Today was a pretty laid back day. It rained starting from about noon until 5 o clock or so. Valeria (ciccio's mother) said that it was a very rare occurrence especially in the summer for it to rain for so long. So because of the rain, we didn't really do too much. Both Ciccio and I took a nap after lunch because we were up pretty late watching the Italy vs England game. Also because of the lazy day I was able to read a lot of my book and almost finish it. I only took 2 photos today and the one below I after I woke up from the nap but Ciccio hadn't yet.
The other picture above is of Mt. Etna which looked a lot cooler than the photo suggests. The mountain was all black in a dark blue sky with lava spewing out for the entire night and it slowly drained down the mountain further and further. Anyway I'm sure the internet has some better pictures so I'll try to find one and add it below. Tonight we went to a friends birthday party and immediately I could tell it would be different from an American birthday party. Both of us dressed up in our dress pants and button up shirts with ties. I don't know where the birthday party was at but we drove quite a ways and I believe we went south of Catania. Anyway the party was in the back of some huge mansion and it was almost like a school dance because their were tons of people and a DJ with flashing lights, it was crazy. A lot of people spoke English though, or at least a little bit. It started at around 9 and we didn't leave until 1:30ish so it was a very long night and kind of boring at times. The party also had tons of food, and as soon as something ran out some chefs would come out and replace it with more food. Then eventually a massive cake came out and then the all the food tables disappeared and every desert you could imagine was in no short supply. Needless to say I had quite a bit of chocolate moose, cake, jello, and some other sweets that I don't know the name of. It was quite the adventure and my ears are still ringing an hour later from the music, but I'm exhausted and hopefully will catch up on my sleep again tonight.