Taormina - July 4, 2008

The following is from a journal entry during my trip to Taormina, Sicily which lasted from June 29 - July 27, 2008:

Taormina
(July 4, 2008)
Got out of bed around 12:45, took a shower, called my parents because I was feeling homesick, chased the last of last night’s alcohol out of my system with lukewarm fountain water. One of my roommates turns twenty-one today so we make plans to go out to dinner and probably to a club (I’m sixteen but there’s no drinking age) afterward. I go to Babilonia, watch some videos on Youtube, think about writing a novel, wonder what Rome will be like, talk to a hot English girl who tries to get me to teach her Italian. I walk back with this girl Paulina, who’s twenty and annoying with a stupid Brooklyn accent. I realize with disgust that my sunglasses are too big and I buy a new pair from a Rastafarian who sells them from outside a cigar shop. On the way back to the hotel I pass three hot girls walking with a twenty-something Eurotrash guy, the one of them who isn’t wearing sunglasses winks at me. Walk up Strada Caterina and get stopped by a rich middle-aged German who thinks I’m a male prostitute. Get back to the hotel around 6:30, do some homework, talk to my bisexual roommate about depression, homesickness, and other things that I’ve since forgotten. Realize I’m still homesick but miles away from anyone who cares. We leave for dinner; I’m wearing khakis, Rockports, and a red polo shirt. We go to a mediocre pizza place where I drink four glasses of white wine and still am barely tipsy. We leave and it’s still too early for a club so we go to a bar first where I drink two glasses of Guinness, bum some cigarettes from Larisa and Jenny even though I don’t smoke, take sips out of everyone else’s drinks. It’s still early so we hang out for another hour, telling stories. I’m trashed by the time we go to the club, which is good. We walk in and I start looking for those Spanish girls that I almost hooked up with two nights ago—Ana, Carmen, and others that I can’t remember. I see them walk in and stand in a circle and I’m drunk beyond inhibition so I grab Ana…Ana Gonzalez, pull her away from her friends and start to whisper in her ear, make her laugh. She knows I’m drunk but doesn’t care, which is kind of nice. She keeps telling me I’m crazy. We go outside, sit on the railing outside the club with some other people from the school. We talk, make out, we’re both laughing; she’s drunk too, though not as much as me. One of my roommates tears me away from her and forces me to leave with him and the others despite my protests. In the end I give in. Take a quick shower back at the hotel, use Proactive because I’m starting to break out, watch Italian news on a choppy satellite feed, and go to sleep thinking of Ana Gonzalez.