picture it, sicily, rain

so we got back from southern italy. i honestly can't exactly tell you what we did on this trip. i only remember snippets which is a sad fact since we were only there a day ago. i did have my first overnight train ride. the experience was fun. but sleeping on a train is not the funnest. they gave us some sort of odd bag to sleep in. and a glorified cotton ball as a pillow. but it was still fun times i guess you could say.

but italians don't move when you say scusi. they just stand there. so i accidentally shoved this italian woman into the window on my way to the bathroom. and she got ticked. but i was like i have to pee so youll have to deal with it. then the bathroom didnt have toilet paper. and i came to the awful realization that the pee gets dumped on the train tracks. and i felt a little disturbed by this.

but then we got off the train and everything was better.

we did a lot of on site classes. at one point, i started writing notes about how much i missed cinque terre. those were fun to go read later. then one day we went to greek temples that apparently the best preserved or something (yeah, chew on that one HUG people). and those were really cool, but it was pouring rain so half the time i had my head down to avoid getting rain in my face so the only glimpses i got where when i braved the elements and looked up. but it was still awesome.

then one night we go to dinner, and i knew we were having fish, but the fish was looking at me when they sat it down. like they cut the head off but placed it ever so nicely on the plate with the rest of the body curled around it. i was so sad and also very repulsed by this. someone had to remove the head immediately and then i had a hard time eating the potatoes because they smelled extra fishy. but someone did cut me a bite of the fish. and i cut that bite in half and ate it. so it was fun.

we went to a lot of museums on this trip. and saw some theater where the godfather was shot. and ate like 7 canolis. which were good.

i almost forgot. i tumbled down a mountain on this trip. there was this big mountain of a rock next to the beach in one town we were in (i can't remember the name, it was difficult). and so we are sitting on it, star gazing and having deep conversations like one does on big rocks. and then it was time to leave and i had on my flip flops and i had some bad foot placement and fell on my face into a black abyss. i saw the end coming. for real. but then i realized that i wasnt being tossed about the sea and hadn't hurt myself so i started laughing. i do have a lot of scratches and an angry bruise to show for it though. it just would have been sad to die in the land of the mob. because i feel like people would always want to try to connect it to the mob. and they have a bad enough reputation as it is.

we did a lot of other things. saw a lot of ancient paraphernalia. talked about how we wanted to go back to cinque terre. got on a bunch of boats.

we got on one boat and i almost tossed my cookies. so i took two sleeping pills and knocked myself out. but you know what? i would get on that boat again. i like that swaying motion. its fun times. but what wasn't fun times was feeling like you were on the titanic and then you suddenly hear "my heart will go on" playing over the ship's loudspeaker. i mean really? its ok though. me and my friend did interpretive dance to it on the deck and it entertained this old italian couple who was watching us. so thanks celine.

we went to pompeii. it was really awesome actually. they were really modern for their times. it just felt funny to walk through those streets knowing a ton of people died there. and the casts they had of the dead were very eerie.

overall it was a good trip. fun times were had. we had a busdriver named luigi, a fact that is only made funnier by the fact that we have also had a bus driver named mario. but i have to be honest and say my heart is still in cinque terre. i cannot wait to come home and shalack my rocks.