15 June, Day 39, Minchiando on Friday

Minchia is Sicilian for dick, but it’s used in a semi-vulgar colloquial sense to add emphasis or in various expressions unique to their dialect. I translate minchiando as wasting time (dicking around.) I was planning to meet umberto in Milan to make up for missing him last night, but got held up again waiting for a ride. (You’d think I learned my lesson yesterday…) I finally escaped at 7:30, but still hadn’t received a confirmation from Umberto. His friend Dante wanted to go out too. I planned to meet him, but didn’t arrive at the locale until almost 9, and they’d already gone home. (I was 2 hours late; so don’t blame him at all.) Feeling hungry and grouchy, I began searching for dinner. The place we planned to meet was very chic, but I wasn’t in the mood to have an aperitivo alone so went looking for a restaurant. I found a sushi place near by.

Then I took a tram to the piazza duomo to meet the Sicilians and their friends at the free concert there. I slept at their place that night and went to the pool in vimercate with them the next day. Fabrizio made a notable lunch of rigatoni with a sauce made from tomato puree, tuna, a splash of white wine, and some spices. I had a döner kebab for dinner and then met the boys and my Russian friend Katerina back in Milan to go to a club called Karma. We were a big group -4 cars total. Karma was fun. It’s a huge open-air venue full of Milan’s young and hip with a lot of pretty girls in addition to the ones we brought with us….