A major slow down

Life has slowed down for me in Palermo. Thanks be to God! I am staying with a friend from seminary and she is a missionary. It sure is nice to see a familiar face. There are tourist type things that she showed me on our walk yesterday. Some old places. However, I am saving the last bit of my tourist energy for Paris on the weekend. I have been learning about the Sicilian culture and learning about my friends ministry here in Palermo. She has a lot on her plate both for this city and for this field. I am grateful she has welcomed me into her busy life. Something interesting for me is that she teaches English to Italians. The thought of teaching English in Italy sounds cool. I mean I teach English in Korea but Italy, now we are talking! It in reality is not different in the long run. The food is better here though! The weather is also better! Oh and the proximity to the rest of Europe is awesome. Ok...I am a bit jealous, can you tell? Ha.

I had a funny third culture (meaning the Korean culture that is inside of me) clash happen here. I have really adopted the "no wearing shoes in the house" rule at work in Korea. For some reason on this trip that "rule" has been at work in me. Odd. So I had taken off my shoes in the house-ministry center. Wed. night is English movie night. Just after we had finished setting up for the evening my friend looked at my shoes. She said, unless you want people to be staring at your feet, you might want to take your slippers off and put shoes on. In her own way she was reminding me that this was both a house, where we can be comfortable, and a ministrty center, where we need to be dressed up a bit to fit into the Italian culture. Ha. I looked at her in a bit of shock because I realized my wearing slippers was not because I was treating the place like a home where I can be comfortable but because I was treating the place like a ministry center in Korea, where you would not dare wear shoes. Ha. What a cultural class I never expected...hence the shock. I changed my slippers to shoes and therefore did not have a few Italian guys wondering why I was wearing slippers.

The rhythm of a day here in Palermo would take some getting used to. We wake up at 8 or so. We eat some breakfast. Ah...breakfast...so different. Italian coffee is like a shot of expresso. I actually like it with some milk and sugar. It is because I am not a big coffee drinker that I do not mind just a tiny, tiny cup of strong stuff. In fact I am going to buy a Italian coffee pot to bring home for fun. Also for breakfast we have toast. The volunteers working with my friend call the bread croutons. Ha...it is a small square peice of very toasted bread. We put jam on it. ALso we had some cookies for breakfast or as they call them, bisquits. By noon today I am famished. Lunch is about 1pm. We have had some great meals together. My friend has learned to cook Siscilian style and wow! Cooscous and veggies with bread was my favorite. Yesterday I tried a fried "rice" ball. To me it is so funny she calls it a rice ball because it was not a "rice" ball in terms of Korea. Yet it was made of a yellow rice. My friend cooks with olive oil and it is wonderful. I never knew I liked olive oil but I have probaly not had virgin quality either. The dressing for her salads is olive oil with lemon juice. It is really nice too. She made a squid dish with italian spices and wow it was amazing. In Korea I never touch squid with intention. After lunch I have enjoyed a siesta! Nice. At the ministry center they are quite busy between 4pm and 8pm teaching different languages and computer classes. I helped teach a class the other day. Dinner is around 8pm or 9pm. WOW. So late. I was warmed this was European culture but as I have been on my own so much I have not had to abide by this dinner rhythm. Until this past week at the monastery and here... Things get started here at about the time I start thinking about going to bed. No wonder they take a siesta in the middle of the day. It is needed!

Tonight and tomorrow I get to join two dinners at friends homes. It is so cool to get to experience Palermo on a relational level. I so enjoy meeting people even when I do not speak the language. I at least understand some since Italian is so close to Spanish.

My friend has given me a picture of what it is like for her to be a missionary as a single woman. I wonder if I could do what she is doing. She is the only missionary for our church in this city which boggles my mind. How does she do it? I have such a great respect for her and how God is using her here. She is fluent in the language and that helps in her being the only missionary! Also she has an influx of volunteers working with her so she is not always alone. It is cool to hear her speaking in Italian. She has only lived here for 2 years and is fluent. She did have 4 months of full time and 4 months of part time language training which is why she is fluent.

4 weeks of being on the road has about reached my limit of travel time. If it was any longer I would have to be in one place. It is good to find my limit and know I am not the type to go on a trip around the world for months and months on end. So many people I have met along the way are doing it. Like I have said many times throughout this trip, what makes it for me is the people. If the trip is teaching me any one thing (which it is teaching me so much more) it is that one of my greatest loves in life is people. Even better is talking with people about matters of importance. I have been blessed to do this at so many different points on this trip. I think it is time to settle in one place for a while and look for such opportunities somemore!