Father's Day

Two posts in a week? We're not really that interesting. Just a fluke.





On Father's Day we went with friends to Castle Moela, a town above Taormina. Taormina is a world-renowned tourist spot with beautiful beaches, an ancient Greek/Roman amphitheater and, of course, lots of shopping; art, antiques, clothes (expensive but beautiful), souvenirs, and plenty of places to eat and drink.


Castle Moela is a nice little town on top of the same mountain, so far up that you have to park and walk up a set of steps to get to the town. The views are amazing and there are many little shops to see. The picture above was taken from the restaurant where we ate. In fact, right from our table.


After we ate we walked around the town and took lots of pictures. I'll put a few here but most will be on our Flikr page in a few days.






This picture is of Mount Etna from the top of the steps at Castle Moela. At this point the mountain is about fifteen or so miles away. Beautiful view.










The next photo is of one of the shops in town. We didn't go in but I was fascinated by the front of the store. I've kicked myself several times for not going in because I may never get there again. The bells in a circle on the front wall are actually doorbells though I've never seen them on any doors. (you may have to click on the picture to see the bells very well) I think they're very interesting and if I do go back I'd love to get one of those very unique doorbells.


I really like this photo. It may become a larger framed print on our wall when we move back to the States.



This final photo is of a small piazza in the town. All towns have a large piazza where all the important things get done. The main church is in the piazza, people gather there to visit in the evenings and on Saturday mornings and Sundays after church. In most towns, except for the very smallest, there is also a few smaller piazzas. This is one of those. Restaurants and shops line a kind of circular area with outdoor seating. Most restaurants have a little seating inside but life for the Sicilian is lived outside. (The only exception in the day is riposo-from riposare: to relax. At about 12:30 in the afternoon the stores and businesses all close up and everyone goes home for a large lunch and a two to three hour rest. I think I mentioned this in the last post.)

Anyway, this is a beautiful little piazza in Castle Moela. One of the prettiest I've seen. Bob took this picture from the balcony of one of the bar/eating places where we had some gelato for our dessert.



I'll try to get the other photos posted today or tomorrow on Flik-R.

Dinner...Italian style

In our last blog we mentioned we were invited somewhere for something we didn't know what. Well, we figured out what the invitation was for and went to the house of friends of Giusseppi and Mimma on Monday evening for dinner. We left the house a little after 8:00 p.m., got to their house a bit before nine, visited for awhile then began eating about 10:00. Some people stopped over for dessert at 11:00 and we got home around 12:30. This is the typical time for dinner since they eat lunch at 1:00 then take a rest for a few hours before starting the evening.

At dinner were about fifteen people and they all talked at the same time across the table having no problem knowing who their conversation was with and what they were saying. I watched people's mouths as they talked (as if that would help in the translating) and listened for words I recognized. I was sure I had it figured out when I heard "matrimonio" and Mimma was talking with a loving voice holding Giusseppi's hand. I was sure that one of the young women was getting married and they were giving advice....................... Wrong............. When a girl sitting near me told me about the conversation, it wasn't at all what I thought. They were talking about something completely different.

(I've GOT to learn Italian)

So, that night the ladies pinned me down as to teaching them English and we decided they would come to our house on Monday (last night) for their first lesson. Bob thought, "why not fix dinner for them, too." and invited them over. Well, we didn't have fifteen but it was more than the four ladies who came for the lesson. Around our table were the four women (I only know the names of Mimma and Marissa), Marissa's husband Alfio (that's whose house we went to to eat), Giusseppi, Bob and me----plus----Giusseppi and Mimma's thirteen year old grandson who seems to show up at our house anytime we have anyone else from his family (his name is also Giusseppi). We had a great time and great food.

The lesson was pretty funny since I only speak a very tiny bit of Italian. I had written down everything I thought I would need to say, such as, dictionary (dizionario), alphabet (alfebeto), vowel (vocale), "you will need" (forgot that one), practice this for next week (lost this one, too) and translations for the American word for every letter of the alphabet. But, as it turned out, I needed to look up things like, "let's say this together" and "the e is silent" (now that was hard because all vowels are important in Italian) Next lesson is on July 4. Lesson at our house, dinner next door at G and M's. What an experience we're having. Such good people.

Enjoy the pictures!

Bits and pieces

I know it's been awhile but the end of school is near and we've been staying home many weekends so I can just rest up from the pressure of testing, reports, plans, and the impending job of special education. On Tuesday of this week I was in meetings from 8:00 until 2:30. What a day. I hope that's not indications of what's to come--I hate sitting in meetings. I want to be teaching kids.



On Saturday two weeks ago (that long already???) we got on the bus at 7:00 a.m. for a trip to two of the islands north of Sicily (Aeloian Islands), Lipari and Vulcano. Our tour guide arrived to tell us that the sea was too rough and we couldn't go on the boat so the trip was cancelled. Instead they substituted a trip to Messina and Tricani where there's a statue of a black Madonna. The trip was good but the interesting thing to us is the many statues we see that have been found in the sea. Apparently ships with statues on them sink in the Mediterranean. We'll have to remember that next time we're on a boat---look for statues and get off if you're sharing the ship with them.



I've started Italian classes--the first one this week--and so far learned I've been using the wrong word for "I want". Apparently I've been using the one that means a command instead of the polite form of the verb. I always seem to know just enough of a language to get in trouble. I'm looking forward to learning the right way to speak and am even willing to write the common letter clusters ten times each while saying them out loud (only a little part of our homework this week).



Speaking of (not) speaking Italian. Mimma and I had a nice conversation yesterday--wish I understood what she was telling me. I think she said that her friend we met at her house when we went for the pizza party (we met three friends--refer to photo in previous blog) wants us to come to her house Monday (or Tuesday) evening (or afternoon) for dinner (or not). She doesn't live in Motta, she lives in some town that starts with Gi---. I said, "Of course, we'd love to. So--we're going somewhere we don't know to eat or not with someone we don't know who and we don't know when. But we're going to have a great time.



This next week is our last week of school. The kids have three and a half days then teachers go until Friday afternoon. After a two week break we'll start summer school. I've volunteered to teach and since I'm the only actually certified teacher teaching, I'll be "teacher-in-charge." What an honor. That really means I'll be the one who fills out all the paperwork and the evaluation of the program. What that also means is that I get to go to Vicenza for a two day training. I'll tell you more about that at another time.



Anyone want a really smart dog? We have a nice Italian dog who amazes me at how smart he is. He learns things very quickly and is the first dog we've ever had that does the whole game of "chase the ball, pick it up, bring it back and drop it at the master's feet". Most dogs we've had either ignore the ball or pick it up and want you to fight them for it.



However, today, we thought he was going to be playing the game with a live chicken. One of Giusseppi's chickens stupidly came through the fence into our yard and was flapping around the yard. Now isn't that an invitation for a dog to play? By the way, "no animals were injured in the playing of this game." The chicken quickly found out it didn't really want to play and ran home and surprisingly Bullet let him. It may have had something to do with all the yelling he was hearing from both yards.