cut foots.

the air here is cooler now that the storms have come. the sicilians call it 'freddo,' cold, which means for us kentuckians that it is not hot. the air is still warm but at night it is just cool enough that i am glad to be wearing long sleeves and long pants. i watch a lightning storm illuminate heavenly clouds over the sea and the veins of light spread and flash in my brain reminding me of my mortality and my smallness in this world and i am filled with excitement.

the rainy season has begun and i will need to buy a pair of rubber boots very soon. the drainage here is not much better than in lexington but more in the way that it puddles in uneven streets instead of washing toothin college girls down drains.

i feel safer here than i did in lexington, despite the mafia, who doesnt touch women let alone foreigners who arent land or business owners. i walk in the streets and can feel at home. my apartment also helps me feel that way.

there are chocolate hazelnut biscotti, cookies i eat after almost every meal. i bought a kilo of them for 2.5 euro, and they are lasting me a good while. it feels nice to be able to satisfy my sweet tooth. at home i almost never bought sweets. i also have on two occasions splurged and spent 2.5 to 3 euro on a bar of modicana chocolate, once with bergamot and once with pistaccio. it breaks into four little bars and it is so strong and crystallized in your mouth, it makes a symphony of sound while you chew and you are overcome with happiness. sometimes i reward myself with this.

the photo that kay crump took of my sisters and i when we were 13, 16 and 19 sits on my nightstand. it has been displayed in all 5 of the places i have lived so far.

i awoke this morning and felt very very far from home. it is unbelievable to me sometimes how far i am, and that i actually made it here.

i am very blessed to have such good friends as kali jones and stefano. these are the kind of friends i had in america. strong and true. it is a very good feeling.

last night before my date with davide, kali jones made photographs of me behind a semi-transparent screen. they are reminiscent of those jim hall made years ago, and are really beautiful and exciting. im privileged to be part of her artwork. she has a beautiful mind.

i have succumbed to the european habit of the bidet.

my tunisian neighbor often brings me heaping bowls or plates of ramadan-approved food when i still have her cute bowl slowly being emptied of food in the fridge from yesterday.

stefano gave me some italian music so i can learn the lyrics. it is actually not bad and i am surprised. i often hear britney spears, r.e.m., radiohead, the eagles, and other famous american music spewing from bars and street-level apartments and passing cars and have yet to hear a good song on the radio or from many italian people. they often like the worst american music that is made, or music that i liked when i was twelve. (cranberries, nirvana, shaggy and tupac to name a few)

my feet are more often than not in the process of healing one or two semi-deep small wounds from the rocks. skin dangles from a toe or heel and i walk kind of funny for a couple days, frequently reminded of the fun had while frolicking amoungst the rocks and waves and brine. i tell stefano if you come away from the rocks without a wound you aint doing it right. we compare wounds when we climb breathless from the sea. his skin is very very dark and his blood looks neon against dark brown toes. i can always see him when he has beat me to the rock, from a couple hundred feet away. i merely look for the darkest, skinniest body amoungst the tourists.

i feel like i have a million pets sometimes, as there are stray cats galore and stray dogs as well, though the cats will rarely let you get near enough to touch them. in siracusa as well as roma, and apparently all of italy, people are fools for cats. they do not spay or neuter their animals.

marilia has said they will hire me back again for the week as well, for the rest of the month of september. i will be paid 6.5 euro per hour on the weekend, for about 13 hours, and during the week will work 4 hours, and she said we will work out a price for the week. i told her last month's pay will not do this time, as it was well below minimum wage and i have to eat. i am however very excited to have work again, and still may receive a call about teaching english.

the streets here are so tiny. the largest of them in ortigia about the size of the smallest alleyway in america, others just large enough for a vespa.
everyone hangs their clothes outside, and you have to duck around underwear as you walk down the alleyway.

you also have to dodge dog poop as it is more often than not where you will be stepping in the street. i take my shoes off at my front door and sweep and mop every couple of days.

all the houses here are hundreds of years old and are crumbling every day. i eat on my balcony and hear plinks and watch dust pile below the wall which reveals its many layers, down to the metal gridded structure where the concrete was poured. our houses fall apart and we sweep them away, every day.

there is a building here where kali jones pointed out a large crack running down the exterior wall. it was one of the few buildings to survive the earthquake of such and such year 600 years ago and this crack is the battle wound.

i found that if i go to the edge of my balcony and lean out and look up the street i have a sea view. it is larger than some of those my family and i saw, advertised in florida as 'ocean view homes,' and i feel very lucky.

the sea is not the ocean. this is something i only learned by coming here. it is heavier, floats you easier, the salt is gentler in your mouth and on your skin when it dries there and the water a bit sweeter. it is less apt to giant waves and more often than not rather calm. i never saw a rocky ocean but i like the rocks in the sea better than sand. they cut your feet but you never bring them back with you into your home or car or into your eye when you shake out your towel.

i started my compost pile about a week ago and have since upgraded. i found a huge tin used for palm oil near a garbage can, clean as a whistle and makes a good drum too. i dont really have much to add to it in the form of vegetables right now but then again i dont have much to grow either. i save my 2 liter water bottles, cut them in half and use them length wise for planting olive pits and tall-ways for things like random seeds i found in roma.

i have my water bottle planters sitting in a wooden crate i got from the market. they throw many of them out each day and they are very decorative and charming, as well as useful. i am now using one for a bookshelf and hope to get another soon to use as a table when i eat on the balcony.

i sigh sometimes as i miss everyone, very much, and at times am a bit homesick and lonesome. nevertheless, this stuff is so nutritious i may never have to brush my teeth again.

no but really. a world outside of my world has opened up and i am apt to explore it. i'd be a fool not to.