You say Miriam, I say Medium

First off, I'm pretty bummed about forgetting my flash drive.  It's what makes posting pictures easy without wifi, so I'll try to buy one soon so I have pretty pictures to interrupt my posts.  The pics in this post are just ones I found online.

But aside from that, everything's great!  The journey here was smooth as could be.  I had a long layover in Dublin so I got to do some of the suggestions people posted on my facebook wall.  I wandered around the center a bit first, on the dark/sunny/gloomy/drizzly morning it was.  When I unfolded my map at one point a really friendly woman offered a whole bunch of recommendations and directed me toward all of them.  And then she said, "Where are you from? Califonia?" I was pretty surprised and asked her how she knew that and she smiled and said "Just a hunch!"  Which was even better because the Irish pronounce their u's like o's (Dublin sounds more like Doblin).  Twas a nice Irish welcome.

I found Trinity College and signed up for a giant but brief tour there with a deadpan funny guide.  The school was interesting-looking but nothing super memorable.  What was memorable was the Book of Kells, a book of the four gospels dating back to 800.  There are unbelievably intricate drawings and letters, and there was a whole exhibit leading up to the actual book which was surprisingly fascinating.  After the tour I asked the guide for a fish+chips recommendation and he led me to a hole-in-the-wall but apparently legendary place.  It was delicious.

Nothing too exciting about arriving in Rome for my first night.  The hostel was terrible, my bed caved in like no other, someone in my room turned off the A/C, etc. but it was only for a night.  I met my mom at the airport the next morning and we had our first adventure!  My Afghanistan professor at Wash U recommended Ostia Antica, ruins of a town that once served as the main port of Rome, a couple years back but I hadn't made it there before.  It's close to the airport so we went for a couple hours and wandered, got lost, had some buffalo mozzarella, and found some giant mosaics (part of one seen here).

We went in to Rome briefly to explore the Jewish ghetto.  But upon arrival we realized it was Tu b'Shevat and everything was closed.  We settled for some (less than stellar) gelato and headed back to the airport for our flight to Palermo (Sicily).

Today we did A LOT of walking around the city, starting at the Ballaro Market.  It's an hour long marathon of screaming Sicilians, motorcycles zooming through an aisle that hardly fits people, and it is glorious. 

Next we went to the Norman Palace, the main thing I missed here last year.  It houses the Cappella Palatina (Palatine Chapel), royal rooms, an exhibit hall (right now the guy who did The Gates in Central Park), and more.  But the Cappella Palatina is the big deal, and it was really impressive.  It was partially designed by Arabs, so while the sides are all about the gospels, the floor and ceiling are filled with Arab geometric designs.  The roof was my favorite part, it's very 3-D and hard to explain but hopefully you can sorta see what I'm talking about in this picture.

And a final story for today.  My mom was trying on a dress that was a "small" (I'm an L-XL here) and it was definitely too small.  So I asked for a medium.  And the girl working just looked at me, so I repeated "A medium."  Even Italians who don't speak English usually know what this means.  And the girl was started to laugh with the other girl working.  Finally I said "piu grande" (bigger) and she said "Ah!  Medium!" But pronounced it with a short "e", like "Mediterranean."  So she got the medium and when my mom went in to try it on and she came up to me and said "My name is Miriam."  Now, pronounced "Miriam" with an Italian accent.  If you're doing it right, it sounds exactly like "medium" in an American accent.  So when I kept repeating "medium," she was like, how the hell does this guy know what my name is and why is he looking at me like I'm stupid.

Going to see former campers and host family tomorrow, should be a great day!