Marathon Monday

Marathon Monday is so named because a few things happen on this day; the Boston Marathon, no school thus a 3 day weekend, and a lot of alcohol consumption. Gary and I had a lot of work so really we didn't participate in any parts of it. We did however get to witness some of the Marathon near BU and eat a delicious pizza (The Upper Crust) in the Boston Common. I am now finished all of my papers (edits remains however) and Gary is still slaving away. We'll be back in Maryland in just a few weeks; wow how this semester has flown! As usual here is a slide of what we've been up to:

a night at the castle

We went to the castle Saturday night, March29th. The castle looks really big and beautiful from the outside, but inside it is only beautiful. I suppose to keep heating costs down people in the medieval times liked to be cozy. Not that it was small, it just wasn't huge. We ate sundried tomato penne and asiago cheese tortellini, delicious! The cake was also amazing with a yummy chocolate mousse in the middle. We had hors devours, ate dinner, and then danced the night away. I sleep like a baby that night!

Here are some pictures from the evening...

In Like A Lion

Well, we are now in April. It isn't very cold anymore, although it does rain a good bit. Today Lauren and I had a good time. I got a new bag and blazer at the Goodwill in Somerville. Lauren got a new outfit and we each got a few books. After that we saw Juno. We just finished our semi-regular Sunday food binge at the BU Towers dining hall and are now doing internet things at the computer lab. Above is a picture of Lauren doing some internet things.

In 23 days I will have completed the spring semester. Lauren will have another week, I think. Lauren has secured a job as an overseer of a group of autistic kids at a camp in Charlestown. She'll be living with Kim and Harry. I am awaiting a reply from the Latin/Greek Institute in New York City to see if I have been accepted into their Greek language program. I'm not sure if I'll get in or not as I don't have very much experience with studying languages. If I'm not accepted, I might try to study German at Middlebury College in Vermont, or stay in Boston studying and working. I've been accepted as an RA for next school year. If anyone has any ideas for a floor theme, let me know.

Since the last post, we have each been home for Spring Break. We went skiing in Vermont at Okemo Mountain. Kim, Harry, Brady and Dillon came along. Brady was not very successful in his attempt at skiing. Vermont was a lovely place. We had some good apple pie and I bought some nice postcards with pictures of cows. I still haven't decided to whom I shall send them.

Following the trip, we returned to Boston and played Cranium. We left the next day, leaving Lauren to resume her classes. All I remember about the trip home was that we ate at a Ruby Tuesday's.

Once home I spent a good deal of time hanging out with Pop and my parents. I dined at D'Lorenzo's Pizza twice and conversed with the proprietor-woman in Italian after we had a mutual revelation. It turns out that she is originally from Palermo in Sicily and I originally spent four months living in Sicily. I saw some friends and family, opened a new checking account, and then returned to Boston. Since then we've been studying and entertaining ourselves. We also went to a dance. I'll have to get Lauren to post pictures of us at the dance as we were looking resplendent. Well, I hope this blog has been informative, educational, and a pleasure to read. I'll try to keep everyone posted. Here are a few other odd shots.

Lauren and Gary in Winter

Yesterday we went to Walden Pond. Lauren had never been there, and I wanted to get a sense of what it must have been like to live there, as Thoreau did. It was very quiet. The ground was covered in fresh snow and the pond is still completely frozen over. In the warmer months, either leaves or pine needles shuffle around as you walk, there is a sway to the foliage and the water ripples. In the winter, nothing moves. The trees are heavy with snow and there is only a slight compacting sound as you walk. On a bright sunny day like it was yesterday, I can imagine Henry would have been feeling warm and content in his little alcove and cabin. But as the sun goes down and the light becomes so unsaturated and the temperature drops sharply off, it would be trying and intimidating, facing each night all alone.
We walked to the reserve, checked out the pond and cabin site, walked back, got pizza which tasted a lot like Steak & Shake, and rode back to the city. The other pictures in the slide show are from the other snowy days.

A few weekends ago, my parents, Pop, and Pat came up to visit. In the above photo they are at the Haymarket and standing by fish. We walked around the city, and went to Quincy Market, the Somerville Theater to see "Charlie Wilson's War", Whole Foods, the library at Copley, L'Osteria in the North End, Kim's House, and a few places on Charles Street for pizza and breakfast, respectively. My mom writes about the experience more on her blog. Everybody stayed in the city on Friday night. Lauren and my mom cuddled in her twin bed over at BU and the other four of us camped around my room. A good time was had by all. Here is a slideshow. I also threw in some old Childrens' Museum and BU Guitar Hero pics.

Gary turns 21!

This post is a little late, but better late than never...

Gary turned 21 one day after the groundhog decided that winter would be 6 six weeks longer! :( Not a sad face to the monumental 21st, but rather to the groundhog who has been right, oh so very right.

To celebrate the weekend Gary Sr., Kelly, Pop Doug, and Pat came to Boston! Friday morning was a mess! We set out toward Faneuil Hall from the far end of the Boston Common on foot. Normally a great walk, a view of the state house, some rather large squirrels and a glimpse at Gare's old dorm. This particular day, was perhaps the worst day to see these sights. For one it was raining, no pouring! And to top it off it was windy, not freezing cold at first but once you walk for so long drenched to the bone you'll feel cold regardless. Kelly's lined pants were soaked through, and probably pretty heavy! Pop's umbrella didn't hold up very well to the wind. And big Gary was running from building to building for shelter, but still managed to fully drench himself. Gare and I are just plain tough, so it didn't faze us at all! (ha!)

We ate at Quincy Market for about 4.5 hours until we throughly dried off. Pat bought some "gifties", Pop bought some food, and the rest of us just enjoyed the warm and dry. A fireplace would have been oh so nice.

The six of us took the T to a movie in Somerville, "Charlie Wilson's War." I highly recommend it, it has nudity, love, and some history lessons- a perfect selection for our crowd. The popcorn was superb, I think it was with real butter! (Nothing like that cheap butter powder!)

Friday night we stayed in the city with the Garys, Pop, and Pat at Gare's apartment and Kelly and I in my dorm room. Both places seemed to have lively parties going on so no one missed out on any dancing fun.

Saturday was spent shopping for Gare's awesome new Camper shoes, a lovely tour of Newbury street sans RAIN!!! :) And then a delicious dinner at La Osteria with the four Huangs. We were all pretty tired from the previous days' excitement but managed to stick it out.

On Sunday we ate lunch at a pizza place near Gare's room, then watched the game. Life went on as usual. No drunken runnings through the common or public displays of drunkeness to be had on this 21st. Thank goodness, he doesn't have a roommate to clean up the mess!


Gare opening a present from my parents, a coffee table book with pictures about Syracusa (where we lived in Sicily).


Pat and Pop at Kim's for birthday cake and gifts.

Boston - Apartment and Snow in Common

We've come now to the last week of our stay in Italy. By Saturday night we'll be home. Lauren and I still have a few more tests, but some people are already finished with their finals and the class is beginning to break up. For most, this will be the last time they will ever live in a truly foreign place. Over the course of the semester romances have formed. After this week, some couples will be separated by thousands of miles. We have been living here for over three months. I know specific stones in the road, items in store windows, and old plastered advertisements that I walk over and by every day. More later.

Morgantina

While Gare was in Ortigia studying and writing papers, I went to Morgantina an ancient Greek city complete with theatre, market, and kilns. I also had a huge, huge 35 euro meal! Lots of vegetarian antipasto like sun dried tomatoes, fresh mushrooms, green olives, fresh cheese made from the goats of the owners father in law! A true Sicilian experience. I asked one of our tour guides how often they eat a meal like this, the answer- typically once a week! I can't imagine, it was like Thanksgiving! Here are some pics...

The castle that is carved into the sandstone rock.

The steps in the market place, unique to this ancient greek city. Sorry I don't have any food pictures! :)

Thanksgiving!

We both wish we could be home for Thanksgiving, especially me because it is my favorite holiday, but we had a great time at school. We posed for a picture taken by our Plato professor Scott Burgess. Apparently the word describing the look on Gare's face is "stoic"
About 12 of the students came and brought a dish to share, some families were here to eat as well. Also about 12 faculty members came with their families too, I would say their were about 40 people there. I made mushrooms from my mom's family recipe, very delicious, not quite as good as the usual though. I have included the only picture I have which is also of me stuffing my face with them, below.


Gary brought bread and there was a ton of it left after dinner. I think everyone was so excited to have familiar food in front of them that they forgot the very Sicilian dinner addition of bread. I didn't have any on any of my three plates. Bonnie, a mcas student, ordered bread from the bakery in the shape of a turkey, a pretty cool addition to our Thanksgiving buffet! Pictured below is Gary's large bad of bread and the turkey.
It was a great Thanksgiving in Ortigia! Hope everyone had a great one as well!

Selinunte

Benjamins: Arch. Park, Palermo, Cefalu, and Enna.

At Monreale there is a Norman church with amazing colorful Byzantine mosaics all along the ceiling and walls. From the Monreale center there is a view of the golden bowl of Palermo with its many orange trees and one-way streets. When my parents reached Palermo we didn't go straight to sleep. We found a hotel and parking space for a couple of hours. We walked around the Teatro Massimo area, which is where Mary is shot down in The Godfather: Part III. It was a Saturday night and the young hair-gelled masses were out on their scooters and at the bars. There is cafe style seating for thousands out on the streets, and though it was kind of cold, everyone was still out.
Enna is a wild place. It sits way up on top of a hill parallel to another city and is just built right into the rocky mountain. It's the highest provincial capital in Italy, whatever that's worth to you.
This past Friday in Rising Sun, I met a guy who's grandfather was born in Cefalu. Crazy world.
At the archaeological park on Tuesday, one of my gym-mates was working and we all got in for free.

Benjamin Visit

The Benjamins came to Sicily and decided to rent a car, so Gare and I thought it would be a good idea to have them drive to Palermo (the other side of Sicily) and meet up after our school field trip. It was a good idea in theory. Gary and Kelly were jet lagged and didn't get up until 11.30! They then got stuck in tons of traffic and when they finally made it to Palermo it was 8pm! Gare and I had a nice time exploring the cathedral at Monreale and some churches in Palermo, but by 8pm all four of us were beat and just hit the sack. The next morning we got up and left Palermo as quickly as we could. We had the advantage of plenty of daylight and little traffic, but it still took us a little over an hour to get out! The slide show will have some pics of the madness.
We traveled to Cefalu, a beautiful seaside town, with a peak to walk up and then a wonderful view to take in. Lines and lines of stuff to buy, mostly the same things repeating. Big Gary was able to barter for a sweet leather fanny pack. Kelly contemplated a purse, but no one else got anything. I will keep my eye out for a beaded alligator keychain for Kelly, I know she was really sad to leave it behind. We left Cefalu for the sleepy, cold town of Enna. We were greeted by an alarm which rang for the duration of our visit, about 35 minutes. Maybe the one person who knows how to turn it off was out of town that night. Whatever, the sound was incredibly annoying and possibly contributed to our quick visit.
Back in Ortigia we had a delicious dinner. The waiter/owner spoke to us in Italian which we didn't fully understand and we got a little more than we planned on ordering. It was all delicious though! Unfortunately their visit ended suddenly and they weren't able to get a taste of even more delicious restaurants. I would love to come back one day and maybe they will be able to tag along. :)

Soccer

Gary and I played soccer together on Tuesday night, it was very entertaining. For about an hour and a half we ran after our Italian opponetns and once again beat them. I even scored! I actually scored about 6 goals because Matteo and Mimo (the two Italians on our team) kept setting me up. Gary scored the game winning goal! It was a fun and exhausting night, we might do it again. And since Gary and Kelly are coming this weekend, maybe it will be big Gary's turn to play.

Mt. Etna on November 2

My Ecosystems class took a field trip to Mt. Etna. It was a cloudy, but luckily not rainy, day and so the views weren't spectacular. It was fun to walk across a mile of lava flow! Of course it was cooled down which took away some of the fun, but enjoyable just the same. This is just one of the beautiful lava flows that we got to see.