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.
We have a new flatmate, Beth, who is also a teacher - she's only 22 but she has done many things such as teaching in India. She is really lovely and has fitted in so quickly. It feels like she has been here for ages. Her first night was a bit crazy - she turned up at night, so we were there to welcome her with pizza and the other teachers. Later that night there was a loud crash and Darcy and I discovered that a large area of plaster had crashed to the floor from the ceiling in one of the bedrooms. It was all very weird. No fewer than 6 Sicilan men came to look at it the next day (god knows what they all do) but they fixed it the next day, so fingers crossed, everything is now fine.
Next day Beth and I went for a walk along the seafront (lungomare) which was nice. The rocks are all black and volcanic. It is still warm-ish. Cooler at night. But you can still hang around without a coat. And usually without a jacket. (Sorry!)
It is finally Christmassy here - lights have gone up across the roads, from flat to flat - mostly plain white but it is still better. Some stars have gone up outside the school. There are many poinsettias everywhere. I think people were even Christmas shopping today.
I have ordered things online to arrive at home but I would still like to bring back small things from here if I can find anything I won't squash or eat before I get back. It is still two weeks before we finish and they seem like an eternity. Although I have got lots to do before then so they will go quickly. Or should that be they are going to go quickly. I don't know any more. The more you do grammar in class, the more you begin to question how you speak, yourself. I got in a right pickle with subjects and objects this week and had to make out that I did not want to confuse the students and would come back to it next week afresh. What I meant and what I am sure they knew I meant is that I did not really know what I was talking about :) Now I am beginning to understand when people say things get better after a year of teaching: it will take that long to go through all the various aspects of grammar and figure out what they all mean.
On Wednesday we had our first Italian lesson at the school - it turns out the teacher is Marina, who I had for 2 weeks at Taormina! So that was lovely, to see her again, and everyone enjoyed the class. It was much nicer to be a student again than a teacher. We had the lesson in my room so it was weird to be the other side of the desk - and I realised what a bare and horrible room I have! I really need to take back some lovely pictures.
I had my class observation: naturally it went so badly I laughed about it in the end. Mind you, my Director of Studies did not stay for more than 45 mins so I hope that means it wasn't as much of a disaster as I thought it was. The teenagers were all shy and actually hiding behind their hands, even the one I was counting on to speak up as he usually does. At least he was there, unlike his friend whom I was also hoping would be his usual cheery self. The CD started skipping. I was nervous and wooden. But I'm sure it will be ok.
The kids' class was actually quite fun: never mind learning, we did some Christmas words and then launched into making Christmas cards. Tree or snowman. I did one of each so they could choose. It was panning out fine until they asked for the glitter. I had envisaged gently sprinkling glitter on to each card for them. But in the end I let them do it themselves. You can probably imagine what the place looked like afterwards. Marika sprinkled glitter into Matteo's hair. Giorgia had glitter all over her face. Her glue ended up on the floor and she looked like she was going to cry. The parents were coming at the end of the lesson for 10 minutes to find out how the class is going. Thank god my room is too small for them so they went next door and did not see the glitter explosion that had happened over their children. Glitter was all over the table, all over everyone's hands, faces, etc. You had to laugh. Once they had gone, I tried to sweep it up off the floor, but it is still everywhere. It was all over the chairs. I went into the corridor. The floor was glittering back at me. I followed a trail of glitter down the stairs out of the school and there was even glitter on the pavement outside. Hahahah!
The teachers, plus a husband!
Last night we went out for an aperitivo (food and cocktails at lovely prices) in a nice bar with, I noticed, a rather nice looking owner. It was for our Australian workmate who is going home for good tomorrow. It is a shame, because she is nearer my age and I find her easy to get on with - she has been very helpful by suggesting many things to make me feel more at home. But it is very exciting for her, as she is going back after being here for 2 years, with I think not many trips home in that time. So we are out again tonight. I tried her favourite drink, a negrino - a campari based drink. Strong but very nice :) One is enough.
Then today I met up with my student with whom I tried to practise Italian last time. He'd missed the class so it was a good reason to sit in my local cafe and tell him all about the way we use "going to." It was very nice because he makes me laugh (not many things in Catania make me laugh) and he makes me speak Italian. He thinks I should set up my own school - all in good time. Maybe in Taormina, I said, but he said that was too far for him to travel to, which was sweet. He uses his English at work and was saying how difficult it was when English people send abrupt emails about sending the remittance and the payment window. I told him I don't even know what all those words mean. I will look for a book with useful business jargon in.
As it is nearly Christmas we have had to find our own Christmas music as there is hardly any around, so that is getting me in the festive spirit. I hope it does not snow before Xmas as I want nothing to stop my journey home!
I will take some pictures for the next post - I will take some before I come back to show everyone what things look like. (Now I have confused myself about when you use "will".) Anyway - it struck me that the whole place is covered in graffiti and dog mess - nice eh. There is a strange contradiction there that some Sicilians look at you if you are not dressed as stylishly as them, but they don't seem to respect the place they live in. My student was talking about how hard it is because of the high unemployment, so maybe this is reflected in how people treat the city - it's complicated here, that I can see.
This weekend we have a bank holiday weekend whoo hoo!
Maybe because it's nearly Christmas, and I'll nearly be home, but I think things are feeling better here :) And (although I don't like Elton John) here is my absolute favourite Christmas song.
Maybe because it's only 5 weeks before Xmas or because 2 months in Catania is enough for anyone, I am beginning to miss home and am looking forward to returning. It's still mild here (where is the snow? Come on, it's November). And I am now working my maximum contracted hours, so I feel quite tired. I am spending less time preparing, thankfully, as I now have more confidence to work through things without spending hours looking at it beforehand. But still, it takes up a lot of time. Perhaps I am just workshy.
I have started doing a little Xmas shopping online - normal things that I can have sent to the UK from the UK. It is, I'm afraid, too bad if people are hoping for exciting Sicilian Xmas presents as there aren't really any, except food items and the chances of them breaking and going all over everything in my suitcase are too high. Never mind. Well it is the chance to support some favourite wildlife charities of mine, as I am really only interested in supporting wildlife because it seems it is increasingly being destroyed by morons. I follow many wildlife organisations and wildlife supporters on Twitter and so I suppose when I read their tweets about nature, etc, I see a lot of stories that are depressing all at one go. But also, it is encouraging to see how many people are equal fans of birds, bugs, animals etc and go to great lengths to help them. There are some beautiful photos of birds, animals and wild places that are a joy to see on my Twitter feed. I have recently started following someone in America who has posted lots of photos of the very colourful birds that come to her garden. At the moment they are battling with lots of snow and there have been some very snowy squirrels!
The other morning I heard a blackbird somewhere and some sparrows, so that was a welcome change. They are around somewhere, but I suppose in the noise of the day I do not hear them.
We have kind of finished doing zoos with the teenagers but I am still doing them with the higher level. They did not seem to know a lot of details about endangered animals so I am going to direct them to the WWF website and also Marwell and Whipsnade zoos, which were mentioned in the textbook. That way they will see some lovely animal photos plus find out about the endangered animals and what is being done to help them. Maybe the level of English is too high but I think they can get the gist and it will be educational.
I could not help smiling the other day when we were doing a passage called the "Helpful Dolphin" with the teens, about a dolphin that helped a girl in the water. They had to choose the correct word to put in the gap and one student gave the answer as "I was a dolphin" instead of "it was a dolphin". Now I am not laughing at this because it was all part of the student's learning experience, and it was an easy mistake to make, but what did make me laugh was his class mate's reaction, because he said, in Italian, "sei un delfino?" "Are you a dolphin?" in such a way that everyone started laughing and I had to bite my tongue because it was making me chuckle.
I am sure my teaching is going okay but I feel there is much to improve on and having inadvertently seen how much the students are paying for the course, I don't know if I feel they are getting their money's worth! I know it is an ongoing learning process but I also wish I had time and energy to think how to improve. I made the mistake the other day of assuming the students knew something, when they didn't. It was compound adjectives, so something with two words like right-handed or well-known. The example (about zoos) was "A thick-billed parrot is a parrot with a thick bill." I read this out and felt it was so obvious that it was patronising. But in fact it wasn't obvious and when I left the students to do an exercise to explain what a man-eating tiger was (a tiger who eats men, ie people) they did not get it. One of the students said to me they don't have the compound adjectives in Italian and I realised I should not have assumed it was obvious.
Probably the answer to everything is lots of fresh broccoli, fruit, water and general relaxation.
Last night we had a welcome change to pasta, as our workmates took us to a thai restaurant. Most of the customers were Americans, who live on the airbase near Catania airport. Apparently it is the biggest base in the Mediterranean because of the strategic site of the island and its proximity to the middle east. Or something. Its full name is Naval Air Station Sigonella and you can read about it here. It was not surprising as I think the Sicilians prefer their own food.
Today Jo and I took advantage of the fact it is still mild, and we can just about still go out without a jacket for most of the day. We headed off to Taormina in the sun, and arrived around lunch time. Wow, what a difference it makes to Taormina when the tourists are gone, but what a nice change! We were able to freely wander along without fighting through crowds of people and we could actually see the Corso Umberto clearly; even I noticed little shops and places I did not remember so well. Sadly for us, Crazy Crepes was closed, as were a lot of the shops, but many places were still open and so we had a crepe near the back of St Catherine's church which is at the top of Corso Umberto. I had Nutella on mine - seemingly a whole jar. An English woman and her husband came to the cafe so it was quite nice talking to them for a while.
Squirrel jumper, Corso Umberto
We had a leisurely wander down Corso Umberto and began to think about what it is practical to take back at Christmas, as gifts. Most food items are a risk as who wants to pack a jar of pesto and then realise it has oozed oil and pistachios all over your entire wardrobe. Plus everything in Taormina was Taormina prices so we will have to see if we can find something nice in Catania. Jo still has the option of the packed-out ceramics shop from which to choose something but I realised I have already done this gift option, in June.
Rather cool door handle, Corso Umberto
We reached the piazza from where you can see the mighty Etna. Today she was obscured by cloud but you could still see the snow-capped peak peeping through. She looks absolutely amazing with snow on and we are both waiting for a clear day for Jo to see the Teatro Greco, from where you get the most amazing view of Etna.
Etna is behind me with snow....under the bit of cloud.
Being in Taormina was a real treat today, as we both felt the need to get out of Catania at weekends, because it is such a busy and noisy city, it is a constant low-lying level of stress. Taormina was so peaceful and relaxing by contrast; there were no cars, no car horns, no stupid traffic. It was a real joy. I relaxed properly for the first time in ages, just as I had the last time I went. We lamented that it is actually harder to get work there because there is no English school, but I think we should at least investigate alternatives to the city we are currently in. As Jo pointed out, everything in Catania feels like a struggle; nothing in Taormina could be a struggle in that way, and it certainly presented no problems in June.
a seltz
We had a great view of the mainland today, which renewed my interest in going to visit. It would be interesting at least from an anthropological point of view to see any difference between the mainland and Sicily. I tried my first "seltz" - a lemon (or mandarin) flavour drink with salt in, which I think is for when you need a pick-me-up - it was a bit like drinking aspro clear but the taste grew on me. Jo's face, after taking a sip, was a picture.
We headed off at the end of the afternoon when it was beginning to go cooler. I could really do with a duvet now, it is going cool at night. But I do have blankets. We are both looking forward to Xmas, and despite the run-up being non-existent to very quiet here, we found a small Xmas shop and both can't wait to go home. Foodwise, I am craving toast here and baked beans would be good too. They do not have proper bread for toast, not that I have found, anyway.
On Saturday we went to Trecastagni, which is not far away and had some nice winding streets and a church high up with a fantastic view (it was night) across the city and up towards Siracusa (Syracuse). We went to see a festival where there were some traditional singers, one playing the accordion and one singing in Sicilian. There were some huts like you have at German markets, with crafts and fruit and vegetables and other nice things. There were supposed to be some horses with traditional Sicilian carts, but sadly they were not there on that evening. Perhaps another time.
The next day we went on a trip by car to the places on the slopes of Etna - I'm not sure exactly of our route but I think we basically drove a long way around the volcano and took in lots of different places. There are lots of local food festivals taking place at this time, so it was very busy - the Sicilians obviously enjoy celebrating their produce and good for them - we saw some lovely olives growing, citrus fruit, and we have seen lots of lovely sweet chestnuts growing on the slopes of Etna.
Since it rained last week and has gone colder, Etna's peak is covered in snow! It looks so amazing. We went to the valley of the Alcantara river - Gab told me there are very few rivers in Sicily. This was amazing because the rocks there are (of course) volcanic and look exactly like something from a film set - the light grey colour and the "blocks" of them look like they are plastic or manufactured. It was quite distinctive and quite unusual. We clambered about over them, with Whiskey the dog leaping around with the usual agility of someone lucky enough to be on four legs when we are teetering on two. There were also many interesting plants including wild cyclamen, wild artichokes, wild fennel and some things which Jo and Gab had fun sticking to each other's backs. There were some amazing stripy leaves that looked like they had been painted. I also saw some black beetles - and the ants seem larger here.
This was west of Taormina, and north east of Etna. We also went to the the village of Lingua Glossa, where there were some nice paintings on many of the walls, and a nice cake / pastry shop.
Afterwards we drove higher up the side of Etna to a place where there were many sweet chestnut trees - most of the chestnuts had already fallen to the ground and been taken by people or creatures - we had fun trying to get them out without stabbing our hands. I have just been eating some and they are very nice. We saw a massive four hundred year old tree (not a chestnut?)
I finally got to have a prickly pear fruit - they have soft, watery orange flesh with big seeds in. They were okay - an acquired taste maybe - not unpleasant but they would be better without the seeds. They were not unlike watermelon, that is the closest I can think of.
If you squint you can just see the snow on the left...?
