Thanks  i arrived today.  This place reminds me a bit of NYC.
I am in the north part of Palermo near Plaza Italia and the subte.  I am surprised because I haven't seen too many bars here, but I looked on google and it looks like they are mostly deeper into the Palermo area near Plaza Sorana.
I ended up transferring $100 via Western Union since I had a discount code.  It was really difficult to get the money.  I went to three different Western Unions in my area.  Eventually I found a big Western Union store on Armenia and they gave me the pesos effectivo.  They didn't have an envelope so I had to place the big wad of cash in the pocket of my jacket. 
Similar to other Latin America countries it seems like a lot of people here don't speak English.  I had many people from LatAm and MX that studied at my university whom I met and befriended.  They speak perfect english, so I am curious why 95% of the population in the countries don't speak English like they do.  Maybe they were the rich kids or something who I met in college.
What grocery stores would you recommend?  I went to some chinese stores near me but since I used my credit card they charged me 10%.  Is Carrefore the best supermarket near me, that would be equivalent to a big grocery store in the US like Frys, Safeway, Ralphs, and Kroger?  Or do people use one of the delivery services here for their grocery shopping?