MAGMAAAA!!!

Last weekend, we went to climb Mt. Etna on the coastline of Sicily, one of the oldest active volcanoes in the world. Its last eruption was actually in September of 2007. As you can imagine, we had high expectations for this hike. Picture tantalizing smoke, rocks spewing from the summit, hot smoldering lava gushing out of the crater as it chases us down the mountain. Picture that? We did........only to see NONE of that. I mean, yes, our expectation was maaaybe a bit ridiculous, but still!! To be fair, the top was very beautiful and it was cool to see the crater, it just wasn't exactly what we were expecting. We had to take a $40 cable car ride to half way point, and hiked another 2 hours or so to the top. Here are some pics of our adventure.

Our hiking trail

the crater....where's the MAGMAAA???
I made it, woohoo!
Don't Jess and I look reeeally similar? Unfortunately, my cap wouldn't stay on because my head was too big!!! even with adjustable straps, my head wouldn't fit....
Us on top :) Check out the glaciers (I think) in the background.
Dan doing some solo trekking.

More to come about the following day, ciao!
Gelato of the day: Bacio

catching up on the weekend

My freakin computer's monitor broke down...so it's a bit hard for me to keep the blog updated...not to mention keeping my rising grumpiness under control. Anyways, a lil update on the weekend before last. We trekked over to Trapani, a idyllic town east of Palermo. The 3 hour train ride was slow, but very scenic with miles of ocean intermixed with miles of open fields. Well, according to Dan and Jess, it was very scenic; I would not know as I ended up passing out 10min into the train ride. In fact, I was so sleepy and determined to get my leg room that I kicked the guy who was sitting across from me. And when he left his seat to go to the bathroom, I thought he had gotten off the train...and proceeded to prop my legs on his seat. When the poor guy returned from the bathroom, I was dead asleep with half of my lower extremity in his seat. He gave up and went to go find another seat....

Me grumpily passed out...

While the local Palermitans were not enthused by Trapani, I found the small city to be quite charming and chic. It was certainly MUCH clearner than Palermo, albeit kind of deserted. We found a cute "hotel" to stay, which was basically a mom and daughter who converted their flat into a hotel. I'm glad that my Italian has improved to the level that I could atleast understand prices (but not much more sadly...) From Trapani, we headed towards Erice, which is a small fortress city above Trapani, accessible only by a 20 minute cable car. Erice had very much of the midieval feel, with its stone watch towers and windy alleyways. There was some magnificent, breathtaking views of the land! Absolutely worth the visit!!!

Me in all ninja black!

The next day, we took a ferry over to Favignana, a butterfly shaped island 20 minutes away from the main land of Sicily. We biked along the coast of the island, feasting on the emerald blue ocean views. Of course, we went for a swim in the Tyrrhenian sea. The only downfall for our day trip was the lack of water during our biking trip and the lack of shade; leaving the three bikers dehydrated and roasting hot.
All in all, great relaxing weekend :)
Gelato of the day: Otto Veli (a crazy combo of pistachio, hazelnut, fudge, and nutella...and by crazy I mean, the best thing ever!)

Asian squatting...

I know this isn't exactly related to Sicily, but I just found this hilarious so I'm going to blog about this instead. I'm not sure how many people are familiar with the idea of "Asian Squats", but it's very much like a basic squat except the following criteria must be met:
1. The entire lenght of the feet must in full contact with the ground.
2. The 2 feet must be in parallel to each other (no plies~)
3. One's body must be fulling lowered so that the hamstring and the posterior calf make contact.
4. One cannot extend the arms forward to balance the body.

So I have a theory that most Asian people can do this due to the squatting style toilets that are prevalent in Asia. It was actually not until last year that I realized that there were many people in the states who cannot do this. So Dan, Jess, and I had some time to kill at the park yesterday, and we began talking about the Asian squats, which became a 30 minute conversation / demonstration session. To my pleasant surprise both of them were quite proficient in the art of Asian squats. Here's a picture taken just for the pure absurdity of the conversation that went on.
Please try this at home and tell me if you have had success with this.

Gelato of the day: Tiramisu (sadly, not as good as I had hoped...)

Sicilian Foood

So I know there was concern that I would fill up my blogs with nothing but food, but I thought my full course dining experience deserved a blog of its own. Our wonderful professor from school came to visit Palermo for a week and took us out to a nice restaurant called Focacceria & Francisco. Most of the restaurant is composed of cute outdoor seatings in front of a church. I forgot to take pictures of the restaurant in all my excitement about food...
So a full course meal here consists of an appetizer aka "antipasti" which literally means before pasta, primi (usually a pasta dish), secondi (main course - usually meat or fish), followed by salad, followed by dessert. We each tried a bit of the different types of appetizer. My personal favorite was prosciutto with melon, which I've never had before.The melon was so ripe and sweet, which was even more enhanced by the salty prosciutto. Seafood is specialty in Sicily, especially tuna, sardines, and swordfish. The swordfish I had was amaaazing, so tender and fresh that I ate the whole thing even after scarfing down 3 finger sandwiches, and a plate of gnocchi. Apparently, they do not do doggie bags here because the waiter looked us funny as some of us tried to bring our leftovers home.

And during dessert, one of the highlights of my trip happened. I wish my writing skills were good enough to do this absolutely hilarious story justice, but alas, it sadly pales compared to reality. And maybe it will remain one of those "you had to be there" stories. Nonetheless, here it goes:
So after the meal, the waiter brought us a table full of amazing looking desserts to choose from, some of which included velvety chocolate cake, fresh strawberries arranged in delicate bowls drizzled with fudge, tiramisu, etc etc etc. Because we were sooo full, we decided to share one dessert and Jess chose a dessert for us. She could have chosen any one of those amaaazingly rich and yummy desserts, but what did she choose? WATERMELON JELLO… Yes, that's right, a pale pink looking collagen that wiggles. I mean, of all the Sicilian pastries and desserts like Sicilian cannoli, or Bronte’s pistachio mousse, or limoncello cream with fresh strawberries to choose from, really??! I quickly tried to hide my facial expression, which Dan promptly called me out on. And for the next 15 minutes, we had such a good laugh over her choice that tears were coming out of our eyes. I had to desperately concentrate on the fern in the street to stop myself from laughing. Oh Jess, you are awesome! And in honesty, the jello was a Palermo specialty according to our waiter, it did look fancy, and the texture was a bit more unique than ahem…j.e.l.l.o…
a pogo!
Gelato of the day: Fior di latte (which I think it's like cream / milk) and Fragola (strawberry - a bit too tart for my taste)

Yeah Beach!

My first weekend in Palermo, so off to Mondello beach we went, squeezed onto the bus like paninis. Located 12 km east of the city, Mondello is a popular day trip spot for Plaermoans on the summer weekends.
The 30 minute bus ride was a bit unpleasantly squished, offset by BOs that seem to pervade many Italian men for some reason. The beach itself was beeeautifully colored. As expected, it was packed with sunbathers. I didn’t see anyone putting on sunblock; people were slathering on oil while we poured sunscreens onto ourselves. Dan, Jess, and I are religious sunscreen applicators- we apply frequently and meticulously. There were rows after rows of changing huts on the beach, which seemed like it was a waste of space because it was taking up room away from the already narrow strip of sand. We laid in the sun for about 2 hours. The rest of the town seemed very residential with beautiful vacation houses. And of course, we had to have more gelato!!! It's apparently very popular to eat gelato on a bun. The gelato here was mind blowing. By far the best gelato I had so far (as you can see from my expression...double fisting ice cream?) The northern strip of the area offered an AMAZING view of the water, island, and sail boats. The panorama was so breathtaking that it instantaneously lifted my mood. (The pictures unfortunately do not do it justice, but you may notice the man wearing the speedo from afar, it is definitely worn here, although to my disappointment, not to the same degree of frequency that one would think.) We had some beer and bites to eat at the outdoor restaurant by the beautiful water - it was lovely -

Gelato of the day: Pistachio (really popular in Italy - reeally good)
I also realized that I've had gelato 6 days out of the 7 days I've been here...this cannot go on

Day 2 and 3

My blogs might be spotty for a while since our wireless internet is temperamental, works one hour stops the other...and with it, our mood fluctuates as well...
We arrive to our first day of work!! only to find out that half of the people have taken off because the next day is a national holiday. Our first day at work was very short, we went in for basically 3 hours and had lunch with our mentor. He is from Northern Italy and over lunch, the stereotype Northern Italians have against Sicilians / Southern Italians became abundantly clear. Apparently, the south has a very slow pace of life where everyone is friendly, but efficiency greatly suffers because of the culture.
Jess and I decided to spend our day off wandering through the city of Palermo. The major streets were completely deserted!! All the stores and banks were closed, with the exception of a few gelaterias. We visited the Cathedral, the Piazzi di Parlamento, and roamed the major streets of Palermo.

But because all the museums were closed as well, we didn't really see much. At then end of our walk we had...of course, Gelato! So basically, we took a 2 hour walk to get gelato and back :)

Once we were home, due to the lack of recipes and internet, we decided to come up with our own dinner concotion. We bought a hefty loaf of bread, a 5 ft long zucchini (yes I am still taller than the vegetable), and tomatoes. So...we came up with our own Bruschetta!! It was delicioso. I was never a fan of olive oil and definitely not garlic, but after this summer, that may all change. Maybe I will also become a master chef...maaaybe not....



Gelato of the day: Banana

Palermo!!!

Alas, after leaving Baltimore on 6am Saturday, I've arrived in Palermo, Italy 10am Sunday the next day...too tired to calculate how many hours of travel that's been.
But, too celebrate the beginning of my summer, I've decided to start a blog to record my summer adventure (and beyond if I get into it). ~ Thanks to Jess for introducing me to Blogspot :) ~ note my awesome pun for the blog name - get it? ;)

Our apartment is super cute, with 2 chic balconies that make the place feel very European. It's a lot bigger than I envisioned with a big living room, spacious bedroom, kitchen, and bathroo And the view from the balcony is beautiful, if you ignore the smell and view of piles of trash in the streets. Palermo is currently having a "rubbish strike" so the trash is not being taken away...


Our landlady is a bumbly old woman who doesn't speak any English but likes to fuss in a older woman sort of way. She stocked our kitchen with utensils and cookwares, not to mention some food, water, and fruits to get us started. She insisted on showing us the details of how to boil a pot of water (which is my forte mind you).

After taking a 4 hour nap, Jess and I wandered through the streets near our apartment, which is filled with shops. We wandered into a small pizzaria that was packed with people. It's amazing how far you can get with just pointing and saying "grazie". Our first meal in Italy consisted of french fries Pizza and Pannini, followed by Gelato! Starting our trip the healthy way ;)

Time to sleep off this cold....
Ciao!
Gelato of the day: Cafe