Playing House

As promised, here I am again to regale you with tales of my flat, with added photographs for good measure! More of that later; first, allow me to fill you in with all that's happened in-between blog posts. WARNING: it's a lot.

So, Wednesday we paid the rent, and got the keys - or rather, key, as there's only actually one key to the flat door right now - so Marine moved in on Thursday, and I stuck to my guns and moved in on Friday, when I wasn't working. I was planning to have a bit of a lie-in that day too, but Claudia's housekeeper had other ideas. Once I was washed, dressed and fed, the two of us began to execute some complicated choreography, during which I tried to pack the rest of my things up and see if I'd forgotten anything, and she tried to make all the beds and hoover the floor. We got there in the end, and I had a nice lunch with the family before shifting my stuff over to the new flat in the afternoon. Luckily, it's about 30 seconds walk from Claudia's place, so it wasn't difficult.

Once I'd unpacked and settled in and had a shot of ridiculously strong coffee (no sugar, as we had yet to buy it), Marine and I went grocery shopping. Forgive me for making the assumption, but I believed we would just be splitting the cost of everything we bought. Not so - Marine got this strategy into her head where she would pay for what she wanted, I would pay for what I wanted, and we would both pay half for the things we'd both need, like sugar and washing up liquid and soap and milk. Call me crazy and unreasonable, but to me that seems unnecessarily convoluted...

Anyway, Friday night saw us back at Claudia's. I went over to give Simone another English lesson, Marine needed her new timetable, and we both wanted to make use of Claudia's incredibly generous offer that we can pop over and use her wifi whenever we want (I think she's adopted us both as her English and French daughters). I also made pizza and calzoni from scratch for the first time ever, in partnership with Simone, which involved him bashing the dough instead of rolling it out and dropping tomato sauce on my shoes more than once, but the end results were delicious. I must get the dough recipe so I can do them myself!

Saturday morning, our landlord was supposed to come round, but – surprise surprise – he didn’t arrive until the afternoon, so we spent the morning making apple cake and rearranging the kitchen. We hid such monstrosities as the vase of the china flowers that was in the middle of the kitchen table, the broken lamp by the oven and the two horrible blue plates that were hanging above the fridge (we kept the third one, which has pretty yellow flowers on it). After a simple lunch of pasta and tomato sauce, the landlord and his mate arrived to tell us that we wouldn’t have hot water until at least Monday(!) because no plumbers work over the weekend...

Also managed to get the internet (if you can call it that) sorted on Saturday, after trudging out through the pouring rain under a shared umbrella to buy an Internet Key. It’s basically dial-up, but it suffices for Facebook, checking my emails and updating this ol’ blog, although if I actually want to use the video side of Skype in the future I will have to take Claudia up on her offer, as she has a significantly speedier internet connection. Fortunately, an added bonus of the package I bought means it’s only €12 a month for unlimited usage! Not a bad buy, I reckon.

Sunday was a relatively lazy day, and today saw me returning to work, teaching two new classes, doing a LOT of food shopping (and getting a free chef's knife because I spent over €15 - that's one less thing I'll need to buy)...and we now have hot water! Showers are so much nicer when you're not petrified with cold.

Right, so, the moment you’ve all been waiting for! Da-da-da-daaaa! Photos of my new home for the next 7-and-a-half months! :D

 Our lovely new kitchen, minus the hideous vase on the table

 Sofa-bed, which is unfortunately one of the hardest things I have ever sat on, so we added pillows

 Our bedroom, with sheets and blankets provided by Claudia :P

 The painting that hangs above the beds - one of the pieces of art we both wanted to keep!

 The eNORmous wardrobe, which takes up an entire wall of the bedroom...

And the bathroom, now with both hot and cold running water!

Next time the post may not be as long, depending on whether anything interesting happens, or even if I can be bothered to write as much as I did today. Until then, 

Teaching and House-hunting

Here I am again! Right in the middle of my second week of active teaching, fresh from a lesson about the Queen and playing Pictionary with the kids in the youngest year. 

Today also marks The Day That I Start Teaching Simone English - Simone being the eight-year-old son of my mentor, Claudia. I've cut out the months of the year in both Italian and English so he can match pairs, coloured bits of paper on one side and written the colours on the other (hours of fun to be had flipping tiny bits of paper) and made a sheet of cartoon animals that I am rather proud of: 

So, we're all set for today's lesson. I'm starting off easy, just vocabulary rather than sentences, but it will be interesting to try and teach English while speaking Italian, unlike the way I do it at school...

In other news, I have found a flat! It's about five minutes away from the school on foot, and it's just had all its furniture put in - so new kitchen, new tables, new wardrobe, new bathroom, new beds, new everything! The first rent instalment needs to be paid today, and then once I've packed up all my stuff again, I'm going to move in on Friday. Marine, the French assistant, is moving in this afternoon, but it's easier for her as she's been staying with us for the past few days, so all her things are already in their suitcases.

I intend to photograph the new flat as soon as possible, if only to reassure my loved ones that I'm not living in squalor :P

Lo Sciopero

The last two days have been, in a word (or two), ABSOLUTELY MENTAL. 

I had to go to Rome for an induction to being an ELA, where they taught us loads of useful ways of managing the classroom, planning and preparing lessons, using games and songs to actually make it interesting to learn English, etc. etc....all of which was really helpful, as previously I had very little idea of what to do or talk about!

Maybe that's not strictly true. I did bring lots of postcards, a map of the roads of Milton Keynes, a train timetable, photos of my family...the list goes on. I also brought Marmite and English Mustard, which will be an interesting thing to try :P

But back to the induction. I managed to meet a girl named Charlotte who I haven't seen since we both went to a Royal Holloway open day about three years ago (she does the same degree as me now, but at Kent, which was my second choice), plus loads of others who are in Campania at least, if not Pompei, so we can travel around the region and see each other. 

All in all, the induction itself was lovely - free coffee, pastries and lunch, and a nifty British Council bag to boot; it was the journey back to Pompei that was the problem. There was a sciopero - a strike - today, which meant none of the city Metro or bus services were working. I had to walk to Roma Termini, but after having a mini panic attack I was informed that the inter-city trains were working, so I managed to get to Naples unscathed and spent the journey in a carriage with a Sikh, a priest and a woman with the biggest pink suitcase I have ever seen. 

Once I'd arrived at Naples, however, things went pear-shaped (or 'a forma di pera', which I didn't realise translated but it probably means something that is literally shaped like a pear...so..a pear...) when I discovered that the regional trains to Pompei weren't working either. So I rang Claudia, and she said she would come and get me, but then my phone ran out of battery so I couldn't tell her that I took the Circumvesuviana line - literally, the trainline around Mt Vesuvius - back to Pompei. When I got back to the flat, nobody was home, but luckily I plugged my phone in and rang Claudia and nobody was angry in the end, but now I am the butt of all the tourist jokes in the household.

Let's just say I will never travel in Italy during a strike again, at least until I can drive...