In keeping with my list theme...

Top 5 Favorite New Experiences Thus Far (Not in Order):

1. Eating Sea Urchin Eggs..

Salty, a little fruity, and not generally my cup of tea because I hate sea food. When in a city several hours south of Rome, right?

2. Mud Bath in Sulfur mud.

Well, when we were headed to the Aeolian Islands we all had a very clear idea in our heads of what our mud baths we're going to look like. Were we pleasantly surprised when we found a gaggle of Italians soaking in a Sulfur mud pit inside an active volcano? Debatable. Sulfur, mind you, smells like the love child of Human Excrement and Rotting Eggs. Several girls opted out right away, their "day at the spa" idea murdered by the pungent notion of smelling like shit for several days. My more adventurous colleagues and I embraced it with open arms; never has slathering myself with something the texture and smell of diarrhea been more satisfying.

Several more serious fellow Mud Bathers would coat themselves head to toe and step outside the bath and not move, just staring at everyone else until they were completely dry and would peel the mud off. I didn't have the patience for that, nor the mud monster mentality, so we showered off the best we could and then went to the beach and dipped in the Terranean Sea (not quite the Mediterranean, mind you, but I guess if you think about it they're all kind of the same anyways). From there we swam/dragged ourselves to the water with hot springs. Anywhere there were bubbles you had found yourself a warm spot. A lifetime of Oregon oceans have never prepped me for any body of water that naturally warm.

The post-mud feeling was amazing though. My skin has never been so soft. Overall, I recommend it if you like your skin soft and shitty.

3. Diving into Jellyfish infested waters. Mostly everyone avoided the black sand beach we went to later in the day on our Aeolian Islands trip because the sand and water were covered in jellyfish. They weren't huge, but they were everywhere! The sand on the black sand beach was so soft and silky I just wanted to bring it home and... shower in it. Sleep with it. Make it breakfast in the morning. Call it back the next day. You get the picture. Plus, not running straight into a warm, beautiful, crystal clear, bluer than blue ocean was one of the hardest things I've had to do as well. I didn't succeed.

After walking down the beach we walked out on a long dock and I just couldn't take it anymore. I didn't even care if I got stung, I wanted to jump into the Terranean Sea. So I convinced my friend Caryn to go with me and it was amazing. We pointed to the least jelly-fishy spot we could find and didn't hesitate. Once I got resurfaced it was instant fright and just scrambled to get back on the dock. Thankfully, we didn't get stung but I wouldn't have regretted the decision even if I had. Andddd we were the only two who dared to do it, woooo.

4. Being a foreigner. I've only left America once, and that was to go to Canada, so my first excursion outside the country for real has just been a jumbled experience of people staring at me, feeling like a two year old (Wanting to know what every sign says, never understanding what anyone is talking about, wide-eyed trying to take all this newness in), and butchering a beautiful language trying to order pastries. It would be harder but better if I didn't live in a mini-America, but about half the people and almost every employee working here is Italian so I still get manage some culture here. And that's not to mention the odd culture of the military base. But we won't go down that road today. Regardless, I'm picking up little bits here and there and it's fun to listen to people talk a million miles a minute and be able to pick out one or two words.

5. That's all I've got so far. I'm going out to a nice Italian place tonight though so this spot will be filled.