the family

So! I've been living here with the very sicilian giambroni's. the other workawayer is a little bit crazy at times, and I don't understand him, but seb is becoming a close friend and keeps me sane. the grandparents, and franco, are the full time inhabitants, but the youngest son G and his boyfriend Patrick, who usually live in WA DC, were here for a week working on their house in Sciacca town proper, and seb's mom, the sister, is here until saturday doing a similar thing. there are cousins and uncles and relatives around, so when we had pizza day, after repairing the old wood fire oven, it was a well fed crew on traditional sicilian pizza and pasta. yesterday we made traditional aranchini, and I also have learned to make traditional custard and reproduced it on my one, once, for company! :) go me. day time is full of redecorating and designing the main part of the house, lots of painting, and I've also painted a few silk screen canvases into art.. lots of fun, but not sure if I'm prepared to make it my lifes work. but it will live on, as the new decor of the giambroni's. I took pictures. I took one day and went to nearby agrigento, to see old greek and roman ruins, beautiful, and a day seb and I spent climbing up to the crumbling roman wall of sciacca, climbing up decaying stairs, and then down to the warf, watching a young boy on a pink bike selling sardines or anchovies out of his styrafoam try. I went bean stealing from the fields across the way, sat and wrote on the beach, has a few nervous breakdowns being homesick when different family members get their ire up and start yelling, but I've also heard good stories of sicily, and learned quite a bit about hacking together computer cords (I'm on mine now :) and also about plants and food and family and my feelings. as always. I'm writing away, painting away, watching italian deal or no deal, which has magic tricks and a crocodile box, as well as taking walks and mental pictures of life here. it's crazy, but an experiences for sure, and I fly to rome the 25th, in ten days. I will hopefully take a few days to go to mt. etna, maybe seb will come, and we'll have a regular party.