Gelato Heaven!

One of the girls from the school showed me an ice cream shop nearby my house - well its more of an ice cream supermarket, selling many flavours of ice cream, available in small cones or 5 litre take home containers. Wednesday is half price day, so for only 75 cents I got three flavours in a small cup. I finally tried the rice flavoured ice cream that my cousin had mentioned to me previously - its pretty good if you ever get a chance try it out!

On Friday my Italian language course finishes for March, and we have a final exam. We then restart on Wednesday 1st of April, so it will be nice to have 2 days off. If the weather plays its part we might go spend a day at the beach - its about an hour from my home and only costs one euro on the train.

The younger kid, Matteo, got some good results in an English test he did, so the parents were pleased about that. I never specifically helped him prepare for the test, but hopefully him just having daily conversations with me is what helped him do well.

Its my birthday!

So it's my birthday today! I went out last night with some friends from my language lessons, it got a bit messy, and I believe I shouted to a bus full of italian strangers : Dov'e il gatto (where is the cat - we had been learning prepositions in class that day at school). Needless to say I woke up with a bit of a hangover.

I dragged myself off to the post office to collect a parcel my mother sent me, although I was cursing ever so slightly when I took my ticket at the door and realised there were 79 people in front of me! I waited over an hour and then gave up and went home....hopefully better luck on Monday. Nothing much else planned for the weekend, tomorrow perhaps some bowling with the kids.....

A visit from a friendly face

The kids had the day of school today because of a strike - which was happening in France but since they go to a French school these teachers decided to join in....see its not only South Africa where teachers go on strike!

My Dads cousin from Torino is down in Rome at the moment, so we met up tonight for a coffee. It was great to see a familiar face. I met him at a pizzeria where he was having dinner with his work colleagues and then after we took a walk around Piazza Navona. I must definatly go back at night there with my camera, it has the most amazing lighting on the fountains.

Just another day....

I got asked to accompany the younger kid, Matteo to his football practice today. Not one of the activities I am expected to do on a daily basis, but it was good. It gave us the journey there and back to work on his English. He gave me all the directions and explained some of the landmarks along the way. Their school is a french school based in the Villa Borghese, the Hyde Park/Central Park of Rome - really is a great setting.

My school is going well by the way - its not going to be easy but I am understanding everything and the teacher is great...its just going to take a while. I am going out just now for aperitivo and drinks with some friends from school and we will try to speak Italian the whole night!

Week 5 in Roma

On Wednesday night I went out with two friends from school to watch the Roma v Arsenal football game. We chose a pretty cool bar near to the school, and managed to cash in on the free aperitivo from 7 till 9 - they pretty much put out various types of finger/snack foods on the bar counter and you eat for free so long as you buy drinks. There was pasta, some quiche, garlic breads, salami, cheeses and olives - a decent spread!

Well Roma did what was necessary to take the game to extra time and then to penalties, but unfortunately lost at that stage! But an enjoyable night out, so I think we will be back to that bar sometime soon.

On the way home we had to take night buses - as would have everyone who was watching the game away from home as the penalties took the game past metro closure time! Anyway the Roman fans were kind enough NOT to let the Arsenal fans on these buses....they had to take taxis - hahaha!

Looking ahead to this week its just going to be school and thats about it - but who knows really!

Great weekend in Rome!

So the weather report was accurate (unlike the UK weather report!). A great weekend, probably reached 18 degrees today and I was outside in the park in shorts and a t-shirt.

I met up with two of my classmates yesterday, Pietro (Korean) and Gabriella (Mexican). We met at The Colosseum, and then went on a walk to Trastevere. What a great part of Rome! Lots of small windy streets, plenty of bars, restaurants and small piazzas, and mostly pedestrianized. Before going I was told of the most photographed laundry in the world....so when I saw it I took a photo!!

We picked up some pizza at one of the many places where you can select which slices you prefer (and how big the slice should be) and then they weigh it and charge you accordingly. We then followed the river along to San Pietro. The Korean, Pietro, is a priest who is in Rome furthering his theological studies. He is a pretty cool guy, although I dont think i can count on him for any late nights or big parties! He has only been in Rome for just over a week and the jet lag had knocked him the last week so he hadnt been there yet, so it was cool for him.

After that we grabbed some ice cream in Piazza Navona and then I headed home.

The children had friends here pretty much the whole weekend, so that kept them busy. Played a bit of monopoly with them earlier, which was good as I pretended not to know the game and so they explained the rules to me in english.

Cant believe tomorrow I will have been here for 4 weeks! Time goes a lot quicker when you happy...

Week 1 of school completed!

I finished up week 1 of school today. Its gone well, things settled down after the first 2 days where classes were split and new students arrived late. My class has 11 people in it which is a good number. We are doing the pre-beginners course, and the teacher, Roberta, is great. An interesting mix of people too in my class, some who have relocated to Italy and need to learn the language, 2 who are in Rome as diplomats, and a couple of au pairs.

Daily schedule : wake up from the noise of the kids leaving for school and the parents heading off to gym at about 8:00. I then go down to breakfast, followed by getting ready for school. I have 2 options for getting to school, bus or underground metro. I have being favouring the bus in the morning as I listen to the radio (another way I can perhaps improve my italian) and then the metro home (normally because I am hungry and want to get home ASAP to eat!). The kids get home anytime between 3 and 5 and get on with their homework. Anything in english I help with, otherwise I leave them to it. When they done we watch english television or play some games, all the time working on their english language...dinner anytime between 7:30 and 8:15 or so, and then I am free to do as I please.

Anyway the weather report promises good weather this weekend, so I have plans to meet up with some classmates Saturday...

Started at Scuola Dante Alighieri today

I started school today. My class has 12 people in it, from all nationalities - I havent spoken with all of them yet, but there are 2 Koreans, Mexican, Brazilian, Honduran (?someone from Honduras), Senegalese and someone from the Dominican Republic! I am sure over time I will get to know them better (I will be with them every day for the next month). Also it appears the school organises day trips on the weekend, so perhaps I might join one of those. School is daily from 11:00 till 14:00 - no early morning rushhour for me!! Although i did catch the "return from lunch break back to work rush" just before 15:00!!

On that note, transport here seems to work well - better than London. There are only 2 metro (tube) lines, that cross at one point, Termini. I live on top of a station pretty much, and it is 1 stop to Termini. The rest of the city is covered by buses and trams. I got a monthly pass to use all 3 modes, and it cost me only 30 euros - pretty cheap in any currency really. And the metro hasnt stopped for unknown signal failures in the 3 weeks I have been using it, so I am happy. They also have televisions showing an Italian version of funniest home videos on the metro! Keeps you entertained, not that its necessary with the amount of buskers that are free to roam on the carriages playing all kinds of instruments. The other day a couple got on with a trolley contraption which had a small amplifier and car battery - while the man played the accordion the woman sang into a microphone - and then of course the child wanders around looking for donations from the public!

Today conversation with the kids was mostly around football - one kid supports Roma and the other Milan - Milan lost and Roma drew this past weekend, so they complained about the decisions, moaned about the opposition etc etc....it amazes me the passion these kids have for football and the teams they support!

School starts tomorrow!

Saturday was an awesome weather day, but the kids weren't keen to do much, preferring to play playstation! So I went for a little wander myself, just up the road to Santa Maria Maggiore, a church. It was rather impressive I must say, lots of gold, and amazing paintings on the ceilings and in the domes. I tried to take some pictures with my point and click digital camera, but struggled due to the low light - the best I have uploaded below, but soon as my Sony comes back from repairs will probably wander on down and take some better ones - unlike the UK its free to come and go in the churches as often as you want!

http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/vermontia/20090228SantaMariaMaggiore?authkey=Gv1sRgCI7B187CsvXknAE&feat=directlink

And then today I met up with two girls I have made friends with through the company that placed me on this program. Both French, and both calle Aurelie!! One is from Paris and the other from Rennes which is in Brittany, France. So we made plans to go to Trastevere which I was quite keen to visit, as the book I just finished reading, The Food of Love is based there - by the way I recomend this book to all, my cousin lent me it as I left London, and it certainly is a great read. Written by Anthony Capella.....check out the website :

http://www.anthonycapella.com/pages/books/food_of_love/synopsis.asp

Anyways Trastevere, which means across the Tiber (Romes main river), is supposedly the Bohemian neighbourhood, and I was looking forward to walking around it....but we took a detour to a market first, and then the rain came down!! So we never made it and I am saving it for another day. The one interesting thing I noticed while walking along the river is the width of the river, and the height above the river everything is positioned. I believe there has been some pretty bad floods here before, and I saw evidence of that where a pier had been completely destroyed...

http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/vermontia/20090301WalkInRoma?authkey=Gv1sRgCN3Tqu3Txa3bLw&feat=directlink

So tomorrow I start my lessons. Really looking forward to that. The kids return to school also, so we will be back to a normal schedule - they come home from school about 16:00, get on with their homework, if they have any english homework I oversee that, and then perhaps we play some games or just generally chat in english until dinner is ready.