I've been reminded that it's quite a long time since I last wrote. In case anyone was worried, I am still here!!
It's been a busy few weeks...

I've redone almost all of my documents, and got all my replacement bank/credit cards. Still got the (possibly most problematic) one to go: my carta regionale dei servizi (including the TEAM/EHIC part). This involves another trip to l'ASL (the health dept office) which is barely ever open, miles away and generally a right pain. I'm going to have to try and go there after school tomorrow morning I think...

The following weekend was much more successful than the Venice one. Having been in Verona on Friday for the CELTA course (and another successful observed teaching session), I had to return on Saturday to complete the first part of my observation of an experienced teacher. I observed a 2 hour intermediate level lesson which was fantastic! Really enjoyed it and picked up a few nice tips.
After the morning at the school I wandered into Verona centre. It was Valentine's weekend so they had a few special things going on. In Piazza dei Signori there was a massive red heart made out of a market (best seen from above) - red carpet in the shape of a heart, surrounded by white rooved market stalls. They were giving out wine tasters and stuff and it was generally very nice. For the first time, I went up the tower and the view from up there back down across the Piazza was stunning. I'm not sure why I hadn't done that on any of the previous visits to Verona, but it was a perfect day to do it as the skies were nice and clear. I'm in school, otherwise I'd attach some of the photos I took!

Having spent a bit longer in Verona than I intended, I got a much later train to Trento. I had arranged to meet Stefania at 6.30pm, and it was very lucky that the train I got in the end was due in at 18.28! Stefania was there when I got there, and I was very excited that in the car as well were Elisabetta and now-not-so-baby Sebastiano. I last saw them in 2007 when he was fairly newborn so it was wonderful to see them again.
I was in Trento for a party held by the choir I was in there... it was carnival weekend so lots of costumes, lots of children (several of whom, like Sebastiano, were a lot bigger than last time I saw them!). Really nice reunion with lots of people
I stayed with Stefania overnight and then headed back to get the train home at about 10.30am on Sunday.
I had to change trains in Verona, and unfortunately there was a bit of drama on the second train...they had found a body on the tracks between Verona and Brescia and so all the trains were suspended. In the end they put all the regionale passengers onto the EC trains, so we got to travel in a bit more style (although still well over an hour late). This was a bit annoying as I was supposed to be meeting Mum and Dad at Brescia station...their train from Milan was due in about 4 minutes after mine was meant to be. However, in the end it worked out quite well as they had been able to go to the hotel and sort out stuff and I met them there. Had a belated birthday celebration at that point as well which was lovely (actually got to unwrap some presents this time, rather than the people in my building having done it for me...)

We spent the rest of Sunday afternoon exploring Brescia - more carnival events going on so we saw lots of children in their fun costumes (I love the animal suits complete with tail!). Then later had a lovely meal out in one of the restaurants in Brescia that I've been dying to go to.
The next day was the San Faustino (patron saint of Brescia) festival. I live on via San Faustino which was the centre of the events. Basically it was a massive market covering all the central streets. Sooooo many people packed into the streets! It was quite incredible.
During the afternoon we escaped the crowds and went up the hill to the castle. I was really pleased to go up there again and managed to find a different route up which was not nearly as exhausting as the one I took last time! So I didn't feel quite as much like I was going to die when I got to the top!!!
On Tuesday we did more exploring and went to the Museum. My 2nd trip, as thoroughly enjoyed as the first... wonderful to see the Inca Exhibition again.

All in all a lovely few days spent with mamma e papa

On Wednesday it was back to the realities of teaching as although I had arranged the morning off to spend with them before they left for the airport, I had to take the Trinity exam course in the afternoon. Then a full day of lessons on Thursday...  I feel like I've had a nice holiday though as I didn't have a full week of teaching the week before either, so this will be my first full week again. Including my first one hour assessed CELTA lesson. Oh joy!!

One last great thing. On Saturday night it was the monthly Taize service and this time there were loads more people there which was great. We went to a pizzeria afterwards as well so I got to talk to them more. I've decided (and booked) to go to Taize at Easter. It's something I've been very keen to do, and the Brescia/Bergamo group are arranging a coach, so it's perfect. It fits in nicely to my holidays from school (with a few days either side of it) and will be a lovely way to spend Easter. I'm so excited!! Just got to find someone who can lend me a sleeping bag and roll mat, as all my camping stuff is in England!

That's it for now... sorry it's long. Had a few weeks to catch up on don't you know!

This week was not meant to be.

For a while now, things mum has been sending haven't been getting through (small packets). Wasn't sure if it was a) Royal Mail b) Poste Italiane or c) Someone nicking stuff from my building. Yesterday discovered for certain that the answer was c.
Tomorrow it's my birthday, and one of the things that hadn't arrived was a birthday present. When I came back last night, I spotted a book, in the dark, corner of one of the landings on the way up to my flat. It looked a very familiar book, and as I investigated it was indeed a brand new copy of a book in English which just happened to be by one of my fave authors. I didn't know what the present mum had sent was, but this seemed a little strange, so I checked, and lo and behold it was what she had sent. This morning I found the wrapping paper that had been cast off it at the bottom of the stairs. No sign of the card or the Cadburys Chocolate... someone in the building is enjoying that!

Anyway, at least that meant mystery solved and lesson of not having anything delivered here (except cards/letters which seem to get through ok) learnt. So, next stop was Venice for a nice birthday weekend away, celebrating at the carneval.

I got the train at 8.35am, arrived at 10.51am. Stopped to pick up a few brochures from the info point, went to buy a travel card for the boats and then decided to wait as I didn't need it yet and could get one later to cover the whole of my trip. So I put my purse away again. Wandered through the streets heading towards Piazza San Marco etc. This was my 5th trip to Venice, so wasn't seeing anything new but was thoroughly enjoying being back there. Crossed the Rialto bridge, spotted a nice-ish looking focaccia place. Ordered my focaccia, went to get my purse out. No purse. Bag slightly open. Oh dear. Purse gone. Purse with everything in gone (decent amount of cash for the weekend away, debit cards, credit card, driving licence, carta d'identita, CRS Lombardia card, EHIC card, Bus pass card, etc etc etc etc...).
Basically was left with absolutely nothing, except, by a pure stroke of luck, my train ticket home. I ALWAYS put my train ticket in my purse, but for some reason I hadn't today. Thank God. So, I had no money to do anything at all, and all I could do in the end was get the train home.
First stop was obviously the police station... I found some vigili on the Rialto bridge and they helped me and tried to phone the embassy for me and stuff (but it was shut), then they told me to go to the police office in Piazza San Marco. I went there and was told that he couldn't do anything for me and I had to go to San Zeccaria to the Carabinieri. Went there, gave all the details, got the denuncia report and then set off on the depressing walk back to the station. Managed to arrive 4 minutes before train was leaving which was perfect (about the only perfect thing of the day, other than having managed to keep hold of my ticket), so I got on the train and was home by 6pm...hungry and thirsty!

Sigh. Not quite the birthday I was hoping for... or the relaxing weekend, more to the point!
Going to have to spend Monday running around to various offices trying to get cards replaced and basically doing lots of paperwork. Again. Oh joy!!!

I honestly don't know where the weeks are going at the moment. Definitely feeling the pressures of time at the moment. Mostly just getting used to having far more balls to juggle (having added in the Trinity course, CELTA getting a bit heavier on the work with assignments to start working on now as well as more criteria for the lesson planning) and CLIL.
The other day I had all my sets of folders/materials in piles on my bed. I spent a while looking through one of the folders for something for school, only to realise a little while later that I was looking through my CELTA folder! It was rather like spending ages trying to find a word in the dictionary, only to realise that you've been looking in the wrong language bit. I do that a lot. Anyway, just a bit of confusion going on and my head feels like one big lesson planning machine.

Actually, at CELTA yesterday we spent some time looking at their massive resource library, and our tutor said that we're allowed to photocopy resources for our jobs because most places don't have as well equipped a library. Well I'm currently working without resources and am making them all myself. Being able to find some topic related activities there and copy them each week is going to be absolutely brilliant and will hopefully save me some of the time I'm currently spending on making materials.

I had my second assessed lesson yesterday. I didn't enjoy doing it as much as the first, but the feedback was good again and he said he'd seen an improvement in my feedback giving, so that's good. I was far more nervous yesterday though. Not really sure why, perhaps partly related to feeling very tired this week, perhaps partly related to being first up (and having the problem of half the class arriving late to deal with!). It's silly though, all of us were commenting on the fact that this is one tiny 40 minute lesson in a week where (most of us) spend the rest of the time teaching 1-2hr lessons by ourselves, and yet we spend the most time fretting about this one. There is definitely something about having someone sitting in the corner taking notes on every single thing you do, and having 5 people on the other side of the room doing the same! (Not to mention the 14 students you are actually teaching...). Still, it should be a breeze really compared to my double-sized, rowdy teenage school classes!!!
The nicest thing was that this week we went for our first drink together (7 out of the 12 of us) and enjoyed chatting about being foreigners in Italy (bar the 2 Italians!) and teaching experiences etc. It was fun. Also, Giulia, one of the Italians (who actually lives in Verona) said that she'd like to invite me out with her and her friends one Friday and I can stay over at hers. She laughed that she lives with her mother and a dog! But that would be nice one week. She suggested next week, but unfortunately I don't think I'll be able to stay late in Verona as I'm heading to Venice the next day.

Lots of fun things to look forward to amongst the pressures of work. Tonight is my first concert with my new choir. Quite excited!! Had to scurry around looking for a black shirt to wear (not much fun!) but managed to find one, and am looking forward to it!!
Then on Wednesday I'm going to see Avatar. We tried to go last week (my tutor, her niece and various other 12 year olds!) but it was fully booked, so we're going next week instead!
Saturday and Sunday I'm off to Venice Carnival (for my birthday). Then the following week I am now going to Verona in the morning to observe a qualified teacher's lesson, then heading to Trento in the afternoon to go to a party/dinner with all of my old choir (and friends) from there, and staying overnight with one of them. Then heading back just in time to arrive at Brescia station at the same time as mum and dad arrive there coming down from Milan!

I've been to Milan several times, but only ever on a day trip from somewhere else. As a consequence, I've never seen the sights in the dark because I'm normally heading back to the train station to get home by the time night falls.

 

Well, you can tell how busy I've been from the fact that I haven't updated this for 9 days! Not really sure where those days have gone to be honest!

I had my first assessed teaching practice for the CELTA course, which went surprisingly well. I got some very nice feedback and I actually quite enjoyed teaching the class! I'm really enjoying the course as a whole so am confident that I'm doing the right thing. 
Just heard actually that I will have to go to Verona on three Thursday evenings (as well as all day Friday) for the 6 hours observation of experienced teachers that we have to do. They are arranging for us to observe an evening course on the Thursday as there is nothing suitable on Fri. Bit of a pain but at least I'm reasonably near. The other option was to find a language school in Brescia to go and observe at, but it would have been much more complicated to arrange and no guarantee that it would be a reputable course etc.

Yesterday I attended the first part of a CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning) course. The course was 3 hours long and in a place an hour's drive away. I have to say that the only good part of the afternoon was the drive because we drove right past the beautiful Lago d'Iseo and some lovely snowcapped mountains - very scenic. The course itself was really not much to write home about. The introduction was ok I suppose, but not much we didn't already know (an introduction to CLIL). The next 1.5 hours was spent logging in and playing around with the Moodle Platform - a Virtual Learning Environment for those not in the know! Definitely didn't need to spend that long looking at it.

I've just taught my first Trinity exam preparation course. I have a nice group of students and it went well (I hope the students agreed...) but there is a slight problem in that I have been told just to work through a Pass Trinity coursebook but it turns out that 90% of the class have already worked through the whole book! So I've got to rethink what I'm doing and work out how I can best help them to do well in the exam. Well I do like a challenge!

Things are progressing on the name front... I know 100% of 2 classes now (smaller classes, I'll admit!) and around 70% of most of the others, with it dropping slightly to 50% ish in the biggest classes of 30. Not a bad start I don't think, and I will continue to try and work out new ones!

Basically, with all these different courses and lessons (and discovering that it's not only the Civil Service who are obsessed with acronyms) I am spending a lot of time preparing lessons and the like, but I always enjoy it so it's ok! I'm just feeling quite tired, that's all!

In non-teacher related things....

I have joined a choir! It's a gospel choir here in Brescia. Now I've never sung gospel before so it's a new experience, but in fact some of the songs are ones I know from CDs and stuff. It's quite small and a very different experience from any choir I've ever sung in before (only 3 altos, or only 1 (me) as happened this week!) and microphones floating around... the week I turned up I had to do an audition, which I really wasn't expecting, and then this week I had to sing into the microphone at one point. Still, I think all this teaching has definitely had a major effect on me because I wasn't actually hugely worried about doing it!
My only slight concern is that I'm going to get quite tired, because rehearsals don't start until 8.30pm and I get home about 11pm. Tuesday morning I have first lesson so have to be up at 6.15am and my body doesn't really agree with getting less than 7.5 (preferably 8!) hours sleep. They do everything so much later here... I'm not used to only going out for a rehearsal at 8pm!).

Last Saturday was the second of the monthly Taize services I have made it to. It was really wonderful...the most Taize-like Taize service I've been to outside of Taize! It definitely stems from the fact that everyone there (about 15 people) have ALL been to Taize and so know what it's like. Really enjoyed the chance to sing all the alto parts.
We went for a drink afterwards as well which was a chance to talk a bit more to the people who go. I can't wait until the next one on Feb 20th!

Tomorrow I'm going to Milan after work to see Da Vinci's Last Supper, or Il Cenacolo as it is better known in these parts. It's quite hard to book tickets to see and, as I have a train ticket to Milan valid until the first week of Feb, I wanted to go soon. Managed to get a ticket for tomorrow. Not ideal having to go straight after work, but it wil be nice to finally see. Also while I'm under 25 (which is only for another couple of weeks!) I get a cheaper ticket!

I've booked a night in the hostel in Venice for the Carnevale. I'm going on Feb 6th (the opening day) and staying over until February 7th (my birthday). Really excited about the prospect of waking up on my birthday in Venice! I've stayed in the hostel before and it's nice...thought I'd treat myself to a weekend away! Then the weekend after my parents are coming to visit! So, lots of exciting things to look forward to amongst the lesson planning and giving!

I don't normally make New Year's Resolutions, but this year I sort of made one without really thinking of it as such. I decided that I would make a massive effort to actually learn more of my students' names.

Anyway, there have been a couple of cases where I've found out the name of a student I see a lot (on the bus for example) and now suddenly I know what to call them! It's exciting!!
Oh and it turns out that only a handful of them actually know MY name, and there's only one of me for them to learn. So that makes me feel better. As did the fact that not all of the students knew the names of all the other students in their own class (found that out when I did a game in a couple of classes to recap names and what they did during the holidays).

Had first CELTA (Cambridge Certificate of English Language Teaching to Adults) session on Friday in Verona. It went well and I enjoyed it, which is a good thing as there are 19 sessions to go! There are 12 of us on the course, split into two groups. I am in the group who are teaching the Intermediate level group to start with and then swapping to the beginners' group after. There are pros and cons to each - as the tutor said, those going from Beginners to Intermediate will find themselves suddenly being able to speak properly to their students and actually get responses, and those going the other way (ie.my group) will find that while they were used to having decent conversations they suddenly get a 'huh?!' response. That's not for 10 weeks though so I don't have to worry yet!

During the morning we had a 'get to know you' session and then an input session on 'What is a language learner like' etc, and then some time to plan our first lesson for that afternoon.  It was very interesting to be thrown straight into the situation of planning the lesson (with guidelines) and implementing it. The lesson was from 2.30-4.30pm and we taught a 20 minute slot each. From next week we'll be teaching 40 mins each alternate weeks, and then finally a 60 minute session each. All the teaching practice is observed and assessed. My first assessed session is next week. We also have 4 assignments to complete, with the first one being a study of one of our learners. I have to arrange to interview one of them next week!  There are 12 students in our Intermediate class. They are mostly middle aged/retired Italians with a couple of exceptions (a couple of slightly younger, a couple of different original mother tongue). I'm the youngest trainee teacher in my group (there are some other similar aged trainees in the other group) and younger than all the students, which makes it quite different from teaching at school.

Back to the lesson planning now!!!

I know how you all love hearing about the bank saga, so I thought I would give you another installment!!

In other bank related amusement, I went to pick up my salary today and because this time I had received a cheque (as I didn't go in time to withdraw it direct from the bank), they had to enter all my details into the computer. I was quite excited to be able to hand them my brand new Carta Regionale dei Servizi (which combines a card with my tax code etc on it with an EHIC card - I am now in possession of UK and Italian EHIC cards - woooo!) and my Carta d'Identita. I feel like an Italian, hehe. Anyway basically the guy couldn't find what to put as my country for ages. Confusingly on one of the documents it is listed as Gran Bretagna e Irlanda del Nord, on the other as Regno Unito. This was most confusing for the poor man, who was searching for Inghilterra and Regno Unito, missing the Gran Bretagna bit until he had to go and ask his colleague for help. Eventually they found it! Stupid country having so many names! It's caused me trouble in the post office before as well, trying to post something to Inghilterra confuses the hell out of them.

What a long time without an update! Firstly, Happy New Year to one and all! May 2010 be an excellent year!

Very luckily I flew back to Italy yesterday with no problems (flight delayed by an hour but I still made my train and got back to my flat at midnight). If I had been trying to fly today then I fear I would have been stuck in England for rather a long time as the airport is closed today and everyone is snowed in. Sadly there is no snow here now, although I have to say that the snow has cost a small fortune this holiday season (both in lost earnings from cancelled private lessons and in expenditure for travel disruption) so I'm not its biggest fan right now, even if it is very pretty!

Not that the snow hasn't been very exciting, but when it looks as though it might interfere with me getting home for Christmas, I would rather it made a swift retreat.