Ciao ciao ciao!

So I guess I should have set up a blog beforehand, but at least I'm doing one now!  I usually don't do blog stuff at all, but I figured I should make an exception for Italia.  In case anyone was unsure, I am in Palermo, Sicily for 5 weeks for a pharmacy rotation at ISMETT, which is a transplant hospital partnered with UPMC (Univ of Pittsburgh Medical Center).  I got here a week ago and it's definitely been an adventure.

Palermo is a very old town.  A lot of history, but not very clean.  The hours that businesses are open here is also very strange...they usually close from 1-3:30 or 4 and then reopen till about 8.  Dinner is eaten very late here, usually not until 8.  There is no such thing as your typical American Starbucks coffee to go either.  All you get here is a teeny tiny cup with an expresso shot.  It is ridiculously strong too.  They started making "caffe americano" for us at our hotel in the morning, but really all it is is adding more water to the expresso shot.  Def not your 8 oz cup of coffee...it's still incredibly strong and I end up adding lots of sugar and a little milk so that it doesn't kill my stomach.  People also don't understand you when you say to go, so you have to say "take away" (even better if you do it in an italian accent).

Not many people speak english outside of the hospital in Palermo either, so that's been difficult.  However, Sicilians are very nice people and I've been exchanging a lot of "grazie" and "ciao".  Fortunately, Italian is very similar to French and Spanish, so I've been getting by.  It definitely was very overwhelming at first though, not made any better by the fact that I lost my wallet!! Yup, driver license, debit card, and discover card gone.  And the ridiculous part is that I didn't even get it stolen, I really just cannot find it.  Also, I am 99% certain that I'm the only Asian American here in Sicily, so I've been getting a lot of stares b/c I think they get confused when I start speaking english.  There are a few Asians here, but they're all from ACTUAL Asia.  Anyway, despite Palermo being a bit dirty (there are a lot of stray dogs and they just poop all over the street), the architecture is beautiful.  There are a lot of "teatros" and "cattedrales".  At night the decorative lights come on, and I absolutely love it.

Anyway, onto Italian food.  So far I've had some of their pastas and lots of dessert.  Pasta here is insanely fresh, and doesn't seem as starchy and overfilling as it seems in the U.S.  Sicily is all about fresh food.  There's food markets all over the place, which offer fruits, fish, meat, veggies, and even nuts.  There are no such things as big supermarkets like we have, but Sicily does have its own "supermercato" version.  One thing I haven't been able to find? Peanut butter!! BUT there's tons of nutella in any size you could imagine.  Eggs aren't refrigerated here, and wines can be very cheap.  You usually have to buy water here, it's not recommended to drink tap water.  Water either comes in "naturale" or "frizzante"...I actually really like the "frizzante" water, which is just carbonated water.  You also get to choose which kind of water you get when you go to restaurants, but you always get charged for water.  Most dishes here have seafood in them, which is kind of sucky for me since I'm super allergic.  I'd eat chicken, but they don't seem to eat much chicken here either.  So I haven't been getting much protein in my diet.  As for desserts, THEY ARE AMAZING.  I was trying to cut back on sugar, but being here is just game over for me.  Any desserts here are so good...they really like pistachios and hazelnuts over here.  Chocolate syrups aren't as thick and sweet as they are in the States, so I don't feel as guilty eating it.  Of course, there's gelato stands everywhere, and yes it is as amazing as everyone says it is.  Crepe stands are also available along the street, and they're made w/ just nutella and a little bit of powdered sugar on top.

Today I got to go to Catania, which is where Mount Etna is. Apparently it just erupted last week, and I had no idea.  We got to see the lava trails from when it erupted multiple times in the past, and got to climb some of the mountain.  It's insane how ridiculously large Mt. Etna is, and how much its eruptions have impacted Catania.  There actually is a shop on the mountain that's part of the ski resort that's built there, and it actually is completely surrounded by lava except for the door entrance!  I also got to see craters on the Mt. Etna, but they're currently covered in snow. You can also still see the smoke from the current active cone, and the smoke has been blowing across the town for about a week.

More pictures and more descriptions of Palermo to come!