The observant amongst you will notice that I have given my blog a bit of a revamp. I was getting bored of the Italian theme, as I'm sure everyone was! I think I'll keep it with this design for a while.

I haven't really got anything to write about as I haven't got much to do at the moment!!
I'm up to page 579 of my book (out of 1069). 490 to go then!  I haven't actually been reading it that much, need to get on a bit quicker! I appear to be reading three books simultaneously though, which is never really a good idea!! 

Yesterday I went to the cinema to watch London River. I was hoping it wouldn't be dubbed - often the more independent films shown in the smaller cinemas aren't, but unfortunately it was. Still, I enjoyed it in spite of the dubbing (hate dubbed films!). Amazingly it was in a cinema that I hadn't yet been to. There are so many cinemas here in Brescia it's incredible! There are two multiplexes (one of which I have frequented fairly regularly) and then at least four one screen cinemas. There's one near me that I have been going to regularly...they show a lot of Italian films which I love (no dubbing!) and other independent films. Anyway it was nice to check out another different cinema, and I think there's only one I haven't been to now! Perhaps I'll make it in my last 16 days here!

On the way to the cinema I had seen that there were some events happening in the main piazzas, so I wandered home afterwards via Piazza Duomo where they have installed some garden display and a playground and stuff. Lots of people milling around. I noticed that the new cathedral (I say new because Brescia has two cathedrals standing right beside one another) had its doors open (it was about 7pm). I decided to venture in, and discovered that I was half an hour late for mass. IT was some kind of special service...there were 8 priests up at the front and some girls doing a dance down the aisle accompanied by some odd music... quite bizarre, but enjoyable! I decided to stay for the rest of the service, and actually ended up taking communion for the first time in an Italian church. After all the discussion about whether it's right or wrong to do so, and having spoken to as many people as I possibly can about it, and having eventually settled on the answer being that it wasn't wrong, I decided just to do it. Especially there as the cathedral was totally packed so it was really very anonymous...
Still got to hope I find a nice church to go to regularly in Udine, and hopefully a nice community to go with it... it will be good to meet people as soon as possible!

One big job I've got to do soon is sorting out my teaching folders. I'm guessing that very little of the stuff I did last year will be at all useful in my new job, so I need to have a good sort through. I've got a lot of stuff for kids that I've used over the summer to re-file, and I think I need to reorganise my folders by topic rather than date I did stuff. That will give me something to do for a day or two! Then there's always the flat to be cleaned to keep me busy for another day or two..... oh joy!

Actually these days are probably going to go much quicker than I feared. I am spending a lot of time not doing much at home (going out tends to involve spending money, which isn't a very good idea at the moment!), but I'm not going out of my mind with boredom as I feared I might. Back to the book again now I guess!  

I got back to Brescia last night after a lovely two weeks in Trentino. The "working holiday" aspect did work quite well... school in the mornings, a bit of lesson preparation in the afternoons (not much!) but mostly a lot of chilled out afternoons. The downside was not having much money to do anything too exciting, but Will and I (the other teacher who I was staying with) did do a few nice things. On Saturday after I last wrote we moved to Serena's apartment which was reallllly nice! A million times better than the hostel, so we were very happy about the move! (I was probably disproportionately excited about being able to do things like washing and cooking! But after a week in the hostel...). 

On the Sunday night I was really pleased because FINALLY I was able to see my friend Paolo's band in concert. They, The Rain Storm, were playing at a rock festival called Concentratissimo with several other bands. Great to finally see them live - they were really very good - and obviously to see Paolo again after a long time (last time was in February). I also got a copy of their newly released CD, and it really put a smile on my face to see my name in the thanks from Paolo (because I read through the English lyrics for him) . So that was a good night. Will came along later having spent the day in the mountains with his friends, and we had to walk back to Trento from where the concert was (up in the hills) which took us a bit longer than it probably should have done as we didn't know the way! So we arrived back at gone half past midnight, with school the next morning! Worth it though! (Although I'm not sure Will would agree, since had been walking in the mountains for eight hours already!!) 

 The Rain Storm performing at Concentratissimo Rock 2010 - Paolo is on the far right in this photo

On Tuesday I popped in to see Monica and Don Rodolfo (old friends from my Erasmus year) which was great. It's lovely to be able to see these old familiar faces, even if irregularly. Then on Wednesday we took the opportunity of going to Riva del Garda. Our boss lives there so was driving back every day, and as we were going out all together in the evening it made sense as we could get a lift back with him too. So we headed down and spent the afternoon by Lake Garda, and an hour on a pedalo too. So much fun!!

Then in the evening we met up with Serena and one of the German teachers for a meal all together at 'Alla Grotta', which always used to be my favourite restaurant to go t in Trento because they do amazingly sized and really good value portions. I was, as I always was in the past too, totally defeated by my tagliatelle and probably ate about a third of it! Nice trip down memory lane being back there again. 

The last day came round really quickly, and yet although it was only yesterday it seems like so much longer ago! In the morning at school we did a brief show. My class (the youngest) did a little "going shopping" sketch. I think it went better than I thought it was going to, considering how badly rehearsed it was. There was a brief moment of panic when I realised on Friday morning that ALL our carefully made props (which we had spent all morning on Thurs making) had been thrown away because the shopping basket (another of our props) in which I had put them all ready to rehearse with the following day, turned out to be the paper recycling bin... big oops! Just had to laugh really and set about making them all again. At least it meant the last 2 days involved no teaching basically!! So we did the show, said goodbye to the kids and then I went back to get my stuff and say goodbye to Will and to Trento. 
On the way home I was able to stop off in Verona to go and pick up my CELTA certificate, finally, from the Cambridge School. Bit of a pain to have to lug all my luggage there, but it was worth it as it saves making a special trip down there. And now here I am, back in Brescia....

The reason for the title "small world" (got there finally!) is that this morning I got a text from Elisa, our boss from Trento's wife (whose school is based in Riva) to say she was coming to Ikea in Brescia and did I want to meet for a coffee. So, I headed over there, and on the way up to meet her I bumped into another old friend from Trento, Bruno. Now I haven't seen Bruno since I left in June 2007. He lives in Riva del Garda too and I had wondered whether I might bump into him the past few times I've been there but didn't. So it was quite a surprise to bump into him with his wife and gorgeous baby in none other than Ikea Brescia!! What made it even more small world-ish was that after a catch up, we went upstairs together and I was just apologising to Elisa for taking longer to come upstairs than expected, explaining that I'd bumped into a friend, and as soon as they saw each other they started laughing and talking and it turns out they know each other well as well! How funny!

All in all, quite a good couple of weeks for bumping into old friends, and making new ones too.

Now I'm here in Brescia for those famous 18 days before moving to Udine. Still not quite sure what I'm going to do with myself for the whole time, but first on my list is to finish my book. Currently reading the mammoth 1069 page long Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. I'm about half way through and thoroughly enjoying it. Actually an old friend recommended it to me about 7 years ago when we were doing AS Philosophy, and although I bought it about 6 years ago, it's taken me until now to actually take it off the shelf and read it. I'm glad I finally got round to it! Back to it now!  

Here I am, back in Trento. It's strange to be back again! Trento will always feel like my first Italian home, being as it is the first place I ever lived in Italy (not counting the month spent in Perugia, obviously!). But it feels different now. Although I keep bumping in to people I know, I don't know them like I did. Lovely to see old faces again though

The course this time is mornings only, so we are free from midday on which is nice, but actually quite a long time to pass when you're trying to spend as little money as possible! Luckily I have a few good books with me!

I am teaching the youngest class again, 8-10 years old. It's half way between the two previous ones in that I have seven kids in my class this time. 3 girls, 4 boys. They're all really nice kids so it's been really enjoyable so far. The boys are typically boisterous but actually they do all get down to the work I set and it's going quickly at school. I'm able to re-use most things (as we're doing the same topics) that I did in the second camp in June. I've got one boy in my class who was there on my first camp as well, so I was worried I wouldn't be able to overlap, but actually I did a lot of new stuff in the second camp and am bringing new stuff in again, so it's okay. So far so good.

We're staying in the hostel which isn't as nice as being in a family. I've been invited to have lunch with my host family from the second camp tomorrow which I'm really excited about! It'll be lovely to see them again! I understand why we couldn't really be in host families this time (as we're only working a half day), and being in the hostel isn't the end of the world. Only 3 more nights there anyway as then Will (the other teacher who is in the hostel) and I are going to stay with the lovely Serena, another teacher who worked with us on the first camp. So that'll be MUCH MUCH better and hopefully as we'll be able to cook and stuff we'll save a bit of money too (not being able to cook in the hostel is one of the major downsides).

Right, better go. I'm in an internet cafe as this time we've got no access at school. I can get on the Trento free wireless in town but I didn't bring my laptop with me so am just using it on my phone which isn't ideal for updating blogs etc! So I don't know when I will next be on....

Ciao for now!

"Another difference is simply the decibel level. Italians, I didn't need to be told, are loud. The palazzo in which I live is a square medieval building. It is now divided into flats, each with windows and crumbling balconies onto our little courtyard. It's hard to explain the implications of that simple architecture. I had always seen Italian paintings of sun-drenched courtyards, lined with laundry and loggia, but never quite realised what they're like to live in. It's not that there's particularly a sense of community... it's that you live in very close proximity to your neighbours and, above all, to their noise. Instead of answering the modern speaker-phones which double as doorbells, most lean out of the open windows and shout to their friends four floors below. The whole palazzo, naturally, hears the conversation. I frequently hear arguments from the lawyers' offices. There's pop music permanently blaring out of the gym, and twice a week an agressive aerobics instructor rolls up to bark instructions which can be heard at the other end of the building. At precisely five every evening the lady in the flat opposite mine starts singing her arpeggios and arias. The noise, always mingled with the roar of a nearby moped, takes some getting used to but, after a while, other countries begin to seem eerily quiet, even dull." (The Dark Heart of Italy, Tobias Jones, p4)

I'm rereading this book having noticed it on my shelves while at home. I think I read it before doing my year abroad so it'll be interesting to read it with more perspective, having actually lived through most of the situations he's talking about!

The paragraph above just cracked me up because it rang so many bells. I too live in such a courtyard setting, albeit mine doesn't have the lawyers' offices and the gym - mine is pretty much all residential. But, the noise is quite astounding. I remarked on it in a blog last September when I first arrived, and I don't think anyone has missed hearing about the joys of the coughing (dying?!) neighbour. Especially as the weather is now, with everyone having their windows permanently open, it's amazing some of the things you hear. Mostly though I do just hear coughing woman. If it was just the coughing I could probably cope. Just in case anyone has missed out, we're not just talking an occasional cough, we're talking solid LOUD non-stop-all-night-long coughing. To be honest, if I had to put up with coughing like that all the time, I'd be pretty annoyed too, but she (and her husband) just compound the whole problem by yelling like nothing you've ever heard. Often at each other (I actually thought they were about to kill each other a month or so ago), but generally at anything and everything. They are both a bit crazy anyway (apparently one turned up at our door totally stark naked one night asking to borrow money for something...) but they don't half make a racket. The woman moans, a lot, and cries with it. So she's there whining and crying, and then the husband (I assume) starts shouting. It's all good fun being about 30cm away from their window (they are the other side of the corner). I think I wrote the story that happened just before I went home for the holidays, about the woman shouting at the guys who were doing some building work on the other side of the courtyard to shut up because it wasn't 3pm and they weren't allowed to make noise before 3pm. She then phoned the police to report them, and then phoned someone else to report them, and obviously didn't get anywhere. She probably gave herself more of a headache...she certainly gave me one! 

Anyway, today, having just read that first chapter of The Dark Heart of Italy, I lay down to have a little snooze. Mmm, lovvvely! Then somewhere into my sleep filtered the sound of a piano being tuned. At first I thought I must be dreaming it, because I've never heard a piano being played here before, but I wasn't. Now, anyone used to the sound of a piano being tuned (as I am, due to ours at home being regularly tuned), knows that it is probably one of THE most annoying processes... dong, dong, dong, dong etc. It did NOT impress the neighbours!! It set off the usual hysterics vs shouting reaction with them yelling out the window to be quiet. That seems to be their response to any noise that they don't like - yell as loud as possible out of the window to complain, which basically gets them nowhere but just makes a lot more noise. It's beyond me! I just find it really funny that the biggest pain (noisewise) that I have to put up with is them. Them and the screaming children and their weird noisy toys, the extremely loud Indian family living below us (talk about loud, the woman there REALLY knows how to shout!) and then obviously the same building work, piano tuning, loud music etc etc.  Not the mention the church bells from the tower just across the courtyard...every 15 minutes from about 7am.... 
Oh and I think the piano must be a new acquisition wherever it is because I've definitely never heard it being played. Once it had been tuned there were some nice pieces being played so I'll probably quite enjoy hearing that!

Courtyard living? All good fun...
I wonder what sort of living arrangement I'll have in Udine!!  

Flying with BA seems like such a luxury now, but oh how worth it it is! I am a BIG fan after today! Usually I fly with Easyjet or Ryanair these days - both have fairly good connections to airports nearby (Bergamo, Milan etc) that aren't too far from here, while BA fly from Gatwick to Verona (also very easy to get to from Brescia). The flight I got was a pretty good deal price wise, and although Gatwick is a bit awkward in the UK (4am start to get to Gatwick for 7am check-in - thanks so much to Mum and Dad for taking me at that hour!), everything else is just so much better...

I do appear to have bought rather a lot of stuff while I've been at home (new clothes for new job, stocking up on all sorts of essentials that you either can't buy here or that cost a lot more here). Being able to put 23kg in the hold without having to pay anything extra, plus taking two hand luggage items (laptop being the second) makes such a difference. Granted, it was a lot to carry (especially getting it all up to the 4th floor in one go!), but it does mean I'm just about set now! 
Then, having a nice breakfast brought on the plane and not having to scrounge around for coins which are never going to cover the extortionate cost of a cup of tea or something on Ryanair etc... bliss! 

Was rather amused at the air conditioning leaking all over one of the passengers a few rows in front (patched up with tissues taped to the ceiling ) and the mini argument between cabin crew and a lady who wanted to get back to her seat having been to the loo, right while they were doing the breakfast. They made her wait until they had finished; she wasn't happy; it amused the rest of us. 

Didn't have to wait long at the airport to get the shuttle bus to Verona station, and then just had a 40 minute wait for the next train to Brescia. The train was then 30 minutes delayed part way through the journey which was a bit of a pain, but I made it back.

The weather is gorgeous. Last time I was sitting on this bed it was just too hot to move due to the super oppressive humidity levels, but it feels a pretty good temperature at the moment, and I'm looking forward to heading out for some sunshine tomorrow 

At the moment it's a bit strange being back. I've unpacked and now don't really have anything to do, which I suppose is never a good thing. Got a few days to "pass" until I am going back to Trento on Sunday. That'll keep me busy for a couple of weeks (and with good company too!), and then I'm REALLY going to have to find something to do for 3 weeks in Brescia before the big move.... or I'll go out of my mind! 

Over a month since I last updated... I've been away from Italy all of that time and haven't had much to write about! I've been mostly in England, from where I am writing now, but also spent a week in Taizé in France. It was my fourth visit to the community, and as ever, a wonderful experience. Met some brilliant people who I hope to see again... I've been trying to put words to the experience for a while now, but I just can't seem to do it. All I can say is go there and experience it for yourselves!! 

On Wednesday I'm going back to Italy! Flying in to Verona and coming back to Brescia in the afternoon. I'll be in Brescia from Wednesday until Sunday because on Sunday I'm heading back to Trento to do another summer camp at the same school I was working at in June/July. I'll be there for 2 weeks, working mornings only and trying not to spend any money the rest of the time!! Then I'll be back in Brescia on September 4th until September 22nd (when I move to Udine)... it's all change!!  

This is the updated version of "places I've been" (obviously some of the smaller towns aren't marked on this map). 
My wish to explore the South more isn't going to be fulfilled any time soon, since I'm heading to the farthest Northern corner possible!!  

Places in blue are places I have lived, although in a loose sense as Perugia was only for a month. Trento was 9 months, Brescia currently 10 months....

I've been reading up on my new region - Friuli-Venezia Giulia. There are lots of places there that I'm excited to be able to visit. Of course I had a lovely mini-break in Trieste 4 years ago and loved it. I'm happy to be able to explore the rest of the region.
Unfortunately transport links to the rest of Italy aren't that great (or at least would take a long time with lots of changes as you have to go to Venice first from wherever, then wherever on from there), but I won't have time to travel anyway as I'm going to be working my socks off!!!  

I took the job! 
I also took another job in Trento for the end of August!

My summer now looks like this....

England: Thursday 15th July - Wednesday 18th August. 
Taize: Sunday 1st August - Sunday 8th August.  
Brescia: Wednesday 18th August - Sunday 22nd August

Trento: Sunday 22nd August - Saturday 4th September (working mornings only on a Back to School camp at the same school I've just done Summer Camp at)
Brescia: Saturday 4th September - Saturday 25th September ish (yay, I get to spend three more weeks in Brescia!)
Udine: Move around Saturday 25th Sept. Start work on 1st October. Contract runs until 30th June 2011.

I can't wait to get home tomorrow and out of this heat. That said I've got all of today and all of tomorrow to get through (flight is late tomorrow evening). It's just too hot. My room seems particularly hot but when the temperatures are staying at 29/30 overnight, there's not a lot you can do. Go to bed hot, wake up in the night hot, wake up in the morning hot. I would do ANYTHING to be cold right now! 

I'm being eaten alive by insects. I'm allergic to mosquito bites so they swell up really huge, but I think these are just normal insects as they're not that big but are itchy as hell, and I'm almost out of Hc45 cream to help. I smothered myself in insect repellent today but have got at least 12 new bites.... not pleasant!

Can't believe it's Thursday tomorrow - only 2 days left! I'm going to be sad to leave as I've really enjoyed this second camp. My class are so sweet. Just went to the supermarket with the family and saw the other girl in my class (there are two of them) and she gave me a huge hug and wouldn't let me go....they are so cute!! I'm enjoying it.

Turns out the whole of this street is inhabited by cousins.... we also found it quite difficult to get away from the supermarket because they knew EVERYONE (mostly family...). It's really quite amusing!

Last night we went to the Grandma and Grandpa's (not the ones who live below us but the ones who live just up the road) for dinner which was really nice.... lots of Grandpa's homemade wine flowing!!

Quite tired though and ready for a break, but won't get one until I fly home on Thursday next week because I have three interviews and a LOT of travelling to do next week! ARGH!

Following on from the wallet saga, I had arranged with the lost property people to pick it up on Saturday, but from Ca' Farsetti, the Palazzo del Comune... closed on Saturdays but manned nonetheless, so she told me just to ring the bell and it would be there. The only problem was that I had to get there in the morning, and it's about 3 hours from Trento to Venice (on regional trains - can't afford to splash out on the more expensive ones!!). So I had decided to get the train at 6.05am, originally thinking I could get the first bus (5.11am) to get to the station. That plan fell through when I found out that the bus didn't go on Saturdays. The parents had very kindly said they would run me down there - I protested a lot and suggested other ways which were shot down by them (taxi - too expensive; walking - too far and dangerous; cycling - too hilly) so in the end just gave in and let the dad take me. We left at 5.40am.... 

Perhaps it was too early in the morning, I don't know, but somehow I managed to be on the wrong train, for the first time in my life! Basically it said Platform 1 for the train to Padova (I had to change at Bassano). I don't know whether I was reading the wrong line on the departures board or what, but anyway, I got on the train, and then it didn't leave, and at about 6.09am I looked out of the window and saw that it now said the train was going to Verona. I have convinced myself that previously it said it was going to Padova and then changed, but I may well have been hallucinating through tiredness . Anyway, not the end of the world because I could change in Verona anyway but of course had bought the cheaper ticket which wasn't valid on that route. I walked up and down the train looking for the conductor, who I couldn't find, so in the end just gave up and decided I would explain if he came. He didn't, luckily. I hadn't checked early connections at Verona, so had no idea whether I was going to end up arriving at the same time as I would have done by getting a later train, which would have been ironic! But luckily when I got to Verona I saw that there was a train to Venice at 7.36am (6 minutes later). So I went to a ticket machine as I thought I'd have to buy a new ticket for that leg. Luckily (how many times have I said luckily?!) the machine wasn't accepting cash, so I ended up going to a ticket counter instead, and explained what had happened to the man and said I assumed I needed a new one as this one wasn't valid. He said that it would be ok, I should just explain to the controller what had happened, before he said anything, and he would either make me pay the difference or not bother. So that was good. I went to get on the train... there was another Verona-Venice train from earlier in the morning that had been delayed, so this train was packed. At Vicenza we were told that the train wasn't going any further due to problems on the line, and we had to wait for further announcements. Eventually they told us to move to another train on another platform which would leave first. That also took about 30 minutes to leave, and was absolutely boiling, but eventually it did go and I got to Venice about 20 minutes later than I would have with the slow train. The bonus of having problems on the trains and them being packed is that no ticket controller is ever going to bother going up and down to check tickets, so I didn't have to explain my invalid ticket at all! 

Arrived in Venice, already 35 degrees and absolutely boiling, I headed to the Rialto bridge (Ca' Farsetti is just beside it on the canal bank). Got there and as expected the gate was closed and I had to ring the bell. Eventually a man came over to see what I wanted, and I explained and he let me in straight away, found the package, got me to sign the documents and check the contents. Amazingly absolutely EVERYTHING (except the money, obviously) was in it. It tells me who found it, where it was found and when... 14th June on a bridge in Ca' Pesaro. I lost it on February 6th. That's a LONG time that it was just sitting somewhere. It wasn't damaged or anything (I'm using it again now!) so it's quite amazing really. Very happy to be reunited with all the things I'd forgotten about - obviously I've replaced all the cards, so got duplicates of all of them (except my Exeter student card which I'm very happy to have back, and my EHIC card which you can't replace until you're back in the UK)...also has valid Brescia bus tickets I'd forgotten about, passport photos, other photos, loads of random membership cards...I'm very happy!!

Afterwards I spent the rest of the day wandering around Venice sweltering, along with thousands of other tourists! It was pretty extreme heat. I made the observation that when it's THAT hot there are two things that are distinctly lacking in Venice: water fountains and places to sit in the shade. On the whole of my travels (walking for about 5 hours solidly) I saw 3 drinking fountains. Each of which was surrounded by masses of people drenching themselves, drinking masses, doing anything to cool off.... and shade was so hard to come by that many of the tourists had umbrellas up to protect themselves. I'm quite glad that I don't seem to have burned, even though I wasn't sure I had put enough suncream on all day! 

This was my 6th visit to Venice and I hadn't managed to research "new" things I could do, so I ended up just wandering around lots. I also went up the Campanile which I hadn't done since I was 13 and enjoyed the views.... after coming back down, this Korean girl asked if I could take some photos of her which I did. Then she asked me if I was travelling like she was, and I said no. Then she dug into her bag and brought out this little teddy keyring which she said she wanted to give me! How very random... I accepted as thought it would probably be rude not to, although I really hadn't done anything to deserve it! She clearly wanted to be my friend as she was on her own though because she asked me where I was going next....this is probably mean but I didn't really want to be tied to going places with someone else, so I said I had to go back to the station soon to get my train, even though I still had a couple of hours! So we went separate ways and I carried on exploring, until eventually I did head back to the station and get my train, this time the right one. The one which takes 3.5 hours to get to Trento and goes really really really slowly, stopping everywhere... I thought it was NEVER going to end! Luckily it did and afterwards I met Lindsay and we went to Pedavena for dinner, then back home to the family!

Later today we are going to the lake with them which will be nice.... there was a big storm last night so although it's still hot, it does feel a bit fresher which is a relief!! 

A dopo!