Cheesy cake, deep fried lamb, and kiwi jam...

Well hello there... Happy Easter!

I'm sitting in an internet cafe in Rome waiting for my mum to arrive. She's coming over for a few days and unfortunately she's just missed the hot weather. It's been roasting hot for about a week, hot enough for me to start getting sun burnt (not that it takes that much!) Sadly, the weather broke yesterday and it's been pissing rain on and off ever since. My mum's gonna be very disappointed, she wanted to know if she should bring sandals and sunscreen...
I've just spent a really lovely weekend with my kind of adoptive Italian family, the Ribigini. Marco's sister (who I lived with all last year in Perugia) invited me to spend the easter weekend with them in Deruta (a little town about 10 miles from Perugia). They overfed me and now I'm feeling that slightly uncomfortable kind of fullness you get a Christmas time. They make a weird cake with loads of lumps of cheese through it, it's the traditional Easter cheesy cake that you eat with a kind of salami, verrryy gooood, mmmm.... and lamb done dipped in egg and breadcrumbs deep fried, and artichokes done in batter and canneloni and.... anyway, I think you get the idea. Basically, I'm feeling very full but decidely well done by. It was really lovely to see Bimba (Marco's sister) and Chicchi (Marco's cousin), and Marco's parents and all my friends in Perugia, I managed to get a hold of pretty much everyone... So I had a lovely weekend. I went up to Perugia on thursday night and stayed at my friend Francesca's house which is always a lot of fun. We headed into town with the intention of meeting up with a couple of friends for a drink and somehow managed to meet practically every single person I know in Perugia on the street, I'm pretty sure if I'd gone looking for them there's no way I'd have run into anyone. We all ended up in this really nice little bar until closing time so all in all I had a really good night.
As for things in Viterbo, things are going a good bit better, I've got a hell of a lot work now. I'm doing that translation, private lessons at night time and about 20 hours a week for AMICA (the teaching kiddies english gig) So I'm pretty much knackered all the time but it's better this way, I'm busy all the time and I'm getting to know people and not spending time in my room wondering what to do with myself, in fact for the last few weeks I've been getting home late and going straight to bed.
I met the nicest guy, Luca, he's 35 and he's helping me out with the work situation. He gave me his friend's number because she needed private lessons and now I'm teaching her in the evenings after work. He's the guy who hired me for the translation too. I've been spending quite a bit of time with him and he's made living in Viterbo a lot more enjoyable. I've been out to dinner a few times with him and his boyfriend, and they're so much fun! Anyway, things are looking a bit more positive. Some Italians are crazy, the woman I'm teaching is just far too nice, she cooked me dinner the first night I went to hers, paid me upfront for 10 lessons and gave me a pot of kiwi jam she made herself at home. Another student gave me an Easter cake which is basically a really heavy, dense cinnamon and carrot cake. They're ridiculous when it comes to generosity sometimes, but it's a nice way to be.

Um, this absolutely beautiful guy who was sitting beside me in the internet cafe just got up to leave but came back and made me a flower out of balloons! and gave me his number and email. I went bright red (of course) and my legs are still shaking... um, anyway...

All in all, things is guuud.

Take care of yourselves.

Spoke too soon...

God damn it, I hate the Italian way of doing things! I really am getting sick of the fact that they lie, all the time, and often for no apparent reason, given the opportunity. Well, not all Italians, just the ones who might be in a position to employ you. It's not that big a deal but they underpaid me today by 25 Euro, and as I have no contract and they refuse to tell us how much we get paid an hour (different schools pay different amounts... blah blah blah) I have no means of getting the other 25 stinking euros out of their greedy greasy little mits. I think it's time to move on and find some other dishonest employers to employ me. It's hardly surprising really, this is a country run on the basis that hardly anyone works legally, and then the ones who do work legally pay ridiculously high tax so as to discourage them from doing so. It's a giant mess and the result is that employees routinely get exploited and ripped off while greedy bastard employers run laughing all the way to the bank. It's a pity because I like my job, I like my classes most of the time, but I didn't come over here to play the part of the stupid foreigner enriching the pockets of some nasty lying bitch from Naples. Admittedly I can't see myself living in Viterbo on a long term basis, it's a nice enough place but it's not somewhere I'd want to end up. I have to admit that I'm getting a little homesick, at least in Ireland, in general, you get paid what you were supposed to and you can usually be sure of how much money you'll have at the end of a few weeks work. Here it's a bit more along the lines of a lottery, ooh this week they felt like paying me a little less, oh well, guess I'll be having a few slices less pizza... I miss a lot of other things and I do have days when I wonder what the hell I'm doing here. If I didn't have my up days I'd probably be on a plane coming home as we speak. I do like living here, and I have met some lovely people but I can't help feeling it's all very temporary, that given another year or so I'll have trouble remembering some of these people's names. I miss being in Dublin in some ways, and I miss going to the pub, and being with friends from home. My Italian has come along by leaps and bounds since I've been here and in that sense I don't feel like I'm wasting my time but sometimes I just get sick of it all. I miss Perugia and my friends there, my flatmates, the city... I think I'm just feeling very down today.
One good thing is that I had an interview for a proper language school today and hopefully I'll be starting to do evening classes with them. They might want me to do classes the rest of the week but they're gonna let me know. If all works out and if they're able to offer me a lot of hours I'll probably dump the other job. It's not getting paid badly that annoys me most, it's the dishonesty that really pisses me off.

Lost in translation...

Ooh, ooh, one other thing! I'm so chuffed, I have another job which should pay well. There's this guy I met called Luca who was commissioned to translate this little guide book to the museums in Viterbo. So to cut a long story short, he wants me to do the translation cause he doesn't have time. It's about 100 quite short pages (more illustrations than text on each page) and I get paid €200 for it. Not bad. Luca, as it turns out, is a really nice guy from Rome who seems to want to take me under his wing and introduce me to people in Viterbo.

Snow, snow, and more snow...

Is it ever going to stop snowing in this feckin' country? I know that in Ireland I get really excited about snow, but it's a once in a while thing! Here, in supposedly sunny Italy, it's been snowing every other day since I got here. I'm sick of it. Apart from anything else, when it snows I don't work, and if I don't work I don't get paid. And another thing, it's March for fecks sake, what is going on?! It's all very pretty but it's bloody freezing, I sleep with so many layers it's getting ridiculous and I'm becoming such a moany arse every time I have to set foot outside. It's cold in Ireland in the winter but it's not this bloody cold, when your face hurts and you can't feel your feet or hands for half an hour after getting home, it's too... bloody... COLD.

Looking up.

Well, things are looking up. I have a lot more lessons for the next few weeks which means that, assuming it doesn't snow again, I'll be able to make a good deal more money. The other good thing is that I'm starting to do private lessons as well, I have two private students as of tomorrow which gives me a little more income. As it is things are going pretty well, I'm even beginning to make some friends. The American girls I work with are really nice but it never ceases to amaze me how big a language barrier there is between Irish, and American English. I've met an Irish girl called Serena who's from Limerick, and I have to say it's really nice having someone from home around, even if it's just bullshitting about Irish tv programmes. I always feel like I have to translate or speak slowly here, even around the American girls because half the time they don't understand me. I feel like I'm developing a really weird way of talking, I know I haven't been here that long, but it had already started in Perugia, and now that I'm teaching I'm changing my pronunciation and rhythm of speech so that I think I sound somewhere between an Northern English idiot and a Cambridge latin course tape cassette. So having someone from Ireland around is a good thing. She's very cool, she's a hiphop and breakdance teacher and a fashion designer... oo-ooh. You might be asking what on earth we have in common, well... I guess we're both from Ireland and we live in Viterbo and I don't know what she thinks about me but I think she's funny. All in all, I'm feeling a lot happier about everything, I like my apartment, I like my flatmates, I'm beginning to like parts of my job (although not today), and with any luck I'll be a bit better off financially next time you hear from me. As for today, I had a lesson with my worst class during which I had to make a very special effort not to strangle one of the little shits. I hate one of the little boys, he's nine years old, and I hate his guts... I hate taking that class. Other than that I'm happy enough.