One of the most mixed up months ever, full of new sights sounds and surprises. After my trip to Spain, I arrived in time to celebrate Passover with my host family. I can't say I would win the best participant award for sure, considering that the evening was conducted in Hebrew.. but I did try my best and really enjoyed the holiday the same. We had two dinners with homemade foods each representing an important part of the Hebrew history. It was neat to see how some of the Christian traditions were similar to the Jewish ones. The holiday of Passover was the celebration of the freedom of Jews from Slavery in Egypt so there were many speeches done about what freedom really meant and how we would live differently without it. It was a really enjoyable holiday for me and I learned a lot about another culture and had a nice experience.

Not only in the last month have I realized this but actually the last six months of my year long adventure have opened my eyes up to a whole new world. I can't stop being amazed at how every 100 kilometers of land traveled here brings with it a whole new lifestyle comprised of foods, dialects, weather, landscapes and personalities.

This past month I took a trip also to the Island of Capri, Sorrento and the Amalfi coast. The Island was beautiful and had bright blue water and smelled of fresh lemons and citrus fruit. The Island came with a whole new sub-culture, as with almost every new region of Italy. The typical food produced on Capri is the drink of Limoncello as well as lemon chocolate. The Island is filled with little shops where you can have a pair of custom made sandals made for you while you sample some of the local limoncello. We took a trip into a cave called the blue grotta. We had to lie down in this little boat in order to fit through the hole in the rock, once we were inside the water lit up as if it was neon blue! It was crazyness! The light coming in from the little hole in the cliff had the effect of making the water look completely bright blue.

In Sorrento we had the chance to eat some delicious food (I had a conzone which is like a pizza pop but filled with fresh ricotta cheese and ham) and we also spent the night out with some locals which is where I realized they speak a different Italian than the Romans do. Every single city has it's own dialect and way of speaking! Which is really interesting and fun, but also can be a little difficult when you're a foreigner. The trip finished off in Pompei, where we walked around the ancient ruins of the city and had the chance to actually go inside some of the anciant houses and bakeries. The city was really well preserved thanks to the layer of volcanic ash that covered it for so many years after the volcanoe of Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD.

At one point we were able to see the bodies of the people almost frozen in time because when the volcanoe erupted they were trapped and couldn't escape in time. Their bodies were covered in the magma for centuries and now we can see them as plaster casts amungst the ruins of Pompei. The bodies are frozen in the position they were in when the magma hit them.

http://www.sonzognoeditori.it/autori/libro/4542490-lamore-lascia-il-segno.. In Italian however.

Last piece of news for this month is that Today my mom arrived in Rome! She'll be here spending a week and a bit touring Rome and surrounding area then we will head up to Venice and then to Sicily for a few days. It's so good to see her for the first time since the summer!!