Learning about Sicily

First of all, we both love it here already. It's crowded, noisy, dirty, grass-less and we love it. The land reminds me of the desert area of Arizona or Utah. But, everywhere you look are olive trees or orange trees. They say the orange trees will be ripe in about two months. Olives are ripe early to mid summer.

We're working hard to learn the language. Going into local shops and trying (emphasis on trying) to ask for things in Italian. Sometimes it turns out pretty funny. Last night the clerk in a store didn't even understand my-- "Parle inglese?" Apparently we don't even speak Italian well enough to be understood. We'll get it, though. We are beginning to be able to order some things and ask a few simple questions.

We headed out this morning for the beach----We're on an island and couldn't find the water. There are no road signs and maps are of little use --- maybe no use at all. We ended up in a very nice little town called Misterbianco--didn't find anyone who spoke English but we did fine. Looked around a little...asked a shopowner to direct us to a nice restaurant and had a great meal. (By the way, we haven't had one morsel of food that we didn't LOVE.)

The adventure (emphasize that last word) in getting back to Motto (the town where we're staying) was something that I just can't tell you about until I can show photos.

Here at the base it is pretty much like being in "little America". You were right, Jae, they have American restaurants here---Taco Bell, Subway, Chinese, AND Applebees. What they don't have right now is a bank. We will have to either get a bank in town or wait two months for the new bank to open on base.

Library closes in ten minutes. I can check email here and get onto the blogs. We start Monday with classes for stuff. Sojourners, driving, etc. For now--bye. We miss you all terribly but it's a great adventure.