Hike Mt. Etna, Dance, SCUBA Dive

Fri. June 16 - I had off work today so I spent all day shopping for a dress and shoes for the Corpsman Ball. The hospital also had the entire day off for a 72 hour Liberty (no alcohol related incidents in a month) so a bunch of people were running around doing arrunds. For the morning, I went down to Catania with Erica and Joe to do some shopping. She still needed some shoes and I was excited for her help of finding a dress for me. Joe wanted a new dress shirt, so he came along too for a little bit before he had to go teach an EMT Class for a few hours. While he took Erica's car back to base, we did a few more hours of shopping. Neither of us found anything we liked, so we just walked around the open-air market and into some cute little boutiques until Joe came back with the car. It was fun, I've never really hung out with Erica, but we have a lot more in common than I would have imagined. After gettting back to base, Joe and I ran up to the Navy Exchange to see if they had a bright blue dress shirt. He got one in Catania, but it wasn't as vivid as he would have liked it to be. Picky I tell ya. Anyways, I did some grocery shopping and ate some lunch cuz I was starving. All we ate in Catania was just a typical Sicilian breakfast (cappucino and a pastry) really early this morning. I took a little nap and relaxed my feet for awhile until Erica and I headed back out to town. This time, we were gonna give it one more chance and we both decided on going to Etnapolis (the mall). I ended up finding a dress and some shoes, I wasn't fully satisfied, but I was in a hurry and at a dead end. I had to escort a trip tomorrow afternoon, so I knew I wouldnt have any more time to look. The shoes are hot though, definitely Italian. They are like 3 1/2" stilletos. My feet are going to be hurting for sure.

Sat. June 17 - This morning started out early with an ITT trip that I planned about 2 months ago. It is a family hike up to Mt. Etna. Since it was suppose to be planned for families with small children, I picked a hike around Monti Sartorius that was only a 1.9 mile hike with an easy terrain. 43 people signed up for the hike, so I knew it was going to be a crowded bus. I was happy to see so many sign-ups though, because we had originally only planned to use a 15 passenger van for the trip. We left NAS I at 8:30am and headed up to the North Side of the mountain. I have only ever been to the South Side (for snowboarding) and haven't been up there yet with all the snow gone. The drive through Zafferana (the entrance city to the North Side) was 2 hours long, but we stoppped along the way for coffees, pastries, and a bathroom break. It was fun, we had trivia on the way up and some information about this particular mountain (crater). We got up there and unloaded the bus to begin the hike. It was a connecting path, so everyone just went at their own pace and we just set a time limit of an hour and a half. The hike up to the top of the mountain ended up being pretty strenuous, but very rewarding to see everyone get up it. We all took some amazing pictures of the top of Etna and it just had alittle bit of snow on it. The hike was great. Joe and I got into a volcanic ash fight and kept kicking it into each other's shoes. At some spots, the ash was so thick that it made a nice exercise for your legs. When everyone got back to the bus, we were ready to get to the agriturismo and eat some tasty lunch. We drove to the spot where they had to come shuttle us to the restuarant. Our bus was way too big to fit down the street to get to the farm that the agriturismo was on. It was called San Marco and was run by a small family and some extra workers. It was so cute. All 50 of us were in one room with beautifully set tables and surrounded by authentic Sicilian dishes. The lunch ended up lasting over 2 hours and had 5 courses. It was so good. All of the good was so good and it was really cool because I sat with Rosario and Nino (our bus driver) so they explained all the ingredients and history of the food to me. It was really fun to talk with them during the entire lunch and everyone had a really good time. By the time lunch was over, everyone had to roll themselves out of the restaurant and back into the vans to bring us back to our bus. Joe and I had originally thought we would get home around 4 so we'd have plenty of time to get ready, but we didn't end up getting back to base until 5:30pm. Oh well, it was so worth it. Everyone was saying great things about the trip, no one got hurt, and they were all excited about next month's hike. As soon as the van was empty, we were on our way to get ready for the Corpsman Ball. The only thing I was really worried about was my hair. I have no sense of style when it comes to doing my hair on my own, so I knew it'd end up being really simple. We both went to our rooms to get ready and meet each other at Gust's car (we had to borrow his car since everyone else left earlier). I tried to just wear my hair done, but even that wasn't cooperating with me. I ended up putting it into a French roll, which surprisingly looked pretty good. I didn't feel very comfortable with the dress I got, but hey its Italy and that's what they wear. I totally felt like a skank but I had already asked a bunch of people what they thought about it and they all said it looked hot. Tonight was the World Cup Game between Italy and the USA so everyone was staying updated on that all night. Joe and I were finally ready to leave the barracks and we got to the restaurant in no time. It wasn't very far away, but by the time we finally got there, dinner had already been served. Luckily, we were still extremely full from the agriturismo so we were fine. The wine was flowing, everyone was there taking pictures and having an awesome time, and the dancing started shortly after dinner ended. Most of our friends were there and we hung out with the people from the Flight Line Clinic (where Joe works) and we all had so much fun. The game was on during the night so we'd send people back into the kitchen to get the scores from the Italians. There's been a lot of talk around here lately about this game so we knew whoever would lose, would be getting a lot of crap for it the next day. As many of you know though, we tied! I thought that was a pretty cool outcome though and we'd be able to avoid a lot of trash talk for the next week. I danced almost the entire night and my feet were hurting soo bad in these crazy high high heels. Joe was hurting pretty bad, so I danced a bunch with Flink, Andre (the other intern), and random other people. After the dance, we all headed back to base to go to Strike's and Days Inn for some more drinks and to hang out with our friends that didn't come to the dance (Travis & Pirate). Joe was DD so we dropped off the car at the barracks and then walked over to the bar. It was so fun to see everyone still dressed up and just having a really fun time. We stayed out pretty late, but both of us knew that we had to be up by 8am to go SCUBA Diving.

Sun. June 18 - We got picked up at 8:30am (yes she was running late) by Kat, Juli, and Chris and were on our way out to Aci Trezza for our last open water dive for our certification. They were running late from a long night last night and I wasn't feeling as chipper as usual. We got there and it was packed with people diving today. We were pretty late so as soon as we got there, we loaded our stuff and headed to the boat. We went out to Aci Castello again and dove the deepest depth for open-water divers, 18 m for 44 minutes. It was cool. Kat, Juli, Joe, and I dove with Guiseppe, who is the dive master. It was an extremely clear and calm day. Everything looked so beautiful today. When we got back on the boat, Giuseppe told Joe and I that we were now officially SCUBA certified. It felt so good to accomplish this. After the dive, we went over to Sylvie and Giuseppe's house for another BBQ. We couldn't stay too long because I had to be at work by 5pm. I wasn't scheduled to work, but I took Donna's shift since her parents just flew in to Sicily to visit her for 2 weeks. I called Dad for Father's Day and spoke to Amy and the Boys for awhile making last minute plans about my visit up to Maine. We spoke for almost an hour, it was nice to catch up with all of them. The boys sounded like they were having a really good time.

Armed Forces Command Challenge

Wed. June 14 - Instead of working at Take 5 today, I got to help with the Armed Forces Command Challenge all day. This is like a giant field day for all the commands to earn points towards the Captain's Cup. It was so much fun. We started at 11am, but I got out there around 10:30 to start the BBQ. We had a lot of MWR volunteers to help out during the day so it was cool to bond with everyone throughout the day. We cooked tons of hamburgers and hot dogs before the events started at 11:15am. I was in charge of being the ref for Dodgeball along with the other intern, Andre. I had to be the dodgeball NAZI all day long and everyone was goin crazy. When guys get competitive, STAND BACK. I was scared! It was so much fun though. Some of the other activities throughout the day were Blind Volleyball (a huge tarp over the net so you cant see where the ball is coming), intense Kickball, Gladiator Jousting, and Water Tag. More people showed up than we thought, since it was a Wednesday workday and all. A few commands even got the full day off just to participate. The events went until almost 6pm. The whole day turned out to be a lot of fun, hot weather, good food, tough competition, and so much more. Public Works ended up winning First Place and AIMD got Second. They had a little ceremony over at JOX for them and got their pics taken and their tropheys handed out to them. Once I got home, I realized how much sun I had gotten throughout the day and saw the lovely new tan lines on my shoulders that I was gonna have to deal with during the Corpsman Ball.

A wonderful weekend to West Sicily

Sat. June 10 - This was my weekend to get away from Sigonella before I leave. I decided yesterday to rent a car and head over to the West side of Sicily since I haven't had the opportunity to get over there yet. I asked tons of people if they wanted to pitch in on a rental car for the weekend, but no one wanted to. Losers. Oh well, so my favorite travel companion (Joe of course) and I were off on our own as usual. I don't understand why people don't want to get away from base for a few days. I headed over to the rental car agency across from the base at 8:30am when they opened and rented a little blue Nissan Micra. I was ready for a manual transmission cuz I knew that's all I would be able to rent at a lower price. I had been practicing all week with the work vehicles so Joe and I were ready for the challenge. I knew this was gonna be pretty funny in the small towns we were gonna have to go through. I drove the first leg of the morning so Joe could get some sleep and I have been done a portion of this drive already when I went to Agrigento with Smitty and Sticky. It was 2 hours until Agrigento, but I continued on SS 115 to Selinunte so we could get some kilometers in before stopping at our first sightseeing spot. The SS115 was all along the southern coast of Sicily and it was absolutely gorgeous. The weather could not have been any better and it wasn't getting unbareably hot yet. We got to Selinunte, which is one of the 3 major tourist locations with Greek Ruins. This one occupies the largest Greek Ruins in the world. Temple C was huge! It really some of the ones in Agrigento outta the water. I wasn't too impressed with the rest of Selinunte though, there was that temple, some giant ruins, and an Acropolis. Oh well, I got some good pictures and a nice hike out of it. I had looked up hydrofoil times yesterday at work for the Egadi Islands and knew that we had to make it to Trapani by 4pm so we didn't stay too long in Selinunte. We got back on the road, drove through the city of Marsala and arrived in Trapani around 3pm. Trapani was a lot smaller than I expected, but it was very clean and quaint. We immediately found the port after driving thru the downtown area and parked the car so I could go get the hydrofoil tickets. The tickets were 7.30 Euro a piece, each way, so we got the tickets for the island of Favignana at 4:30pm. These islands are off the west coast of Sicily only about 20 minutes away from Trapani. We have an ITT trip going here in a few weeks, so I've heard some great things about the 3 islands of Egadi. The hydrofoil ride was cool, the boat lifts up outta the water on its little legs and speeds away to the islands. The first stop was to Levanzo and then drops off at Favignana. It only took about 25 minutes to get there and once we got there we headed for the beach. We figured the water was going to be warm enough to swim since just last week in Citta del Mare, the water was a great temperature. Boy, were we wrong. We finally got to the beach (regretting that we didn't rent bicycles to get around the island) and the water was clearer than any of the water I've seen since I've been here. There were grottos and caves all along the coastline and you could see straight to the bottom of the sea. We climbed on the rocks and Joe swam around into the little coves and caves, but I could barely get in the water since it was so cold. I decided to do a little sun bathing instead to avoid the freezing cold water. We had to catch the last hydrofoil back to Trapani by 8:50, so we walked back towards the main part of town and do some souvenir gazing and stop at a little restaurant for a drink. We headed back to the port to watch the sun set and load back onto the hydrofoil. Once we got back into Trapani, we headed outta the city to find a place to go camping. It was really scary driving because there were no lights along the road and headlights were just not enough. I drove for quite awhile looking for a campsite and we eventually ended up in San Vito Lo Capo at a place called El Bahira. It was pretty late, so most of the crowd was already asleep. We crashed pretty quickly too from the long day and I had another long day planned for tomorrow.

Sun. June 11 - We woke up early and checked out of the campsite so we could get moving again. Neither of us had realized it, but this campsite was awesome. On top of it being huge and surrounded by absolutely amazing rock cliffs, there were 2 swimming pools, a private beach and dock, a few tennis courts, nice showers, and much more. We both agreed that this would be an awesome spot for camping with our friends if they ever wanted to drive this far. Unfortunately, its about a 4 hour drive to get here. I took a bunch of pictures right outside the campsite of the incredible scenery and small bay surrounded by giant cliffs and beautiful green hills. It's weird how the East side of the island is completely dead and brown, while this side is bright green and lushious. We were soon on our way to Segesta, which is the hidden away in the hills Doric temples Archaeological site that The Amazing Race was filmed at while they were in Sicily. We got a little turned around getting there, but we finally found it. You could see the perfectly preserved temple from quite a distance. I was so excited to finally get there. The whole site was placed so perfectly in the hills and I could just imagine living right along side of them. No one I know has ever been over here, but I am going to have to tell everyone how pretty it is on this side of the island. It doesn't even feel like I'm in Sicily over here, it feels like a totally different country. After we parked the car and bought the entrance tickets, we started the long hard hike up the hill to the ampitheater were they built the statues on the Amazing Race. There was an option to buy a ticket for the bus to bring you through the site, but we opted to walk. I now understand why we were one of the few people to be walking up this really steep long hill. We were soaked with sweat half way up to it. It was really cool once we got up there, but a lot smaller than it looked on tv. I climbed up the side of it to get a full picture of the ampitheater and then we checked out the acoustics of the thing by standing in the middle yelling out loud. It was crazy, but it worked. You wouldn't need a microphone or speakers to have everyone hear you in that place. It was fun, but starting to get really hot and I was anxious to get over to the gigantic temple. The Doric Temple was so neat. It was by far in the best condition of any temples here in Sicily, mainly due to the fact that it is away from the ocean and secure in the hills. We had more to see for the day, so we headed back towards the SS115 to drive along and get to Sciacca and Eraclea Minoa. Sciacca was pretty from the car, but we decided not to stop so we could spend more time at the famous beach of Eraclea Minoa. We stopped at one of the lidos on the beach and headed toward the sand. I laid out on the beach while goofball went and played in the freezing cold water. He was making fun of me for not getting in the water this weekend, so he came and grabbed me and threw me in. It was freezing!! I ran back up to the beach and we skipped rocks for awhile. Joe wanted to be buried completely, so he dug himself a hole and I covered him and made him into a mermaid. It was hot! Just kidding. We left the beach at sunset and wow, was it phenomenial. It was bright pink and purple and set right over the vineyards in the distance. Im starting to fall in love with Sicilian sunsets, I'm gonna miss em like crazy when I leave. Oh yeah, did I tell you....I DONT WANNA LEAVE!!! I took this leg of the drive again through Agrigento and all the way to base. It was pieceful, but tiring. We got to Agrigento and all of the temples and columns were lit up. That was the first time I had ever seen them lit up in real life, you always see them like that on the postcards though. Only two more hours til home on the crazy badly lit roads, but we finally made it. I hit rain about 30 minutes from base, so we were really priveleged to have such a beautiful weekend. I was so tired during the last few miles home, but I got there safely around 11pm. We unloaded and cleaned out the car and I headed to bed. I had to wake up early tomorrow morning and return the car by 8:30am. This was one of the best weekends since I've been here and I was so happy I got to finally see that side of the island. I would have really missed out on some gorgeous scenery if I hadn't made this trip.

Temple C at Selinunte

Temple C with the remains (behind the temple) of what is known to be ther largest Greek temple in the World.

My Favignaga feet (1 of 3 of the Egadi Islands)

Leaving Favignana headed back to Trapani on the hydrofoil.

View from our campground in San Vito Lo Capo. It is wonderful on the West Side.

And this is why it is going to be so hard to leave Sicily!

This is Segesta, the Amazing Race was filmed here! In the top left hand corner is the Doric Temple, which might I add, is in great condition.

The reason this temple looks practically perfect is the fact that it is the only temple here in Sicily that is no ruined by the weather. Its in the bottom of a valley and far away from the ocean (no wind or water damage really).

This is the ampitheater where the Amazing Race held their Road Block!

A really neat lighthouse along the coast on the way to Eraclea Minoa

Eraclea Minoa is known for its gorgeous sand beach and white bluffs. (Secret: There aren't too many sand beaches in Sicily)

Beach feet

Ahh, the famous white bluffs. They were quite breath-taking.

Normal Week

Mon. June 5 - After work, Joe and I borrowed Sarah's car to head up to Motta so I could possibly find a dress for the Corpsman Ball. Before heading to the mall, I went and worked out for a little bit so I could start getting into the routine. After the workout and a shower, we headed up to the mall. A little past Motta, is the largest mall in Sicily. It's called Etnapolis and I had never been there before. It is really nice, but its hilarious that this is the largest mall here. Its 2 stories tall and less than a 1/4 mile long. Oh well, there are some cool shops in there though. But....just like Sicily, 75% of the stores are shoe, make-up, hair salons, or luggage stores. Oh well. I did find some really cute Italian clothes from a place called Berksha. I bought some new jeans and two colorful polka-dot tank tops. I also went to the Wanna-Be Sicilian Walmart, called Carefor, and bought tons of souvenirs and food for people back home. It was an adventure, but unfortunately no luck with finding a dress. I've got another 2 weeks to find one, so I'm not too worried. I just don't wanna wear the same one that I went to the SeaBee Ball in.

Tues. June 6 - My knee wasn't feelin too good today at work, so afterwards I watched some softball for a little bit and headed home. I had a really strenuous workout last night that aggitated my knee pretty bad. I made some of the pasta that I bought last night at Carefor and it was really good. Right after dinner, I took some ibuprofen for my knee thats been botherin me really bad and fell asleep for the rest of the night. The air conditioning in my room is amazing!

Wed. June 7 - Right after work I went and got my haircut across the street at Monikas, this is the same place I got my hair done for the SeaBee Ball at. She's really sweet. I asked her if she'd be able to do my hair for this dance, but she said she was going outta town. After I got my hair cut, I went over to the library and sat there for awhile updating my blog and MySpace pics.

A full weekend of SCUBA Diving

Sat. June 3 - Today was my 2nd open-water dive in Aci Trezza with Sylvie and Giuseppe. Joe and I couldn't find a ride, so I took the big truck into the town. It's huge and of course the town's streets are narrow, so I was kinda nervous, but it was my only option if I wanted to dive today. Today was also my first real time driving thru Catania and with that big ole truck, it was lots of fun :). Anyways, we got there alright and the dive went well. We dove in Aci Trezza today instead of Aci Castello. It was nice, but the water was a little murky. After diving, we went over to their house and we all had a BBQ. A few other divers came along and we cooked a Sicilian/American BBQ lunch. They loved our bratwursts, they dont have those here. Sylvie made fresh bruschetta and we had lots of fresh bread to munch on. It was so much fun and their family is amazing. Unfortunately, I had to be at Take 5 by 5pm (til midnight) so we had to leave the party early. I ran home, slept on the car ride home, took a quick shower, and got over to the other base just in time. Work was long as usual, but this time it was even harder since SCUBA Diving really makes you exhausted. I got home super late and all I wanted to do was go to bed. There was no way I was gonna go out and kick it. I wanted to SCUBA again in the morning, so I didn't need to go out anyways.

Sun. June 4 - I went diving again this morning. It was a nice and small crowd today, so we got to stay under longer and got to 13 meters deep. We dove in Aci Castello today for dive #3. Only one more to go! The rest of the day was just spent chillin out and hanging out with friends.

Dinner and a Movie

Thurs. June 1 - I had to train a new guy at work today, so hopefully I'll start to get some better hours here during my last few weeks. I'm kinda sick working on weekends and until midnight or so. When I got off work today, we all planned to go out to dinner to congratulate our friends on their promotions within the Navy. Our friend's Sarah & Aguilar got their HM3. It's a big deal here since the tests are really hard and not many people move up. Joe gets HN next week, so he's pretty happy about that. It was cool, I finally had my first dinner in Motta at a restaurant called Buongustai's. It's Sarah's favorite place to eat near base. It was really good. I offered to be the designated drier for the night so everyone could party and have a good time. All together, it was Travis, Joe, Josh, Sarah, Aguilar, and I that went in her tiny little car. It was quite amusing. I think I got drunk on water though after about 3 liters in an hour and a half or so. We all got home safe and chilled out the rest of the night.

Fri. June 2 - After work today I hung out at the softball field with some Public Works friends that I haven't seen for awhile. They were having a little BBQ out at the pavilion, so I stopped by and had a bratwurst during the game. It was nice to see them, I'm always so tired after work lately that I just hurry up and get back to NAS I. After the game, I headed back to NAS I because a bunch of us were going to go see The DaVinci Code at the theater. We had Adam go get the tickets early since it was rumored to sell out tonight. A ton of our friends ended up coming to see the movie so that was pretty cool. The movie was great, I really enjoyed it. Crystal told me that since she read the book, she didn't enjoy it as much as I probably would. But of course, the movies never add up to the book. I tried to make my day go well, but I did find out some horrible news earlier today from my Dad. My Uncle Chris (his brother) has been unfortunately diagnosed with multiple brain tumors. Please wish his the best of luck and I cannot wait to get home to visit with him. I hope my family is okay and coping with this sad news the best possible. Grandma, Uncle Chris, Aunt Gail, and the rest of the family, if you read this, I love you so much and I will be home soon to visit. You have been nothing but wonderful in my life and I will never forget the awesome weekends we all spent up at Mark Twain Lake skiing, wakeboarding, and kneeboarding. I love you. Please keep with updated.

Citta del Mare - Memorial Day Weekend

Fri. May 26 - I worked at ITT all morning trying to get all the final details for this trip ready. I had to run home and pack in the afternoon and I filled Kat and I's cooler with ice, beer, and snacks when I got back to ITT. Michelle (the woman escorting the trip with me) helped me separate all the prizes and get all the luggage and extra things into a pile. Th 53-passenger van arrived around 2:30pm and I started to load it up with our stuff. That van was so overpacked, I honestly didnt think a few final bags were gonna fit. Everyone was one time and we left NAS I at 3pm on our way to Citta del Mare, which is in the city of Terrasini. There was an accident in Palermo (like always) which made our trip take 4 1/2 hours to get there. At the beginning of the trip, we played trivia (I hosted it over the microphone) and gave out prizes. The families were all having a great time, but once the trivia was over, they were ready to relax and nap for the rest of the drive. We pulled into Citta Del Mare and Michelle and I went to the reception desk to get all the rooms and keys settled. We had a few problems with the families who have been coming here for years with their rooms and their requests they made prior to the trip. We asked the resort to put the regular families next to each other so they could all share balconies and share babysitters during the weekend. We also made sure to request that they were all on the 3rd or 4th floors so they could have a guaranteed beach view. Well.....the resort didn't give us any of those things so I spent about 2 hours trying to calm down the families and put the weekend into perspective. I knew they'd all be fine by the end of the night or tomorrow, they really wont be in their rooms much for this all to be a big deal. It was fine though. We all went to dinner together and by then the few complainers chilled out and said VA BENE! (Sicilian for "its okay", "whatever", "cool"). Dinner was excellent. THere are a few places to eat the resort, so went ate at the Superior dining room tonight. After dinner, a bunch of us went to the disco and danced all night long until it closed. Kat, Joe and I were staying in a triple room and man was the view wonderful. The balconies for this resort are really cool, they all connect and our building had an excellent beach view. I felt kinda bad for the families who didn't get a good view, but we made sure to get full usage outta our balcony.

Sat & Sun - The weekend was great and relazing. The days consisted of lying out on our patio, playing in the ocean, going down the 3-tiered slides at the resort, swimming in the pools, snorkeling, goofying around, and just being on vacation. Kat and Joe and I hung out weekend and had an awesome time. We bought rafts for Sunday and spent a few hours chillin out in the bay. The waves were pretty rough, so we ended up just swimming in the pool for the later half of the day. The restaurants were so good and they fed you like you were starving. I haven't eaten that much in a long time, but it was all so good and their house wine that they served at all the meals was tasty. Each night we went and danced at the disco to hang out with a bunch of the people from our trip. I stayed in contact with all the families throughout the weekend just making sure I could help them if they needed anything. It was a lot of fun and most of the group bonded really well. Sunday night at a really funny comedy/karaoke show with the Italian staff. It was so entertaining and hilarious because you would never see idiots like this in America or other big resorts in other countries. We had a short day the next day, so after the show, we went "swimming" in the pool and headed to bed.

Mon. May 29 - We had to load the bus by 2pm, so we decided to wake up early, head to the beach, and have some last minute fun. I woke up early to pay the hotel and check out of our room and then headed out to our balcony to do some tanning while Joe and Kat got ready. Kat wasn't moving to fast so I got quite a but of sun in before headin down to the beach. Once everyone was ready, we did a few more trips down the slide and went cliff jumping with the other families that were already doing it. We got over there and everyone was having an awesome time jumping off the 15 foot ledge. Joe and I wanted something a little higher and traversed the rock wall to jump from about 25 feet. It was cool, the water was crystal clear and I bought goggles the day before so I could swim around the bottom. It was a lot of fun. We all headed back up to one of the rooms that the resort let us use for last minute showers and we were cleaned up and ready to go by 2pm. I got to the bus and a few people were there already loading their bags and everyone else was shortly behind. We pulled away from Citta del Mare at 2:15pm and everyone sounded like they had a great time even though some of the rooms weren't what they expected. The ride home was quiet because everyone slept, including myself. There was no traffic and we only did one bathroom break so we amazingly got home in a record time of 3 hours exactly. It took about a half hour for everyone to unload the bus and load up their cars. We had many compliments and thanks, so it felt really good when I got home. The second I walked in the door, I laid down on my bed and fell asleep for a few hours. The rest of the night once I woke up, I just relaxed and watched a movie.

The slides that Citta del Mare are known for

Kat, Joe, and I chillin in the sea on our rafts

The balconies at this resort were really cool and the ocean view from our room was AMAZING!

This is the oblong pool that we did most of our non-ocean swimming in. It was nice to get out of the salt water every once in awhile. The bluffs in the background outline the northern and northwestern coast of Sicily.

Our balcony at sunset in the bay

Triple cliff jumping near the resort with some of the families on the trip

Chill-axin on my balcony watching the sun about to start setting with ma-ma-ma-my Corona

Last SCUBA class and a normal week

Sun. May 21 - We had a BBQ at Take 5 this afternoon and I cooked all day since the guy that works with me is a vegetarian and won't touch meat. It was fun to cook for all the guys. Not too many people showed up, but I knew most of the ones that did. I played sand volleyball with 3 of my Public Works buddies, but the sand was scolding hot. It was so funny. We'd run on the court as soon as the ball was about to be served and ran off it as soon as someone scored. After the BBQ, we cleaned up and I had to work the rest of the day and night at Take 5. I got off around 11:30pm. I really hate working weekends, I worked 24 hours total this weekend here.

Mon. May 22 - I was off work at Take 5, so I went over to ITT to help out. Most of my time was spent in Gear-N-Go helping clean up the camping gear from previous weeks. I cleaned tents and put them all away. I also did some work with filling the SCUBA tanks for paintball. Leslie started helping me get ready for my Citta Del Mare trip that I would be escorting on Friday. After work, I invited Juli to come to a small BBQ that I was gonna cook. Joe and I brought her to the commissary because she still hadn't bought groceries and we got the food for the cookout tonight. It was real small, but I was so in the mood for some steak and mac-n-cheese. Our friend Erika and her boyfriend Ray came up and hung out for awhile.

Tues. May 23 - Today was the last day of confined diving in the swimming pool on NAS II. We had our final tests in the water and then also took a 75 question written test. I had read and retained everything from the past 2 1/2 weeks so I flew through the test. I felt really good after my dive. Everything went great and I definitely got a 100% on the test. I even got the hard question that no one ever gets right about the pressure groups and underwater times. Right after my test, I had to get to work at Take 5 for the rest of the night. I am now just 3 open water dives closer to my certification! WOOHOO!!

Open Water Dive #1 & Pro Skateboarder (Greg Lutzka)

Sat. May 20 - I had my first open water dive today in Aci Trezza, which is about 30 minutes north of Catania. Sylvie and Giuseppe's (our SCUBA instructors) dive shop is in that town and their boat is docked at a small port in Aci Trezza. Aci Trezza is where the famous Greek mythological "Cyclopes Rocks" reside. They are beautiful and huge just sitting there right in the ocean. There's a bunch of pics on the internet if you look up Cyclopes Rocks. I rode with some kids from the class and we needed to be at the dive shop by 8:45am. We got the gear ready and packed all of our equipment into their truck and headed to the pier. Once we got there, we loaded the tanks and gear onto the boat, got our BCDs ready, and got into our lovely, tight, wedgy giving wetsuits. It was about 9:30am when we got to the dive spot, which was in Aci Castello at the castle. We were underwater for a total of 54 minutes and dove to about 4 meters. We had a large group working on the skills and learning how to adjust for our buoyancy in salt water, so it took awhile down there. After we were finished with the skills and lessons, Sylvie took us on a short Discovery Dive to see the dive spot. The water was a lot merkier than I thought it would be, but it was still relaxing and beautiful. I saw some cool fish, theres one thats my favorite, its like 20 different colors. There were some sea urchins, little crabs, and a lot of anemones (sp?) and underwater seamoss. It was a lot of fun once I stoppedbeing nervous.

Greek Mythology "Cyclopes Rocks"

Sylvie & Giuseppe's Dive Boat

Aci Castello Dive Spot

I headed back home to Sigonella because the new Interns were coming in today and there was a big Skateboading Contect going on featuring a pro skater. It was called the Extreme Sig Slam Skate Contest and Greg Lutzka was the guest appearance. It was at our skatepark for kids 14 and younger. I love watching the little kids skate. They are so cute. I was supposed to help work it, but I really wanted to get a dive in since I only have a short time left here in Sicily and I need this certification to be complete by the time I leave. I got there and Juli had already went to her room since she got in this afternoon. James told me to find out what room she was in and introduce myself to her. The other intern's parents live here, so he is staying with them in Marinai. I walked around the skatepark for a little bit, but the event was pretty much over. Greg was just signing autographs now. James told me to go out to dinner with everyone tonight to meet everyone that was here with him and meet the new intern. I first went home and took a shower to get the crusty salt water out of my hair and took a nap. It was a long, exhausting week. I woke up and went and got Juli to go stand out in the parking lot to wait for the van to pick us up and bring us to Catania for dinner. We went and picked up Greg Lutzka, Master Chief Hickman (from MWR Headquarters in Millington, TN), and Dave (came along with Master Chief) from the Navy Lodge and we were going to be meeting up with James Baker (MWR Director) and his wife downtown. Juli is really nice, she had extreme jetlag, but we forced her to stay awake to get use to it faster. We parked the van in Catania and first headed to a small bar along Via Entea. It was nice to talk to Master Chief about MWR without feeling any pressure or anything, MC Hickman is hilarious. The good things about Master Chiefs is that they've been in so long and don't really care much anymore. They drink, they smoke, they curse, they just go out to have a good time. It was fun. After the bar, we headed over to the restaurant. It was kinda fancy and a few of us were a little underdressed. Oh well, they put us in the back. Most of the night, I spent talking to Greg. It was probably nice for him to talk to someone his age and a civilian since he's been promo-ing the European Naval Stations recently. He was really cool and didn't come off as arrogant or rude. He is 21 years old, been in the Pro-Circut for about 6 years, from Orange County CA, loves to skate, play his guitar, hang out with his friends and family back home in Milwaukee, and party it us in Las Vegas. The food was really good and I tried a bunch of new things. I had octopus, pan fried swordfish, fried calamari, a bunch of strange sausages, etc. Juli was really tired, but she did really good, especially being around such important people. It was a good night. We headed home and I found out there was a going-away party for two of our friends from the hospital, Merranda & Diana (they came on my Aeolian Islands trip). Joe was designated driver for the night, so he was gonna come pick me up when I got home so I could hang out at the house party for a little bit. I decided to ask Juli and Greg if they wanted to come to the party. Greg Lutzka was totally down for the idea. He probably hasn' t seen people our age in awhile and being under the Navy's eye lately on his tour, he barely has any free time outside of the demos. Once we got back to base, Juli and Greg were gonna come, but the catch was..Master Chief had to come too b/c he is responsible for Greg. That was cool with all of us and Joe came and picked us up and drove us to the party. We were squeezed in a little Fiat, but it was hilarious. We got to the party and it was pretty funny to see an aold guy roll up into the party with all of us. I introduced Greg & Master Chief to all of my friends and told everyone that Juli was the new intern. We didn't stay for very long because they had to catch a flight at 5am. We got them home, Juli went back to her room, and Joe and I went back to the party to help clean up and say our goodbyes. I got home around 3am.

Me, Greg Lutzka (Hot Pro Skateboarder), and the new intern Juli

CHEERS! I think he's had a bit too much to drink. Check out my tan...oh yeah!