Tests and tea

This week has been a nice change as we have been giving the students tests, so while they have been busy, we have had a break from standing at the front teaching. It has not been without its challenges, as I had to keep the student with ADHD occupied while the others took their test and this was itself a test of my resources. I drew a picture of Etna which entertained her so she started copying it. I have discovered that I can entertain myself quite well with little things like this.

Italians clearly have a different view of tests to the English, as they do not seem to stick to the no talking rule, or understand that it's not really a test if you ask me, or the other students, what words mean. "It's a test," I said, "I can't help you."  However, I am quite pleased with the results, in general, and I hope they will be too. I quickly got bored of marking the same thing several times, though. The higher levels are quite tricky and I can't always mark them without checking the answer key.

We (the teachers) make each other laugh by sharing the things we find frustrating in class; usually our students make the same mistakes which I suppose come from their own language. One guy is convinced the word for "match" or "join" is "colleage" (well, I don't know how he would spell it) which comes from the Italian word. I have told him the English words, of course, but it's got to the point now where I've heard this word "colleage" so many times that I am almost using it myself. I'm sure our pigeon Italian is just as entertaining to them - language learning is quite difficult, I know.

This week we had the most fun we've had in ages, without any expense at all. I'd created a treasure hunt for my housemates, after Luna saw some kids doing one in the supermarket. I'd written a set of rhyming clues, like Rupert Bear, where one clue led to the next one. I hid them in various places round the flat and the last clue was the treasure (chocolate, and other small things from the Chinese shops, which are shops that sell cheap clothes, knick knacks and household stuff).  My flatmates absolutely loved the treasure hunt and raced round the house in delight, which was great fun.

After that we played "hide n seek" in the dark. It may sound like we are ten years old but everyone really enjoyed it. The flat is large and has many places to hide, and with the lights off it was very dark. Rather dangerous you might think, and yes Ella and Jo did bang into each other in their haste to hide.  One person looked for the others each time. I must be good at hiding because I was last to be found twice. It was very hard to keep quiet when people were coming into the room to look for you. One time I was behind a door in the hall and Sticky, Ella's friend, walked past me a few times. Eventually Ella and Jo were standing in front of the door and wondering where I was, when I started laughing. They freaked out and said, "Luna, is that you laughing?" Luna came into the hall and said it wasn't. At which point I started laughing even harder, except I was trying to stifle it so it must have sounded quite strange. Ella and Jo realised I was behind the door - cue screams and laughter. It was very funny. I was quite scared when it was my turn to look for people, as you couldn't see a thing and had to feel for people in the dark. When you did touch someone it was such a surprise to feel something soft you screamed because you weren't expecting it, and the other person screamed, and it was all good clean fun, like when you scare yourself watching horror films. We haven't laughed so much in ages. I think we are all secretly looking forward to playing it again soon.

The landlord announced we have a large electricity bill to pay which we are all puzzled about as we are sure we can't have used that much electricity since the last one. We've asked him to bring all the paperwork over so we can scrutinise it. The irony is we were playing a game with the lights turned off.

Today Ella and Jo have given me a nice surprise in return for the treasure hunt, as they have bought a cute little kettle - I was always complaining that Italians don't have kettles. And a box of my favourite new tea, which I have had at the cafe. It is now a joke that the new guy working at the cafe has a bit of a thing for me - before you get excited he must be late 50s. But yes it is clear he thinks I am "carina" or sweet, as Jo heard the other guy teasing him. Anyway it makes a change. Yesterday they were trying to get me to go to the karaoke there to sing with him, but I don't sing. He will be disappointed now that I have my own kettle and teabags at home, so I won't have to drop in for my usual "te caldo" around 5pm.

Palermo

For a while we (the housemates) have been planning a trip to Palermo. It is the capital of Sicily and about two and a half hours' drive away on the north coast. There is enough there to explore for a few days but in the end we decided to make a day trip of it, rather than stay overnight.

We somehow all managed to get up and get on the 9.00am bus, which was a miracle, but then had a two hour forty minute journey with the air conditioning not working. It was a lovely sunny day so it was quite warm. As we left Catania there was the most amazing view of Etna - I know I go on about her, but she has a lot of snow at the moment, which comes quite far down the slopes, so the white makes her stand out against the pale blue sky. She looked stunning and somehow you can't take your eyes off her, even when you get a crick in the neck from staring out the window.

I knew from having flown over the island but was still surprised to see how hilly the centre is. We even passed some snowy peaks when we were near the north coast. I saw a few birds of prey flying overhead in the sun.

The north coast looks pretty and my housemate recommends Cefalu, which is a pretty coastal town. She had lived near Palermo so fortunately she knew where to take us and what to see. The streets seemed wider, cleaner and brighter to me, although in a similar style to Catania, so I decided I much prefer Palermo to Catania. There are, according to my guidebook, many churches of note to see, with mosaics and fancy Arabic influence. But I think a return visit to Palermo is a must, to take in particular sights. As it was, we were able to see the main piazzas, the duomo (quite impressive from the outside but not very exciting inside), horse drawn carriages for the tourists (always a winner) and "The Fountain of Shame" which my housemate said had been designed for Rome but rejected on the account that there was too much nudity. Clearly Palermo didn't have a problem with that.

I don't know if it was just being out of Catania but I thought the place was less noisy, less dirty and the people seemed all right too. Maybe it was just having a change!

I liked the seafront, which seemed more open and accessible than the lungomare, and also had a lovely view of Bagheria, between two hills. There were hills all round the city which meant that looking down streets you caught sight of a hill, which was very nice. I also thought there were more green spaces, one where we saw two huge trees with cool trunks. There is also a botanical garden which begs another visit, although I think it was only small.

We finished our day with a trip to a tea shop that had every sort of tea, and the most amazing coconut cake and handmade shortbread. All very nice. I would like to go back to Palermo as there are other places to check out including the very macabre sounding catacombs, where the preserved dead bodies are on display.

Castello Ursino

Castello Ursino in Catania is a thirteenth century castle that once stood by the sea, but since the eruption of 1693, it is now inland, as lava surrounded it. It is a solid looking thing and still in good repair, with four round towers at each corner. Not far from the centre, it now houses some modern art and some ancient artefacts.

I thought it was a pleasing space to walk around, as the conversion to an art gallery has been sympathetically done and so you can still get a feeling for the castle building itself, whilst looking at the paintings and sculptures in a light and airy setting. There are three floors; the top one being an exhibition space.

The art was mostly twentieth century Sicilian artists, alongside some ancient Roman or Greek carvings, statues and some display cabinets with urns and other bits and pieces. I wasn't particularly blown away by much of the art - perhaps I was not in a very receptive mood that day - but I kept an eye out for an artist my mother had asked me to look for, namely Renato Gattuso.  His were the best thing in there, in my opinion.

I also liked a figure of a sheep with curly wool (headless).

And these octopuses reminded me of some certain squid.

dreaming spires

It has gone back to raining a lot, which is boring. I tried to use the day to do useful things, like looking up information about a student I have who is clearly different to the other students. Looking online it seems likely she has something like ADHD, something I knew nothing about. ADHD makes it harder for the person to concentrate on things for very long and they find it easier to learn in some ways than others, for example, using visual learning rather than writing and reading. Luckily I found a whole paper written by a EFL teacher, who had had experience of students with ADHD and suggested many ways of teaching in order to make their experience more fulfilling.

I have been enjoying watching episodes of Inspector Morse - I have never seen that many of them but seeing Oxford makes me feel happy, as I really liked living there, over two short periods. The first was two years ago, for the wonderful CELTA course, and the second was summer 2013, when I tried TEFL teaching for the first time, less successfully than now. However, I did meet Clare and Tom there, and I saw red kites fly overhead regularly. I felt very happy in Oxford, it is a lovely city with a friendly feel to it and, although it was swarming with tourists, it always felt like a comfortable place to be. Sadly, very expensive, and still far from family, but perhaps one day I will be able to go back. I enjoy catching a glimpse of a few places I recognise when I am watching the programme.

Last weekend I went to the Castello Ursino, which is now a museum and art gallery. More on that next time...