Tomorrow is my birthday so of course, like most, I enjoy a little celebration. But, seeing as I am currently unemployed, seeking optimal business ventures, sexually and technologically frustrated, single (and might I mention, still sexy) redhead, I’m having to shower myself in my own gifts (insert birthday pity party of one, here).
This year, I thought of Sicily. Now, I might have, at one point, mentioned, I’m not huge on traveling to foreign cities alone. Not because I’m scared of the interaction but because often times, I hesitate due to the difficulties I may face, for example, language barriers (somehow I always revert to my broken up Spanglish). This, ultimately, is my biggest deterrent. However, I’ve managed to travel to many countries outside the US that all speak their own language and have not yet found myself in a situation that would deem unmanageable. I chose Sicily, as it was an easy option for me due to the fact that one of my best friends, Ms. Cayanne Peppers, happened to become recently stationed here in accordance to her position within the US Navy. Free place to stay, friendly faces, and relatively inexpensive costs associated with the local tourism endeavors, why not"? That being said, her scheduling, which I always seem to disregard as it pertains to the regular ole “9 to 5’ers”, hasn’t quite aligned with mine leaving me to fend for myself among a city whose population is upwards of 300,000.
Because of this scheduling dilemma, I have had to face my fears and interact with complete strangers, some through efforts of my own. While typically I don’t back down from a challenge, I found this to be one I was so nervous to partake that I spent the first 2 days within the confines of her villa, keeping myself busy helping to unpack her belongings and organize her residency. I like that kind of busy work but, I kept berating myself for not being brave enough to take a stroll down to the local bus depot and catch a ride into the safe, daylight hours of downtown Catania.
Through contacts of my friend, bear in mind, she hardly knew anyone herself having just moved here two weeks ago, I gathered up the gumption to meet with a retired local who was born in the US but has resided in Sicily for some 10 years. Through this woman, I met 3 other locals and found myself enjoying these wildly different, cultural experiences, such as the celebration of Saint Agata (incredible revelation into the misogyny that occurred as far back as 251AD) and the more commonly practiced phenomenon that occurs around the world no matter the language, dinner. Here it is not unusual to eat sweet pastries throughout the day, taste countless flavors of true Italian gelato and begin your dinner excursion at roughly 9pm consisting of more self indulgent treats like pizza and vino and, you guessed, more sweet desserts, leaving you socializing with friends around the dinner table until sometimes two or three in the morning.
Besides my stay here in Italy, I also managed to squeeze in a quick weekend trip to Moldova. Now this isn’t a place noticeably on the map one would think to visit as any traveler, let alone an American, however, it is here that I had the most amazing of times, celebrating friends, who quickly felt like family, fell in love with an elderly local named Sergio (practicing a sort of AirBnb type villa) who welcomed our group with open arms and approximately 10 gallons of homemade wine (I have been referring to as “hooch” that subsequently went down like grapefruit juice) and found myself dreading the flight back to my aforementioned vacation destination of Sicily seeing as how I came to love and unequivocally enjoy my short stay in another wildly unexpected cultural immersion.
I guess the point I am trying to convey here is, life is so unexpected. Everyday, I find myself stressed out about one thing or another that ultimately ends up being of little consequence down the road. Whether my stress stems from the wonderment of where my next paycheck may derive, will I have a bed to lay my head at night or the lack of control I feel when it comes to personal relationships with friends or loved ones, budding romances or even more importantly, health. Life isn’t like a box of chocolates as Forest Gump so eloquently put, as that box always indicates on the packaging what you’re about to consume. Life is rather like nature: unpredictable yet capable of yielding exhilarating circumstances opening new doors to relationships, exposure and ideas, worldliness and understanding that it’s more that just what it is, it is, in fact, what you make of it.
