Bruciare e Ballare

Wow I’ve got a whole weekend to write about; not sure if I can remember everything. First off, we went to the beach as promised Saturday. This entailed me waking up around 8am without an alarm on a Saturday, which has never, ever happened before. I don’t know what it is about it here, but I absolutely cannot sleep in. Today I was up at 7! We left close to 10 after buying some fresh foccacia again as a snack. I didn’t realize that the beach we were going to wasn’t the local one, but instead was an hour away on the other coast of Calabria. Apparently it was a more “bello” beach and near the town of Catanzaro.

When we arrived, though it was likely almost 75 degrees in the sun, there were probably a total of 10 people on the whole beach. Not the season yet. It really was beautiful, but the sand was rocks and the water was too cold to swim. So instead I laid in the sun for a while with Marilena (in Italian, prendere il sole). Probably for no more than an hour, even with sunscreen on. And afterward, the entire front side of me was bright red. Like oh-that-looks-like-it-hurts red!! The Italians who tan right up were so worried about me. At some point after lunch I fell asleep under the umbrella, and Marilena told me good thing I was in the shade because, as she said, if you fall asleep in this sun you’ll ‘fry like meat.’ Thought that was a funny little phrase.

When we got home from the beach, first thing we all did was hop in the shower and eat some dinner. After that shower I think I had more aloe vera on me than live skin. It’s starting to heal up now. Then, bless their hearts, although they were all tired they took me to another small town called Donnici for a concert with the band I had met the other day. Once the kids got grumpy they left, and asked another host family to give me a ride home so I could stay for the whole time. There were probably 10 of us American girls there, and I had a blast. Turned out the band plays folk music, which generally is not my thing. And it was all in dialect so I couldn’t understand a word. No wait, that’s a lie, at one point I heard them say gallina (chicken), so one word. Anyways, they played for probably 2 hours, and a few of us danced in the front of the crowd with the other brave souls. I am proud to say I was gutsy enough to dance; even danced in the middle of a circle that formed at one point. And I finally danced the tarantella! It was such a blast.

After the concert, one or two of the Italian guys helping organize our program got us to go say hi to the band. We only caught the attention of two of the guys, and introduced ourselves etc. They remembered me and Caitlin from the day before, then tried to get all of us girls to come out for a birra with them. Staying with host families we couldn’t really do that, but in Rome I think we all would have gone. Common, it was a Saturday night! They asked if they’d see us the next night in the Villa, and I told them forse (maybe). Of course we all totally went the next night to see if they’d show, and nope didn’t see them. Bummer. Marilena told me that two or three of the guys in the group are siblings, and they live next door to me. Though I kept an eye out all day today I didn’t see them.