there's a last time for everything

well i made it haha. it's the last day here in ortigia. i just got back from the rocks. our final finished early around 10:30, so we went to the rocks for a while, then got a panino, then back to the rocks. i felt like i was sunburning, so i came back just now, but first i went by the school and got tammy's postcard! it came just in time! perfect :) now it's time to start thinking about packing up. my bus leaves tomorrow at 3:30 in the morning, so i don't think i'm going to go to sleep... the school has the apertivo at 7:30 and later i'm going to go with charilyne and cristina to zen i think til like 2, then come back, do last minute packing up, and head out! i took a picture at the panini shop today with mr. "sempre triste." lol. i have to turn in my modem and cell phone today so after this evening i won't have internet or my phone, but i'll have my iphone for my trip which will work once i get into atlanta. my flight leaves at 7:15 from Catania and then I'll arrive in Rome, then Rome to Atlanta (11 hours), but worth it :)

i can't wait to see you all. i miss you and am SO excited!! love you

it's the final countdown!

...i bought the shoes. haha. tammy convinced me that i would only continue to think about them after i left ortigia, sooo i went with it. they are SO comfortable and i'm really happy about the purchase haha. today was a good day. after class, i went to the rocks again with cristina and the weather was actually really nice out. not too terribly hot. the water was pretty choppy and i almost fell climbing up the rocks, but i survived. lol. phew.. i came back around 3:30 and after i showered, i started watching Everything is Illuminated which I'm thinking about finishing before bed, i'm just already pretty tired and have my final tomorrow, so i don't know. i went for a walk to the stores over by the duomo and found my shoes and a cute ring with a seahorse on it. i can't believe tomorrow is my last day here! my taxi leaves friday morning at 3:30am, so tomorrow is the LAST morning, afternoon, and evening i will be in Ortigia. crazy. i was going to go to dinner with some friends tonight, but it didn't work out and i ended up studying here for my final, eating dinner with one of my roommates and her friends. i actually was studying during all of this haha because we were watching True Blood with Italian subtitles and the speakers were scratchy, so i couldn't hear the English, so i was reading the italian sottotitoli to figure out what was going on in the show. also, one of their friends, Emanuele, is Italian so i was practicing talking with him. he actually works at that internet cafe from one of the first few days i was here where i tried to get the internet access. haha... oh ortigia, such a small world. a little over 48 hours until i'm home. now THAT is a good day. :)

frozen water bottles

i'm writing to you know from my bed (which i've covered with a towel for the following reason) accompanied by a frozen water bottle. i'm finding it's the best way to cool off. our apartment seems to be warmest at night and coolest in the morning. i think the heat gets trapped in during the day...

anyway, today turned out to be a much better day than expected. after the rocks, i took a shower (i got a little more sun than usual... a bit pink...), talked with mom and dad, checked e-mail, and finished watching The Usual Suspects while eating some noodles with parmesan cheese (thought of you JJ). after that, i went with cristina and charilyn to a store where cristina had found some good deals on shoes. they really did have good deals, but sizes were limited for my bigfoot feet, so i didn't end up buying any. plus i have so many shoes at home... then we did some more shopping and GUESS WHAT, i finally got ALL my souvenirs for everyone at home! hurray!

afterward, we met some friends for chinese food at the usual chinese place and a couple of us got nutella crepes afterward at this crepe bar and talked for a bit. now i'm back at the apartment and thinking about what i have going on these next two full days: tomorrow, school, rocks?, nothing,(perhaps start PACKING?!?!). maybe i'll do a bit more shopping? idk... there are these realy cute sandals i like, but they're kind pricy and i just can't decide what to do about them haha. thursday we have our final and a farewell "appertivo" at the school in the evening, and i'll be packing and cleaning considering i leave the next morning at 4 am! hey, i'm not complaining haha. :) SOON!

a few interesting points from the week:
1. saw a nubbin at the rocks (think Chandler from Friends)
2. my friend got "bitten" at while we were walking to the crepe place tonight
3. i learned how to say "sack of potatoes" in italian while we were explaining a couch potato to Concetto (my teacher)
4. my house in waco got broken into - and you wanna know what those thieves took?!? my air purifier! and to this shocking theft, my friend here replied, "hey, thieves have allergies too, okay?" lol...
5. i told the panini guy today that jeff thinks he's always sad

bored

io andrei in Texas per vedere mia famiglia...

today we learned about the conditional in italian. it is used to express a variety of things:

-to politely request something

-to express an invitation

-and... to express a wish or desire


on our worksheet, there was a fill in the blank for us to complete with a phrase in the conditional :
io (I) ________________________. So, naturally, I filled in "...andrei in Texas per vedere mia famiglia." (I would go to Texas to see my family!)

I just can't wait to be home! :)


Today we had class as normal. I got a panini for lunch and the guy DID NOT tell me I looked sad (what a surprise!) After class, I came back here for a while and watched a movie, made some pasta, and then I went out for a walk to the stores. I didn't end up buying anything, but I was looking in all the souvenir stores trying to brainstorm and make notes of where I need to stop by before I leave. i got a lemon granita on my way back to the apt and then finished watching the italian job. i went out on the balcony to talk to dad. there's not much breeze today (that's why i didn't end up going to the rocks, but tomorrow i will).

no plans for tonight, prob end up just hanging out here.

tastes like america, but better

tonight my roommates fell asleep before we could make concrete dinner plans, but i had texted cristina to see if they were back from out of town and if they wanted to get some mickey d's. about twenty minutes later my phone rang and she told me that she and charilyne had just been talking about how they wanted it! perfect! i met them at the temple of apollo and we started our walk into siracusa. it took about thirty minutes or so to get there, but it was very much worth it in the end. some of the orders got messed up, but it still beat pizza again! mcdonalds was hoppin tonight! there were birthday parties and families all over the place. there was a SUPER cute little boy who kept creeping over to the table and smiling until we caught him. i miss the kids at mission waco like crazy! i can't wait to see them :)

we called for a taxi for the ride home because it was dark and not exactly a safe walk home. giuseppe (i think) just got his new car on friday and it was SO nice. during our drive home, we actually saw one of the guys from Zen. hahah ohhh irony. i snapped a few pics on the way home. i love the way the street looks at night. it's so strange though because you can't see anything except for the street you're on because the buildings are so tall, so it almost looks fake. but it's so pretty and quite. i will miss the streets at night.

sooo apparently jj is addicted to chipotle now. one more reason i can't wait to get back to america! haha

sunday

last sunday in sicily. tomorrow is the first of my last four days of school here. today we went to the rocks and hung out there for a couple of hours. i am ready to come home though. i've really had enough of the pizza haha. as if last summer wasn't pizza enough! anyway, here's a pic from the rocks.