End of summer...Beginning of school....

Today began the first day of classes...so rather than studying Pharmacology like a good student that I vowed to be, I thought I'd recap my accomplishment from the summer instead:

80 hours walked to and from work
2 volcanoes hiked
60 consecutive days pasta eaten(no joke)
xxx (use your imagination) bottles of wine drunken
15 flavors of gelato tried
1 failed watermelon eaten....UGH....
2942837 boxes moved (or so it felt like...my poor back do protest)
4 EPIC days spent moving 2x
400 moments of nostalgia
200+ head bops while napping on a moving transportation
30 hours of work done for the entire summer (ok...hopefully it was more than that)
99 times I sighed at the weakness of the dollar against the euro
58 figs consumed
55 times "That's Amore" song got stuck in my head
17 uncontrollable fits of laughter
5 million drops of sweat sweated during Bikram Yoga
80 stitches used to sew yellow poka dotted curtains (I feel so domestic, hehe)
COUNTLESS number of times I dreaded turning 25....
COUNTLESS number of old jokes received
15 days since I entered the world of mid 20s....


I only hope to make out of 2nd year alive...

How I ended up sick for the first time on Sunday...

One Sunday morning, I became sick.

It's not the typical sneezing and hacking up my lung type of sickness one would think of. No, I was SEA sick. In fact, I was sea sick the entire Sunday and the weekend follwing (but that's another story). My first sea sickness experience was not pleasant....

It all began when many of our friends and coworkers kept raving about San Vito lo Capo, which is a town that jets out of the Northwestern coast of Sicily. It is supposed to have one of the most beautiful beaches in Sicily. However, it is only accessible by car. Imagine my excitement when we found out that we can take a bus to a town nearby and take a 9 hour boat tour all around the peninsula with a 3 hour stop over at San Vito to explore. I had never been on a boat tour or a cruise before, but I was giddy with excitement, envisioning myself standing at the head of the boat, with soft breezy wind tossing my hair and cool mists of water splashing on my sun kissed skin as we cruised down the gorgeous coast. And in theory, that is more or less what happened....except instead of standing, I was curled into a ball, fetal position, shivering under my damp towel with clammy, cold skin, and my straggly hair in my face counting down the 540 minutes that I had to endure on the boat....

Don't get me wrong, the scenery from the boat was spectacular, just like in the movies. And San Vito lo Cap was bellisimo. I just couldn't stomach (pun intended ^_^) the rocky waves and stop my gastric acid from sloshing around in my stomach. We stopped in the middle at a picteresque spot for an hour, so people can jump off the boat to go for a swim. The swim was wonderfully refreshing. But upon returning to the boat, my sea sickness came back faster than I was able to wipe myself dry. It also didn't help that while we stopped, the boat rocked 3 times as much. After FINALLY planting my feet on the glorious glorious land, part II of my trouble began.

Apparently, the bus driver told us the wrong time for the last bus back to Palermo, so we MISSED the last bus of the day back home. Desperate, Jess courageously started approaching tour buses and miraculously, we were able to hitch a ride back to Palermo from a tour bus filled with vacationers in their 60s! (time #2 for hitch hiking off of tour buses for me ^_^) As we made our way down the bus, every eye was on us, as if we were some exotic creatures that just magically 'poofed' onto the bus. Everyone was so kind and many tried to engage in coversations with us. The tour guide even introduced us as the Japanese sisters over the microphone. I truly experienced Sicilian hospitality that day and we safely arrived back home.

As I slept in my NONmoving bed that night, I vowed that I would never travel by sea again...only to take back those words a few days later...

To be continued....

I was so happy to be out of the boat! hehehe

love the sparkling water

San Vito lo Capo

Tribute to Sicilian food

Yes, you knew it was coming. I mean, how could my food obession not be seeping out of my blog? It's like how marshmallow HAS to ooze out of grahm crackers when you roast it, it was inevitable (mmm...smores). Before I get more sidetracked with thoughts of other food, here it goes. These are some of my favorites during my 2 month stay in the lovely land of Sicilia (pronounced siCHiLia).

Cornetto (con Ricotta)
This croissant FILLED (oh yeah, its completely overflowing) with Ricotta cheese and chocolate chips, is a typical breakfast staple of Sicilians. Sold in every bakery in the morning, the cornetto also comes plain, with cream, marmalade, or nutella. Dan, Jess, and I would often stop to grab a cornetto on our 1 hour walk to work every morning.

Arancini
Literally meaning little oranges in Italian, this cutely shaped fried rice ball is my favorite lunch pick me up. It is a rice ball with fillings like cheese, ham, ground meat, spinach. People often eat it here as a snack, quick lunch, or part of the antipasti. I'm not sure if I like it more for the shape of it, or for the actual taste..

look how cute they are!

Pasta con le Sarde

I was told that this typical Sicilian dish (pasta with sardines, fennel, raisins, and pine nuts) originated from Palermo and mom's home cooked version tastes better than the restaurant's. Nevertheless, I spent the first month of the summer on a quest for this dish. There is a mom-and-pop restaurant near work that we go to for lunch everyday. They have pasta con le sarde on the menu. And yet, the few times I've asked for it, they never seem to have it. After being rejected a few times, I gave up. But one day, Dan got to the restaurant before me. All the staff at the restaurant were excitedly shouting 'where is your friend?! where is your friend?! we have pasta con le sarde today!!!' It was sooo cute and funny that they remembered!

Panelle Panino
Panelle Panino is deep fried chick peas sandwich, served on sesame bread. It is usually sold in street car vendors. They deep fry it on the spot when you order, locking in all that fried oil and salty goodness..mmmm.....

Sfincione (or as Dan likes to call it, Sphincterotomy ^_^)

Another common pick me up food, Sfincione is a thick sicilian pizza, actually more like focaccia, topped with tomatoes, onions, and sometimes anchiovies (not cheese, unlike your everyday pizza). Sfincione roughly translates to 'thick sponge' and the texture is more or less that. It is much less dense than you expect, soft and light when you bite into it. Taste much better than it looks.

Babaluci! (pronounced ba ba loo sh! yes, you must pronounce it with the exclamation)
When our friend Gabe introduced the name of this dish to us, we loved saying it so much that it comes up in conversation at the most random moments. And what does this beloved word Babaluci mean? SNAILS. It is lightly salted and seasoned, bought in mass quantities for consumption. It reminded me a lot of the night market spicy snails sold in China. Babaluci is a bit too bland for my taste, but I love the name! Babaluci!

Panino con la Milza

Spleen sandwich stalls are everywhere in Palermo. I tried at a restaurant without even realizing what it was. It wasn't until a few days later that I realized I had consumed slices of RBC recylcing viscera on bread.... I must say, it wasn't so bad, tasted kind of like gyros. Not something I would crave when I leave Sicily, but not gut *ahem spleen* wrenchingly horrible, hehehe.

Bon appetito!

Viva Viola!

Very early on in our stay in Palermo, we couldn't help but notice the purple sensation that was sweeping over all of Sicily. Believe me when I say, purple is the new IN!! It is particularly popular with the guys, who love to sport the monochromatic theme of all purple from head to toe. My personal favorite are the purple moccasins. Soooo...when in Rome, Dan, Jess, and I decided to join all of Sicily in the purple madness. I think Dan was a particular hit with the ladies ;) So my dear friends, why not pick up a purple shirt the next time you are shopping and bring the purple craze back to the states??

The color got a bit distored here, but trust me, it's PURPLE

Purple Hump day!
Check out the Purple Moccasins

Gelato of the day: Yogurt (it kind of taste like the Chinese yogurt, very refreshing)

Romantic evening with Jess

Jess and I went on a date to Cefalu the other day. Featured as the backdrop of the famous movie Cinema Paradiso, Cefalu offers a tasted of the small town life. We quickly realized just how small the town was when in our 15 minute walk from the train station, we managed to overshoot the entire center of town! So instead, we climbed the town's gorge La Rocca, aka THE ROCK. (reminds me of the movie). After huffing and puffing for 40 minutes to the top, we arrived to see the ruins of its castle and the panoramic view of the town.

The orange houses constrasted against the blue ocean is a view unique to Cefalu. But other than THE ROCK (I just love saying that, hehehe) and its main cathedral, there was NOTHING else to do...and going with the whole theme of this summer: IDLENESS, Jess and I struggled to waste the rest of the day in the town. We sunbathed for an hour or two until I couldn't withstand the sun anymore. We then walked through the entire town three times!! Finally, at 5pm, we couldn't putz away the time any more so we went to dinner at a beautiful restaurant which offered seating that jetted into the ocean. And of course, there was not a single soul in the restaurant. So Jess and I had our romantic dinner with the entire restaurant to ourselves. At point, I swear even the waitor had forgotten that we were in the restaurant. But nontheless, dinner was lovely, and the sunset after dinner was a great conclusion to the day.

Look at all those empty seats! Awww, Jess, you shouldn't have reserved the entire restaurant just for us ;)

One of Sicily's local specialty, Pasta con Ricci (Pasta with Sea Urchin) I think it was Uni, reminded me of Japanese food.

Gelato of the day: Bacio

Taormina

Located on the eastern coast of Sicily, Taormina is a huge tourist spot, so much so that we weren't sure if it was worth visiting a place that was over run by tourist. But after inquiring some of our coworkers, we thought it was worth a peak. Man, I am so glad we went, because Taormina was fantabulous!! The 1 hour bus ride from Catania took us up and up through the hills and what we saw were magnificent views of Taormina. Of course, there were tons of baller hotels perched on top of the cliffs. I think it might be worht a revisit when I can afford to stay at one of these uber expensive hotels. You can see Mt. Etna in the back. Doesn't it look so much prettier from afar? Crazy to think that I was actually up there the previous day.

But the highlight sight was their Teatro Greco (Greek Theater), sitting on top of the hill overlooking the water. The theater is actually open for show performances, which I would imagine would be amazing to watch.

While wandering through the streets of Taormina, I came across a Marzipan shop, which is very prevalent in sicily. A confectionary made out of sugar and almond flower, it is colorfully shaped into different fruits. I chose one in the shape of a fig (my newly discovered favorite fruit this summer). I may look very happy posing with the marzipan in the picture, but boy....did I hate the thing! It was so sugary and grainy, I took one bite, and banished that noisome object to the far corner of my fridge where it sat until Dan and Jess finally ate it yesterday. Ugh....my teeth are still in shock from it... Don't be fooled by the pretty colors and shape!!

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