Mercoledi

Buongiorno! The day started out beautiful. It seemed even more beautiful because I looked at the weather yesterday and it said rain, “brutto tempo.” From the balcony I saw the hazy distance and knew that it meant rain in the afternoon, but for now it was blue skies and wispy clouds high up. Note: in Italian there is a word for the color of the sky, “celeste,” and I think that is really nice. As I sat in class, I looked out the window constantly. The sunny weather held out until about 4:30, when it got dark and cloudy. The rain wanted to come, but it held out for a few hours, leaving us in a purgatory. I was ready for the rain! I wanted the sky to let it all out, to clear. The wind was intense all day, banging doors open and closed, pummeling the windows, whistling through the construction sites. Dramatic and intense, all leading up to the storm.

Two really good things today:

1. One of the photographs I submitted to the “Concorso Fotografico” was chosen! The competition, which ends on my birthday, Sunday, has an exhibition of all of the work submitted, and the winners (that’s me folks) will be presented! I am so excited. It’s a great birthday present. I’m not sure which one of the three I submitted was chosen, but I’m really excited. Supposedly there are a lot of people that submitted, and only twelve were chosen, so I’m proud.

2. Gerlando, Marco, and Maria were going to the post office, which is located high up in Favara, right next to the Castlelo Chiaramonte (from the 12th century), so I said I’d come along rather than stay in the house. It is my favorite part of Favara, old, crumbling, but beautiful. The high plaza, as I have written before is jokingly called “where the old men come to spit,” is magnificent. Breezy, lined with trees, and wide, the plaza is my favorite place to go. Today, when everyone was in the post office, I walked around the plaza really slowly. There weren’t that many people there, a few old men walking to the café at the far corner, which is a real old Italian café. I stopped to listen to the thousands of birds that buzzed in the trees. They were extra loud today because the rain was coming. I just stood there, listening, watching the trees sway in the wind, thinking. Thinking about Favara, thinking about home, thinking about college. It was like I was in a trance. The sound of the many birds, the wind, the street lights that had just turned on. It was the best point in my day. Just thinking. I needed it.

I came home and worked out for a while, listening to my iPod on shuffle. Showered, and here I am. It was a day of ups and downs, but now I feel a tranquility that greatly contrasts with the angry wind blowing outside.

Note: Saw Maxie today on Skype, and she looked so grown up, with a new haircut and jacket. Really proud of her.