Well, I did feel oh so very much better after my rant on Friday! Sorry for those of you who had to read it! Generally the good experiences of living abroad definitely outweigh the bad, but sometimes it does cause these frustrations! Everything can be so much more complicated when you’re foreign – not just because of the language barrier, but just because so many systems just don’t seem to make sense. That said, there are plenty that seem to make a lot MORE sense than back home (like a sensible train system with clearly understandable fares based on distances and type of train, rather than, for example, being able to go from Taunton to London for anything between £15 and £400 on the same train, depending on when you book, how lucky you are etc etc...)

The good news is that it would seem that my internet banking is starting to work. I’m not holding out much hope for it actually being reliable, but at the moment it is showing my balance. It will be interesting to see how long it takes to show me that my pay has arrived (if it ever does, that is). I’m not looking forward very much to my trip to the school office tomorrow to try and a) get a receipt/payslip b) get a copy of the insurance they have taken out for me and c) explain to them that I really do need to get my pay a little bit earlier in future, i.e. on time. 

Then the bureaucracy will begin. Once I have a copy of the insurance, I am able to go and register with the local office. This has to be done within 3 months of arrival, if you are an EU citizen staying longer than 3 months.  Once I have done that, then I am able to register with the local health service and choose a doctor. I never bothered with that in Trento, I only needed to see a doctor once (when I had an ear infection) and it was out of hours anyway, so I went to the guardia medica. It turns out there is, of course, one of those here too. When the foot saga happened in my first week, that was what I was asking Elena about, but she told me there wasn’t one and we’d have to go to pronto soccorso (A&E), which is what we did. Oh well, just goes to show that most of the time I’m better off finding things out myself!! I now have all the details, so that if I do get ill again and don’t have a doctor, I can actually go there! Here’s hoping that the cough/sore throat I have at the moment gets better not worse though!

Don't think being out in the rain today helped, but it was for a good cause. The Pope visited Brescia! I waited in the rain for him to arrive, along with the rest of Brescia. You had to have tickets to get in to Piazza Duomo, which from the live TV pictures was absolutely packed, but he did drive right past us in his so called "Papamobile"! So got a wave from him as he went past. Then stayed to watch a bit of the mass on the big screen, but it was so wet and cold that Kirsty (who is doing Erasmus in Brescia) and I went to have a cioccolata calda and warm up a bit! Unfortunately I started choking and had to scoot off to the supermarket to buy some honey and lemon to make the classic soothing drink...

The Papamobile with waving Pope going past in a whizz

Tomorrow I have 2 lessons and then my first private lesson with the solo 12 year old. I'm expecting this to be a bit more challenging than the group lessons, but we shall see how it goes! At least as I am losing my voice she'll have to do all the talking!! Same in my classes :P

 

It's rainy again. We had a day off on Monday as they have a bank holiday for All Saints' Day in Italy. The weather was rubbish though, torrential rain all day, so I didn't actually leave the house!

I've just come in ready to set up my laptop in the video room for Day 2 of Bonfire Night presentation, only to find that my first class (8.50am) aren't coming in until 9.45am today, so I could have stayed in bed a bit longer! Basically the teacher is off and they hardly ever find substitute teachers, so what they do is let the students either come in later or go home early. 3C happen to have teachers off for both their first 2 lessons, so they are coming in late. Nice of them to tell me!! I guess the people who run this system don't know which lessons I teach along with the teacher, so they just think if the teacher isn't there then the pupils don't have to be either. Anyway, at least it gives me time to blog about yesterday. I expect I'll be asked to cover the class I take on alternate weeks with 3C, so I won't finish until 12.35 instead of 11.45. At least I've got the Bonfire Night presentation to do with any class, other weeks I might not have anything prepared for drop of a hat lessons.

So, yesterday I came in and the technicians helped me set up my laptop in the video room. I haven't got my camera with me or I could have uploaded the photos I took! Then I came down to the staffroom to check something, whereupon I was accosted by my tutor who was waving my term 1 plan and saying "I need part 2 of this". Part 2? "Yes, for the second semester". Errr, haven't done that yet! Seriously, they're lucky I've done one for the first semester - most people are just planning a week ahead!! She said she needed it by the 7th November, but then said "ok I'll just have to put "to be decided" then. Yes, good idea! I was slightly frustrated by this as it shows that basically from January it will be entirely up to me to plan all the lessons with no guidance on topics. This term I have been purely following the syllabus for their text book. Anyway, got a few weeks of this term left to worry about first!!

I only had 2 classes yesterday. The first, a 3rd year class, seemed to enjoy the Guy Fawkes lesson. I was presenting lots of pictures of Ottery St Mary and the Flaming Tar Barrels, and then also stuff about firework safety with them having to discuss various points at the end. The teacher was there and it was fine. With my 4th year class which came after, not so great... the teacher wasn't there, but it's quite a small class so I decided it would be fine to take it. They weren't really that interested though (well, more interested in talking to each other anyway) and I found myself slightly pleading with them to just please TRY and speak English in my lesson because they can speak Italian the rest of the day, the rest of the week etc. Some were trying, but others not. That's quite a weak class generally though so I wasn't hugely surprised! It did mean I left school a bit disheartened though, having put so much effort in to preparing the lesson, I hoped it would go down well, and that being in the video room would be a nice change for them! I'm sure today's classes will be a lot better, and then I have to do it 5 times in a row tomorrow!! I'll know a LOT about fireworks and Italian festivals by tomorrow...

In the afternoon I had my 2 private lessons. Quite a few of the children are ill (swine flu) which meant that I had 4 in my first group of 9 year olds and then only two in the second group. Still, I got €35 which is certainly a help, especially as I still haven't been paid by the school yet! Talked about Bonfire Night and Italian festivals with those too. Or at least did a wordsearch and word games about Bonfire Night with the little ones, and then chatted with the older ones! Enjoyed it again. The first group took place in Luigina's house this time (the mother of one of the 9 year olds) and then I had to move for the second hour. Then I was getting a lift to dinner at my tutor (Elena)'s sister's house...

Slight interlude to say that Elena just came in and saw the notice about 3C not coming in until 9.45am, and started swearing at the noticeboard, before she saw me! She wasn't happy at all that they hadn't told e in advance, and says she's going to complain. Then another teacher asked if I wanted to go and do something with her class for 15 minutes, but I said I didn't have anything prepared except my presentation, so have escaped! Just hope they won't make me recuperate the hours later...

Anyway, so, dinner...  
It was with Elena, her sister, her brother in law and her niece and nephew (I start doing conversation lessons with the niece, 12 year old, next week). Elena had told me they all live about "10 minutes walk" from her house, but it was about 10 minute walk the other side of the station, which takes me 15.... so I think I'll be finding another bus route for that!! Bit of a pain really. Anyway they might have lined up another person to have a separate lesson with the same time, so at least then I only make the journey once and earn twice as much!
Dinner itself was great. I spoke Italian solidly the whole evening, probably the most I have spoken since arriving! Was very good practice! Really enjoyed being out and getting to chat and meet different people. They have also found a choir that I can go to on Thurs night, only problem is it's near their house so far away, and the service is 9.30am on a Sunday so I'd have to lose my lie in!!! Think I'll have to go once but then maybe not again... we shall see, might meet some people there anyway!

The other funny thing was that in the car we were discussing what I was doing next week, and apparently at school I'll be doing CLIL lessons, which means going to Law, History etc lessons normally taught in Italian, and doing them in English! Along with the Italian teacher! Could be interesting! The timetable changes too but now she knows I'm going to do this CELTA course in Verona she is going to leave Fridays free for me, so that's good that I mentioned it! She also said that if I wanted to stay in Italy then they could arrange with the ministry for me to stay for up to 3 years in their school because I'm reliable and the kids apparently all like my lessons! So that's encouraging.... just got to keep finding ideas! Not sure I would want to stay for that long though, but it's an option. Or they said there are plenty of schools who would employ me. At least I know there's a good reference in there :)