Sils birthday!

This week was Sils birthday on the day itself we all went round to hers and Michaels for aperativi and last night (Saturday) Michael (perhaps Rashly) said he would cook a Birthday/Thanks giving (Meri, his girlfriend is American) dinner and then we would go out dancing. The dinner was a roast chicken with roast potatoes and gravy and veg it was great, didnt realise how much i'd missed that food!!!!! We took the discobus to the Sherlock holmes pub outside town, a really nice place and ike a proper pub except- the toilets were, shall we say, French? All that effort to create an English pub and then install squatty potties!
We returned to Sils and all fell alseep. after watching bridget jones and a breakfast of toast and jam Emily, john and i set off into town. We had coffee and generally spent the wandering around and drinking coffee-real Sunday stuff!
It has been bit of a down week this week, everyone is tired and not really feeling the uphill struggle for xmas. Hopefully next week will be better and it's another 4day weekend some national holiday, which is nice.!

road trip .2

On sunday we had breakfast at the hostel (not bad actually) and then wandered around Florence to see the sights in daylight. Beautiful city. I will add some photos but i left my camera at school, like a numpty. We packed up or stuff ans headed off to siena, the hotel was amazing, just outside Siena in the hills but needed a car to get too and from. Utterly beautiful and very cheap out of season. Siena was nice but i think we were all at bit over tired after dancing the night away the night before. We took in the city and of course we sampled the ice cream. Beautiful place, very hilly- but nothing compared to San Gimigniano. Sammie had to work on Monday eve so early monday morning we dropped off at the train station and she caught the train back to reggio. Sil and I really wanted to see San Gimingnano so we set off just following the road signs. I drove from just outside Siena to a place we thought of S>G but turned out was a another little town nestled in the hills- with a complicated name, that i can never remember! we wandered around there for a bit and then decided to continue on toward our goal. S>G is amazing the views are spectacular, the town itself has many towers and produces some excellent wine (unfortuately wasted on the heathen likes of Sil and I) Again we sampled the ice cream (of course) and sat in the square in the warm sunshine as the weather was glorious- i even went a bit pink!
After two or three hours we thought we should make a move homeward. We hopped on the autostada (Sil at the helm) and got home about 6ish.
On Tuseday it was San Propero day the whole town was filled with Stalls sellling all kinds of amazing food and clothing, allsorts. I wandered around and then met up with Sil and Sammie Nick and giula joining us later. We ended up in La Trampa drinking pesquitos and dancing in our seats. Brilliant end to a great weekend!

Road Trip!

This coming Tuesday (24th Nov) is San Prospero day, the patron saint of Reggio so, the whole city has a day and off and because I'm in Italy we get Monday off as a 'bridge'. well really what us the point of going in to work for one day? Emeninently sensible idea.
Anyway, Sil, Sammie and I decided to go off to Florence for a couple of days. Kathryn , very generously, loaned us the school car for the weekend. Saturday afternoon we drove down to Florence found the hostel. Nice enough place, it has graffitti all over the walls, downstairs are real murals and upstairs the guests just write on the walls! There is however no parking so sil and I spent an hour driving around looking for a parking place. She wasn't happy. We found one, eventually and went off for a wander. We were going to go and meet up with Michael and Meri after we had dinner in a small restaurant just by the Duomo.. We met michael and Meri and Giovanni in 'The William' a PUB! A proper pub!!!!!!!!!! didn't realize how much i'd missed them. had a couple od drinks and then we went to 'twice and danced!!!!! It was so good to have a proper dance. It was awesome. We danced for a long time and then us girls meandered home about half past one. Fabulous, it's been too damn long since i last did that.

Correggio chameleons

This week i have a new kids group to teach. Three kids, 11 years old. Ok, except that they can't get to the school so i have to go to them. The first time a new teacher meets a new student Kathryn likes someone from the school to go too and introduce them. A nice touch and also means it's not so scary for the teacher. So I am to follow Carlotta for my first visit. Except that the lesson is from 6.45 til 8 so it's pitch black by the time we set out and correggio ( neither of us have been here before i might add) is a good 30 minutes away. Carlotta has the Tom Tom and i follow her, all good right up until the tail lights i'm following turn out to belong to a silver car not Carlotta's blue toyota. Oh God. For the next 20 minutes I simply follow the signs to Correggio, in order to find a suitable place to stop and panic. By now the school is closed and everyone else has gone home. I get to what i think is the beginning of correggio and turn into a pizzeria, I've just applied the handbrake and am looking for a paper bag to breathe into, when a car pulls up next to me and It's carlotta! Thank God, more or less her first words, Lets go! She was just as worried as me but now we are 20 minutes late and only just on the outskirts of the town. we Finally arrived 30 mins late but the parents were very understanding-( apparently happens to everyone...!) The lesson went ok, I them just had to find my way home. I managed it with no small amount of help from Jane (the lovely Tom Tom lady, managed to switch it into english because trying to drive, in the dark, on the tangienzale and translate was just a smidge too much for a Tuesday) and carlotta who had been fab, I got home! Hurrah! Driving to Jodi tomorrow morning is going to feel practically mundane after that! Good thing too as Sil, Sammie and I are driving down to Florence at the weekend. (fingers and toes crossed, safe journey etc)

Fri 13th November

It's Friday night and i'm totally shattered! It's been a good week, I'm feeling more confident at driving, which is a good thing as i now have another childrens group- in Correggio, which is another town and i have to drive there on Tuesday! I might ask if i can take the car out for a spin over the weekend, the more practice i get the better.
I went out for pizza with Alessandro on Wednesday, we went to 'Condor' which is a good pizzeria in the centre and I teach the owners daughter so i always get a table! He is very patient with my Italian and tries to answer all my questions!
I have bought and Italian phone this week, all by myself and all in italian! I was very pleased with myself, and fairly sure i've got the right package! my italian is improving all the time and there is such a sense of achievement from talking to someone in a foreign language-badly or otherwise!
Next week we have a long weekend (there's a public holiday) so Sil and I might go down to a little place near Florence she's heard of. It's supposed to be beautiful and it's near Florence, which helps. She's going to look into hiring a car, which scares the Bejesus out of me but so did the thought of coming here, so far so good!

Jodi

Thursday mornings are a bit of a nightmare. First I have to get up at the crack of dawn to walk to school to get the car to drive to Jodi. Driving in itself is still a challenge for me, i do it at least once a week but it still scares me! Everyweek I drive to Jodi- through 8 roundabouts (Ikid you not!) The lesson begins at 8 and lasts for an hour and forty minutes! It is English for specific purposes, this class are all on course training to be early years educators (I am reliably informed there is a difference and they are most certainly not going to be teachers...) This is a class of 30 Yes thats Three zero) sixteen to nineteen year olds and they are all girls. They dont speak very good English (well, to be fair, do you remember much French from school? No, me either) and I don't speak very much Italian. Joy. The biggest problem is the noise, engagaing a class of 30 in a language they mostly don't understand is to say the least, a challenge but add that to the fact that teenage girls, regardless of their nationality, believe that whatever it is they have to say at that precise moment is infinitely more important that anything else ever and that the notion of taking turns when speaking is culturally alien (to both the age group and I suspect the nationality) It can be a touch raucous. The gesticulating involved alone, will take someones eye out one day.

Lake Garda

1) Me on the edge of the lake. The water is a clear with just a slight blue hue.
2) Hazy autumn sun setting over the lake.
3) The waters edge, the lake is so big the other side is just a blue shadow on the horizon.
4) Sil! and ice cream, she couldn't finish hers, I helped. (I don't know how to turn the photos around sorry!)

Weekend with Steve part due

1) The aforementioned car in Milan- Dad I saw this and thought of you! (and only a little bit of Jeremy)
2) The Theatre and the fountain in Reggio where Steve and I sat watching the water.
3) Steve and I.

Halloween.

The school planned to throw a grand Halloween party at the local country club- very big deal. This involved a lot of planning and preparation for the teachers. We have been cutting up masks and making lanterns from plastic bottles for days. Everything had to be thought about and transported to the club. There was a professional storyteller, face painting, mask and lantern making. All this in costume. It was quite a lot of stress for all involved but it was fun. After we finished we packed everything up we went back to Sil and Michael's place for Vodka- we deserved it! M had some friends over from Sassuolo- a small town about 30 mins down the road, Meri- M's girlfriends lives there. It was nice to meet some new people- english speakers! M and Merri etal went to a local club called Tunnel which i will try a some point but my cash ain't flowing at the mo and today (Sunday is the only day off this week and i didn't want to spend it feeling rough- am i getting old? (That's rhetorical)
However, today Sil and I decided to go on a little day trip- we went to lake garda which is beautiful. We just wandered around and took photos. Out of season it's a cute little town where Italians go to Passagiata on sundays. Today was no ordinary Sunday, today was the Day of the dead. This means most people go to the cemetary and visit their relatives. In the supermarket there are special candles in little cylinders with saints on them to put at the graveside. Slightly morbid next to tinned peas.
Sil then cooked me delicious dinner of pasta and bolognese. Had a really good day today and generally a great weekend even if most of it was working!

Weekend with Steve

It was fabulous!. On Sunday we all (Me, Steve, Nick, Guilia and Sammie) went to Milan for the day. Its a nice city and good for shopping, Gucci, Prada and H&M, of course. The Duomo is massive and built in a Gothic style- (it's all gargoyles, arches and pointy bits to you and I) It's a very modern city mostly with certain landmarks like the duomo and the shopping arcade is very ornate but I swear there is one just like in Naples. On the same street, just parked up all nonchalant, we saw a McLaren SLR and a Lotus. Expensive stuff.
Once we returned to Reggio we went to a restaurant I've been to before with the other teachers called L'Angelo. After a fabulous pizza and some delicious Dolce we were treated to a free macchiato and beer, curtesy of the waiter ( he said he'd pay because we are sympatico, well, it would be rude to argue...)
I worked part of Monday and all of Tuesday so I had to abandon Steve to the mercy of Reggio. He came back having found a fab little cafe for pastries and cappucine in the morning- we subsquently returned everyday to admire the waiter ( a different one, sterotypes are there for a reason) they also happen to do one of the best cappucinos I've had so far.
Saying goodbye was sad, especially as I had to work in the morning so i couldn't see him off properly. I'm glad he came both to spend time with him and also because it showed me how much I like this city- having to show it to someone else.