Easter Sunday

Easter Sunday was of course, time to get up and go to church, but instead of doing that we had a coffee in the piazza in Pozzallo and marvelled at the crowds of people who had turned out to look at each other.

Good Friday had been strange enough, when we had accidentally ended up in the middle of the festivities: first of all we had seen everyone going into the church and Ella had sneaked in for a look, and I followed. Everyone was going up to a reclining figure of Jesus (lifesize) and touching the red-painted "wound" in his side. Ella wanted to be part of it so she also touched the wound. Then we ran out. Later that same evening we'd been trying to get out of Pozzallo, but every way we turned there were crowds in the way. It was odd, it was as if they couldn't decide if it was a serious occasion (death of Christ and all that) or a huge celebration (surely that should wait until Sunday?) because there were balloon sellers everywhere. All a bit incongruous with the body of Jesus, I'd say. Anyway we were trying to find a clear road and then Ella turned the car along the main street and ended up behind the almost static procession of everyone following Jesus. Of course, an official looking woman turned us away and we tried to ignore people's stares.

Pozzallo Easter Sunday crowds

Sunday was simply (or so it seemed) an excuse for everyone to look at each other. They were dressed in their very finest, almost like if we Brits were going to a wedding or something. Despite the hot weather, everyone still wears their winter coats and scarves: seriously, it is not cold and yet they must be so used to scorching temperatures that something in the mid-twenties feels cool to them. So we get stared at constantly for not wearing a coat and we are staring at them for wrapping up like it's winter. So as we enjoyed another coffee, they all stood doing nothing in the piazza, waiting for Jesus, maybe, but mostly eyeing each other's designer outfits and ridiculous heels. (Many of them wear the highest heels imaginable).

Easter Sunday, Pozzallo

We went to another beach for the day, at Marzamemi, where we were a bit assaulted by the wind, but nevertheless it was quite peaceful and relaxing. We had a look around the village and by some weird coincidence, Ella bumped into someone she knew who happened to be there on his friend's boat, so that gave us the chance to have a quick look on board. It also turned out that over Easter weekend it was traditional for people from Catania to come there to hang out. I felt that we'd come to get away from the Catanesi but never mind.

On the Monday we had to return the car, so we spent an easy day relaxing. In the evening we watched the sunset on the beach was quite lovely.

Goats, gorges and Noto

Our second enjoyable day trip was to Noto, another Baroque town in the south-east, recommended by

one and all. En route the guidebook said we went through a gorge, which had old cave dwellings in the rock. We soon recognised these, which were little holes in the rock some boarded up or with little locked doorways. It was quite picturesque and also weird.  We stopped to get out and take some pictures, as well as visit a horse that was on its own by the roadside.  Jo helped it to some grass from the other side of the fence and made a new friend. I went further down the road where I'd spotted some gorgeous goats, white in colour but with cute floppy ears - all of them had black ears except one lone goat who had brown.

A few words in the goats' direction brought them all running towards me and I soon realised there was no fence as such stopping them from getting out, and although it was obvious that they were allowed to roam freely, I couldn't help feeling that an angry goat-owner might run out at any minute and ask me to stop bothering his animals.

Before we could make our escape, a couple of men stopped who lived inside the gorge area. We asked if it was their horse/goats. The man said no, but was interested in what we were doing in Sicily, etc, and held the obligatory large parcel of cakes fresh from the patisserie, for Easter weekend. He insisted on giving us a few. One of them was a biscuit in the shape of a dove.

The rest of the day we spent in Noto, a charming town with honey-coloured buildings not unlike those of Bath. It said in the guidebook that at sunset the stone glows. Jo and I were taken with what the book called one of the nicest streets in Sicily - it was open and unspoilt and quite pretty. Jo even got to hold a cute budgie for a donation to the budgie-owner. For some reason I thought he was going to sell it to her, but of course he wasn't.

We found a church that promised a good view of the town from the top of the tower. It was worth paying two euros as the view was quite impressive and there were many swifts doing their thing around the sky.  The church had a convent attached to it and we were rather aghast at a photo of their accommodation from an earlier time - very sparse and basic looking.  I also found some baroque balcony carvings, which are characteristic of the area.

In the evening, a lovely sunset on the beach near the resort.

Easter - Ipsica and Modica

I know it is a bit late to be blogging about Easter but we had a nice trip to south east Sicily, based near Pozzallo, a quiet seaside town, with a rather nice waffle shop where we enjoyed many waffles opposite the seafront.  We stayed in a small self catering apartment, in a Mediterranean looking complex - it was deserted when we arrived but the next day hoards of Sicilians descended for an Easter get-away and it turned out to be similar in nature to a Butlins, with organised entertainment for them (which, luckily, we were not included in).

the apartments

Pozzallo

We got in a lovely morning's sunbathing by the swimming pool, when it was still empty. The water was freezing, but being a true Brit, I pretended it was fine and immersed myself to get the shock over quickly.

On the first morning we had a rather fortuitous trip to the airport to hire a car (lucky because we ended up not being able to hire a car there, and found a cheaper and much nicer one in Pozzallo, and because I had a chance meeting with a former student).  Etna looked stunning from the airport: she is still snow-covered and sometimes takes your breath away. I swear she sometimes has a hand in things. Perhaps I've been here too long.

We went on several day trips to towns not that far from Pozzallo. It's the area where Montalbano is filmed, with the Baroque towns of Ragusa, Modica and Noto that attract tourists. We went via Ipsica to Modica. Ipsica was a rather appealing little town with several churches - everywhere has as many churches as English villages have pubs. It is quite surprising to see them all on every corner. Ipsica was all done up for Good Friday - there were lights rather like we have at Xmas, and a rather disturbing centrepiece depicting Jesus carrying his cross and being led by a black man. Ella was less than impressed as it's hardly a positive image. Inside the church we were simply befuddled by the bizarre decorations: aside from the usual blue and gold gaudy decorations, there were lots of flowers laid down in front of a carving of Jesus and whoever else, like at a funeral or wedding. But even stranger, along the walls there were freaky looking dolls hanging staring down at you. But not even that was the weirdest thing - hanging among the freaky dolls were what seemed to be plastic bits of limbs such as knee joints, a hand, a foot.

What!? For me, (not a phrase, I know, but it is now that we hear students use it so often) - For me, the weirdest thing, hanging near some dolls, was a bunch of carrots. A bunch of carrots. Jo swore this was for the Easter bunny. Oh and on the ceiling, a carved picture of someone hammering a nail into someone's head. We got out of there pretty fast.

Modica

Modica is a larger town and famous for its chocolate. Except none of us actually like the chocolate as it's quite strong and kind of grainy - you can taste the sugar grains. Modica was sweet though and we climbed up the hills to "Modica alta" (high Modica) from where we had a super view across the town.

All trips were punctuated by regular stops for coffee (espresso), to which I am sure I am now addicted. It really is so good here. I'm sure it's how they keep people here, as how can you go back to England when the coffee is nothing like the same.

beach near apartment

apartment pool

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...