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.

just a little comparison

saturday!

well anyway, yesterday i watched step up and hung out around the apartment and then went to the birthday party at this kind of clubhouse/pool place that could be rented out. i went early with liz, bethany, and sarah to help decorate and set up. there were these two italian girls there (no one knows exactly who they were/why they were there) but they were giving us the evil from the first second we arrived. i wasn't having it! so the guy in charge was asking us where we were from etc, and when we responded in italian, the girls were laughing at us! and later, when more people were there, one italian guy was saying that we were all pretty and the girls said, "oh tehy're not that pretty..." okay, first of all, everyone knows the word bella. second of all, american sounds PRETTY much the same as americana, soooo it's not rocket science, girls, we know what you're saying... anyway, they finally left and the birthday party was fun. we just hung out, ate, danced, etc. we left around 12ish and piled 10 or more people into one taxi. oh and lest we forget, the taxi driver WAS a creeper. my friend and i were sitting in the front seat and mr taxi driver kept telling me to sing and dance to the radio. alas, it still cost us each 5 euro after the 15 minute drive...

this morning i slept in til around 11 and headed to the market to pick up some fruit and souvenirs. i made pasta again for lunch and then around 2, my roommates and i met some friends at the rocks. it was a beautiful day out at the rocks and the water felt SO good! i went snorkeling for a little bit and saw a good-sized crab down in the rocks.

tonight i'm just staying in and going to sleep early because my stomach has been hurting ever since i left the rocks this afternoon... :-/ hopefully it'll be better tomorrow. idk what i'll do tomorrow, it being sunday and everything closed and all. then it's the school week and then HOME. i can't believe it's almost here. i still have a lot of things i need to get though before i come home. well, i'm going to read my book and then probably try to go to sleep.

love.

thursday, part two

tonight was SO fun. it might be one of the most fun nights i've had here. first of all, i made fettuccini alfredo for dinner which was GREAT. i'll prob make it again tomorrow just because it's DIFFERENT than the usual and i still have all the leftover ingredients. then, i got ready to go out with two of my friends i've met here. one goes to UNT and one goes to U of H. we went to this place called zen which is a beautiful outdoor discoteca/bar/restaurant sort of thing. lots of people had been before, but it was my first time to go. we met up with some italian guy friends they had met and hung out with them there for the night. we got to do some dancing and chatting. one guy actual works for an italian company that partners with exxon mobil. i was telling him (in italian, very slowly of course haha) about how my dad works for an oil company in houston too, and mid-sentence he goes, "i speak english." hahaha ooooh okay then. anyway, now i'm back at the apartment, hot and gross from being outside, but nevertheless it was fun. tomorrow, market perhaps (if i get up in time) and rest during the day until doing something in the evening i suppose.

thursdayyyy

after sleeping practically all day yesterday, I thought I was going to be up all night, but I watched The Boy in the Striped Pajamas with my roommates and then went to sleep decently early. I woke up a couple of times during the night, but other than that, I got a good night's rest. I'm still sleepy though and am thinking about taking a nap... Mom says I must be getting back on Houston time lol.

So, I bought this shirt yesterday... it's completely goofy but it looks just like tanner with his out of control hair haha! and it was only 3 euro! :) 7 more days til I get to see him! and everybody! for class this morning, we watched La Vita e' Bella and then had to answer some questions about it after lunch. That movie is still so good, even though I've seen it at least 4 times now. I hadn't seen it in so long, though, so it was good to see it again.

i went to the rocks this afternoon, but after 45 minutes, i couldn't take the heat anymore so i came back to the apartment (not that it's really any cooler, but it's not in the direct sunlight!) and have been doing my laundry. i went through all my stuff in my room and sorted out the trash and gifts and such. i'm ready to pack! haha.

i'm not sure what the plans are for tonight or the weekend. tomorrow evening there is a birthday party, but other than that, i don't really know besides souvenir shopping. well, i guess i'm gonna read my book for Welcome Week, BLUE HOLE back home. It's pretty good so far. I'm about halfway through with it now.

Until later, Heather

i guess i needed some sleep!

wow... i didn't wake up today until 2:30 PM... I always hate the feeling when you wake up and the day is half gone, but it was alright today, since I have nothing I need to do. i guess i really needed some sleep! i think i'm going to go buy some art supplies - i've really been feeling like doing soem sketching, and considering the lack of things to do... it seems like a good idea haha. i just watched the movie The Life of David Gale and it was SO good. Probably one of the best movies I've seen in a while. I'm not sure what the plan is for this evening, but I'll prob end up sticking around here. Nothing too exciting, I'd imagine.

the week is pretty much done...

.... as far as school goes, at least. wednesday (tomorrow) we don't have class because there is a field trip to Catania and Thursday we're watching a movie (probably my fav: La vita e' bella). I'm opting to just sleep in tomorrow instead and do some cleaning and getting ready to head back home instead. i was planning on going to the rocks tomorrow but i got a little burned today, soooo looks like a no. anyway, today was basically a normal day: coffee and croissant, class, lunch break at panino shop (got told i'm always sad- as usual), class, home, rocks, watched a movie on my computer (Closer- sad, but good). then! i skyped with jj! haha. and i got to skype with tammy yesterday which was good :) then we went to dinner at Spizzica down by the water, which was good. i've already been three times, so it wasn't anything new, but still good. afterward, we came back to our apartment for a bit before going to jeff's place and then going on to giuffa where we just hung out for a while. i started getting tired and there weren't any tables left, so after about an hour, i came back home. so now i'm here and just wanted to put in a quick update before going to sleep.

9 more days!

lack of bloggage due to lack of computer

wow, 11 more days and I come home! this weekend in Florence was fantastic and went by so fast! The first day there, we arrived in the evening and walked around town. We saw ponte vecchio and ate at a wonderful restaurant overlooking the Arno river. the food was quite good :) i had minestrone soup and a salad. the people in Florence were also really nice. after that, we went back to the hotel and watched some ridiculous american tv. all of the channels were over the top evangelical shows, so not very interesting but made for some good laughs. the next day we went out to the market which was great! there was so much to see and i ended up buying most souvenirs there because they were actually worth it haha. i still have some things to get here in Sicily though! i bought a mini computer that morning, but after many failed attempts to change the default language back to English (by both me and the computer store (for the WHOLE day)) I ended up having to return it and get my money back... then, we went out to see more of Florence and walked around. For dinner, we went up to Piazza di Michaelangelo. We had to hike up there a ways, but the view was worth it! The sun was setting over the city and was beautiful! We ate at a restaurant up there that was really not good, mainly a touristy place, but oh well. the view was good... on our way back, we stopped and got some popsicles (there was this neat place that sold these popsicles that were 100% fruit, and some that were actually ice cream) liz got grapefruit and i got an ice cream one with sprinkles. we kept walking and stumbled upon a caurosel, so we went for a ride. haha. then, right before we arrived at our hotel, there was an Italian man putting on a street magic show. i started filming it with my camera and then all of a sudden, he was pulling me out in to the middle of this huge crowd to assist him with his magic... crazy! it was ridiculous, and then, after i was finally done, liz and i went back to the hotel and got ready for bed. we had to get up early for our Special Day in Tuscany Tour.

The next day started off really early with breakfast on the rooftop terrace at the hotel. It had barely opened when we got there. we headed downstairs to the lobby to wait for the tour and when it finally got there (italian time, here...) we got into a little bus shuttle that took us to the bus station where we got on a big coach bus and waited to depart. our first stop was Pisa! i was really excited about this one! it took about an hour to get there, but it was worth it. we stayed there for a little bit and then continued on to Chianti for lunch and wine tasting (About another two hours drive...) the lunch was over-hyped and i think they gave us the leftovers, but we got to eat some good soup that is typical of the region... then, we went to two other regions of Toscana: Siena and San Gimelgnano (?) where we walked around and visited Cathedrals. In Siena, there is this horse race that takes place, so we got to see where that happens. Also, we tried teh "Worlds Best Gelato" (although, personally, i dont think it was much different than any other gelato...). after that, we headed back to Florence, where Liz and I stopped at McDonalds before walking back to our hotel. We watched some more Gina D and made plans for our departure in the morning... Yesterday we slept in a bit, ate breakfast, packed up, walked around the city a bit more. (stopped for grapefruit popsicles) and checked out of the hotel. after a bus, airplane, bus, bus, bus we got back to Ortigia and had chinese food for dinner.

now im back at school, waiting for class to start in a bit, ready to get the week started and have one last weekend in ortigia before the last week of school and then HOME!

i miss you all and cant wait to see you :) ill probably load more pics after class this afternoon!

some pics from the sailing trip

also, a video of jeff trying to do a backflip off of the sailboat

from aula magna

now im writing from the big classroom at the school because my computer is broken. i want to upload pics from the sailing trip (because it was beautiful) but im not sure when that will be. tomorrow liz and i leave for florence which im really excited about. we still have to plan our weekend though... i didnt get back til late last night because of sailing and then dinner, and earlier this week weve just been busy so we havent had time to plan it yet. unfortunately i dont have my skype. i went to the shop to buy some stamps for my postcards, but they were out... this place is crazy haha.

the sailing was fun. we sailed about an hour or so off the coast and went swimming out there for a while. on the way back, the sun was setting and the captain gave us some melon and bread to eat. well, now im headed back to class. more later :)

i think italy hates me

wanna hear about a good day? my laptop stopped working.

What # day is it?

I've lost track of the number of days... but it's more than halfway over! Hard to believe, but at the same time, I feel like I've been here forever. Last night, we went to Chinese food! It was so good! They have plain fried chicken like I like it there. (no sweet and sour sauce) and the fried rice is quite delicious too. Then we went to a gelato place where Liz and I split a Nutella crepe. Can't get enough of that nutella... Then we went to Jordan's apartment to watch the new Harry Potter movie. After about an hour of it, though, I was having trouble staying focused and I kept thinking about how I should be studying, so I came back home to review a little bit, but got too tired, so I just went to sleep.

Yesterday afternoon, Liz and I finally figured out our hotel plans for Florence. After about 4 hours of searching, we settled on the Best Western. Sooo European, right? Stick to what you know I guess, lol. So we'll be there Thursday night to Saturday afternoon. Today we will plan out what we're going to be doing there for those three days! Everyone says it's beautiful there.

I woke up early today to shower and study for my midterm, which ended up being very do-able. Our teacher let us use our textbook as a reference. He said it's more important to know where to look than to have all the answers, which I agree with. The test took the whole three hours before the break! Then, after lunch, we had to write a passage about our childhood. I wrote about going on vacation to California to grandpa and grandma's house and how I had a bad habit of not cleaning my room and that one time I left an egg in the closet on accident and it smelled so bad! haha! I think my teacher will laugh. Two and half more days until Firenze!

mcdonalds

i wish i had taken a picture @ mickey d's, but by the time we got there, all i could think about was getting something to drink and the air conditioning lol. i went with liz and bethany today to go shopping in siracusa. liz was looking for a St. Lucia charm, so she wanted to go to the area near the Madonna delle lacrime (a statue of Madonna that mysteriously cried for three days...) well, siracusa is kind of a walk from ortigia when it feels over 100 outside. we didnt exactly know where we were going, just what we were looking for. well, liz and bethany knew. i had never even been there, so i had no idea! so we walked for a while and finally stumbled upon the building that apparently the pope gave a lot of money to build around this miraculous statue. we went in and saw the crypt, and walked around for about 20 minutes looking for this statue. we finally found it, and realized it was right in front of our eyes the whole time. we ahd been expecting a big statue, but this was more of one of those things you hang on the wall, and it was about 8 inches tall i'd say... so anyway, we never really found the charm that liz was looking for, but since we were in siracusa, and it was siesta, we thought we'd go find something to eat... naturally, mcdonald's. i'd heard great things about the mcdonalds here, and anything besides pizza sounded good to me! and they had a bathroom and a/c, so i was pretty pumped.

... 45 minutes later, we're still walking. at this point, the heat from the asphault is radiating through my brazil-tire shoes onto the soles of my feet, and i can't see the golden arches anywhere!!! but then! at last, i see the familiar restaurant, which here, let me tell you is quite fancy. the workers are pretty high class and the food was much better! although, no refills on the that coca-cola light, of course. we stayed there for nearly an hour because it felt so good and we didn't want to trek back home. luckily, on the way back, we didn't get lost again and got back quickly enough to liz's air conditioned apartment. bethany and i watched "reality bites" while liz took a nap. after that i just couldn't take the stickiness anymore, so i came back to take a shower and eat a peach from the market. :) i'm not sure what the plans are for tonight, but all in all it was quite a good day. we even found a grocery store/market with ALL KINDS of stuff (although it's a long walk from here). i got some bleach to try and get rid of the mold in the shower, but so far, it's not working. i think i'm going to eat an apple wiht nutella mmm mmmmmm. then, for dinner? idk....!

market day

this heat is getting out of control. i just went to the market to buy some fruit and i'm sooo gross now. and i left at 9 AM.... haha on my way there i saw the bakery man who knows me as the arancini girl. i took one picture today at the market because there was too much going on to take more pictures. today i bought: 4 apples, 4 peaches, 2 oranges, and a cantaloupe. i'm so excited about having fruit and not having to eat pizza or pasta or panini this week so much! since i live right next to the school i can just come home and get some fruit for lunch too. today i may go into siracusa with liz to go shopping. my roommates are going to the beach probably, but it's TOO hot for me. i'm excited to fly back home because it means i'll have 11 straight hours of air conditioning. tomorrow is katies' 21st birthday! I wish i could be there !!!! HAPPY EARLY BIRTHDAY KATIE! :)