at any time, at any speed.
3. If there is a least 3 cm to spare, I will sneak my car past yours on a narrow road.
4. Each rotary will turn into a 3 lane highway. Also, passing rule #2 still applies.
5. There is NO such thing as a right away. If I pull in front of you, I now have the right away .
5. Livestock share the road too. Hit one and owe the farmer 100 Euro.
6. Do not yield to pedestrians. Do not even look for pedestrians.
7. Rather than slow down around corners, I will beep my horn like a maniac to let you know I'm coming.
8. If the car fits, its a parking spot.
9. Street signs at intersections are purely to confuse you. There will be 20 stacked on top of each other at any given time pointing in random directions. Just because the signs says Motta, Nicolosi and Catania this way, it does not mean the towns are in that order.

10. If you can not parallel park, go back to the states.

Here is a video that totally depicts it- its a little long but the first minute should give you a good idea of what we're dealing with!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQWNGLv8w74

Culture shock and settling in.

Sorry its been so long, what a busy week we have had! Last weekend we took a day trip to Catania (again) for the Fiera di Morti ( Day of the dead festival) which was essentially a big flea market with food and lots of shoes. We drove to town with another couple and parked near the center of town, thinking the market was a relatively close walk. 30 min uphill later, we were lost. While contemplating our next move we saw a city bus drive past us with a paper sign for "Fiera di Morti" in the window. We ran to catch the bus and were stopped by 2 old men sitting at the bus bench. Obviously looking like tourists, they insisted that we wait for the next bus, sit down, and fill up our water bottles. No was not an option. So we sat, filled up our water bottles and chatted up these men in Sicilian, which is 10x harder to understand than mother tongue Italian. Ay mama mia. Here are some cool pics of the ancient Greek theater in the center of Catania.









The past week was pretty stressful, dealing with all the ins and outs of setting up electricity, gas, cable etc. with people who don't speak english and have very limited working hours. But all in all we got everything done that we needed to, my car is here finally and we're al moved into our house! Right now we have a few of our own things that we sent over in our express shipment, but are using loaner furniture from the base until our packout arrives around the 25th or so.
We have found there is an Italian market on our block, and we are less than a 1/2 mile from the city center where there are butcher shops, bread stores, food, coffee shops etc. It's pretty awesome. Our first night our landlords insisted on escorting us to a restaurant so we would not get lost. They are so sweet. We went to an "Agirturismo" which is like a farmhouse, its a type of dining in Italy where most of the food comes directly from their own farm, its very rustic and cheap and the food is fabulous. It will be a must do for any visitors we have! Of course now we are realizing that the Italian restaurants we have been to so far were in the middle of Catania ( very touristy) or near the base ( very American) So this was our first experience with Sicilians with NO english whatsoever. A little bit of a challenge, but so worthwhile. We hope to get better and better at communicating!


Today our landlords invited us for lunch . Woah boy. They are determined to send us home fat. ....and happy. Lucia cooked tortellini with meatsauce, chicken cutlet, fennel salad ( yum- big deal here I guess), roasted eggplant, bread, fruit and desert. We had such a good time enjoying the food and trying to communicate. For italians it seems that they are happy to be understood, and don't really ask many questions. So we didn't say much at all, just listened and nodded or looked confused as they talked and talked. So fun.

I still have not got my clearance to work, tomorrow was supposed to be my first day, so hopefully before the end of the week, but we'll see- Italians aren't in much hurry to do anything. At all.

Our new house!

Today we met our landlords- Lucia and Guiseppe, at the front gate of the base and had a translator prepare our lease for us. So I was well aware that most Italians will do the "double kiss" on the cheek when they greet you. I even knew that you're supposed to do left cheek first. But I panicked. I went right, Guiseppe went left, and BAM. Kiss on the lips. Awkward.

We signed the lease, everything went well, then our friend Rob followed them in his car for us to go to the gas company. Signed our name to some Italian contract which apparently last for 10 years. Es no problem. Afterwards the landlords invited us back to the house to check it out. Which obviously meant being invited to their apartment, having espresso and biscotti and some type of potato chips? Met their daughter and her twin 2 year old boys, Francesco and Dario. SO CUTE. Their daughter Leah is about my age and lives on the 3rd floor. She speaks a few more english words than Mama y Papa. We had our friends Rob, Kim and their baby Julietta with us for the visit, ended up leaving with the bag of chips, and some random toy that Lucia took from a crying Francesco and insisted that baby Julietta have. They are so hospitable and so sweet, we were able to translate "a chair is always open for you at our table". We are in FULL Italian immersion mode now- no turning back!! We move our loaner furniture ( ours won't be here until the 25th) and things in next thursday or Friday- I can't wait!!

Catania

On Wednesday our orientation took us on a bus trip to Catania. Its the major city ( 2nd largest in Sicily) about 10 miles north of us. The city itself sits on the water, so has a very large port and also beach areas ( very pretty) . We spent the day in the city center, in Italy always called the "Piazza Duomo". It is almost always found adjacent to the mother church and various statues, temples etc of the city's patron saint. In Catania, the symbol is the elephant. ( I have to find out why??) But we spent the afternoon exploring the churches ( beautiful), the cafe's ( yum) and the fish market ( stinky). They have the largest street market in Sicily here, full of fish, meat, vegetables, spices, fruits and anything else you can imagine. It's unbelievable- the sights, sounds, smells are out of this world. We plan on returning every Sat morning to buy fresh foods. Not for the weak stomach though- there were def. large animal heads and carcass' everywhere- live escargot and prawns crawling all around. Mangia! For lunch I had the best swordfish I have ever tasted- such a fun day!!

"Ottobrata" : Italian for honey and street meat.

Today we took a bus from base to the Ottobrata festival in Zafferana. It was so cool! It's a mountain town about an hour from us, and was one of the largest street festivals I've ever seen. Full of Italian street meat, pastries, wine and honey- the local specialty. I enjoyed some kind of traditional pasta dish and Gabe tried the traditional street meat. Horse. Yes, really. Horse meat. At first I was horrified, but honestly, looked good and tasted like steak. Mangia! We're struggling with the language but getting by with a lot of pointing and various hand gestures which Italians seem to relate to very well. We sat at a cafe with another couple outside for a cappuccino when an older woman gestured that she would like to sit because she was tired. We offered her a chair and she sat down with us. Through a lot of repetitions, hand gestures and our "Speedy Italian Pocket Guide" we realized she was born in 1926, is 83 years old, and would like us to get her a coffee, because obviously we should respect our elders. She was awesome. Bought her a coffee, spoke some more Italnglish then bussed it back to base.