After rome, I traveled with a guy from the USA to Sicily, where we
toured both Palermo and Agrigento in a lightning-quick fashion before
headng east on the island to Catania, which I like a great, great deal.
Once again, the hostel means so much... this one is Agora Hostel. Today
I paid for a relatively expensive trip in a jeep up Mt. Etna, an hour
north. (44 Euros was worth it) The active volcano was, really, active.
The last eruption was in 2003, and before that, 2001. We crawled over
the rocks of the very bottommost lava from 2001, and felt the rocks
still warm and steaming where hot lava still lurks below the surface.
I've also taken a liking to Italian, the language. In Rome I felt odd
using so much English, and actually began to have a problem with the
idea of travelling and not using the language, even using it terribly.
(For example, my traveling partner, Matt, who even LIVED in Rome, will
use the English phrase, "Do you speak English?" to begin a transaction
or conversation. Traveling with him, I cringed. It's not my way).
Lo and behold, here in Sicily, I made friends with a few people who
work here, in the bar and the restaurant, one of whom is a guy who
speaks no English and wants to learn. He had already arranged with
another woman who works here, an awesome lady named Betti, who speaks
native Italian and very good English, to have an informal
"meeting-for-coffee language lesson" - anyway, they found I was
interested in learning Italian, and they invited me!
So now I will stay a few more days, at least for our first lesson, in
which Hector and I will speak the alphabet to each other in our own
languages, and Betti, who was a primary school teacher before doing
restaurant work, will oversee it. Also, they're taking me to some
Mexican place for music. Last night I went to drum&bass and when I
asked what they called it, Hector said "drooman bassseh" and it took me
a while to figure that one out.
Cheers, Salut, Arrivederci,
Justina
Current Tentative Future Plan: to head north come march; possibly go to
Tuscany, where Betti says the people are fantastic, or the obligatory
Venice. Then; Vienna (maybe), Munich (maybe), Prague definitely, Berlin
definitely, Hamburg (maybe), Amsterdam, Paris. Then; Bangkok!
PPS I think I was lying when I said I found my groove in Granada. Truly, i've got it now. I think it may have started on literally the first day of my fourth week, when I woke up and walked downstairs thinking "Gosh darn, I would like a cup of real, American, coffee. (AKA, grande drip from Starbucks)
