September 28, 2011

  • What a summer!

    Yup, the fact that I'm writing here means that I'm back in Udine and summer is officially over! (Although the gorgeous weather would have us believe otherwise...). In actual fact I got back to Udine 8 days ago, but then I went away again on the spur of the moment...more details to follow!

    I've just re-read my pre summer post which was aaaaaaages ago, and having survived and thoroughly enjoyed the summer school it's funny to see how apprehensive I was! It was a really good experience in so many ways. Yes it was as intensive as I feared (although the additional duties weren't quite as bad as I thought they were going to be), and at times it was pretty challenging, but overall I had a brilliant time. It helped that I was working with an awesome team of teachers which helped the atmosphere no end, and with lovely students too! It was interesting to teach multi-lingual groups (although predominantly Russians in both the classes I had) and to see what a summer school is like. I seem to have picked a good one to work for anyway, from what I heard, even if we did have a dubious DoS for the second half... don't ask! 

    Of course the added bonus was the location. Being in London for 6 weeks was unbelievably cool! I was able to visit my brother, sister-in-law and nephew often, to meet up with various friends who I hadn't seen for ages and to visit lots of cool London things, etc etc. The excursions at the weekends for work were great fun too (Thorpe Park, Brighton, Oxford etc). All in all it was a win win situation! (and one that is almost certain to be repeated next year).

    Summer school was followed by a brief time at home before going to Taizé for 2 weeks. I won't drive anybody mad by writing more about Taizé here, but all I can say is that however long you stay there it isn't long enough! Had a superb 2 weeks and also enjoyed a quick jaunt to Notre Dame on my way back through Paris...

    Then had a relaxing time at home for 9 days before heading back to Udine. Back in Udine things were a bit slow, so I decided to head off again... 2 days in Villach, Austria and 3 days in Ljubljana, Slovenia. Absolutely fantastic and so glad I went! I plan to write a separate blog about the trip when I have time as there's so much to say about it! 

    That's all for now though...didn't want you to think I was abandoning the blog altogether - I'm still here!! (I had forgotten my login details though, that's saying something about how neglectful I've been!)