I will be updating about my mini-holiday in Ravenna shortly, but I have spent most of the afternoon clearing up after the washing machine decided to stop draining...nice flooded floor, with blue water... oh dear! Managed to unblock and unclog the filter and hope it's all working again now, but it did take rather a lot of mopping and clearing... so I haven't had time to sort out my 232 photos from the weekend and write about it yet!! 

I had a nice potato + Heinz baked beans + Cheddar cheese lunch though. Mmmmm. Not quite right in the 27 degree heat, but still yummy! It is SO HOT. Not at all sure why I am planning to stay here this summer.... I'm going to die.

So this is the last week of my 8 months working at the school. For 8 months I have been getting the number 11 bus to work. I take it from either of 2 places which are about an 8 minute walk from my house. I tend to just choose as I leave the house which way I want to walk, and go from there. Last week I was waiting for the bus and one of my students was there. He didn't get on the 11 when it came, and then I saw him at school, there before me. I asked him which bus he had taken and he said the 17. Well it turned out that that arrives pretty much right outside the school gate, while the 11 arrives about a 5 minute walk. So since they both go from the same place, I could have been doing that for the past 8 months!! I got the 17 to school the following day and it was perrrrrrfect! 
Today I realised that that probably meant that the 17 that goes past my house (both the 11 and 17 drop me off opposite my house) came from round school as well. Lo and behold, from right outside the school gates... so today I went to the stop, waited with a large selection of my students from 4 different classes, and got the bus, and got off outside my house, without really having had to walk anywhere (nice in this heat!!). What an idiot for not finding out sooner though!! I was sure I had checked all the bus combinations and the 11 was the best one. Doh!! 

Updated to add: clearly spoke too soon as after writing that the washing machine flooded the WHOLE HOUSE (bathroom, kitchen, everywhere). I only knew about it when the neighbours from below came and rang the bell saying there was water in their house.... discovered the filter was just flooding a river out. Managed to stop it but then there was so much to mop up.... literally masses. I was mopping non stop and they came again to say it hadn't stopped coming through! Really hope there isn't too much damage. Finally cleared it all up and have called the landlord and left a message on his answerphone which hopefully he will get... what a complete nightmare. I really don't feel like going out to work etc now.

Not long to go now

Tomorrow: penultimate lesson with 4 classes
Friday: penultimate CELTA session

Next week: 4 days of lessons, last CELTA, then that's it

It's been a wonderful experience and I've met some wonderful people (both at school - teachers and students, and outside) and I'll be very sad to leave this stage of my life behind. But, at the same time, as I said before, it is time to go, and I just have to get used to it, and adapt as always.

I hate endings though. 

Some nice alliteration for you there...

I just had a nice little chat with a man from Gloucestershire. In Brescia.

Now, I’m not really the kind of person to strike up random conversations with strangers. You certainly wouldn’t catch me doing it in England. I hate it when strangers try and make small talk on trains etc. That’s really British, that is....

Anyway ... was just walking home and there’s some sort of food festival going on in Piazza Loggia. Suddenly I spotted a couple of tents covered with Union Jacks! ‘Ello, ‘ello, what’s going on here then? Went over and the first was selling lots of yummy looking curds...lemon, passion fruit, all sorts. The next stand was covered with disgusting crockery. Anyway the man had just said to the customers buying that he didn’t speak Italian, and had confirmed that he was truly a fellow countryman. I advanced. I posed a “where are you from?” and got “Gloucestershire. Where are you from?” Me “Taunton”. It was the most natural conversation in the world! Totally bizarre. He had the most Gloucestershire accent you can imagine...including asking his wife ‘where was we last week? Ah yes, we was in Padova’ ARGH...I hope there weren’t any Italians listening, I had enough trouble teaching my elementary group the past simple was/were a few weeks ago.... anyway, it was just really funny. I should actually have bought some curd... maybe I’ll go back!
But as I said to him, it’s very rare to hear proper English in Brescia. Go to somewhere like Verona and you hear it on every street corner it seems, but Brescia doesn’t have that many natives, and I get excited to hear proper, natural English once in a while! So yes, there I was striking up conversation with a perfect stranger, and having a little chat surrounded by the hustle and bustle of an Italian market.

It reminded me of something that happened, gosh, a few months ago now (I was going to say weeks but that would be seriously off!). I was with Kirsty and Nicci (English friends here) and we heard two other girls speaking native English. Totally bizarre! Anyway we were walking along behind them, and talking about accents and stuff, and when a place name was mentioned, they swung round to find out who was talking and the 5 of us had this little chat on the street corner about how totally random it was to hear English in Brescia and how you just have to stop and talk...and how it would never happen somewhere like Rome. So true. We’re in this lovely little bubble here... part of the reason I don’t really want to move away. I LIKE not hearing English allllllllll the time. But sometimes it’s nice to be British and chat away about the most random things to perfect strangers.

Going to the Cambridge School on Fridays is like going to a little island of English too. Although not all English (there are some Americans, Aussies, Kiwis etc as well... haha), it’s still all native... and it’s nice sometimes to be with other natives living abroad. I wonder how different it would be actually working with natives, in a language school like that, rather than being the only Brit in the vicinity as I am at Abba.....

PS. Just heard that the stand also has CHEDDAR CHEESE!!!! How on earth did I miss it? This is enough to make me get dressed again? I just got straight into pjs when I got home and go out in case it runs out!!! I need cheddar cheese to go with my baked beans!!!! I am SO EXCITED!!!

ETA: I practically ran back to the stand... almost shoving a man out of the way because he was being TOO SLOW right near the stall.... I was getting a little bit overexcited! Then they didn't have any on show, and I thought maybe they weren't selling it anymore! Gutted! So I asked the woman and she said they were hiding it because of the heat (and boy it's hot today...). She lifted a cover, revealing a vast array of many many many different flavours. A whole myriad. For €10 I bought normal cheddar, vintage cheddar and sundried tomato cheddar. There were a lot of really yummy looking flavours, but what I'm really craving is just normal cheddar.... so that's what I got in the end! Then I found FUDGE!! Clotted cream and vanilla flavour (is what I went for), again, they had every flavour under the sun. They also had coconut ice! I think I might be heading back tomorrow!!!! I'm also quite excited about the union jack bag it went in "Best of British". Indeed!!!

...but new beginnings are hopefully on the horizon.

Another week is done, and this means that I only have TWO weeks left at school. I'll only see my classes twice more (some only once). This makes me very sad. I'll be sad not to see my students anymore.

I still don't know for sure what I am going to be doing next year, and can only hope that one of the avenues does come to something.  But it does look as though it won't be in Brescia. Whatever happens though I'm keeping my room here until August, so I'll be popping back at weekends or whatever and using it as a base for that time period. Hopefully will still be able to see the people that I'm going to miss terribly!

It's so funny how different it is this time round though, compared to finishing Erasmus. In terms of my "stuff". I remember from about March on I was trying to get rid of everything then (for example offloading my whole winter wardrobe on to my parents when they came to stay, not buying anything unless it was absolutely unavoidable etc etc). It was a little bit obsessive. This time I have gone to the other extreme. Despite not knowing if I will even be staying in Italy (but seriously hoping and assuming I will be!) I seem to be buying house and home recently. I have just bought an AWESOME pasta pot with a colander lid. Oh how the little things can be so exciting! It's bright purple though and I love it!!! I also bought an amazing purple umbrella last week... I've only ever had handbag type ones before, this is a proper long one with a lovely black curved handle. Exciting! Oh and I invested in new towels last week as well.... bit crazy really. I've got sooooooo much stuff here now! Will definitely need to hire a car to move wherever, seeing as I've got boxes and boxes of stuff I've bought/obtained out here.... printer, toaster, kettle, loads of kitchen stuff, masses of books, 3 full box files of notes, rug, cushion, duvet, blanket, chair etc etc etc etc etc. It'll be a shame if something changes and I have to go home and leave it all here!!!!

In other news... tomorrow is the day I give THE.LAST.CELTA.LESSON.EVER! By this time tomorrow I will be free from assessment!!! (Although I'm half expecting to get the final assignment back to resubmit because it's 1800 words long and is meant to be 750-1000. That said, all 3 previous ones have been meant to be the same length and have varied from 1300-1500, so maybe it'll be ok....).  Exciting stuff...just hope it all goes to plan!! Watch this space! 

Well, if Annie Hawes (author of Extra Virgin and other books, about living in Italy) can write about it, so can I... 

Today I was in the peculiar situation of having a lesson with a class (a class I only see every other week, if that) when they were in the middle of a test. I'm not quite sure how this works, but they had done the first half and were waiting to do the second half. Getting their attention was therefore not even a slight option, as they were all spending the whole lesson "preparing" for the second half of the test. I say "preparing" because this involved various techniques.... from copying all their notes onto their desks in pencil, copying them on to small pieces of paper which were then hidden in their books and various other places, copying all the stuff into their calculator lids, writing on their arms etc etc, discussing and explaining various problematic points. There were some really ingenious techniques going on! Now as teachers aren't blind (and I'm sure most of this would be fairly obvious), I can only assume that they turn a blind eye to it... in fact, I heard somewhere recently that in Italy copying and cheating is seen as an essential skill and something to be congratulated on doing well at... and there are gazillions of different ways that they go about it!  It's the first time I've witnessed the preparation stage first hand though...fascinating!  Fascinating but odd...  and also pretty frustrating trying to teach a lesson over.... at the end the teacher said to me "they've got a test to finish". Err yeah, I noticed... not really an excuse for not paying any attention in another class though. Grrr. 

I've started to get a little bit worried about the whole post-May/June thing now.... I've managed not to think about it too much recently, as I've sort of done all that I can (bombarded a large number of the schools in Brescia with my CV, settled for that fact that the private language schools here aren't really where I want to work...). But of course, being someone who likes to know what I'm doing, this whole uncertainty thing is quite difficult!!

The plans as they stand look like this:
Finish CELTA on Friday May 28th
Finish at Abba-Ballini on Monday May 31st (how pointless having to do 2 lessons on a Monday...)
Holiday with Auntie Dee to Le Cinque Terre in early June
Available for work from June 10th (or maybe Mon June 14th is better)
Rent on flat due up until August

Now ideally I will find a job which starts in September, and have the summer to relax, maybe spend a few weeks in Taize, spend a couple of weeks in England etc etc. Working here in Italy would probably kill me (I'm already dying in the heat and it's only got to about 26 degrees...). That said, I applied for a summer camp job having decided that it wouldn't *actually* kill me... anyway that one came to nothing, BUT, I have just applied for another one. In fact, this one is in Riva del Garda, which would be nice as it's back in Trentino and with lots of work around Trento too (so near to old friends). Someone who did Erasmus in Trento the year after me, from Exeter University as well, is working there now but leaving in June, and she told me they are looking for people for the summer and after (summer camps mostly, with kids). I've applied because it looks like a great opportunity. It's just in the wrong place!! I know I've said this before, but again... ideally my first choice would be to stay in Brescia. I like it here, I'm happy, I've got friends, I'm in groups, I've got a nice place to live etc etc. I'm bored of moving around: a year in Bristol, a year in Taunton, a year in Exeter, a year in Trento, a year in Exeter, a year in Bristol, a year in Brescia..... that's what the past 7 years have been like, and I think it's high time I stayed in one place. That said, moving to somewhere like Riva, or back to Trento, wouldn't be a massive upheaval as it's not a million miles away, close enough certainly to see people in either place, and of course I'd make new friends and contacts too (although Riva is smaller, and I'm not so keen on the idea of being in such a touristy place, but anyway...).

In an ideal world, this is what I'm looking for (but it doesn't exist...)
Location: Brescia
Type of school: small, private language school with a variety of courses (adult, school courses, individual, group etc)
Start date: September, so I have the summer free

The second best option would be to find everything as above but working in a Liceo or other secondary school like I am doing now. I would prefer to work in a language school as now I'm (nearly) qualified, it's a bit of a pain having to "team-teach" with teachers who don't know what "team-teaching" is.... I'd like to have my own classes to manage!

The job I've just applied for combines a bit of everything because it's both on-site language courses (individual and group) and then going to companies and going to schools (primary, middle and secondary). I'd like that variety. In fact, I think I'd like everything about it except having to move to Riva (and all that that entails, like possibly having to work over the summer, to pay double rent because I have to pay here until August now), having to "start again" etc)... but maybe the pros outweigh the cons.

Anyway, this is all purely speculative as who knows if I am what they are looking for anyway! Time will tell.... in the meantime I'm still firing off applications to anyone I think might be interested, and will just have to be patient and rest assured that something WILL turn up.

I know I'm doing the right thing because I love my job, I enjoy what I do, I'm loving the CELTA course (going to be sad when it ends!), I want to be in Italy etc. There are always going to be downsides and complications to living abroad, especially in a precarious job like this (uncertain hours etc), but I'm definitely better at not worrying so much now. After all, the worst that can happen is that I have the summer planned (holidays, Taize, England), living on basically no money, don't find a job in September and have to return to England and temp AGAIN until finding a different job.... or I have to apply for random jobs in other parts of Italy, and give up the idea of staying in this region. Neither is a desperate situation, so I'm sure I'll be ok!

Now it's time to get back to CELTA planning. Penultimate lesson on Friday... boy will I (and I daresay you ,so I stop going on about it!!) be glad when it's over... although as I said above, I'll be very sad when it ends for other reasons, but the assessed and observed lessons I can quite happily do without....

Oh and before I go, I should have added that my first exam course is finished...they all passed the oral and I am SO HAPPY You would've thought it was me taking the exam, I was so nervous for them. Had a lot of pre-exam nightmares! Weird. But I am quite attached to my lovely students and I wanted them all to do well... just the written results to go now!
We went for lunch with the Trinity examiner yesterday as well. He studied at Exeter - how random! Anyway he said he could get me a summer job at Millfield summer camp, teaching for £500 a week, live in with no expenses etc... would be amazing! But again, it's in the wrong country.... and it doesn't fit in with my plans... there are way too many choices in this world! Sometimes I think it would just be easier if all decisions were made for us....

I wasn't expecting there to be a part two, but there is. I was walking to the bus stop in the gorgeous sunshine this morning, minding my own business. Stopped at a crossing near where I catch the bus, and someone appeared at my side saying "good morning!" (in English)..."how are you" blah blah. Then, to my horror, "yesterday I look you in Via Oberdan". THE MAN FROM YESTERDAY! I wouldn't have recognised him from Adam, having paid zero attention yesterday. Anyway, we had to wait for 59 seconds (precisely!) at the crossing, so he was talking and talking and I was being as polite/offputting as I could be (I really need to be ruder....). Anyway then I turned to go to the other crossing and he carried on, so I thought I'd lost him, but then he realised, stopped and caught me up! He proposed that he would like to "keep company with me". Tried my best to get rid of him but had to wait at the bus stop for 10 minutes talking....his unfortuate confusion between "to look at" and "to see" resulted him saying "I look you often in the centre, you always alone, I alone too, we be friends together". Err, no, thanks. "Pleeeeeease?" (he literally said it like that). NO. "After work we go for drink". NO. "Pleeease". NO. "Io non faccio brutto con Lei"... "lo so, ma ancora NO". Eventually the bus came, and thank GOD he didn't get on it. But the problem is not only does he know where I live, but he also knows where I work! ARGH!  Or grrrrr rather, as it's just a bit of a pain. 

Just got home from school. I've had earache all day which is NOT a good sign, given my previous experience of excruciatingly painful earache Oh well, plenty to keep me busy this evening.... busy busy busy. 

Grrr. I was just leaving school, and there was this man sitting outside the gates and as I passed he said "Buongiorno"... "You live on Via SF". Err yeah, thanks for that. I just kind of ignored him and carried on.
A few days ago I was sitting in the mall doing some work whilst waiting to go to meet some people, and this man sat down beside me and (without me having opened my mouth) said "you're from England aren't you, I've heard you talking and I know you're from England" and then proceeded to disturb me for a substantial amount of time until he got round to asking if I wanted to go for a drink, at which point I just said "no, I've got to finish this WHOLE book" and carried on reading.
What is this though, spy central?! They know where I live...they know who I am.... scary!
These aren't the first couple of times this has happened recently, and what with my stalker friend (guy who I ALWAYS see almost every time I leave the house it seems) I'm getting a bit bored of it.... I know I'm just about the only blonde person living on my street, but still, GET LOST!

*Rant over*

Today I got locked in the loos at school. I knew this was going to happen sooner or later. I'm not important enough to have my own key, so have to rely on either the door being left open, or borrowing the key from the caretaker, which is a pain. So, today it was open so I went in.... there was someone else already in the other cubicle, but I thought that as they would know I had come in, they wouldn't lock it. Clearly reason wasn't on my side...they did. I've been kind of waiting for this to happen since September, so I just had to laugh really. Luckily it was about 5 minutes before school ended so it was quite quiet and there was a man filling up the vending machines who heard me banging on the door! I was wondering if I was going to have to ring the school, but as I don't have the number in my phone (note to self: save number in phone!) I was planning having to phone one of the teachers whose number I do have, get them to ring the school etc just to get me out! Anyway, luckily wasn't required as I was let out and with only a slight ticking off from the caretaker for not having taken the key.... haha. I'm just glad I wasn't stuck in there all night!!!!

Have made progress on CLIL module, and have written first draft of CELTA assignment. Getting there workwise...still massively behind on lesson planning though (ie. I know what I'm doing this week but have no idea about next week, except that it's Earth Day so I want to do something about that.... any ideas?!). Tomorrow I've got some extra time because I only have 2 lessons instead of 3 so am forced to be in school from 11.45-1.30pm free because from 1.30pm to God knows when in the afternoon I've got to stay and sort out Trinity portfolios with my students. Then next Weds I have to stay to do a meeting with the Trinity examiner. Oh joy. So no free afternoon tomorrow, but a couple of hours when I might be able to get at least something done lesson planning wise...

CELTA: another lesson done. Only 2 to go now! The course doesn't end until May 28th, but I'm lucky enough to be finishing my teaching practice on May 14th, which is quite a relief!! I didn't feel that today's lesson went too well - it's quite frustrating when you spend 40 minutes clarifying the past simple (was/were) and still get students saying "I were at the cinema" at the end.... anyway, the feedback was good again and I know what I need to work on....more confident pronunciation drilling!! It's something I absolutely hate doing but I really need to work on it as I need to do it well in both the next lessons. I feel some pronunciation drilling practice coming on at school!! (Although there it's a complete nightmare because no one is listening to me anyway....)

CLIL: rather hilariously I have somehow got myself involved in this: "My idea is to develop a module about PIC 16FXX family microcontrollers and their applications in sensor interfacing field." Come again?!
So...this is about electronics. I hate electronics. I hate physics. I seem to remember giving up Physics GCSE. I don't understand a word of what the above is talking about, and yet I am somehow going to collaborate on the producing of a CLIL module about it. My partner has sent me the microcontroller data sheet, and I'm having trouble even understanding what a microcontroller is, let alone anything else. I have to identify the linguistic problems for students. Shall we think about the linguistic problems I'M having first.... in English, that is. THIS ISN'T ENGLISH!!!!
I laughed when I saw what the course leader had written to my partner: "G, good news for you: I've found a partner for you! CP is ready to take on the challenge of an unknown topic in an unknown subject with an unknown colleague. Isn't that something?"
There are lots of things that fill the "something" criteria... ridiculous, idiotic, frightening, hilarious, pointless......
Oh well, we do like a challenge..........

Lots to keep me busy over the weekend as usual.... but looking forward to Taize service tomorrow evening. I wasn't going to be able to go because I was going to Trento, but now I'm here which is good as I need time to prepare for Monday!! Eek!

Bus inspectors... they pop up here every now and then. In fact, I've probably had my ticket (well, bus pass) checked 7 times since I've been in Brescia. That doesn't seem like that many now I think about how many times I get the bus...it seemed like a lot when I was thinking about it though!

Anyway, I'm quite familiar with several routes now.. I get the number 11 to school, the number 1 to work on a Monday, the number 2 to work on a Tuesday, the number 10 to the bank to pay my rent, the number 17 to get to choir etc etc... anyway, in my observations on all these buses, it's quite rare for someone to salire, sorry, get on, without stamping their ticket or pass, or buying a ticket from the driver.

Something funny happened on the bus today though, and it reminded me of something funny that happened a couple of months ago...

...I was on the number 2 going to teach on a Tuesday afternoon. A group of bus inspectors got on (they seem to always travel in 3s) and checked everyone's tickets with their funky little machine. One man clearly didn't have one, and they were sort of holding him prisoner. The bus stopped at the next stop, and the guy tried to make a run for it, sort of leaping over them!! There was a big cuffuffle and they managed to grab him and got off the bus with him and almost had to hold him down!! We drove off so I didn't see what happened, but it was kinda funny.

Not as funny as today though...

On the number 1 coming back from my interview*. I got on and there were already the standard 3 inspectors on the bus. They berated the woman who got on at the same time as me for not stamping her ticket (she had a 24 hour one and thought you only had to do it once at the start of the day...wrong! she got a nice little lecture from them). Anyway, at the next stop 3 people got on.... and 2 of them got straight off again! This caused great hilarity amongst everyone because it was totally obvious that they had no tickets and no money (you can in fact buy tickets on the bus but you have to pay 50c extra). So the inspectors were all laughing away, and then decided to get off the bus too (as the couple were waiting at the next stop, obviously just going to hop on the next bus!). They weren't best impressed when the 3 inspectors got off with them, thus scuppering that plan!! They ended up walking off... and the rest of the bus was still laughing, cruelly...

*Interview went well, but confirmed that I would never want to work there! She wants to meet again next month (nearer the time I would actually start, in June) and seemed fairly positive about the whole thing, but I was definitely not! Starting the interview half an hour late wasn't that impressive either...especially after the whole rearranging thing!
Anyway, the EXCITING news is that I have an even more exciting interview on Monday at a school which goes from Infants up to Liceo. The headmistress rang me today having spoken to my dear friend Dino (who works in a school and has circulated my CV to various other schools and put his name as referee contact on the letter, which appears to have worked a treat!!) and basically they are looking for a madrelingua for next year to help the one they've already got as they've got too many hours... it would be absolutely PERFECT...it's even only a 15 minute walk from my house. It's too good to be true really, so I'm trying not to get my hopes up, but the best thing is that someone actually read my CV and was interested enough to want to meet me! The school does Trinity, CLIL and all the other things I am doing, so I really hope I will fit the bill. My only concern is how many hours they'll be able to offer me, as the British Council study grant is reasonably generous if converted to an hourly wage, so we get by on just 12 hours, but in "real" money terms it would be more tricky (once paying tax etc). Still, we'll see. Fingers majorly crossed!!!