Life
Well hello everyone,
No doubt you've all (and I mean of course my dozens of devoted fans) given me up for dead or at least given up hope of there being a new blog. Well, I am still alive and for the moment I do have access to a computer - at my friend Francesca's house. Internet cafes are decidedly and surprisingly hard to find in my new town of Viterbo and they seem to cost a small fortune too. So basically, apologies to anyone who's feeling particularly neglected as far as emails go (although in fairness that should be all of you, but it kind of depends on how much you care). Anyway, I'm fairly settled in Viterbo now with a new apartment full of Italians, who are all really nice, three girls called Marianna, Sara and Chiara. My room is really big with a lot of natural light and wooden floors. I'm trying to organise a second matress so that I can make a double bed and at the same time have something for people to sleep on should they come visit. Hopefully I'll get that sorted in the next few weeks.
Work isn't exactly the cushty deal that was portrayed to me in the interview, I'm making a hell of a lot less money for starters. Luckily the cost of living in Viterbo is incredibly low so even with my decidedly more paltry income I'll be able to survive comfortably. Given the fact that I have next to no teaching experience (and that which I do have has been earned in the last few weeks for this job) and no qualifications to speak of, I guess it's probably best that I stick with this job until I've learnt enough to move on somewhere else. As it turns out my landlord has a heart of gold, and according to my flatmates is a complete and total sweetypie. I told him all about the trouble I'm having and not only did he source out 4 different language schools here in Viterbo, phoning them and talking to their directors, but he had a word with his friend who runs a language school and put in a good word for me. Not only that but he lowered my rent from €140 a month to €130 and gave me back the €20 that I had paid over! He's a really lovely old man.
As it is, this teaching lark isn't that bad. I actually really enjoyed the first week teaching a small group of teenage boys. They were a lot of fun and despite the fact that sentences ran along the lines of "you.... cosa? oh! He Gay!!!...... ha ha ha ha" they did try pretty hard to get their point across. I think they might even have learnt a little bit of English if only that you need to put the word "is" in the former sentence for it to make any sense. I don't know if it says something about Italian society that the kid who got picked on most in the group wasn't the lead singer of Hanson look-a-like who spends his evenings doing latin dancing classes but the kid who was obsessed with Ozzy Osborne.
All in all things are good. Give me a shout if you feel like heading out my way, although I should warn that despite appearances, and evidence in the form of maps, Viterbo is actually a fair distance from Rome (at least if you don't have a car and have to rely on public means of transport as I do). It'll probably take about an hour and a half to get here by train.
Right, that's it for now, take care of yourselves and leave me some messages please!
No doubt you've all (and I mean of course my dozens of devoted fans) given me up for dead or at least given up hope of there being a new blog. Well, I am still alive and for the moment I do have access to a computer - at my friend Francesca's house. Internet cafes are decidedly and surprisingly hard to find in my new town of Viterbo and they seem to cost a small fortune too. So basically, apologies to anyone who's feeling particularly neglected as far as emails go (although in fairness that should be all of you, but it kind of depends on how much you care). Anyway, I'm fairly settled in Viterbo now with a new apartment full of Italians, who are all really nice, three girls called Marianna, Sara and Chiara. My room is really big with a lot of natural light and wooden floors. I'm trying to organise a second matress so that I can make a double bed and at the same time have something for people to sleep on should they come visit. Hopefully I'll get that sorted in the next few weeks.
Work isn't exactly the cushty deal that was portrayed to me in the interview, I'm making a hell of a lot less money for starters. Luckily the cost of living in Viterbo is incredibly low so even with my decidedly more paltry income I'll be able to survive comfortably. Given the fact that I have next to no teaching experience (and that which I do have has been earned in the last few weeks for this job) and no qualifications to speak of, I guess it's probably best that I stick with this job until I've learnt enough to move on somewhere else. As it turns out my landlord has a heart of gold, and according to my flatmates is a complete and total sweetypie. I told him all about the trouble I'm having and not only did he source out 4 different language schools here in Viterbo, phoning them and talking to their directors, but he had a word with his friend who runs a language school and put in a good word for me. Not only that but he lowered my rent from €140 a month to €130 and gave me back the €20 that I had paid over! He's a really lovely old man.
As it is, this teaching lark isn't that bad. I actually really enjoyed the first week teaching a small group of teenage boys. They were a lot of fun and despite the fact that sentences ran along the lines of "you.... cosa? oh! He Gay!!!...... ha ha ha ha" they did try pretty hard to get their point across. I think they might even have learnt a little bit of English if only that you need to put the word "is" in the former sentence for it to make any sense. I don't know if it says something about Italian society that the kid who got picked on most in the group wasn't the lead singer of Hanson look-a-like who spends his evenings doing latin dancing classes but the kid who was obsessed with Ozzy Osborne.
All in all things are good. Give me a shout if you feel like heading out my way, although I should warn that despite appearances, and evidence in the form of maps, Viterbo is actually a fair distance from Rome (at least if you don't have a car and have to rely on public means of transport as I do). It'll probably take about an hour and a half to get here by train.
Right, that's it for now, take care of yourselves and leave me some messages please!
posted by Lucinda at 5:31 PM
3 comments
