Good news everyone: my last week in Sicily was much more exciting than the one before, so this blog post will probably be a lot more enjoyable to read! Hahaha.
As I write this I am chilling on a lawn chair outside and enjoying my last hour of Italian sunshine before we head off to the airport to catch out plane back to Francia. These past three weeks have been such an interesting experience when I look back on them, almost like a mini Italian exchange hahaha. I have gotten used to spending hours alone with my thoughts, not having internet, hearing nothing but French (and sometimes Italian TV), and being stuck on top of a pretty mountain in the middle of nowhere, and I have to say it really isn't that bad! Don't get me wrong, I am very happy that I am going back to Paris this evening, but this little Sicilian vacation has succeeded in reminding me that a lot of things that I normally (and almost automatically) view as necessities are actually luxuries. I think that is probably a good thing to remember. :)
Okay, so, what did I do this week? I watched a reality TV show! And it was incredibly realistic because it wasn't even on the TV at all. It was about four different French couples on a vacation in Sicily. The four different wives were all beautiful, well-dresses Parisian women and the men were laid-back, cultured, and always laughing. The four different couples all had very different personalities, but they had one thing in common: they just wanted to have a good time, and they wanted to do it in style.
Being in Sicily with Fred and Cecile's friends was nothing like the two weeks before. I spent almost all my time with them, but honestly it was as if I wasn't even there! Most of the time I felt invisible, but I was okay with that. Sitting at the table and listening to them talk, I could still eat the delicious, best-of-the-best food that was served but it was as if I had slipped into a different life. I listened to the Parisian women chat about which perfume they were into at the moment, and I listened to their husbands joke about the traffic in Palermo compared to all the other countries they have been to. As a group, they repeatedly rolled their eyes and laughed lightly over shared inside jokes and stories. I was glad to be invisible because I had nothing to contribute to these conversations, but that didn't make them uninteresting. During the week, we walked around downtown, ate at nice restaurants, spent some time at the beach, and visited places I had already been to the weeks before, but it was all so much different with the changed company.
In the beginning of the week when I was addressed by anyone other than Cecile or Fred, it was clear to me that he or she didn't really know what to do with my presence. Was I the help? Was I to be treated as an intelligent human being by these clearly important people? It was actually comical. As the week progressed, I smiled and showed off the French I had learned since the last time I had seen them, in Normandy, my first month living in Europe, and I joined more conversations and played games with them. One night, I found myself drinking with them as if we were old buddies, as if they weren't all 20 years older than me, as if we had things in common. After that night, the majority of the friends realized they could smile at me or ask me questions or acknowledge my presence. The others, well, some of them clearly still thought the very point of my existence in this planet was to do their dishes, but I did my absolute best to be respectful and remember that I would never seem them again after a few days (and to keep my sarcastic comments in my head). In that sense, this past week was entertaining and eye-opening. Upon pushing my feelings to the side, I was able to study these people and how they treated each other in comparison to the strangers they interacted with in public and, well, me. It was interesting to watch such charm rise and fall, niceties turn into condescension, and "thank you" be pronounced in so many different ways. Cecile and Fred have never treated me as anything less than Prune's fabulous and loving older sister, and seeing that some of their friends simply couldn't comprehend that gave me a whole new respect for my incredible host parents.
The few pictures that I have of this past week are mostly of Prune, and I took them because I thought Cecile would be happy (she was)! Cecile was constantly running around, trying to find ways to make things perfect for her friends, and it was the least I could do! One day when we were exploring an older city, we discovered a staircase that led down to an ancient clothes-washing station! It was pretty cool.
(During this meal a bird pooped on my plate, btw.)
I also tried my first Sicilian Connolo!
OH. Also, since the house was packed with people, Prune and I were roommates hahaha and she was soooo stoked! She made a sign for our door and everything. Sleeping in the same room as Prune was kind of a nightmare because not only does she NEED music and lights to sleep, but she also snores. But, you know, she's cute anyways. :) Hahaha.
In conclusion, my three weeks in Italy were strange as heck. I felt happy and lonely and angry and excited and confused and full-of-ice-cream and so many other things but I promise I never stopped feeling grateful. Grateful to know the people I know and to have been to the places I have been and for getting to learn so many things every single day, even if the lessons aren't always fun ones. I'm glad I came to Sicily and spent such a weird three weeks here. Someday I am going to see a picture of Mondello Beach and I am going to miss it, but for now I miss Paris, and I know that right when I get back I am going to miss California hahah. It seems that my life at this point has come to half loving where I am (no matter where I am) and half missing everywhere I am not. It's not even that the grass is greener! It's that different yards grow different flowers and I don't happen to have a favorite flower. I am in love with all of the flowers, but if I were to pick them and make a bouquet JUST FOR ME, then the flowers I love would be dead. You know?
Gosh darn it life, you make me feel so many things.
Okay blog readers, I need to stop now. Good bye, and see you next week. :D
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