Local Italian Living

We have met some local people of the area, but not many at all because most of our time has been spent together as a group or groups of us within the group. Our days are very scheduled so it can be hard to go out and meet people. However, we met about 10 or so students from the University of Catania, because we are connected daily with a professor from the University of Catania named Georgia. Georgia has the connections to many of the local businesses and is with us daily, so she gave us the chance to meet and interact with some of her students studying economics.

The most interesting things I have purchased have been lava rock earrings from one of our family business site visits. They have the lava rocks from Mount Etna. This is especially cool because I climbed Mount Etna days before buying these.

I am adjusting well with budgets because the Euro and Dollar are almost equal at this time. Things actually seem cheaper to me in regards to food. Clothing is about the same and souvenirs well. The biggest mistake I made was using the currency exchange locations because they charge you about 20% plus a transaction fee to exchange money. It is much smarter to just use an ATM. Lesson Learned.