a bit of this and a bit of that ;): April 2008

We have been here in Palermo for a week now and we really haven't done much. Rehearsal starts at five (p.m.) and goes until midnight so our schedule is a little screwed up. We've been trying to get to bed before two so we can get up in the morning but sometimes it's just too hard to fall asleep after we've been dancing all night. We've been into the city a few times and there is a lot of shopping and fun street markets that sell huge quantities of fish! A lot of furniture is made here in Palermo so there are a lot of really cool furniture stores that are fun to browse through. The weather has been perfect but the locals are all dressed in their winter coats, apparently they are freezing and think it's still winter.

This is a Theatre in the center of town. If you know what number MDCCCXCVIII then that's how old it is.

You gotta love the tiny cars in Europe. I thought this one was pretty cool. The Smart Cars are even smaller though.

"Dry Dock" has been an experience. There are literally a thousand Italian men on board working on the ship and let me just say that if we were in the states this whole site would be shut down. All the ship employees stay on board during Dry Dock and everyone is free to roam around the ship/construction site at will. They tape off certain areas only if they don't want anyone walking on the floor they're working on. The other day we were in the dinning room and the workers were airbrushing chairs ten feet away from us. I keep asking, "Where's my safety mask?" We have to look out for people welding around the ship as well because as we're walking through a hallway there is no warning that a torch is lit until we see it ourselves. Doug always says, "Look away from the blue light!" And then I say, "Where is my safety mask?" Safety Masks should really be complimentary around this construction site. Now we know why they do this refurbish in foreign countries. I don't think Palermo has any laws at least not that I can see. The traffic is every man for himself and I guess everyone just drives as fast as they can and they only stop when they're about to hit someone and then they honk until the person moves. It's pretty scary to walk around when there's no sidewalk.

This is what Dry Dock looks like.