..and i’m back

18 Apr 2005 in journal

hello there ~ my head is still spinning a bit, but yup, i got back last night. it was excellent and exciting and i loved it, though at the very end of it, i got a bit down by some drama. right now though, i’m feeling plain old overwhelmed with all the stuff i have to catch up on.

don’t know if i mentioned this, but the newlyweds are here in the u.s. for their month-long(!) honeymoon and they’re starting it here in los angeles. so last night, after arriving at the airport, i went out to dinner with them, went for a walk on the beach, and then brought them to my home where we all soon crashed. i was feeling pretty energized and o.k. this morning but right now i’m losing speed at an alarming rate.

they went down to san diego for the day, but i’m to meet my brother-in-law, who’s in town for a conference, for dinner in pasadena. and i have to get there somehow by bus or subway since i lent the car to my italian friends. plus i have school work to do by wednesday, and tons and tons of work stuff. eek.

however, after all that complaining, yes! i had a great time! and yes! i took a lot of pictures! here’s one to tempt you all with, one of my favorite’s of the bunch. on friday we went for a walk in the older downtown area of palermo and we passed this old outdoors market that’s been around since the 12th century (that little bit of info was dropped oh so casually while my jaw hit the floor in amazement. 12th century!?!? holy cow). while walking through the market, i passed this great wall, painted a cheery red—and it’s proof positive that some of the sterotypes about italians are 100% true, namely: italians place soccer somewhere around the level of religion and god, if not higher. here you see the odd poster celebrating the loveliness of strawberries (this is a market after all), a fancily-framed picture of jesus, a ripped one of his mom mary, and then a good dozen posters of old and current palermo soccer players. lovely lovely.