So time has caught up with me and all of a sudden, it is time to go home. I don't know how we have gone from having 5 long months ahead of us in January, to now when there is only one week left of my life in Sicily. To say there are mixed emotions is an understatement - who would have thought this would be the case back in January when I really wanted to go home.
It shows how you get used to something and how things become normal. I've made a list of things I will miss and things I won't miss, and surprisingly they are equal. This week is our last week of teaching and it is strange, something of an anti-climax, as we say goodbye to students for the last time. Those who you think might have turned up didn't always, and those who you least expected to see showed up. My FCE class were lovely and we had a nice last lesson, doing word games and so on, and then we went to lovely little Acitrezza, with its three rocks in the sea, and memories of happy granitas, and we had a pizza in a lovely restaurant overlooking the sea. In fact it was a place Shona and Gab took me and Jo in the first weeks so it kind of felt like things are coming full circle. I had pizza norma, (pasta alla norma is a traditional Catanese dish with aubergine and ricotta salata. The pizza is a version of this). My lovely class gave me a very nice book on Catania, full of beautiful pictures to remind me of everything. It's quite heavy though so I will just have to make allowances in my suitcase!
So mixed emotions - I will not be sad to leave certain things like the noise, the graffiti, the honking of horns, not being able to understand everyone or communicate very well, working in the evening and eating at night, ... many other things. But I will miss granitas, the coffee, Etna, the sunshine, Italian, beautiful looking men and Italian style. I won't miss the mosquitoes, they have been making the past few days hell. I will miss Jo, but she too is going back to the UK so of course we will stay in touch. Students have all been asking (ok, not all, but the nice ones haha) whether I am coming back next year. So far I can only say I don't think so, I don't know. I really want to see how I feel about things. I think no. And I don't think it would be the same without Jo - the experience is now and a new experience lies ahead somewhere else.
I won't have had time to see and do everything I wanted to see and do, but this is mostly because it turned out that without a car it is impossible to get places here - public transport is ok but only to main towns and cities. Even then it still takes ages. There are amazing mosaics I wanted to see, and we wanted to go to the top of Etna, and see her erupting and go to see the mummies... Never mind.
The experience has been amazing, learning how to be a teacher - I am amazed that I actually can say I love my job without it being too far from the truth. I do love doing it, it's rewarding. I have now got a new job in England, teaching English to students in a college, for summer. They are foreign children who want to go to a school in England for their entire schooling - and not just any old school but the elite ones including places like Eton and Harrow. The college is for up to one year, so they improve their English quickly and learn about British culture, including our sports and day trips to cities etc. So they will be prepared to go to their new school. I was surprised to be offered the job so now I want to make a go of it and I think the college looks like a supportive place to work and to learn. It is near my sister so at least I will be near part of my family again.
So I have booked my flight today (after a fun time in the post office transferring money) and it is for a week today. I think it will be a big adjustment after so long here - as I say you get used to things don't you, so it's like any change. But things end and new things start. I couldn't stay here long term, for a start it gets too hot from now onwards, and then there is the whole thing about fitting into a culture. I think here it would take simply ages to be let in to their culture; we still don't get the whole living at home til you're 40 thing or the mummy's boys, or the dress sense, or any of it really haha. But it has been a great experience to live somewhere else and if I need any confidence in myself then this should have given me plenty. Yes I like the Italian boys look and yes I will miss that too but Sicilian men, they're not for marrying or hanging on to I don't think - too many issues :) I don't understand them. Let's hope the English ones are a bit easier now. At least there won't be the language barrier.
OK, so granitas all round. If I could stuff granita, chinotto, arancini and Etna in my suitcase, I would... but I'm going to have a hard enough time packing what I have accumulated anyway! See you at the airport... I'll try and bring the sun. x
