A Hazy and Warm Day in Favara

I lay awake in bed this morning for what seemed like a long time. Usually, that is the time when I get bummed out, thinking, half dreaming, wanting home. This morning that feeling never fully came. I felt it biting at the back of my head, wanting to come in. I didn't allow it. It helped that my window was cracked open, a nice, warm breeze streaming in. The light flooded in earlier, telling me it was almost time to roll out of bed. I told myself that I didn't need to start today off like that. I could get through it. My Bose headphone cables were wrapped around me because I had fallen asleep with my iPod on shuffle, a dangerous game, because just as I was dozing off a song from "Hustle & Flow" came on, some good dirty South rap, just the perfect thing to wake me up and scare me. It was pretty funny. Changed to Yo La Tengo, and fell asleep to their cd "And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside Out," one of my favorite albums of all time, hands down. I have fallen asleep to it countless times, and love listening to it in a half awake state. Perfect music. I strongly recommend. 

So I woke up feeling good. The weather was nice, the mate de coca was hot, and I felt clean and sore (in a good way) from yesterday's long run around Favara. 

The running is really fun. Whenever I tell anyone that I run in Favara they get really confused. "Where?" "Pretty much all around." "Its so ugly! And the cars drive fast." "I know but its alright." I've run the last three days really hard, each day pushing myself farther and faster. I love coming home at the right time when the light is hitting the bathroom, so the steam is lit up. Being clean and exercised has always been my favorite feeling, and I have been able to have it every day pretty much! Getting into really good shape. 

Off to school in our Fiat Panda. We were a little early so we took a long route. Everything opening up and lit up by the morning sun, very nice to see. Got to school, sat in the class alone for a while, opened up the windows and shades to let the light stream in. Read a little in "the Grapes of Wrath" until some classmates arrived. Chatted for a while in the morning sunlight, then had two hours of math. 

Being a "Liceo Scientifico," my school is really intense with the math. We have it every day, and frequent Chemistry and Biology, which I am not officially taking, because its just too hard to understand and too intense. I study my verb conjugations and write in my Italian journal for my tutor those periods. Math is really tough. Trigonometry, but done at light speed, and with much harder variables and situations. I struggle through it. I do a little better in Algebra, because it is pretty similar to stuff we have done. They just do it all really fast. 

Hung out a lot for the rest of the day, studying and reading, and drawing. Highlight: talking with my English teacher, Mrs. Spinello, about "The Grapes of Wrath." She has read it in Italian, and seen the film a long time ago. She told me here it is called "Il Furore" (the Fury). We talked about it for a while, really fun.

Came home on the bus with Gerlando, ate a big meal of sausage and potatoes. Read in bed for a while until I was digested enough to work out. Worked out for a half an hour then had to go to the tutor, where I did a translation for English class, a portion of Robinson Crusoe, into Italian. It was actually pretty fun to do. I enjoyed it. You can really see how a voice is lost through translation, and I thought of how much I love reading Gabriel Garcia Marquez, but how much is lost when it is put into English?

Ran, sweat, showered. Talked with some friends of Maria for a while about everything; Favara, homesickness, my week in Verona, my birthday, etc.

Hung out for a while, downloading some music from iTunes, a Moby cd, an episode of the Office.

Here I am! I am off to bed to read and watch some tv on the computer. 

Ciao for now.

Zander Bernard Abranowicz