August

I seem to leave it awfully long to blog again but here we go, what has been happening in August?

Well, work, work and more work, and the students were just getting more and more weary as the term went on because basically no one else is at school so why should they be? It did seem increasingly difficult to keep them motivated and who can blame them? By the end of term it was quite impossible. But I saw a different side to one or two of them and it was all a bit emotional for them leaving their friends after becoming so close in such a close-knit environment.  There is no work for me there next term, as numbers in September are lower. I have turned down 3 months in the Ukraine, as my plan is to stay here now and not delay finding what I want here. I'm happy with that, I just need to start looking.

Going back to job hunting is as depressing as it was last time. I applied for a bog-standard kind of position as a vets' receptionist/animal assistant - I have experience in both reception duties and working with animals. But they had over 200 applications for it - from whom, I cannot imagine. So if this is the sort of competition... However, can't give up and I have had a look today and found some things to apply for, even if they are not amazing and challenging careers. It seems that the job market today has changed and it is no longer possible to just find a rewarding and well paid job that suits your skills and qualifications. Seemingly you have to have experience in everything (but who would go from the same job to the same job all the time? It doesn't even make sense). I saw one for a copywriter for a website but you had to have a proven interest in lingerie (er, how?) I will have to approach it all more creatively and perhaps have several ways of making a living instead of one. I have advertised my English tuition services so hopefully with the start of a new term, some students might want help with things. One person has replied so far :) It is very time consuming looking for jobs, before you've even applied for them.

In other news, well I will blog about that separately. Needless to say that I am missing the warmth of the Sicilian sun very much in this English climate, and still missing the coffee, boys and Etna.

Back again

It hasn't seemed worth blogging until now about being back in the UK, but here I am again. It's been 6 weeks and the things I miss most are the coffee, sunshine and Jo. And nice looking ragazzi. And some of my students. And the food. But at the moment, mostly the sunshine and coffee, it being cold and rainy here. A day of ceaseless rain on Friday is enough to make anyone head to the easyjet website.

However, I don't think that is the answer right now. A recent birthday was my annual time for reflection (maybe I should have these more often) and perhaps I should think about what I want from life a bit more and actually take action to get nearer that. Running back to Italy is tempting (especially when Jo has been talking about returning to exotic locations), but there are things here that I could be focussing on. We will see.

I've been in touch with some of my students and occasionally heard from the nice floppy haired Back to the Future fan, so I have some sort of connection with the land of lovely Etna. (I failed to say I miss her but I do, very much). It is currently pushing 37 degrees there, which is too hot even for them, what a shame, but I dare say they prefer it to what we have at the moment.

Here I am experiencing a new part time summer job at a small international school which prepares students for UK boarding schools. They are mostly from China, Russia and Japan, with a sole Italian boy who I make read in class so I can hear the lovely accent. It is different to what I was doing in Italy and I hope to learn a few things about teaching while I am there. The teachers are all nice and supportive and the kids are pleasant enough, very polite and really just typical teenagers, who'd rather be sleeping sometimes than working. But what's new. I have enjoyed working with one smaller child and encouraging him with his spelling and reading. Another bonus is having tea breaks and a hot lunch all together. But boarding school life with its regulations and so on is quite a different thing but I think I've got used to it now and the children seem happy there. It's nice that everyone knows each other by name and they all look after each other.

Aside from that, it will be back to the job hunting again and also thinking of long term plans; where do I want to be, who do I want to be there with, etc etc. Meanwhile work and feeling generally knackered seem to get in the way of more exciting things like Fonting and writing and finding a way out of having to work.  But some fonts have been visited (yey!) which was a great relief and helped establish equilibrium again. More on those to come. And if it is all too much here, then I know Etna is only a 3 hour plane trip away, even for a quick burst of sunshine and a much-needed caffè.

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.

We have taken to popping into the cafe/pasticceria during the day if we can, which gives us a break from school and also helps us to "integrate" haha. They know our faces now and try to help us make ourselves understood. (I walk past the same (fairly attractive, to me at least) man several times a day, who owns a shop by the cafe. I have no reason to go in the shop as it sells strange things. But not until yesterday did I manage one of those half smiles at him and he managed to raise an eyebrow back at me. See, it is a slow process). Today we went to the cafe at lunch time and everyone was getting hot food - I thought I'd try myself, so ordered some pasta. It came and was an enormous bowl of pasta and lentil soup - very tasty but so huge, I could not finish it, which was a shame and probably looked terrible to them. Jo was sensible and just had an arancino. I have not settled into a good routine for food yet, as I start teaching at 3.30 and usually finish at 9.30 with a gap in between, but not a large enough gap to have a proper dinner at home. I need to start eating a proper dinner at around 1pm. Eating after I finish is way too late.  In fact we did meals today in the teens class and I asked them what times they ate and told them how it is different in the UK. I was surprised that even they eat their dinner at 9pm. The teens classes did some great menus, which I have put up on the wall to give a bit of colour and to show them I am proud of what they have done.

Lessons seem to be going well but I still spend virtually all day planning, preparing and worrying when I have new lessons to give. If I am repeating a lesson, more or less, to a second group doing the same things, that is less stressful as I can follow what I did the day before. I enjoy the actual lessons; the students and I are getting to know each other and relaxing more and so it is always fine, sometimes even fun. There are lots of things I would like to improve and need to think about but it is far from disastrous. I would just like to improve on everything. I can hear my CELTA tutor telling me about being more dynamic, having more energy and authority etc and it is true, I do need that. I also need to plan the shape and focus of the lessons better, and to make my instructions much clearer. It is having the time. There are loads of materials available in the school and online, but you need time to look through everything. I want to make lessons engaging so that students enjoy learning and also learn new things. But right now I feel like that is something I have to work towards. Everyone at school is very helpful though and they have all been offering me advice, which is great.

One lesson I had today has students who are very keen to get the right pronunciation. They ask me to repeat words clearly and so by the third or fourth time of saying something I find my mouth does not work any more and I cannot speak properly. Today I had to concentrate so I would not laugh. But the following class was fun because we had a break from grammar and were thinking of adjectives to describe personality - the actual lesson did not get on to much else, which was my fault, but we were all laughing trying to think of words and teasing each other about who they applied to. So maybe it was enough.

It is still warm. But tonight it is very windy which is different. We have a regular pigeon friend who sits on our balcony but tonight the "anti pigeon" foil sheets that the landlord has hung from the railings were flapping up and so I went out to pin one down, so that the pigeon was not disturbed by it. Of course he flew off when I approached and has not returned. So maybe tomorrow. He is so sweet; yesterday he stayed there all day which was unusual so I was glad to see he was okay today.

I never seem to get anything done outside work, like posting things, buying things, or contacting people, and finishing work at 9.30pm means my brain is too active to go to bed at a reasonable time. Plus it is the only time I feel able to read, relax, email, etc. We do not have a tv so I have been reading the fabulous Wilkie Collins.

To make weekends fun and something to look forward to, Jo and I are thinking of going to different places, now that we know where to catch the bus and where it goes to. We are hoping to go back to Siracusa and Ortigia in the daylight and also to go further north up the coast to Messina, Milazzo and even across to the not-so-far-away mainland (the toe of the boot).

On Friday evening we went into the centre for drinks. As it is still warm here, everyone just walks up and down outside all evening - some sit at tables outside bars and cafes but the streets of Catania were thronging with young people. It reminded me of Christmas shopping on Oxford street, it was that busy. It was quite alien to me and so I simply watched it all. I am not sure exactly how you're supposed to talk to new people when they're all going somewhere but I expect we will check it all out at some point. I am still trying to set up a daytime conversation exchange with someone so I can practise speaking Italian and also help them with their English, whilst drinking coffee and eating nice things.

On Saturday my Italian seemed to have deserted me (as my English is slowly doing as well) - but I managed to get some folders etc in a nearby stationers and finally get all my pieces of paper in order. This feels much better and so I hope that lessons will take less time to plan with each new week. Jo and I treated ourselves to ice cream and a couple of small cakes (pasticcini) at the local cafe. They had an amazing array of small choux pastries and other delights. We chose one with coffee icing and another shaped like a swan.  We were also quite excited to find a cheaper food shop. I was so excited to see frozen chips and sprouts (not for the same meal).

On Sunday we hopped on the Taormina bus again but this time got off one stop earlier at the coastal resort of Giardini Naxos. The beach here (or, at least the part we found) is shingle, tiny grey pebbles with some sparkly bits and to our amusement, some bits of old kitchen tiles perfectly rounded by the sea but with the design still visible on the back. The beach was not that busy but sometimes the loud conversations of Italians drifted over - they do nothing quietly. It was quite relaxing and the sea was still nice for a dip - it was very clear again.  A small plane or two flew over very low and the odd jet ski and boat sailed past further out to sea. Etna, to our right, was hidden by cloud. Here, like Isola Bella at Taormina, you are asked if you want to buy something every five minutes, by immigrants from African countries and China - they all speak Italian. Usually people think we are German or Scandinavian as many come on holiday to Sicily, but when they find out you are from England they always guess London. So we were pleased when one man, who had been to England, reeled off a whole load of place names, even Nottingham, when he was asking.

Towards the end of the afternoon the skies clouded over - at one point there were the strange clouds above - so we packed up and went to a cafe. This time I tried ice cream in a brioche, (pistachio and almond) an ice cream sandwich.

I am relieved to say the temperature seems to be going cooler this week. I have two new classes (both one-to-ones) - one of which is helping someone who is going to take an exam to be an English literature teacher in a school. I am helping her to analyse passages from books and other texts. It was a refreshing change from teaching grammar. The other new woman is taking a rather technical exam which students take to show their proficiency for universities or working abroad in an English speaking country. Meanwhile, one of my pre-intermediate adult classes asks lots of questions and so it is becoming clear to me that English is quite a confusing and complicated language - I really have to swallow a grammar book to understand it sufficiently. There are simply loads of resources online and in book form to help you but it is having the time to absorb them all and use the best ones for the class.