Oh I do love to be beside the seaside.

I remember last year I had imagined my life in Italy involving many relaxing days at the beach. Walking, jogging, sunbathing, reading. I was more than a little disappointed to arrive in Naples and find that not only is there no beach, but you cannot go in the sea because it is polluted and will leave you with a very nasty rash.

But yesterday my dream came true. The teacher who I give private English lessons too is a bit of a free spirit. Her home life has been rather stressful at the moment and she’s found that fleeing to the coast for a few hours is the prefect was to escape reality. While she dropping me off home on Tuesday she asked me if I would like to join her after school on Thursday (yesterday).

Yesterday was the perfect day for lounging around by the sea. It was 25C yesterday (finally!) and there was no breeze, so you can only imagine how unbearable the heat was in the city. We drove to a piece of the coast in a town called Lago Patria, which is only 15 minutes away from the school by car.

Yesterday I discovered how different Italian and English beaches are. For a start we had to pay to get onto the beach. Although the coastline is long, it is divided into many tiny “beaches” owned by different people/companies. The prices of each beach differ, as well as what they offer. For example a few beaches down from the one we went to, there was a Thailand themed beach. The beach we went to was very simple. We paid 5 euro to get onto the beach and then an attendant came and set up too sun loungers for us in the spot of our choice. When we were all settled he came back with a menu. We ordered two paninis with fresh mozzarella and tomatoes (delicious). I’ve never seen this type of service before. If you want to eat at the beach in England you either bring a picnic or walk to the nearby chippy.

Another difference was the people. Because of the time of the time of day that we arrived the beach wasn’t ridiculously busy. In fact most of the people there appeared to be beach regulars…a.k.a sun addicts. Back home I’m use to having a darker skin tone that my friends, it’s inherited from my father, but today I have never felt so white. While I was there applying my sun factor 30, everyone else was rubbing in the baby oil. Everyone was a over-roasted chicken colour. But it wasn’t just their colour that shocked me; it was their dedication. There was retired couples topping up their tan, mothers with new born babies, and middle aged men on their own. Surely going to the beach alone to tan yourself loses you man points!?!?!

(Tanning Addict!)

All this aside, I had an amazing few hours at the beach. I wasn’t able to go into the sea because it wasn’t very clear but hopefully next time we go back it will be cleaner. It was really weird being at the beach. I felt like I was on holiday. I felt a million miles away from the chaotic, rubbish filled streets of Naples. We were only there for two hours, but they were the most relaxing two hours of my time in Italy so far. Also there was something addictingly liberating about being in my bikini. I have a lot of body issues but being surrounded by people who are just there letting it all hang out made me appreciate my body a lot more than before. It’s easy to forget that most people don’t look like model in a bikini. It’s ok to be normal.

I’m looking forward to my next trip to the beach. As long as the weather behaves itself then we will be off to the beach again next week. :D

Earthquake in Rome…tomorrow?

There is supposed to be an Earthquake in Rome tomorrow, according to a premonition made in the last century by an Italian famed for his accuracy at predicting natural disasters.

The earthquake will be large enough to destroy the city.

This is rather worrying and I do hope it is wrong.

I’m supposed to be visiting Rome in three weeks time!

OOOOO B*tchy

Supposedly one of the male teachers has put together a hot list ranking all of the female teachers (as far as I’m aware I’ve been left out, probably since I look younger than half of the students).

My mentor decided to tell me this juicy bit of gossip whilst adding “And you’ll never guess who he put first…P----…can you believe it!?!? HER!!! Before me!!!”

ahahaha…what?

Now I too agree that Mrs P isn’t the most attractive woman in the school. Her pre-aged skin and badly dyed long jet black hair don’t do her any favours. However she does dress the most provocatively, which is probably the real reason she’s top in the rankings. But still, that is a very arrogant and b*tchy thing to say. I’d expect this from our pre-teen pupils but a 40 year old talking about a colleague…well it just goes to show girls will be girls.

This all reminds me of when I made a hot list at college. Within a week there were at least five more floating around the classroom. I quickly learnt how controversial they were when people start comparing the rankings and even asking you why they were below so and so (funnily enough I think I ranked my future boyfriend 4th of 8 or 9 ooops). I think this teacher should learn from my mistake because if word gets out about what my mentor has been saying then there is going to be a b*tch fight!

Fourth Year Option Form Sent

I hate choosing options.

The thing I hate about it, is that no matter how much thought you put into it there is always the chance that you can be allocated a unit which you don’t want to do. I don’t know about other unis but mine has a strict policy on changing class. Once your class/unit has been allocated you can only change if there is a timetable clash.

The second thing I hate is that even after they have allocated you your units, even after you have bought the books on the reading list and started your preliminary reading, even after the first day of university has began….the school office can move you without warning into a different class! This happened to me last year and I was most upset. I had just spent £60 on books and was really looking forward to study some linguistics (which I didn’t get the chance to study at all last year thanks to the move). I did love my unit they moved me into, and luckily it was my second choice, but that’s not the point.

The third thing I hate is the lack of variability, especially this year. Thanks to our Dean of Arts, we have lost one of our strongest and most versatile academics which has left us with a poor selection of unit choices. Our history units now only go as far back as the late 19th century and for god knows what reason we have no literature this year (unless you count “German Sonnets”). Where’s Faust!

Numbering my units from 1-10 was a tiresome process and I pray that I get my first choices because I literally hate all of the other units. At least this year, in theory, we only have to wait 9 days to find out our allocations in comparison to the 6 weeks we had to wait in 2009. I say in theory because the School of Modern Languages has never, in my whole time at university, met a deadline for the publication of anything.  

At least I have one less thing to worry about now.

“That is Buckingham Palace”–“No, it’s not”

I’m coming to the end of my tether with ignorant English teachers. I’ve come to the point where I want to fire them. If I only had such power.

I know this is harsh and who am I to talk; I’m a mere language assistant. Maybe so, but how can you call yourself an English teacher when you prove lesson after lesson your incompetence, cluelessness and disinterest in the language and culture that you are teaching.

The trigger of all this anger:

Teacher – “Who knows which building this is next to Big Ben?”

Pupil – “Buckingham Palace”

Teacher – “Yes, that’s right”

URRGGGGGGHHHHH.

When I corrected her, she replied “but Buckingham Palace right behind Big Ben, you just can’t see it from this photo, right?”.

Mamma mia!!!!! 

Trying to find my happy place

I’m finding it hard to be happy at the moment. I’ve been stuck in this state of depressive apathy since Easter. Maybe it’s after the departure of my family and then coming back from Pisa that I realised how alone I am.

In a way I should count my blessings that I’m living with a family. I can’t imagine how much worse I would be feeling if I was actually stuck in a flat by myself. When i keep myself busy I am fine: at school, private lessons, shopping, talking to my host Mother. But when I am alone my mood hit a low.

I don’t think this is just the usual W-curve syndrome. I think there are genuine contributions to my mood:

First one is my boyfriend. He’s ridiculously busy at the moment with his dissertation. I’m used to speaking to him on Skype pretty much whenever I’m free and no I’m lucky if I get to speak to him every other day. It’s a vicious circle in fact. When I don’t speak to him I feel lonely, and when I’m lonely I want to speak to him.

The second and third merge together. I realised this week a big difference between Marburg and Naples. Naples doesn’t feel like home. I remember when I went to Munich a month into my semester in Germany and when I arrived back in Marburg I was relieved to be back; I’d missed it that much. It wasn’t the same coming back from Pisa. Naples is interesting, don’t get me wrong, but I don’t have much compassion for it. Maybe its because it is so much bigger. Maybe because it’s not heavily populated by students like Mburg. And maybe, here comes my third reason, its because I don’t have my friends here. No I know that I do have “friends” in Naples, but they’re friends in the English sense of the word. If I was German then they would definitely just be “Bekannte”. It’s a little sad for me to say that, but its true. They are lovely people and I’m so grateful for their hospitality but we have little in common and I really doubt we will stay in contact when I leave. It’s just that I really believe that I managed to survive so well in Marburg thanks to my amazing network of friends there. There was always someone there for you. To talk to you, to keep you busy, to make you smile, to pick you up when you’re down. Apart from my host mum and mentor (who are both great but huge worriers) I don’t have that sort of support here.

My fourth is really just me being my typical self. It’s a trait that I hate and will always haunt me. I get very paranoid about people not liking me. It always happens and I’ve messed up so many friendships because of it. I always read too much into things and end up coming to the conclusion that someone doesn’t like me anymore. I’ve found myself doing this lately with someone my friends from Marburg. There are a few who I’ve only heard from two or three times since moving here and that is only  when I’ve contacted them. I’ve written them letters/postcards but I don’t receive a “hey I got your postcard thanks.”. My brain tells me that people are busy and that not everyone thinks to tell you they received your post or they don’t want to bother you. Maybe they forgot to reply to your Facebook message etc. But no matter how logically I look at things, that nagging voice always makes me worry that it’s a sign that they don’t care. I wish I could grow out of this because I know this is just making me feel worse for absolutely no reason. Maybe writing this down will make me listen to myself!

I’m just very homesick and Marburg sick at the moment. I just want to be happy again. Maybe this is just the illness talking.

Taking a year out?

I’m a little scared at the moment (and ill booooo).

I blogged a few days ago about finally accepting that probably the best career for me is teaching. I’ve been doing a bit of research on PGCEs and what type of languages currently have the most vacancies and I hit a brick wall…not literally of course.

Turns out that most PGCEs are language specific rather than just “Modern Foreign Languages”. I’m still a little confused as to whether this means that after the PGCE you will only be qualified for that combination of languages or whether you can teach other languages on top of those two. The combination of German and Italian is very rare to find as a PGCE. Most of the institutions that offer it are ones that I have no interest it. Cambridge and Bristol do offer it, however when examining teaching vacancies I realised how sort after French still is.

This got me worried. I know that Italian is the least taught language out of the top 4 (French, German, Spanish, Italian) but I suddenly remembered how German is being slowly filtered out of schools. Children supposedly prefer to learn Spanish. What if by the time I am a qualified teacher the need for German teachers is really low. My Italian isn’t exactly going to be a good back up is it.

So now I’m in the dilemma of do I or don’t I pick up my French again. As long as I’ve studied at least one of the languages to degree level the other can be at A level standard, which is fine for me I have a 6 in HL IB French. However a little part of me finds this all rather cheeky. How can I possibly teach French when I know as much as the Year 12 children in my class. I know from my experience here that the English teachers, here in Italy, who have never been to England are pretty awful and clueless. I do not want to be like them.

I’m starting to consider the idea of taking a year out between graduation and starting the PGCE to improve my French. Maybe do another teaching assistantship but this time with the British Council (although last I heard was that they might me doing away with it), which would both improve my French and give me more experience. Or study French as a foreign language at a university in France. Become an au pair???

I don’t know at the moment I’m a little antsy about starting my career late. I can already hear my body clock ticking. Sounds stupid when I’m only 21 years old, but my mum was 17 when I was born, 30 when she had her last kid. My 20 year old cousin is pregnant and engaged (as are umpteen people from my year at school…the figure is almost reaching 20). I’m really worried about running out of time but on the other hand I don’t want to be like my German teacher for GCSE who used to sweat and consult the dictionary every time I asked him a question. I want to be a role model for my pupils.

I thought deciding what I wanted to do in life would make this decision making easier :(