fireworks

this is something interesting about living in the Aci's in Sicily (we live in Aci Catena, near Aci Trezza). last night we had actually gone to bed around 10:30 or 11pm. at 11:30 these loud 'booms' like bombs going off made me jump out of bed. and i stood there looking out from the balcony and watched the best fireworks display i've had the privilege to see all summer. (this is a regular occurence around here...!) i was oohing and aahing so much (they even had purple ones which i don't see very often) that Brad got up and watched too. Ringo was hiding under the bed by that time. Zelda barks a little to let us know she is ready to fight to defend us...

earlier in the day we had just gone down to walk around by the sea and try out the gelato (yum!) and actually ended up right in the middle of a festival but i am not 100% sure what it was all about. they - there were about 20 young men - were pulling the madonna and child from the sanctuary of the church through the streets on a very large cart. oh, and i think a priest and another man were also up there on the cart. there was a band playing and they took the cart down by the water and they were blessing something by the sprinkling of the holy water (i could not understand what they were saying). after that they were going to take the statue back to the church.

there are a lot of very steep hills in the area, so they had to get a running start to get the cart and its precious cargo up the hill but they made it on the first try much to the delight of the crowd. they were closely followed by the marching band, accompanied by loud ringing of the church bells in the main piazza (town square) where we were standing. it was so exciting to just be there by the water, watching all of this take place.

they have these really large fixtures that they put up all through the streets of the town and they are covered in colored lights. very festive. there were vendors selling all kinds of treats and toys and we ended up buying some pistachios and some peanuts in the shells. after that we went to one of the pizzerias right by the main piazza - so we sat outside by the sea and ate pizza in Sicily, Italy. i could cry right now just thinking about how incredible that is and how blessed we are to be here and experience this. it is not because of anything we did to deserve it and we are just so grateful and thankful to be here. it is very humbling.

the only bad part is that we did not bring our camera because we had no clue what was going to be going on down there. our deal to each other is this - if we go out the door, we're taking the camera!

we have not had an opportunity to see any of the recent meteor shower activity which is even MORE exciting. i have been awake every night for the past 5-6 nights until 2:30 or 3am - just wide awake--but i didn't think of going on the roof to look for the meteors. maybe that's not until next weekend, i'll have to check the news.

while i was awake last night i wrote down some ideas i was given for my first Sunday School class that starts in 2 weeks. i cannot wait!

okay, i need to go and practice the violin for a little while. i did not play yesterday and i have a lesson tomorrow and several rather complex pieces (for me). arrividerla...