PREGO!

About 2 months before leaving France I came to the realization, "Zoot! Ineed to take advantage of this beautiful place called Europe!" Going to Greece to take a nap on the porch of one of the white houses on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea has always been a BIG dream of mine. Ever since the film "Th Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants" with the girl who romantically falls in love with a Greek boy. But considering I already did that in Corsica with my French boy. And more realistically speaking, it was a pricey trip. This is where knowing a European family comes in handy. Cousin Sophie was doing an internship in Sicily and said it would be a wonderful idea if I came to Italy and she dragged me around. (Thanks Soph!) Et VOILA my story of Italy:
Starting from the end, the last night we winded through the old Italian alleys in Palermo and came upon a grand open area. Circled by ancient buildings bombarded by America in WWII. Uh, cool. I'd like to say I partied in a historic place. There was a reggae D.J. which you can never go wrong with or the cheap beer, and of course dancing! This place was like a little magical land we were warped into. The minute you leave and are back in the ally ways, it's all muffled, you'd never know there was this party from the outsider.
The first 5 days were spent peacefully in a tiny village called Son Vito. 1/2 the size of Salida,(for those of you who know Salida) We, Sophie and I, rod a little mo-ped into town and spend everyday on a private beach, another family member Domonique was a membership of. We made friends with Stefano the lifeguard and tossed around a ball with him. Beautiful Italian men carried bowls of iced coca-nut for 1 Euro. We ate yummy gelato, and bought pretty bracelets from Ali-Babba the Pakistani. Who praised us on loving life and being happy with what you have. It was probably 5 of the most tiring days of my life. : ).
Going to Palermo was such an extreme change of opposites. The city is poor, and the Mafias control of government is quite visible. There is hardly any trash control, therefore the streets are filthy. I didn't see one empty trash bin. Which sometimes left you with no choice. You could hardly see the cracks of the sidewalks because cigarette butts were nicely squeezed between. And yet, so much to absorb. The people, the noise, the smells (oh god, the smells) the food. Italians will eat just about anything with bread. From their pasta to their ice cream! They speak loud, and the men are handsome. And even though one has to be able to tolerate extreme uncomfort Sicily is such a typical hot, loud, busy, sticky, tasty Italy!

My 'SPECTACLE' weekend

SPECTACLE in French is a show or performance. Which is exactly what I did this weekend! Cannelle (my sister-in law you might say) and I joined a dance club about 6 months ago. And since then we met up every Monday evening with 10 other women and well, danced. We performed an Indian dance and a modern jazz like dance. I like Cannelle because she is creative. Normally there were two other older women (with sewing experience) who crafted all of our dresses for the jazz dance. But Cannelle decided 'heck why not try and make our own also, I'll go to Paris and buy us some material.' Cannelle nor I know much about a sewing machine, but with a little advice from her mom we successfully made our dresses. I'm so amazed how much clothing is produced every day! It took a good 4 hours from ONE dress! And it's not like the first time you put it together it's perfect. You have got to trace, pin, sew, snip, sew again and on and on. Which is not to say it isn't quite enjoyable. Especially on a cloudy gray day!
Oh yeah! About the performance. In CO I had done a couple years of dance as a teenager (WOW can I really say I'm not a teenager anymore.) I found that every year the performances were pretty serious. In the way that the parents and grandparents were prohibited to use flash photography, everyone remained seated quietly, no food or beverages allowed, and the dancers were to remain behind stage until the end. Well if there is one thing that I love about France (actually there are many things I love about France but you know) it's being in a spectacle! Everyone was everywhere but still had their eyes fixed on the performers. It was rambuncious, energetic, and much more nonchalant. We the performers were even aloud to go into the audience to watch the other dancers. And the best part we ate cake and celebrated with a bottle of wine! So French!! And sure, maybe it's just that the people of Chamonix are not serious people. But I can definitely say that anywhere in France a bottle of wine or champagne is shared after for celebration.



One more important note. HAPPY FATHERS DAY!

Merci Alice!

I'm not much of a writer. My grammer is not perfect and I don't care to much to use spell check. I'm a little embarrassed with the fact my younger cousin can even stump me on the ginormous (did I spell that right?) vocabulary she uses. But with a little inspiration from her and her funny creative blog (with big words I dont understand) I thought I might give this blogging thing a shot. Why not?! Thats why this first one is dedicated to you Alice!
This cousin of mine is to brag about. She's just cool. Having been home schooled all her life I can say one thing, I will be more than happy to homeschool my children in the future! I get the feeling a lot of people have a misunderstanding of this way of education. And sure maybe sometimes it doesn't work out for a child because of whatever reason. But that's the case in a big percentage of student in a public education too. Lets give my aunt and uncle some credit here too. If you can present knowledge to a child as something curious and fun they are going to go searching for it. If there is one thing I regret from my education (from a public school) it would be that going to school was a chore for me, a miserable 12 boring years of watching a clock tick away. I wish I would have ignored this clock and absorbed what knowledge someone was throwing out there to me. What I'm trying to say is the perspective I get with my two home schooled, very creative, intelligent, SOCIABLE, curious, big-word-using cousins is positive. And I must admitt I'm a little jealous. I was never curious or focused. Knowledge is power, power to who you are, what you can become of yourself! I just want to repeat myself here, present a child with knowledge and learning skills (do not FORCE it upon them) and they will go searching!


(Wow this blog thing is kinda fun!)
Merci Alice!