Kareokee!

9/1

There are 2 other women here at the winery right now but they will only be here for a week or two and they are staying on the winery rather than in our apartment. One of them is a sommelier from Canada who won a trip to travel all around Southern Italy and visit the best wineries to learn about the winemaking process. What a trip! The other is a light blond haired, bright-blue eyed girl named Yoni who is from Holland and now lives in Palermo now with her Sicilian boyfriend. She’s studying international business and language and is doing this internship to learn about the marketing/hospitality side of the winery business. She is at the winery for 2 weeks and will work in the office in Palermo for 3 months, traveling around Europe and learning about the exportation process. She is my age and might have stood out here even more than I do if she wasn’t fluent in Italian.

Today, I joined them in a wine tasting of almost all of the wines that Tasca makes. It was great to hear the history about the winery and the stories behind each wine…and the wine wasn‘t bad either ;o) (It was a treat to taste the few wines that they do not export and that you can only find in Italy!) The family has always been and is still very involved here. They are at the estate often and work with the people in person rather than just over the phone. Most of the people that work here have been here for a long time and it seems like everyone works well together and is very close. They make a good team.

9/3

I started my 2 week internship in the laboratory today. No one thinks I can make it through two weeks with the crazy chemist. He talks nonstop, thinks he knows everything, and is always complaining that so-and-so doesn’t do this or that right. A lot of people find him hard to be around. He can be a little heavy at times but I don’t really mind him actually. Probably because I can only understand about 60% of what he says so I kinda pick and choose when I want to listen to him. My work consists of measuring the Babo, PH, total acidity, ect of the samples from the grapes that are still in the vineyards to determine when they would be ready to harvest. Being in the lab is not foreign to me and the day’s actually go by faster there so I am enjoying it.

Today I realized that not only is the chemist crazy but he’s a singer too! While we were waiting for samples from the vineyards to test, he began telling me how he plays the guitar and likes to sing so I jokingly said “come on, sing a song”. With a big grin on his face, he headed over to the computer and to my surprise, turned on a karaoke program! I thought he was kidding but as the words popped up on the screen he cleared his throat and starting singing a very deep, slow, and out of sync version of “Yesterday” by the Beatles. I wished I could go back to yesterday at this point! His voice was raspy and coarse from all the smoking but he said that he likes it because he is “a soul singer”. It took everything inside of me not to laugh hysterically. Who ever thought working in the lab could be so entertaining!?