Pizza, Coffee and some Italian company

My biggest worry about my time in Italy was that I would be lonely. What got me through the hard times in Germany, and what made it truly special were the friends that I met and the time that we shared. When you go to the university it isn’t surprising that you make a lot of friends very quickly. Everyone is around the same age, you are all going through the same thing and you latch on to each other. If you don’t like the people you meet on the first day, who cares you’ll meet a hundred more candidates the next day.

Being a language assistant or doing work experience is completely different though. I’m in an awkward age group, I’m too old for the pupils at the school and the son of my host family, but I’m too young in comparison to the teachers and my host mother. I haven’t had any contact with anyone remotely in my age group.

However I am very lucky the adults around me are equally worried about this and on Tuesday night I received a phone call from my mentor inviting me to go out on Saturday night (last night) with her friend’s daughter and mates. Although I was a little dubious about it, I agreed, what’s the worse that could happen?

The girl, E, is 18 but her boyfriend and the rest of the people who joined us were 21. They took me to get my first legitimate Neapolitan pizza. We shared two pizzas between the ten of us. It was very very delicious. It tasted really fresh and even though the mozzarella still gave it that oily taste, it wasn’t that gunky taste that you get from, say a pizza from Pizza Hut, which just makes you think “Urgh just think of all the fat this contains!”. I was NOT expecting the size of these pizzas though. Check out the second one:

What a monster of a pizza!

After that we drove around for a bit and then ended up in some bar called “Up and Down Coffe” in Pozzuoli. It was a really nice bar, clean, smart and comfortable. If they’d just turned the heating up a little bit more it would have been perfect.

What surprised me about being in the bar was that everyone ordered either a soft drink or a coffee! 3am, and we are drinking coffee…in a bar!?! Personally I think it’s great but I could just imagine some stereotypical Lads on holiday in Naples, partying with the locals and then being taken out for coffee. I don’t think they’d be too impressed.

Anyhoo E recommended a coffee for me to try, and it was gorgeous. A little pricey for such a small cup, but then again that’s Italian coffee all over for you. Great in taste, small in size, high in price. The coffee was called caffè del nonno (con panna). I would most certainly drink it again because it was divine.

But how was my experience with the Italians you ask? They were all lovely. Very friendly and very welcoming. They mostly spoke Italian to me, although a few of them were trying their best to practice some English with me, but I didn’t mind. One of the boys “Meatball” we call him acted as my translator when the conversations were just to complex for anyone to explain in Italian for me. Communicating was not as hard as I’d imagined although I found it difficult to follow conversations between the group. This is probably to due with the speed and the use of slang. I really enjoyed their company and I do hope they were sincere about inviting me out again. I had a great night. I was very tired after it, I was not expecting to eat at 00.30am and come home at 4am, but it was worth it.

Things are going well, I feel very lucky. ☆☆☆

Why is it so cold

Is it wrong that I am colder for longer here in Italy than I was in Germany.

One cold days in Germany, I spent my time inside. Trying the same here is Naples isn’t working. The houses are made to keep you cool, which I’m sure I will love come May/June time but right now I’m freezing. Having a shower is painful, because the water barely reaches lukewarm. I’m pretty sure I’m going to catch pneumonia.

I wasn’t expecting it to be so cold, so I don’t really have any woolies with me and my boots broke two days before boarding the plane to Naples. Tomorrow we are forecast heavy rain…great. Maybe if I’m not too tired after work tomorrow, I will brave the rain and the language difficulties and hit the shops in search of some warm clothing. There are a lot of sales on at the moment, so I just hope I’m not too late.

The Barmy Brit with the Brolly

Today was a lovely sunny day in Naples, painfully cold though. And what do I do? I take an umbrella with me. Why? Because it MIGHT of rained.

In England I carry my umbrella with me most days, because that ONE day that I forget it, it rains. This “survival instinct” kicked in as I was about to leave the house today and I quickly when back to my room to fetch my rainy day companion. Big mistake.

My Mentor made fun of me the whole morning. She couldn’t believe that I had brought the umbrella with me. She had a point, as during the 4 hours we were in the centre I only saw two other people with them.

Imagine her face if it had rained. It didn’t though :(

Happy one week anniversary to me

I’ve made it through my first week of Neapolitan life alive. 

So what’s happened since I last updated you properly on my adventures in Italy.

Well Tuesday was my first day at school. It started off with another musical train ride on the Cumana. This time there was not only an accordion, but also a woman singing into a microphone. I’ve noticed that the backing track always seems to be “no parlo americano”. Is it the generic backing track for these types of people? Also I had my first experience of gypsy tactics. A little kid hopped on the train and handed out pieces of printed paper explaining that he and his family were poor and homeless and needed our money. I’m sorry kid but do you really expect me to feel sorry for you when you are wearing brand new out of the box trainers! At least try and look convincing!

The next big moment of the day was getting off of the Cumana. I had been told numerous times “get off at the SECOND stop for Quarto. Not the first one the SECOND one”. This is all fine, except for the fact that the stop for Quarto 1 has no sign on it anywhere! So I was completely oblivious to the fact that we had gone past the first stop and were heading for the second. Luckily something inside me made me feel like I needed to get off, and even though I was very cautious departing the train and worried about having made a mistake, it all turned out fine.

I’ll post another post with more details on the school, just simply because it will make this post even more monstrous than it is bound to be without it. But my first day was pleasant enough and was spent completely with my mentor.

I had no school on Wednesday because of a strike on the Cumana. this also meant that I couldn’t really go anywhere either. But it was back to work on Thursday and today. I was with a mixture of teachers this time. One teacher is an absolute nightmare, I just wanted to take over and tell her go home. She has obviously never been to an English speaking country in her life let alone revised her knowledge of the English language and culture since her childhood; more about her in a rant-like post.

Both today and yesterday I went to the cinema with the school. The cinema in Italy is very different to in England (Maybe this is just for this cinema or just for cinemas in this area, I obviously cannot compare at this moment in time). Firstly there were no adverts. Secondly there is a break in the middle of the film. I was so confused. I thought maybe we had to come back tomorrow to watch the rest of the film haha. And lastly, people applaud the movie when something good happens. It makes for an exciting atmosphere, but its annoying when you are trying to concentrate on the dialogue.

We were supposed to watch The Kite Runner, but the film jammed after 10 minutes and they put on Hachiko instead. I remember it coming out in the cinemas back home and I had no interest in watching it. Blah blah another movie about dogs…THE MOVIE WAS AMAZING. I was so moved at the end and then to find out that it was a real story. I cried the rest of that afternoon every time I thought about poor Hachi. Mock me, I dare you. Today was supposed to be another attempt to watch the Kite Runner but alas it was repairable, so they put on an Italian film called Quando sei nato non puoi piu nasconderti which was not appropriate for the age group, and was a little depressing but by the end I could say that I enjoyed the film.

This afternoon I explored Soccavo a bit and realised that there is a lot of shopping to be done here. I even found a few boutiques selling Roberto Cavalli and D&G. Who knew all of this was right on my doorstep!?! I have yet to find H&M though.

So yes, well done me for getting through this first week. I feel like I’ve been here a lot longer. And I am counting down the days until I am back on British soil with my loving family. I miss them so much. 17 weeks exactly until I can go home. But in the mean time I MUST improve my Italian. 

 

 

Feeling useless

I probably felt like this when I first moved to Germany, it was so long ago that I really don’t remember; but right now I feel utterly useless.

I can’t do the simple things that I want to do because of my problems with the language.

I’ve forgotten so much Italian, and even if I do remember it, when I need to use it I tense up and poof it’s gone. I’m ok at home with my host family, the difficulty crops up when I’m outside in public. Particularly when I want to buy something.

Oh how I long to be able  to walk into a shoe shop and not be daunted by the prospect of someone asking me if I need help or worse me needing to ask them for a shoe in my size.

I feel like my lack of language and confidence is restricting me. I want to be free to buy, go, see whatever I want.

I need to study hard. Maybe I will bring back the word of the day.

The curious incident of the dogs in Naples

You see this dog:

He doesn’t look too healthy right?

Now look at these dogs:

I see dogs like this everyday that I have gone out so far in Naples. I don’t understand.

Are they sleeping? Are they dying?

The weird thing is that they don’t appear to have any owners.

I’ve never come across such a sight in my life. Let alone been confronted with it everyday.

I don’t like it. It’s weird.

If anyone can clarify what the hell is going on with the dogs in Naples then please get in touch.

The crazy Neapolitans

I decided to go out on my unexpected day off and take some photos of the city, during my time in the centre I encountered more crazy Neapolitans.

1. La donna che canta: I was waiting for the Cumana at Soccavo train station and a lady came and stood next too me. At first I thought she was just talking to herself loudly, but the more I listen the more I realised that she was making no sense. Finally it clicked, she was “singing” very loud but very unemotionally, along with her ipod. But the reason why it was making no sense was that she was only singing a few words per line. A lot of people were staring at her but she seemed oblivious to it all.

2. L’uomo con l’anatra: It’s not unusual for beggars to have pets especially dogs. In fact my favourite is the man in Nuremburg who dresses up both himself and his little canine friend to entertain us with a bit of light hearted entertainment (the Christmas themed costumes were my favourite). However the man I saw today takes the cake. Check this out:

Your eyes do not deceive you, that is a duck! You can’t see so much from this photo but the man’s duck was actually rather fat, in fact probably the fattest duck I’ve ever seen. So “homeless man” you want me to believe that you need my money when you obviously have enough funds to feed your dog and duck, who must get fed very well considering the size of him, and to buy a rug and water bowl for the two. Seriously?

3. Il nonno con la penna: There is a lot of graffiti in Naples, but that’s nothing really new to me as Germany was the same. What is new to me though is walking past a man old enough to be my granddad and spotting him defacing a poster with a ballpoint pen!

4. Il cantante che non parla inglese: In Germany I was always in awe at how well the buskers could sing in English. They really sounded legitimate. The same cannot be said for the man singing in the Metro station this afternoon. He was singing a rendition of “can’t get no satisfaction” by The Rolling Stones only his version went “’cause I CRY, and I CRY, and I CRY and I CRY….I can get through, satixfashow.” Bless him.

Well those are the bunch of nutters I met today. I’m looking forward to meeting some more tomorrow.