Missing the royal wedding!

Probably my biggest regret this year is missing the royal wedding.

I’ve been waiting for so long to be able to be part of one.

Hearing my parents and grandparents talk about the excitement and coming together of the nation to celebrate the matrimony of Prince Charles and Lady Diana really made me wish that I too could have the chance to witness something similar.

Of course it was just a matter of time. 2nd in line to the throne (or as I like to say 1st…I don’t think Charles will ever be king, his mother has too much life in her.) Prince William would be getting married eventually and I would be there to watch it all unfold.

I left on my year abroad with the feeling that it was all going to happen soon. I’d heard rumours that Kate was being trained up and that it was a clear sign that an engagement was soon or that they were already secretly engaged.

I was right of course because a few months into my year abroad the royal engagement was announced…as was the wedding date.

I could not believe how unlucky I was to be out of the country during the wedding!

I didn’t even get a chance to watch it live, thanks to an extra long day working at the school.

I don’t even have any British friends here to celebrate it with.

So I guess I will just have to wait 30 years for their child to get married, because lets face it Harry’s wedding is never going to be as lavish and cared about as Williams’.

Iscrizione anagrafica what?

So today, when browsing the italian year abroad handbook from my university I came across a little thing called the “iscrizione anagrafica”. Turns out that I need to register my residency here in Italy because I’m staying for more than three months.

URGH ARE YOU SERIOUS!

It was a pain enough doing it in Germany let alone the bureaucratic mess that is Italy.

I asked my mentor about it and she was no help.

This is not the type of thing that I want to be sorting out by myself. I literally don’t know what I’m doing and three months will be up in a few weeks time.

I just don’t understand why we have to register our residency. As EU citizens surely we should be exempt from this pain of a task!

Che palle!

I think I may have just decided my future career…ahhh!

After a not so long skype conversation, in which we were discussing which modules I should take next year, we kind of came to the conclusion of which career path I should be working towards…Teaching!

This terrifies me! Not the idea of being a teacher, but the idea of knowing what I want to do with the rest of my life. The idea that I now have a goal to work towards. There is something very comforting about floating around in limbo think “aww I can do or be anything I want. Only time will tell”.

But of course it is good to have something to aim for. There comes a time where you have to just say “ok, it’s time for a bit of structure! I need a plan!”

So I have a plan.

I now feel one step further away from being a child.

I hate adulthood.

My first ever Pasquetta

First and foremost Happy Easter everyone. A little late I know, but I didn’t wanna blog about Easter until I had experienced an Italian Pasquetta.

So like England (and the rest of the Christian world) the Easter weekend is split up into three main days. Unlike England there is a proper distinction between what you do on these days.

The first day, Good Friday to us/ Venerdì Santo (Holy Friday) to them, is a day of fasting.

The second day, Easter Sunday to us / Pasqua (Easter) to them, is the day where you meet up with your family and eat yourself to death. Unlike us Christmas isn’t about the food. They prefer to eat fish and seafood during the Christmas period. Easter is all about the lamb, mutton, ham, salami, sausages, turkey, chicken and cheese. In fact here in Naples there are two Easter specialties which are just saturated in fat.

The first is the Casatiello. This is a layered savoury cake made of several different kinds of meat and cheese (oh and a few hard boiled eggs). This “cake” is huge and weighs a ton and there is no limit to how big you can make it. 

The second is the Pastiera. Which is a sweet cake which a hard exterior filled with ricotta. It has a very unique flavour to it, which I just found out comes from the fact that the cake is made days in advance and left to kinda ferment. 

And of course you cannot forget that Easter Sunday is the day you receive your Easter eggs. Italian Easter eggs are a lot more fancy looking than ours…and a lot more expensive. I didn’t receive any, but that’s ok because my Mum gave me 2 packets of mini eggs and 15 Creme Eggs.

Last but not least there is Easter Monday or as they call it here Pasquetta (little Easter…how adorable!). Whereas the Sunday is spent with family, the Monday is generally spent with friends. Here in Naples (not sure about the rest of Italy) there is a tendency to have a picnic during Pasquetta, probably to eat up the leftovers from the day before. Supposedly the weather is ALWAYS bad on Pasquetta and yesterday was no exception.

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My Pasquetta: I was a little disappointed that I didn’t get to do any thing on the Sunday. My host family went to their families house and I was left alone to eat fried spaghetti and watch TV. So it was really exciting to be invited to celebrate Pasquetta with my Italian friends.

The excitement quickly faded when I received news that we would be leaving the house at 7am! About 20 of us went for a picnic in a park outside of Naples called “Parco deglli Uccelli” (Birds’ park). It was basically a forest…but you had to pay 7.50 euros each to get in. It took us a while to find somewhere to sit and when we finally set up everything we got moved because it was “reserved” so someone else.

Finally we were all set up and settled. After a few hours I was ready to go home. Part of it was because I was tired, the reason was because of a little thing called Marijuana. I’m really over Marijuana! I had friends who smoked it when I was 16/17 and it really didn’t bother me. But at 21 I just find it lame and stupid. Yes I know people say it’s not dangerous and that it’s healthier than alcohol, but as I see it, it is illegal and there must be a good reason for that. Everyone apart from my friend Eli were smoking it. God knows how much of the stuff they went through because each person had at least 4 joints each. They even made a bong at one point! When they weren’t on the weed they were smoking tobacco. So basically I was constantly sat in a cloud of tobacco/marijuana smoke. I felt so disgusting. My hair, skin, eyes, clothes, just everything felt ingrained with the crap.

At 4pm the park closed and I just so happy to be going home. All I wanted to do was go to bed. Unfortunately they had different ideas and we ended up going to one of the girl’s houses. I admit I had more fun there. We played games and I think they finally ran out of the green stuff. But I was so exhausted. I finally got home at 8.30pm. I wanted to shower so bad, but I literally had no energy. I changed out of my clothes asap, scrubbed my face and hands clean, tided up my hair and went to bed.

This morning as soon as I woke up I was in the shower (I hate having showers in the morning but it had to be done!) I was in the shower for an hour just scrubbing every inch of me clean. A little OCD I know. My pyjamas went straight into the wash basket just in case they managed to absorb any of the smell.

I’m sure Pasquetta is an awesome day. My experience of it just wasn’t. Maybe I’m just too uptight but boh I’d rather be uptight than a pothead.

The tower isn’t everything; what to do in Pisa

I’m not going to pretend to be an expert on tutte le cose pisane but I am going to suggest a few things to do and see in Pisa.

The problem with Pisa is that we only know it for one thing, the leaning tower, and for a lot of people they take a quick day trip there either during a stay in Florence or enroute to somewhere bigger and more well-known. They don’t leave themselves with enough time to explore the small city, which was in the early part of last millennium one of the powerhouses of Italy.

- My first suggestion is to prolong your trip to Pisa and at least stay one night. Because of this day trip trend accommodation is cheap and easily available in Pisa. I stayed in a Hostel close to the train station and it only cost me 33 euro for two nights. I would have spent more than that for one night if I’d been staying in nearby Florence. If you stay over night you’ll be surprised at how much more you stumble upon and learn about the city.

- Take a tour. A few of the hostels have free walking tours. If you happen to being staying in one of these hostels then do take the tour. It’s just a few hours and you will see things you may have ignored and learn a bit about what everything is and the history of Pisa.

- Walk aimlessly. The first afternoon we went for a walk and just followed which ever street took our fancy. Funnily enough we ended up eventually at the tower, but on the way we got to see some very interesting buildings and sights.

- Piazza dei Cavallieri. This piazza is gorgeous and comes with a lot of history. Not only does it house Italy’s most exclusive and prestigious university but also the former prison of Pisa’s and Dante’s Divine Comedy’s most ghastly traitor. 

- Make the most of Piazza del Duomo (the location of the tower). Before arriving at this beauty spot I had always thought that the leaning tower was standing alone, probably in a field. But no it is surrounded by beautiful buildings.

These are the Cathedral:

The Baptistery:

The Cemetery:

And two museums (one containing art work from the cathedral and the other displaying the original sketches uses to create the gigantic paintings found in the cathedral/cemetery/ art museum:

You can buy a ticket for entry to all 5 for just 10 euros, that’s 5 euros LESS than the ticket of entry to the tower!

My personal favourite was the Cathedral. It is stunning inside. Admission is free during Sunday mass, although you cannot walk around then. We were lucky to witness the Pre-Easter mass on Thursday and it was spectacular. Not only the mass itself, but they also light up the inside of the cathedral so you can see the beautiful work of art clearly.

- The little church by the river. The river in Pisa is lovely. There building along side the river are rather grand. But there is a cute little church on the train station side of the river which is dwarfed by the rest of the palazzi. Chiesa di Santa Maria della Spina is a cute as a button and is definitely worth a look at, even if you are just passing by.

- Finally but not least there is the tower (bet you’d forgotten all about it right?). Enjoy taking you classic holding up the tower photo or be a bit more creative (I saw some people taking photos of the tower coming of their crotch. 0_o If you are brave, patient and rich then you can go into the tower and climb up the 200 odd stairs to the top. I didn’t but I’ve heard the view is breath-taking. However bare in mind that it is 15 euros per person and you are given a designated time to enter and leave. Children under 8 cannot enter, and you cannot take any bags. The climb is also not for the faint hearted as you can feel extremely disorientated as you reach the higher levels. But if you are able to do it, then by all means go for it.

So this is my break down of what you can do in Pisa. There are probably more. Shopping in Pisa is good and there are some nice looking restaurants. If you are looking for a night out then supposedly going to Piazza Garibaldi and following the crowd is the best plan.

Whatever you do in Pisa, just remember to divertiti :D 

Pisa

I’ve missed travelling so much. I’ve been in Naples for two months now and if you don’t count a day trip to Sorrento (which is only an hour away by the local train), going to school in Quarto or the nights eating out in Restaurants in god knows where, I hadn’t seen any of Italy! Two months into my stay in Germany and I’d already been to Munich, Neuschwanstein, Frankfurt, Stuttgart and Nuremberg. So finally the time come for me to leave this city and cross something off of my “must see” list.

When you think Italy, for me at least, the first image I see is the leaning tower of Pisa. It’s like Big Ben for the UK. I couldn’t live in Italy for 4 months without having seen it. I travelled up travelled up to Pisa on Thursday morning using the high speed railway. The train was amazing, possibly better than the ICE! Not only did everyone get a table seat, you could also use their WiFi (usually you have to pay for it, but until the 30th April its free). I had a quick stop over in Firenze/Florence and then I caught a regional train to Pisa.

I wasn’t travelling alone. My friend from my home uni is studying in Forli’ at the moment and she met me in Firenze. If you read my previous post then you’ll know that I was a little apprehensive about spending two nights with her. Luckily because we haven’t seen each other in such a long time I was able to tolerate her a lot more and I can truthfully say that I enjoyed her company on the trip. In fact her in ability to use a camera was one of the highlights of the trip.

So my friend isn’t the most technically able 21 year old. She received her first ever camera this Christmas and apart from taking a few photos on a recent trip to Verona she hasn’t tried it out much. The camera itself is very basic. It’s a plasticy hitachi with only 5 megapixels, but its better that way. You see all she knew was how to turn it on, take a photo and delete. Our first hurdle was that she had not bought an SD card (because she didn’t know where to buy one or what type she needed), so she had only space for 14 photos. I managed to persuade her to buy an SD card from one of the stalls opposite the tower. She bought an over priced 2GB card which then gave her a whopping 3000 free photos. Holy cow! As time went one I managed to teach her how to use zoom, flash and video. She’s now quite the wizkid with cameras haha.

We managed to pack a lot into just a full day and a bit. My first fear was what to do in Pisa. My boyfriend had been there a few years ago and he told me that all you needed was a few hours to see the tower and then you are ready to leave. This isn’t true and I will be writing another post on what other things there are to see in Pisa for any one who is interested.

One thing that I didn’t get to do in Pisa was eat in a Restaurant! My friend had precooked all of her meals for the trip so she didn’t need to buy food. This meant that I couldn’t really drag her into a restaurant to watch me eating some delicious meal. I ended up eating Foccacia (for the first time), a Kebab and Mcdonalds haha. I know what you’re thinking, “you go to Italy and eat Mcdonalds!”. Don’t be so hasty to judge. I have eaten Italian food everyday for the last two months, its about time I ate something else. Two months without Maccy Ds, didn’t think it was possible.

I didn’t go souvenir crazy in Pisa but I did buy this:

BEST MUG EVER

and this:

So the verdict. Did I like Pisa? Yes, I loved it. It is so quiet, calm, pretty, clean, small. I could happily live there. However one thing I hated was that everyone speaks English! Naples may not be the most beautiful place in Italy but at least I can practice my Italian with ease.

Pisa tomorrow

Tomorrow is the start of the one week long Easter holiday and I’m off to Pisa until Saturday.

All I can say it about time! I’ve been itching to get out of Naples and actually see some of this country.

I’m a little apprehensive about it though. I’m going with a girl from my uni back home. She’s a friend and all, but she is also probably the most annoying human being on Earth. I usually find it difficult being around her for an hour let alone 48 hours. Hopefully we will keep ourselves busy and she won’t grate on me as much. You never know she might surprise me and have changed in the last 8 months.

We’ll have to wait and see.

Italy’s linguistic obsession with cabbages

 

 

Yes you read it right. The Italian language appears to be full of idioms using the word cabbage. Cabbage, out of all of the words/objects/food they could have chosen, they focus on cabbages!

Here are a few of the bizarre, yet amusing uses of our green friend.

 

 

Non capire un cavolo – To not understand a cabbage – To not understand a thing

Non me ne importa/me ne frega un cavolo – I don’t care a cabbage – I don’t give a damn

Fatti i cavoli tuoi! – Mind your own cabbages – Mind your own business

Sono cavoli miei! – They’re my cabbages – That’s none of your business

Sono cavoli tuoi! – They’re your cabbages – That’s your problem

Col Cavolo! – With the cabbage – Like hell I will!/No way!/Fat chance.

Have I lost my sense of humour?

Since being in Italy it appears that I can no longer take a joke.

In the last few weeks especially I have had people saying “I’m just joking? hahaha. Stop taking things so seriously.”

My first assumption was that it is because I am British. We have a particular sense of humour. But then DJ Clive (see previous post) supposedly told one of the teachers had he felt like I didn’t enjoy his show because I seemed very serious throughout his jokes.

I don’t feel any more serious than before. Granted I personally don’t make as many jokes, but that’s because I don’t want to offend people accidently. Unless…that German humour has left a lasting impression on me. Ahhhhh.

DJ Clive’s Speak Easy Road Show

On Friday the school went to the cinema for two hour English teaching show.

The teachers have been going on about how amazing the show is and what a great teacher this “DJ Clive” is, so I was pessimistically expecting it to be pretty poor.

I was surprised at how much the kids and I enjoyed it.

So DJ Clive is a “professor” on Radio Monte Carlo. He teaches people English using popular music. I had the pleasure of meeting him before the show and he was the typical English gentleman. I was a bit concerned about his age though. He is in his golden years. I couldn’t imagine the children finding someone the same age as their grandparents cool.

The show was very simple. He told us a story using songs. Most of the songs were very current (California Girls- Katy Perry, Love the way you lie – Eminem feat. Rihanna) which kept us all interested. He would show us a few lines, explain what they meant in Italian, play the track and then move onto the next bit of the story, next song etc. It all flowed well. He also asked the children questions and gave out prizes. It was all very simple but highly effective.

Basically it was a lot of fun and it got me thinking of what a great technique it is for teaching English. English learners are so lucky with the vast amount of English they are in contact with on a day to day basis. I would love to do something similar to what he is doing in the future. I think it would be great fun. I only wish it was this simple to learn foreign languages in Britain. We aren’t really in contact with anything other than English. I guess that’s why we need to make the most of our year abroad.

Shouting salesman on Cumana

Every now and then I see the same people on the Cumana. Gypsy boy with nice trainers, homeless woman who hops on, gives us a 5 minute speech about how poor she is, collects money and hops off, and shouting salesman.

The first time I saw shouting salesman I just thought he was some loony shouting to himself. I later realised that he was trying to sell us goodies. I’ve seen him about half a dozen times now but I still have had no success in understanding what the heck he is saying, may he speaks in dialect??? Basically he gets on the train, finds a nice spot, puts his bags down, starts shouting about his products (I guess) as if he’s in a market place and then comes round to see if we will buy anything. After that he moves to the next carriage.

His 5 minute speech is not only loud but irritating. It’s like a poem. You’d think he was selling something amazing like a battery powered toaster but no, he sells lighters!

Today he reached a new low by getting down on his knees and kissing the floor.

WTF!?!?

Finally another night out

I haven’t been out with my friends since Carnival which was a month ago.

I had the change to go out last week but I bailed out when they changed the plan. They were originally going to be going to a Reggae/Hip hop club night but then changed it to a House themed night. I’m not a fan of House music and since there were only four of us going, two boys and two girls, I thought I’d be both awkward and dull. Plus I much prefer hanging out in bars than clubbing. You can’t really get to know people well when music is being blasted into your ear drums.

Anyway so like I was saying I finally went out last night. I went out with E&G. I met yet another group of people (seriously every time I go out I’m introduced to more and more people) who were all very friendly. In fact one of the boys did an exchange in my university town a few years ago. We went to an “American Bar” where we drank cocktails. I’ve stopped drinking again so mine was non-alcoholic, but very yummy. It was called a Miami Beach (not Bitch, as I had to explain haha). It turns out that American Bars are where you drink alcohol in contrast to an Italian bar where you drink coffee. O_o

After a few hours we left and us three joined up with another group. This time I knew most of the people. It was a collaboration of the first two groups of people I met in Italy, including E’s Brother. We drank, they smoked (in fact I’m sure at some point I could smell weed, but I didn’t want to ask), they tried to get me to sing in English, they sang California Girls and asked me to check their pronunciation, they tried to get me to sing Tranne Te.

We ended the night with a quick trip to the all night bakery.

All in all an enjoyable night.  

“I wanted to get to know you better”

A guy from school added me the other day. I didn’t think much of it. I’d noticed his profile the other week as he seemed to be adding a lot of my friends (or they were adding him), I had a quick look at it and that was it. When he sent me a request I didn’t think too much of it. He was obviously just adding the people who he remembered from school. We did used to talk in the Year 7 so it wasn’t like he was just adding me because he recognised my name.

Today I was doing a bit of a facebook stalk as you do and I ended up back on his profile. Whilst on his profile I noticed that I had 5 messages from him on facebook chat! What a coincidence hey? At first I thought that maybe I’d pressed some button whilst on his profile and accidently sent him something but no he had actually popped up himself to say hi.

He started with a “hey I see you are living in Naples and speak numerous languages. But have you mastered the word ‘the’ yet?” At first I thought he was being rude, then I realised he was referring back to the days when he used to make fun of my mispronunciation of “the” and “that”. We had a bit of a chat. He told me that I looked really different now and that I was really pretty and all I could think was “please stop chatting me up, this is awkward!”. But after a while he admitted that he’d been thinking back to our school days recently and he was mad at himself for how he acted all those years ago. He wished he’d made more of an effort with people. He said that he couldn’t help but feel bad for having teased me about my pronunciation and decided to find me on facebook so that he could apologise and get to know me better.

I couldn’t believe it. No one from school has ever done this. I always knew he was the kindest boy out of his group but I never imagined he’d do this in a million years. We’ve been talking for a while now and  I’ve learnt a lot about him. He’s completely different to the boy he was at school. He’s gone from jock to bass player in a rock band. He’s hoping to go to America with his band to try and get some publicity. He says he isn’t in contact with the people he hung around with at school because he has nothing in common with them anymore. I understand what he means. Out of my friends at school, I only still talk to 3 of them, and although we are still good friends, we haven’t really had anything in common since we were at school.

I’d love to be able to talk to some other people like I am with him. There are a few answers I feel like I need, but the people I need them from will never give me them. This guy has always had a good heart. When he used to tease me I never doubted for a second that he was being malicious. I wish I was as big a person as he is. There are a few people who I should probably apologise to. I wouldn’t know where to start though.

In the meantime I’m looking forward to getting to know him better.

Brightening up my day even though you are miles away ☆

Yesterday was a sad day. My parents left and I wasn’t able to even take them to the airport. Understandably I was feeling down and lonely.

When I arrived home after school I had two pieces of post waiting for me. One I was expecting, because my friend had messaged me a few days ago concerned that I hadn’t received it yet, but the other was a complete surprise.

 

The expected thing was a letter from my friend H in Marburg and the other was a postcard from Budapest from my friend JS. I was so happy. It incredible to know that people who I knew for such a short time in Germany care about me enough to send me things. My friends back in the UK have never done such a thing. It’s a little sad to think that I’ve met the best friends I could ever meet in Marburg, because most of them, apart from the few from England, live on the other sides of the world. Life can be a bit of a female dog sometimes can’t it.

Four days with my family

My family came to Naples on Saturday night and left this morning.

I’m a little sad, but I didn’t cry too much. I’ll be home in 2 months and a bit. That’s nothing.

They arrived quite late, 8.30pm. I had to navigate my way to the airport on the Cumana, Metro and a bus. I kinda just jumped on the first bus I saw recognising the number and then realised half way through the journey that I had NO IDEA whether it was the right direction or not. It was luckily. Also during the journey I discovered the location of Saturn, Media World (Media Markt) and Ikea. Felt like I was in Germany again.

Seeing my family coming through the gates was great. I was a little embarrassed about speaking Italian in front of them though. I could see them listening in as a ordered myself a panini. “How did you communicate with him?” asked my Sister. “In Italian obviously” said my Mum. “Wow that’s really cool.” Said my Sister. haha.

The hotel, although in a stupid location, was really nice. My mum made a fool of herself trying to order a coffee at the bar. “Mum, you do know coffee in Italy is a small espresso type drink.” “But I want a NORMAL coffee!”. *Face palm*.

On Sunday I took them for a trip of the nice parts of the city. The castles, the sea front, Mergellina port. I thought I’d save the more daunting parts for Monday. I was really disappointed with the weather, we couldn’t see anything. What’s the point of going for a walk by the sea when you can’t “sea” anything. Luckily after lunch the sun finally came out, although we still couldn’t see the volcano. There was a lot of walking involved on Sunday and Monday, which obviously was a concern for my brother and sister. But it was my mum who did most of the moaning! At times I really wanted her to just shut up.

On Monday, like I said I took them to the real parts of Naples. I tried to walk at my normal speedy pace through dingy Montesanto but my family walk SO SLOW. It was painful. I took them into the historical centre and we had a look in the little religious shops. For lunch I took them for fried pizza, which they all hated. Great. We then went to the park for an hour, where my dad fell asleep. In the park I found a 4 leaf clover :D

When he finally woke up we made our way up to Vomero for an unsuccessful shopping session and then to Mergellina for dinner.

Tuesday was a trip to Sorrento. I took the Circumvesuviana train for the first time. The train ride takes just over an hour, so pretty much like travelling from Marburg to Frankfurt. There is no beach in Sorrento, as it is on a cliff but the views are beautiful.

Sorrento

I found the town very strange. It was stunning but everyone there was either English or American and everything we went into a shop we were greeted with a “Hello, Can I help you?”. Unlike in Germany, I’ve not really had to deal with Italians trying to speak to me in English when I’m out and about. We had more ice cream, I lost count of how many times we bought ice cream in the last few days.

Gusto di Cheesecake and Frutti di bosco

We decided to get the ferry back to Naples, which was a lot more refreshing than the train and faster.

Today is my sister’s 12th Birthday. It was sad not being able to spend her birthday with her properly. But at least I was there for some of it. I’m really looking forward to June now. My boyfriend is coming and then I’m off home.

Them being here was stressful, but in a good way. Not only was it great seeing them, but they pushed me into speaking Italian in scenarios that I’ve been able to avoid so far. I now feel a lot more confident with going into a shop and telling them what I want. I’ve kinda been motivated by seeing how proud my dad is of me. He was never very supportive of my decision to study modern languages at university, especially Italian. So him telling me how good I’m doing really means a lot to me. :)

Family are coming to town

I’m picking my family up from the airport today. They will be here until Wednesday morning.

I’m really excited to see them. I haven’t seen them since the 9th January (exactly 3 months <—only just realised that). It’s going to nice having them around.

But I’m really stressing out about it.

I really don’t know Naples that well. If they had come to Marburg I would have known exactly what to do with them, where to eat, what to visit etc. Also I haven’t practiced my Italian much in public. So I am really stressing out about having to ask if there is space for 5 people in the restaurant, ordering, asking for the bill etc. This would have been a piece of cake in Marburg.

Obviously I know this will do me some good, because I will be forced to speak Italian. However I also know that my mum will be very unsympathetic and I can see an argument just waiting to happen.

Also I know that she is expecting some fabulous holiday in Naples and she will be disappointing because Naples isn’t Florence or Rome or Venice…it’s very…unique and marmite-ish.

Milk and Cookies/ Biscotti e’ latte

Instead of going out with my friends I decided to stay in an be unproductive. Around midnight I got the munchies and decided to be very “Italian” and have a bowl of milk and cookies.

ITALIANS LOVE MILK AND COOKIES. In fact it appears to be a more common breakfast than cereal. Equally interesting is that despite their eagerness to poor milk over their biscuits, milk with cereal is optional. O_o Whaaaat?

Health Education: A blast from the past

I sat in on a presentation today about addictions.

The third year students and some boy who I’m guessing is either a helper at the school or is from the high school taught the kids about the dangers of smoking, drinking, drugs (to name a few).

It really took me back to my school days. The children’s responses were so similar to ours. “Smoking is bad for you, I’ll never smoke”, “Drugs can kill you, I’d never try drugs”. I had to laugh thinking about how many people said this in  my school yet a few years later they have completely forgotten about these ‘pledges’. In my head I was saying “yeah yeah kids, you just wait until you get to high school”.

The presentation was different to what we were put through. The completely ignored sex. Maybe because the theme was addictions, is sex an addiction? It is on Blades of Glory. They were also taught about the computer and mobile phone addicts! Now we were never taught about that in school. In fact this was the first time that I’ve ever officially heard someone refer to using technology for more than a few hours a day an addiction. I felt a little guilty. Whilst I can say that I’m too good to smoke, take drugs, gamble, excessively drink, I am definitely what they would class as a computer addict! To be honest the Italians have learnt that all UK children are overly dependent on technology so I’m sure they wouldn’t be surprised to hear how many hours a day I waste on here.

I can’t help but feel nostalgic after the presentation. It was only 20 minutes long (lucky buggers, we were subjected to a whole day of health education every year!) but I really knew what it felt like to be the kids in the audience. I saw myself there, I knew who I was sitting next to, I knew what I was whispering to my friend… I can’t believe how fast time is going. I’m the teacher now! Sometimes I forget that.

Youtube and Shopping: Turning habits into homework

My time in Italy is very short. In fact in a few weeks time I will be half way through.

My Italian has improved a lot since moving here. But definitely not enough. I still find it very difficult to speak spontaneously to strangers, especially when I’m in a shop or at the train station and someone comes up to me. It’s always a “no????”, “no lo so???????”. And those times when I do try to say something, like in the bakery last week, it just comes out in a mess “vorrei una di quell….o?

So today I came up with two new plans to get my confidence up and improve my listening and vocabulary, without having to feel like I’m studying.

1. Shopping: I’m such a scaredy cat here in Italy. I only go into the shops where I can grab something of the shelves and pay for it at the till. The majority of shops in Naples are small and the shop assistants get everything for you. For example in most profumerie (cosmetic and toiletry stores) everything is behind either the counter or glass! You have to ask for a stick of deodorant! I’ve done my best to avoid this by going to the only “normal” one I’ve found in Naples which is extremely over priced. However it is time to get out of my comfort zone and I’ve made the resolution to shop more. Even if it is just popping into the bakery on the way to the Cumana station. It is all good speaking practice and before I know it I won’t be fazed anymore. It worked in Germany so it’s bound to work here.

2. Youtube: I’m a huge Youtube addict. There’s nothing I love more that just logging into Youtube and watching videos. My subscriptions include comedy shows like = 3 and Whatthebuck, Gurus like Bubzbeauty and even some Official channels of Korean and Japanese Artists. So I thought why not have a peek on the most subscribed list for Italy, have a peek at some of the vids on offer and subscribe. That way next time I log into Youtube I won’t feel like I am wasting an hour watching videos that are in now way helping me improve my Italian. I can now improve my Italian by relaxing and enjoying a good Youtube video.

Fingers crossed this will work :) 

Stalker on the Cumana

I was sat on the Cumana this morning on the way to work, reading my book. I look up and there is a woman sat facing me and she is blatantly staring at me.

This afternoon I’m about to get on the Cumana and I walk past the same woman on the platform. I continue to walk down the platform and get on the Cumana relatively far forward. I sit down, get absorbed into my Mentor’s conversation about her sudden weight increase and then look up. THE WOMAN IS SAT FACING ME AGAIN…AND SHE’S STARING.

Who is this woman. Why is she stalking me? She is going to come over to talk to me next time? It wouldn’t surprise me, she was smiling when she was listening to me try to speak Italian, like “awww that’s cute”.

Weirdo.

Wait it was Mother’s Day!?!?!

Joke, I didn’t miss Mother’s Day.

I almost did though.

In Italy Mother’s Day isn’t until June so I really wasn’t aware when it was in the UK. I knew it was coming up but I didn’t have all those adverts and posters to remind me.

I don’t know why but I suddenly remembered a conversation with my mum a few weeks ago on Friday evening and realised that I only had two days until Mother’s day. Obviously I hadn’t bought her anything, not even a card.

Even though I’m seeing her next weekend, so I could technically have bought something this week to give to her on Saturday I decided to do something unexpected and order some flowers from Next (it was the only place I could find that would deliver flowers on  a Sunday).

This is what my Mum posted on Facebook:

:D

What a lovely day until…

I threw up in a dustbin.

I was really enjoying my walk this morning in the 22C temperature. So sunny and warm.

However it turns out that I don’t do well on public transport during such weather.

Only 3 minutes into my 7 minute journey home on the Cumana I felt funny. As it pulled into the first station, Piave, I was starting to feel faint and was tempted to get off but decided to stay on as my stop is only a minute away.

Longest minute of my life.

By the time I got off the train I was 80% blind, no joke.

I tried to breathe in some fresh air. I stood in some shade on the platform for 5 minutes but it barely helped.

I managed to stagger down the stairs into the cool under pass. It was there that I vomited. Luckily there was a bin. But still very unladylike, embarrassing, disgusting.

Why is my body so wimpy :(

From Italy with love

About a month ago now I sent off my letters to my friends back in Germany. I originally wanted to give them them by hand on my last night in Marburg but things were so hectic that I never got the chance to write them all.

There was then another delay once I got to Italy because I could not find the post office or a post box. 3 weeks later google mapped “Poste Italia” and it turned out that the post office was behind my building. Doh!

I’ve heard bad things about the Italian post service so I was expecting the letters to take a few weeks but most of my friends received them in just 2 or 3 days. I love sending my friends letters and I am planning on sending them many more during my stay here. I get really excited when they tell that they received my letters.

I love the envelopes. I bought them in Germany so they say “Luftpost”. I just think they look really cool and interesting. The stamps were 60 cents each and can be bought at any newspaper stand or tobacconist’s. Supposedly a stamp to England is slightly more. (My guess would be 65 cents as that is how much it was in Germany). I am currently using some sheepworld stationary that I picked up in Ahrens in Marburg.

So CUTE! I’d love to receive a letter from myself haha.

Another sciopero della Cumana, another giorno di ferie

Another week, another strike on the cumana. I swear I’ve only had 2 full weeks at work and I’ve been at the school for 6 now. I wish real life was like this. Today was not only a cumana strike but also the buses were at it too.

As I live in suburbia this meant I was pretty much confined to the apartment. Such as shame on such a nice day. It was for the best really because I finally got to sort out the mess that I was living in and finish unpacking properly.

I’m now going to do some more to my scrap book and then watch a movie. Friday night is quite a good night for films on Italian TV.