Ortigia vive

Ortigia is absolutely beautiful, it’s hard to put into words.  I am trying to take as many pictures as possible, but sometimes pictures just won’t cut it.  The days are the best time here, this is mostly because it gets extremely cold at night.  I was told ( ;) ) that this is partly due to being on an island with very little cloud cover or any pollution to trap the heat.  This will become more helpful as the days get warmer.  I am also experiencing many second world problems… we use a small gas heater to heat our apartment, which we only turn on when we are sleeping so we don’t freeze! Our apartment is also without internet.  We have finally got the water heater working, but it isn’t the same, because the water pressure is so low.  I know it sounds like I’m complaining, I’m not… I am very grateful that I have been able to take a shower (even if it has only been once since I have been here), I’m just letting you all in the states know how lucky you are to have heat and a hot shower.  

Another note about the water: we aren’t allowed to drink it… frustrating because I brought a nalgene water bottle and at home/school I usually drink 2 of those each day.  We have to drink bottled water which isn’t terrible because bottled water is fairly cheap, however it will add up as the weeks continue.  For all of you environmentalists (C&R/Binckley) they don’t recycle here.  We can put the water bottles into the recycling, but it just gets thrown away… the recycling barrels are just to make people feel better.

Walking around Ortigia is magnificent.  The Mediterranean is so beautiful as are the streets and buildings.  I cannot wait until the ‘winter’ is over, the environment will be even more breathtaking.  It’s kind of strange walking around the town, there really aren’t sidewalks and all of the cars and motorized scooters go so fast.  The streets are so small they are more like alleys and you wouldn’t think that cars would be allowed to drive there.  Due to the closeness of the cars and the sides of buildings I have predicted that before I leave here I will be hit by at least one car.  If this happens I lose… if it doesn’t the first person to comment will receive a special gift from me (believe me, I don’t want to be hit by any of these Italian drivers!).

I have finally had at least one of each class.  I still can’t definitively say which classes I enjoy and which I may abhor (I learned this from my father… I either like something and if I don’t like it then I hate it… THANKS DAD!).  So far I am enjoying the Italian class.  The teacher is this adorable man who just loves to teach us.  It’s always great to learn from someone who loves what they do and teaching people about what they do.  As far as Italian goes I am picking up a great deal.  It is helpful to walk around and speak to local venders, especially at the open-air market (I’ll speak about this in a different post).  Most people are willing to speak with you, even in your broken Italian.