Jules in Sicily

Because I am no longer in Sicily it seems like I need to find a new use for my blog, as I do really enjoy it.

So for now (basically until I think of something better) I will give you my thoughts on life in the UK as an unemployed person!

So far it is ace, I have time to see friends and family. Saturday me and Dad took the three grandparents to the garden centre. Yesterday I spent the day with mum scanning in old photos. I’ve been to the pub, to wagamamas (twice) and tomorrow I’m going to Alton Towers.

At the moment being unemployed is lovely! However after checking my bank balance today it will have to come to an end soon. Therefore my ebay empire will begin - I am literally selling anything I think is worth something. In fact a book I bought at uni 10 years ago for £1.80 is actually going for between £20-£30 on ebay - bonus!

Expect a dedicated Alton Towers post in the next few days - excited much! xxx

and it is freezing…. not literally but it feels like it. Today was 10-12 degrees in Birmingham / 34 degrees in Palermo. hmmmmm.

However I am loving being home, so far I have seen my Grandparents, caught up with the girls, seen people from work, plotted my new ebay empire with Kerry, bought new shoes (flip flops don’t cut it here), cleaned and moved back into my flat, spent money on cat toys as Tibbs seems to have doubled in size since I left 6 months ago, drank Sailor Jerry, eaten all the food I missed, watched the Great British Bake Off, visited 2 Sainsburys and 1 Asda, and drank one bottle of squash already.

Still to come this week alone are; lunches with friends, afternoon catch up dates, wagamamas, trip to uni, shopping for the oldies, dinner being cooked for me on Friday night, dancing in Solihull on Saturday night, and transferring about 50 cds to itunes to kickstart my ebay empire :)

To be honest already Palermo seems like a dream, the tan is fading already but I am so settled here and realised now just how much I missed people from this life. I think in a month or so I might have to pinch myself to remind me that it did happen. But then again I have made so many great friends and have plans to visit them to carry on the party that was Palermo. 

Now… what else can I find to sell in this house…… xxx

everyonelovescatss:

how i feel. 

(via everyonelovescatss)

this time in 2 days i will be back on UK soil. At times I can’t believe how quickly 6 months have gone, and at times I think the last month or so has dragged.

I do know that during my time here in Palermo I have made some amazing friends and will spend the next few years travelling round Europe seeing them again. And have had some of the best times of my life. I have seen Sicily and fallen in love with it, my relationship with Palermo is both love and hate.

Yesterday I met the professor from Royal Holloway who I met on the march in May and talked for 3 hours about Palermo, the anti-mafia and my time here. I think I have basically concluded that I have had an amazing time but I am ready to go home. Maybe in a month or so I will start to miss Palermo once I have caught up with everyone and life in the UK has started properly again but for now it is arriverderci Palermo xxx

I have just dropped Dave and El at the bus to go to the airport, but realising that this time next week I will have landed in the UK again for good. This is a strange feeling, especially after seeing Palermo through new eyes again with the two of them.

So, what shall I do with my last week here? Well…… sleep, sunbathe and party :) 

The rest of the time with them was spent well, we went to Cefalu, Monday we explored Palermo and went out Monday night for dinner, Tuesday we went to Mondello (which was pretty empty - even the buses we empty!) and then went for cocktails at Peppinos last night. Today we had lunch, chilled on the roof and then it was time to say goodbye.

So now for me I think I will sort my room out, have a bit of a nap, and start sorting out packing - i.e. what do I not mind leaving here if I have too much. I know it’s an exciting afternoon ahead of me xxx

Yep in my last 2 weeks finally some friends have come to visit me.

It is so awesome having them here I can’t tell you! So far we have got drunk on Saturday afternoon, got drunk Saturday night at our terrace party and then went to Garafello for some drum and bass outside partying. Yesterday we went to Cefalu and swam in the sea :) Today we are going to hang around Palermo and I will show them the nicer parts today and then maybe Magione tonight. Tomorrow Mondello for some more seaside time and then Wednesday they leave :(

It feels strange my time here is coming to an end, next weekend is my last in Palermo and it is starting to sink in that I have to go back to reality.And I only have 9 days left to get my tan on before hitting the cold shores of England again. 6 months has kind of flown by, but not gonna lie at times it has dragged when I have missed my friends and family. 

For Palermo there is a new beginning… the new Erasmus students are starting to arrive so we know all our Italian friends will be busy with them… I think it will be a little emotional next week to say goodbye but very exciting to go home xxx

So update on the last few days:

Yesterday - hmmmm didn’t go much, sunbathed for a couple of hours and burnt my face a bit. I think I am getting wrinkles from the sun, or maybe the sun is showing the wrinkle because they aren’t tanning?? Either way not impressed.

Day before - Rafaela’s students who she is teaching Portuguese came over for dinner on the terrace which was really good (both the food and company), we ate homemade bread with chinese mushrooms to start, then lasagne, then cannoli. nom. Then we kind of witnessed a mugging down the road next to ours as we heard the shouting, ran over to the side of the roof and saw a guy running down the street with a bag and hopped into a car. We don’t really like leaving the house at night now….

Day before that - I don’t really remember, I probably sunbathed.

The day before that - we said goodbye to Gabi who has returned to Lithuania :(

Today we went to the office to meet a professor from an English uni. It turns out to be two professors, both in archaelogy, married with their 3 year old daughter. They were talking to Addiopizzo (I know…. archaeology you don’t associate with anti-mafia) because they are looking at the monuments throughout the mafia/antimafia history, both state and those used by the public and grassroots groups. It was really interesting but clearly the little girl was bored and hot. So I offered to show her the big room where maybe there was something more interesting. I then spent the next hour playing stepping stones with the chairs, hide and seek, and generally chatting about favourite sandwiches, colours etc. Because the woman was Italian the girl could speak Italian as well as English and to be fair I had the most advanced Italian conversation I have ever had! It was good fun but hot work and after building a den and hiding from her parents I needed a glass of cold water, a beer would have been nice but slightly irresponsible. So I am considering opening an international babysitting agency.

Tonight it is Rafaela’s last night living with us, tomorrow she goes to Tunisia with work then when she returns she is moving to a different house. So we had pizza and then went for gelato.

It is supposed to be stormy and cooler over the weekend, I am very excited for this!! Although if it isn’t I can just get more tanned I guess. xxx

deadmau5:

Bawwwwwwwww hellll nawwwwe (Taken with Instagram)

I did eventually escape from my room again, with sheer brute strength! Unfortunately the landlord is sick so I am having to sleep with all my shoes wedged behind the door in an attempt to have a ‘closed’ door, but not ‘trapped inside the room’ door…

Otherwise this week has been drama / trauma / illness / and fun free. I have pretty much done nothing apart from watch films and read. Don’t watch the Black Swan by the way, awful film! And do watch The Descendants, awesome film!

Tomorrow I might venture to the supermarket. We are all getting a little bored in the house…. it has got to the stage where I have done everything I wanted to over here, apart from go to Rome (way too hot and expensive now, think it’s actually cheaper to fly from the UK than Palermo). We are hardly working because everyone is on summer vacation which means the days are getting difficult to fill. I used to think it would be nice to not have to work, now I genuinely think, actually know, that I get bored way too easily. It is made more difficult that it is high 30s temperature wise so between 10-4 it is typically stay indoors and sleep time. 

IT may sound like I’m complaining, I’m honestly not. It has really woken me up to the fact that I need to occupy myself more. I’m not saying I want to go back to full time work, working maybe 3 days a week for 5 hours would probably keep the boredom at bay ;) I also appreciate now how much I rely on my friends and family to keep me sane. As there aren’t many people in Palermo at the moment it is hard even to pop out on my own to meet someone for coffee, whereas at home I would just go to someones house and impose myself!!

So 4 weeks to go and I am determined to make the most of my time left here, after all I will miss it when I am gone. So I am going to make a list of everything I still want to do here and cross things off one by one. I’ll keep you posted xxx