The view from my balcony
In January I plunged back into surfing as much as I could and Neptune was delivering lots of waves. By chance I had a few inquiries for english lessons and I made arrangements to begin in February as I wanted January all to myself for surfing and planning paintings. In comparison to the previous year, finding students was effortless as I had a steady flow of referrals and even found myself doing more lessons than I wanted some weeks. I also restarted lessons with the doctor who was my student last year, and I rode my bike 20 minutes to his office once a week.
One
winter afternoon I had an amazing surf session during a storm. I was
one of only three people in the water and
had caught a few good waves when it started raining and then.........
hailing! It was quite magical and surreal but also difficult to see and a
bit hard on the head so I packed it in and ran back to the
cabin using my board as a shield.
The
end of February brought the
departure of a good friend, Gabriele, who was accepted to intern at
the European Commission in Brussels. We had a nice dinner to thank him
as knowing him had really changed our experience in Palermo. Soon after I
was off to London
to meet my mom and her friend, Connie.
We
enjoyed touring around the
different neighborhoods of London and had a great Sunday roast with a
woman from
our town who lived there. We also spent a friday evening at the theatre
to see the broadways show, Wicked and on Saturday I met up
with my ex-roomate from Florence, Rosie, who had been living in
London and having success as a painter. We spent the evening in
a pub near Camden Market and despite having intentions to go dancing, we
got wrapped up in english banter which ended up
being quite amusing.
One evening we went for an aperitivo in
the chiavettieri street in the center of Palermo and I invited my friends to join. On the way
there, my British friend Eue was attacked and her bag was stolen.
Then Vicky showed up with her arm in a sling as she had slipped on
the street earlier that day. As bad luck usually goes in threes, the
next day someone robbed 70 euro from my bag in the cabin while I was
surfing.
Determined
to show my mom and Connie the town Monreale before they left, we
stuck it out waiting for the bus, and then another bus, and then packed
onto a shuttle. Not worth repeating the frustration we decided to
take a taxi back to town after visiting the church and having
lunch.
On the morning of their departure I accompanied them to the bus stop for
the airport and while we were
waiting a taxi driver offered to take a group of people to
the airport at a good rate, so
they accepted. It's a good thing they did because after saying
goodbye I was running a few errands in the area and 10 minutes
later there was a car in flames directly in front of the stop. I was
thankful that my mom didn't see it as she was already scared for me
living in Palermo as she felt it was dangerous.
With the vacations over I plunged into
painting and finished my first 2 out of projected 10 paintings in the
following weeks of March. My friend, Claudia, had finished her degree
in medicine and I attended her ceremony and presentation as the university
graduation is a big deal in Italy. She hosted an amazing lunch at
her parents restaurant in Cefala` Diana, a town 20 minutes outside of
Palermo and we had a happy reunion with her sister, Eliana, who
returned from Australia to celebrate.
My
first swim in the sea (without my
wetsuit I mean) came on April 13th, after a saturday night out with Zoe
and her visiting British friends. We met at Mondello on sunday
morning with the sun shining and I had ridden my bike there so I dived
right in to cool off, and convinced her friend, Sam, to accompany me.
The others were too chicken.
On Easter Sunday in April a group of our friends took a
little road trip to Gangi and Petralia in the
Madonie Mountains, a zone in Sicily that I hadn't visited before. We
had an amazing meal at an agriturismo (this is like a farm
house/ hotel, a very common holiday destination in Italy where people stay
in nature and eat food grown on the farm) outside of Gangi before
touring around the small town.
The beginning of May brought the
departure of another good friend. Zoe decided to move back to London
to be closer to her family and grow her career. We had a
goodbye dinner and a goodbye night out and it was a bit of deja-vous
as I accompanied her to the bus the following morning with her bags
as I'd done in September when she was intending to move back to London but
changed her mind and returned 2 weeks later. During this time we had
become best friends and I knew I was going to miss her, but I knew my time inPalermo was winding down too.
They day I gave my friends surfing lessons
The end of May brought me another
visitor, my Canadian friend, Hailey, who I had met in Florence. She
was going to Hamburg to house sit for the summer and decided an
italian stop was in order to see me. I was happy to have her and we
started things off immediately at, where else?, Mondello beach with some
friends who ended up taking us for dinner later that evening.
We
decided to rent a car for a little
getaway to Castellammare, Scopello, The Zingaro Nature Reserve, and
San Vito Lo Capo. In the nature reserve we had to follow a path on foot
for 20 minutes to reach the beach but it was totally worth it.
Unfortunately due to a
sensitivity to cigarette smoke, and the difficulty to avoid it in
Italy, Hailey came down with bronchitis and my friend Claudia who was
interning at the hospital helped us to see a doctor and get a
perscription for antibiotics.
Andrea and I waiting for waves
The rest of June was a bit chaotic as I
was scrambling to finish my paintings while simultaneously
trying to organize the exhibition. As it goes in Palermo, people
hesitate to give confirmation and change what they say from one
minute to the next, but I finally managed to secure a one night
outdoor showing for Friday, July 11th at Mida, a lounge
bar right on the beach in Mondello.
An english student of mine, Simona,
helped me figure out how to hang the paintings and we did a trial
setup a few days before. By chance, a couple who were friends of the
manager came by for lunch and saw the two paintings that I had
brought for the hanging trial. The woman approached me to ask about
the price and after they left the manager negotiated with me a bit on
their behalf.
As luck would have it, the waves were
on the way and the greenlight was on for a surf competition hosted in
Sicily. It ended up being an epic day. After a near sleepless night,
my friends helped me assemble the paintings before we headed to
Magaggiari Beach for the competition. The men were up first so we had
a free surf session and I kept my eye on the clock to see if I would
have time to participate in the women's competition and make it to
the exhibition.
The exhibition officially started at 7:30pm
and they ended up finishing up the mens around 6.30pm, so I decided to sign
myself up and got warmed up, knowing that it wasn't a big deal if I
showed up a bit late for the exhibition. With the heats only lasting 15 minutes I felt
really anxious to catch as many waves as I could. The waves
at Magaggiari primarily break left, but my best wave was the first one
I caught and I rode to the right. I caught a couple decent left ones
after that and was thrilled to get moved into round two.
The waves had changed a bit by the time
I was back in the water for round 2 and despite paddling as hard as I
could I missed a few big ones. It wouldn't have mattered much as I
was against the italian female champion, Valentina Vitale, and another really good
surfer who had been living in Mexico, and besides I needed to get to my
exhibition!
I got changed and did my makeup in the
back of Andrea's car on the drive over to Mondello. Arriving with my
hair still wet, the manager immediately handed me a check from his
friends for the paintings. That evening I confirmed 2 other sales to
friends.
There were 5 pairs of paintings, 10 in
total as I had planned and I was very pleased with how it all came
together. I was exhausted of course but stuck it out until the end
of the night. My friends helped me dismantle everything and I carted the
paintings home.
As the venue was outdoor it wasn't the
right place for an extended exhibition. There wasn't even storage
space available. So I set my sights on the place where I had
initially imagined the paintings on display. The face of Mondello's shoreline,
and the building which makes an appearance in many of the paintings, The Charleston, or Le Terrazze as it had been renamed.
I had been there numerous times already
to speak with the manager, but for one reason or another he remained
wishy washy. I was desperately looking for back up venues but nothing
else was quite coming through or making cut. I knew what I needed to
do.
One evening I passed by The Charleston
to speak with the manager in the company of my vivacious Sicilian
friend and new graduate from law school, Silvia. After an hour or so,
all the plans were cemented as the manager was taken with her and she
had him convinced.
This man continued to be a bit high
maintenance as on the day of the opening he had instructed his staff not to let
me start assembling the paintings until he arrived. He didn't arrive
until 6:30 pm and they opened for dinner at 8pm so I was under
a bit of pressure getting everything up and to his liking. I finally finished
around 8:30 pm and was so happy to see the paintings there as I had
imagined, even before I had even started actually painting the paintings I had imagined them there.
Despite being super late, I went for a celebratory swim to soak in
the moment of seeing my dreams come true.
So happy and tired!
The next night I left on my mini euro
trip, but first I needed to return to the Charleston to give assembly
instructions as they would be responsible for hanging the paintings
in the terrace every day and storing them in the office every night
while I was gone. That went smoothly and I felt that they were in
safe hands as I went back home to pack my bag and get to the airport
on time.
I had decided to spend the night at a
hostel in Pisa so I could do a round of dropping off postcard samples
at souvenir shops at the popular tourist town. As it had been
such a busy time I hadn't spent much time choosing a hostel, I just picked
a cheap one with decent reviews and left it at that.
It wasn't until I arrived at the
address around 11 at night and didn't find the hostel that I started
having doubts, but I was accustomed to Italy afterall so I can't say
I was that surprised. I called the number and a guy answered asking
where I was. I told him and he told me he'd be right there. A greasy
ponytailed italian pulled up in a car and told me to get in,
explaining that my room was in another building on the other side of
the station. Suspecting what sort of hostel this was, I asked if they
took credit card and he said no so I asked him to make a stop at the
bank (ie. one that doesn't pay taxes).
We
made it to the other building and I stifled his verbal advances while
we climbed the stairs into a dim
corridor. Still seeing no signs that we were in a hostel, he wrote up
my receipt and then showed me my room. I was happy to see 3 cute German
girls who I'd be sharing with. The room was super hot and
stuffy and they recounted their experiences to me from the night
before which nearly involved one of them without a bed to sleep in.
They told me that it appeared to be a room in a house of an old man,
who they periodically saw on his way to the bathroom.
I managed to get some sleep and hit the
ground in the morning for a quick round of the city before I got on
the train to Florence and called my friend, Sally, to tell her I was
on my way. I dropped lots of postcards on the way to her apartment
near Santo Spirito and, as in Pisa, was quite pleased with people's
reactions. In Palermo people were quick to reject me and say they
weren't interested, often not even accepting the samples, but here
the vendors were very positive and cheerful.
Sally and I had a good catch up and a
nice dinner before heading out for our evening plans. A Hawaiian
themed party with Giuseppe, my ex-boyfriend, and his friends. We met in Santo Spirito
and drove outside of the city for the party which proved to be good fun.
The next day I finished my postcard run and met Giuseppe for a gelato before heading to an aperitivo to catch up with some other friends.
In the morning I was back to the Pisa
airport to catch my flight to Hamburg. It was my first time in
Germany and I managed to catch the bus and make it to Hailey's place. The
following day I rented a bike and we went for a nice bike ride around
the lake and then for dinner on a lively street. It was a Tuesday
so but we managed to have a good time, staying out late after running into a few people that
she knew.
The
next day we were on a bus to
Amsterdam where we met Zoe and another friend of Hailey's and
mine from our time in Florence, a polish girl named Kamila. We had
rented an apartment in a great area and we were excited to start
scoping out the beautiful city. We all loved it as it was full of
fashion and art and canals and beautiful tall people on bikes. The
nightlife in the tourist places was a bit of a disappointment as we
found it quite seedy but as it was a weekday and the local places closed
early.
On our last night our group split up
and I convinced Zoe to pass through the red-light district with me
before we headed to our local destination for the evening, a bar at a
hotel outside of the tourist district. She almost got beaten up by a
hooker as we weren't aware that taking pictures is forbidden and the women spotted Zoe with her phone out.
After our time in Italy, we were
surprised by the friendliness of the Dutch girls. We made some
friends easily in the bar who were offering to buy us drinks and
complimenting our fashion. Many of the guys however seemed quite out of it and we
concluded they were on drugs, including a guy we met on our way home
who was skipping down the street high as a kite on ecstasy. We made
it home super late to find Hailey waiting for us in the stairwell as
Kamila had gone to bed early to catch and early flight and she had been locked out!
The morning came early for us too as
Zoe and I had a bus to catch to Brussels to visit our friend,
Gabriele. He met us at the metro station and being the great italian host he is,
had a pasta lunch ready for us. After a nap we toured around the city and ate
dinner in a more historic neighborhood before we got ready for the
goodbye party for him and the interns at the European Commission. The
party was in a basement of a bar and was stifling hot so we ended up
mostly hanging out on the street for the evening. There we met a british bachelor
party who were on a type of treasure hunt. I was happy to help out
when they asked me if the groom-to-be could lick my armpit, one of the tasks on the list. Zoe had to write something on his
back. She chose a bad word.
On our last night our group split up
and I convinced Zoe to pass through the red-light district with me
before we headed to our local destination for the evening, a bar at a
hotel outside of the tourist district. She almost got beaten up by a
hooker as we weren't aware that taking pictures is forbidden and the women spotted Zoe with her phone out.
After our time in Italy, we were
surprised by the friendliness of the Dutch girls. We made some
friends easily in the bar who were offering to buy us drinks and
complimenting our fashion. Many of the guys however seemed quite out of it and we
concluded they were on drugs, including a guy we met on our way home
who was skipping down the street high as a kite on ecstasy. We made
it home super late to find Hailey waiting for us in the stairwell as
Kamila had gone to bed early to catch and early flight and she had been locked out!
The morning came early for us too as
Zoe and I had a bus to catch to Brussels to visit our friend,
Gabriele. He met us at the metro station and being the great italian host he is,
had a pasta lunch ready for us. After a nap we toured around the city and ate
dinner in a more historic neighborhood before we got ready for the
goodbye party for him and the interns at the European Commission. The
party was in a basement of a bar and was stifling hot so we ended up
mostly hanging out on the street for the evening. There we met a british bachelor
party who were on a type of treasure hunt. I was happy to help out
when they asked me if the groom-to-be could lick my armpit, one of the tasks on the list. Zoe had to write something on his
back. She chose a bad word.
The next day came fast and after
another pasta lunch I had to hit the road and say goodbye. As I was
leaving Italy within a few days, I let some tears roll, thankful for
having met these great friends and sharing my experience in Palermo
with them. My flight was to Trapani, a city on the west side of
Sicily, an hour and a half from Palermo. I knew the bus schedule and
hustled to the desk to buy a ticket but they told me there were no
seats left.
Other
people were arriving at the desk
and were in the same situation but being Sicily, a solution was
difficult to find.
The next bus wasn't for 4 more hours! As it was Sunday the last train
from the center of Trapani was also early and some people were
scrambling to get there in time. I tried to arrange with a group to
share a taxi
to Palermo but it was super expensive. At a certain point I realized I
actually had an
advantage that I was just one person and lined up at the bus that was
apparently full. Once everyone was on I asked the bus driver if there
was an empty seat, and he let me on. Thank GOD.
Back
in Palermo I had 4 days to finish
packing and dealing with my stuff, get my paintings to their owners
and figure out what to do with the remaining ones (they are currently in
the window of my friend's clothing store, LAROS, on Via Liberta`), and
say my
goodbyes. It was a whirlwind but I managed to deal with it and as
luck would have it, some waves rolled in and the afternoon before my
departure, my old friend Salvo picked me up in his awesome volkswagon
van and we hit the water. The beach restaurant in Isola Delle Femmine
where the surf school is located and where I spent a lot of time over
the past 2 and a half years was the perfect location for dinner with my
good italian friends and Danilo, the surf coach. I had my tearful
goodbyes and was up late whittling down the weight of my luggage. Marco,
my faithful roomie, was kind to take me to the
airport at 6am and I shed some more tears as we said goodbye at the
check-in.
My friend, Silvia (the girl who
convinced the manager at the Charleston to host the exhibition, as
well as one of the friends who bought a set of my paintings, as well
as one of my english students) was on the same flight from Palermo to
New York with me and although we weren't sitting together on the plane it
was nice to have her and her friend's company at the gate as well as
in us customs once we landed. She was spending 6 weeks in New York
taking a business english class (as well as dance classes, she's very
well balanced). Due to pushy airport staff we had a quick goodbye at
the connections desk and I continued my journey to Calgary which my 4
suitcases 5 hours later.
Home sweet home, it was the perfect
place for downtime to recover from my whirlwind. I had lots of family
time and nature time before I plunged into preparations for my next
whirlwind. After a family trip to vegas the weather has turned and I
can't believe it was snowing the other day!
My prize from gambling
