Apologies for the delay... Weeks No. 6 & 7

First things first. I would like to apologize for not updating last week; I got sick with the flu or food poisoning or something on Monday, and stayed home from school all week. I didn't leave the house until Saturday night, therefore, I didn't have anything interesting to share (I slept for at least sixteen hours every day and watched a lot of Youtube videos during that week of being stuck at home).

The Friday before I got sick, Giorgio and his friends Massimo, Claudio, and Dario took me to that Italian rap concert, which was actually surprisingly good. We had a lot of fun; Claudio attempted to speak in English all night, but he just sounded like Borat and I kept laughing hysterically and then they would all start laughing too.

(If you're interested, here is a link to a video of Inoki, the Italian rapper we saw: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00nGkMVFxcA)

Sunday morning, my host mom Miriam and I went to Kylie's host mom Conci's photo exhibit. The theme of the exhibit was "Acqua Aria (Water & Air)"; gorgeous photos of aqueous settings, i.e. pools and puddles and the Mediterranean and glasses of water, etc.

Sunday night, Ambra, my host dad's niece, had a birthday party; she would turn eighteen at midnight. I met almost all of my host dad's extended family, including Carlo, my host dad's nephew, who I will mention later. It was very fun and of course, there was lots of really good food; my favorite dish was the couscous. However, we didn't get home until about 1:30am and I was very, very tired... I went to school the next morning, but felt really ill after about two hours, so I had my host dad come pick me up. I ended up being sick for the rest of the week. No fun at all.

However. Saturday finally rolled around, and after starting to take some medication a few days before, the bug seemed to go away and I started feeling a lot better. Giorgio insisted that I should go out that night, to get out of the house and have some fun, and after much convincing, my host mom finally gave in. He and his cousin, Carlo, who is eighteen and has a car, picked me up at 12:30am and we went over to Carlo's for a small get-together. It felt like the first day of school again; everyone there stopped what they were doing and stared at me as I walked in, and then rushed over to introduce themselves and ask me a million questions about America. I actually met a lot of really cool and really nice people. They almost had me make them pancakes, but decided to make me Nutella crepes instead! We sat outside and talked and joked and I watched them play a Sicilian card game. It was a grand ol' time. Giorgio and I didn't get home until 5:00am, but because our time zone was set back an hour due to Daylight Savings Time, we were technically out until 6:00am... Whoa!

I only got a few hours of sleep that night because we were going to Calabria in the morning for Giorgio's friend's eighteenth birthday. Calabria is the "toe" of the "boot" of Italy, so we had to take a ferry boat across the strait to get there! It was my first time off the island since I first arrived on September 7th. I felt really strange at the party; no one, except Giorgio and his friend Mattia, talked to me. They all just stared and whispered to each other. The police came at some point, though I'm not sure what for; a noise violation, I assumed, because the music was playing very loud and the party was in an apartment building and it was very late on a Sunday night. We didn't get home from Calabria until 4:30am... After two nights of being out very late, I was nearly dead from exhaustion. Luckily, there was no school on Monday, due to yet another protest, so I got to sleep it off.

Unfortunately, I was not able to be a part of the university choir because I am a minor; the director listened to my audition, and told me to come back in March, when I turned eighteen. Conci talked to a friend of hers, who is the director of a church choir; I am now a part of that choir. I went to rehearsal on Tuesday; we are working on Christmas music, and a lot of the songs we're doing are traditional Sicilian songs. I am by far the youngest in the choir, and the others' voices are very mature and good. Our next rehearsal is tomorrow.

Saturday is Halloween and I am experiencing a bit of nostalgia for Halloween in America; people in Italy, and probably the rest of Europe, don't really dress up or make a big deal out of Halloween. We'll see how it goes...

Ciao for now!

Hunter