Catching up

I can't believe it is 4 weeks since I last posted something, as I can't think what I have been doing since then. Just work, work, work mostly with lots of preparation for the students' exams, which are next week.  Luckily we are not involved in running those, so now we can only cross our fingers and hope that at least some of them pass. Some will do well, I am sure. We have been involved in running extra listening practices and extra speaking practices; it has been quite nice to meet other students during the speaking. Some of them are very good. It's also meant a little extra money, which is good.

Right now I am trying to find summer work and it has sent me into a depression. (That, and it's raining today, for some reason). Seemingly all TEFL work in the UK over summer is for summer schools for teenagers, and most of the roles include supervising activities and day trips as well, some even include living on site and helping with day to day things like mealtimes. It means a long working week, whereas I would prefer to find something which is mostly teaching like I have been doing here. It is typical that the one job I have found which I actually like doing is not a job you can do easily in the UK. It's not just me saying this, I was looking on a EFL forum and people all say the same. Pay is also not very high, which makes living in nice places like Bath or Oxford (where they have the schools) quite difficult. I had forgotten how much it costs even to rent a room there. Rent here has been reasonable.  If I wanted to go back abroad to teach then of course there are many opportunities. I'm just not sure that's what I want to do.

Etna spitting out cloud

Jo and I have been making the most of the sunshine and visiting the sandy beach which is outside Catania. Sadly it is not within walking distance, being past the port and near the airport, so the roads are too big and busy to walk along. That's ok because there is a bus - it could be a really good shuttle bus route, going there and back in 10 minutes, but no, it's once an hour and so we stand and wait for it at the bus station and then we always have to wait ages for it to take us back. Yesterday after a relaxing day on the sand (despite a really awful dj or perhaps it was someone's uncle playing music and talking over it at the lido), we took 2 hours to get home, even though by car it would take about 15 minutes.

Etna has been spitting out ash so we watched her yesterday as little white clouds appeared over the top, often changing, it was quite entertaining (for me anyway).

We are both now looking forward to returning because it has been a while since we saw family etc, but we will also miss things like the sun, the coffee, granitas etc. I went for a granita with a local lad a couple of weeks ago, which was nice because he was encouraging with my Italian and having to speak in Italian really helped me to practise. He spoke clearly and he understood me so I don't know why some of these people in shops give me such strange looks when I try to speak to them. He had the typical Sicilian hairstyle, longer on top, that Jo doesn't care for, but I don't mind, I've grown used to how they look now and I fear I will find all Englishmen scruffy, pale and unattractive. I have managed to go a little browner (by my standards, not by anyone else's) and have dyed my hair darker, (to fit in?). It's too late to go for a Sicilian romance, not that it's an option, you realise, but it was nice to meet up with this lad a couple of times because it's what I should have been doing for ages, and what I should keep doing, having fun. He loves Back to the Future too, as much as I do, which was fun. In the English version, where Marty's dad is in the coffee shop, he says to Lorraine, "You're my density" when it should be "destiny." I was delighted to find out that in the Italian version, instead of "destino" he says "delfino" which means "you're my dolphin"! I thought this was perhaps even better.

It will be sad to finish teaching some of my students, we've had a nice time in some classes. I have made sure that I have told them the most important things like to pronounce their "s" on the end of third person verbs (they just don't), and many other common mistakes that come from Italian being their first language - our students all say the same things.

some sort of courgette?

I still have to find a job, book a flight and sort out the rest of my life (all without granita and coffee, this is going to be hard. For those of you who think that's all I eat, I deny it - I bought some lovely fresh salad from the market last week, and also a lovely melon (there were a million on sale). The trouble is I've been having to eat salad with things every day since as you just can't buy a little bit of anything there. I saw watermelon bigger than your head. And weird long courgettes. And round ones. You have to be subtle taking photos if you don't want to look like a total tourist.

Days out

I have got behind with blogging as I'm sure there are lots of things I wanted to blog, but have not got round to.  For example, I spent a lovely couple of hours at the Botanical Gardens (finally got there) and enjoyed looking at the fat cacti, the palms, and some pretty flowers. Naturally there are lots of photos for the family to sit through when I am back (get some comfortable cushions, we will have to do the photos in a few sittings haha).

botanical gardens

from Giardini Naxos 

Jo and I have been escaping Catania at every opportunity with our favourite getaway being Giardini Naxos, which is the beach before Taormina. You can be there on the coach after about 45 minutes. I say that but yesterday's getaway was not so straightforward. It was the May Day bank holiday so, in Bank Holiday tradition, most people had had the same idea and were heading to either Giardini or Taormina. The first coach sailed past, full. We waited for an hour for the next one. Luckily we were by a cafe.  The next coach let us on but it took ages to get there as you've guessed it, Bank Holiday queues meant we went at the pace of a snail.
Anyway the beach wasn't that full and we began our now obligatory "Dolphin Watch" - a couple of weekends ago we were lucky enough to see some fins poking out of the water - Jo spotted one first and I was a bit doubtful until I saw it myself. But then, to the accompaniment of loud squeals, one dolphin came tantalisingly close to the beach and we could see its grey skin and we knew beyond doubt it was a dolphin. That was very exciting. We're hoping to have a repeat of it one day.

So today we also fancied a trip out, but having looked at all the options, we decided to stay local. It is one of the downsides of Sicily that public transport is not that great (you might like to guess why). Trains are apparently very slow and although buses are okay, they don't go everywhere. I really want to go to Palermo again to see the mummies and some other things, but a bridge has broken on the main route and so the bus has to go on a massive detour. A trip of 2 and a half hours now takes 3 and half to 4. Neither Jo nor I fancied spending our entire day on a bus.  I would love to go and see some really amazing mosaics not too far from here. We can get to Enna on the bus. But the mosaics are in a town 5km from there. Not even in the town. So there is no easy way to get there. Buses are not regular and taxis apparently cost a bomb and as we are all trying not to return to the UK penniless, it doesn't seem an option. We don't know people with a car, or at least, not to ask to ferry us around Sicily. It really is a shame, but it's too bad. Even flights to nearby Malta are extortionate (although I've not heard a good word about the place).

Etna again but from Taormina

So today we thought - the beach near Catania. (The coast near us is all volcanic lava). The beach with sand is out near the airport. The airport bus! we thought and headed onto Corso Italia. Turns out it doesn't stop there after all. So a woman at the bus stop suggested Acicastello. That has a beach, she said. We waited for a bus for ages without any luck and eventually walked to the train station. Apparently trains don't go to Acicastello, so back to waiting for a bus. We encountered an English couple at the bus stop, just arrived in Sicily for ten days - they had had the same idea and the same problems as us. Eventually after we'd told them our story, the bus came and we all clung on for dear life as it hurtled to our destination. So Acicastello doesn't have a beach after all. Just lava rocks. But it does have a castle (hence the name).  We clambered over the crocodile-skin-like rocks (they really hurt) and sat near the water, which was a lovely turquoise near the edge. There were little rock pools and we were delighted to see little dark crabs scuttle out into the sunlight and then hastily run back into a crack in the rocks. No dolphins though, but there was a weird cloud in the sky, which must have come from Etna.

the castle

cacti garden

Once it got too windy to sit there, we gave up and went back to the piazza for a (by now) essential
coffee. By coffee I mean espresso - they are so dark and rich and addictive, we both think we'll miss them and actually have withdrawal symptoms back in the UK, and both say we don't sleep properly. But there's not much else to do apart from sit and have coffee at the cafes. Of course, we saw the English couple there doing the same thing. I managed an ice cream (melon and peach). There was even grass and kids playing, something you don't see in Catania.  The castle is quite old but it looked a bit dark and as though there would only be a few damp walls to look at. But we had a pleasant surprise! It had a friendly ticket man and he promised us there was a garden there. Lo and behold, through a doorway there was a lovely secluded cacti garden with some fabulous plants and a great view over the sea, with swifts swooping overhead. There was also a great view out to Acitrezza (where a giant threw the rocks into the sea, apparently) and over the rooves of Acicastello. So a nice end to the day, and the ticket man even told us where to get the bus back.

Acitrezza from Acicastello castle