Il Pastore

Ciao-

Yesterday was a really excellent day. I woke up early, after a night of dreaming about finding out my SAT scores. They weren't posted when I got up, which was disappointing, then I remembered that it was only 2 in the morning in the U.S. All day at school I was jumpy to get home and find out how I did. I finally got to a computer, and was a little disappointed with my results. I got my math scores up a good amount, which was my goal, but was kind of surprised with my English- thankfully there is score selection, where you can choose your best scores from each section. 

I didn't want to dwell on that too much, so Gerlando and I set off for a passagiotto. He had been wanting to show me an abandoned building in the campaña (country). We walked around for a while, he showed me some plant that you can chew on that has a citrus-y taste. Pretty tasty. Sludging through lots of mud and in a light and cold rain, we finally got to the abandoned house. It was really cool- totally falling apart, but got some nice photographs, because the light was dramatic. The sun broke through, creating an amazing rainbow to our left. 

We saw a "pastore" or shepherd with a pretty big flock of sheep in the field below us. I asked if we could go down so I could get some video and pictures. We stalled, and I started to photograph the rainbow behind the flock of sheep. The shepherd started to yell and Gerlando told me to put down my camera. I was confused. Thankfully the rainbow was there, so I pointed to that, pretending that I wasn't photographing his sheep. We started to walk toward him slowly, because I really wanted to get some photographs and video. We said ciao, and began to talk to him. He was pretty crazy- I didn't really understand what he was saying, but later Gerlando explained it all to me. I just snapped a bunch of photos, and we walked around the field with him, listening to him talking about the sheep and Sicily. He allowed me to take some pictures of him, which I was grateful for. The light was amazing, but Gerlando suggested that we leave. I was a little confused, because the man was being so welcoming it seemed. He had given Gerlando his number so that we could come back another day because he wanted to show us a better, bigger abandoned house a little farther away. We finally left, and Gerlando said "I don't ever want to see him again I think" I was again totally confused, but Gerlando explained to me that he was totally crazy, and had told Gerlando that he had been in prison. I laughed. 

It was a really cool experience- I got to see something that I would surely never see in Bedford, and something that Gerlando said few people ever see even living in Sicily.

Later I had my first Italian lesson with a tutor, which was pretty cool. Learned some new vocabulary and tenses. Thats going to really help. After, I went to a bar with Gerlando and some friends, hung out, watched Italian music videos, and the occasional random Dire Straits or R.E.M. video. Gerlando and I made dinner for ourselves back at the house. Watched an episode of Family Guy, and fell asleep.

Today I am going back to the tutor, and am hoping to fit in a run somewhere. Its nice to be busy.

Zander