So, I have started to really think about what happens after Catania, these last few months have been so wonderful in so many ways but I know that this fun time must end soon, in fact in only 4 weeks time!
I have been looking for jobs, which is a nightmare as I am still totally torn between travelling more and going home!
I have had two interviews, one for the sunny Maldives and one for sunny Scarborough! Not too different really except one is on the equator.
I have also been applying for other things, trying to keep my options open!
I have also started to get into exam mode for the end of term, my students are all feeling a bit stressed now and we really have to work hard to make sure we give them as much practice as possible so been really busy with that, though I have no students who I am terrified will fail their test! I want them all to do well and to succeed in their futures, I want to help them pass and then they too can move on to bigger better things.
What will the future hold for me? I know that I want to continue to be happy as I am now, I want to pursue things which are interesting, inspiring and exciting and never settle for things. I know I want to keep in touch with all of my wonderful friends from around the world as they have the power to make me smile and keep me laughing.
I know now that I have been untrue to myself in the past and it has led to nothing but pain and heartbreak, I know I can be better to myself and to others and only in this way can I be happy and that is my plan for the future, wherevever I go and whoever I meet along the way.
I hope you will all stay with me on this journey.... until next time x
Tuesday, 25 May 2010
Sunday, 9 May 2010
My good friends and my new friends
I have had a very interesting week, with some drama, lots of sunshine and of course - drinking! (Those of you who know me well know my drama but I am not going to talk about that!) Man, I sound like such an alcoholic, maybe I have a problem and need some rehab! Somewhere hot please!
I have made some very good friends here in Catania and have lots of great friends back home and around the world and this week I was lucy enough to meet lots of nice new people and make some new friends....
On Wednsday Mark suggested a midweek drink somewhere new so we went to bar called Bonu which really like as it is very different (lots of kitch) and good food. Jacqueline, Lisa, Mark, Stuart and I were joined by one of Mark's students. The bar was good but the most fun was had on the way home with Jacs and I being a bit crazy as usual, she makes me laugh so much!
On Thursday I went to the English Conversation Club (it does exactly what it says on the tin) and had a really nice time meeting some new people, lots of friendly Italians who want to practice and/or improve their English and a lot of English teachers too. Also many Americans and a few English/British (The English Study Centre staff made the English count go up a bit)and a token German! I met a girl called Lauren from London and we became fast friends, we had a real laugh together about the idea of making everyone at the conversation club queue up for their food (as it was all gone by the time we got there)and this turned into quite a debate! Valerio, Lauren's boyfriend, stated that queueing is a form of slavey! If you are interested there is a video of part of the conversation somewhere on Facebook! Funny! I don't think it will work, only the English form a queue for everything!
This weekly get together is now definately on my list of priorites for the week, I will be trying to get there earlier whenever possible to actually get some food and to meet some more lovely people.
I also went to a few new places this week, a nice bar near the port and a club in a different part of town which led to a mini adventure! Pippi was driving and somehow,he may have haad some alcohol.... when reversing down a hill, managed to get his car stuck up on a wall, so that the car was leaning over to the side and only two wheels were on the ground. Pippi, then decided to reverse more and gt it well and trully stuck! Now, I am no stranger to being in a car tilted on its side and being completely stuck, but I was lucky enough to be stuck on a country road where a farmer passed by with a tractor to tow me out! Pippi's car was in a quiet street at about midnight! (no tractors around - haven't seen any tractors here at all)
So, we got out, looked at the car, tried a bit of pushing, a lot of revving the engine and a few swear words, nothing helped! Then it started to rain!
Mark and Pippi eventually decided the only way to move the car was to lift the back up, Luisa took the driver seat, Mark and Pippi took their positions at the rear of the vehicle and I stood well back and supervised! They lifted the car, it moved, all was well!!!! We went to the club laughing at Pippi and worrying a little about getting home.
The club was very full and the DJ's were loving random English music, playing everything from Shout to Losing my Religion and Baggy Trousers and everyone was singing along and dancing like mad, it was fun.
Last night I went to Taormina with Luisa, Sturt and Pippi and some of Luisa's friends, Lauren and Valerio met us later. I had the BEST night!
Taormina is so beautiful, really touristy in some ways and really Italian in others, I had some fun spotting tourists and then being a big loser and posing for touristy photos (loved it! British Pharmacy!)We went to an Irish bar and then to a REALLY expensive bar to drink a REALLY terrible cocktail and then Lauren and Valerio took Stuart and I to a bar called Deja Vu wile Luisa and Pippi went to some other club... we danced and drank more, I enjoyed myself so much!
Then we went to meet Luisa and Pippi and had a random 'discussion' with some Sicilians about somehing I don't remember, along the lines of Taormina is part of Messina... Lauren and Valerio left ad we went to to find food and more drinks until Luisa was ready then we made our way back to the car with some more fun photo stops on the way, oh, and I may have fallen over, three times!
Stuart and I feel asleep on the way back and got home at around 5 to a beautiful sunny day! (I didn't see much of the day to be honest....) All in all a very good time!
I love Sundays when I get to speak to 'me Mam', and do my blog, it makes me realise how lucky I am, I have such a great family and such lovely friends at home in the UK and so many great friends here too. Thanks Mammy for being so wonderful and thanks to everyone who makes me smile...
I have made some very good friends here in Catania and have lots of great friends back home and around the world and this week I was lucy enough to meet lots of nice new people and make some new friends....
On Wednsday Mark suggested a midweek drink somewhere new so we went to bar called Bonu which really like as it is very different (lots of kitch) and good food. Jacqueline, Lisa, Mark, Stuart and I were joined by one of Mark's students. The bar was good but the most fun was had on the way home with Jacs and I being a bit crazy as usual, she makes me laugh so much!
On Thursday I went to the English Conversation Club (it does exactly what it says on the tin) and had a really nice time meeting some new people, lots of friendly Italians who want to practice and/or improve their English and a lot of English teachers too. Also many Americans and a few English/British (The English Study Centre staff made the English count go up a bit)and a token German! I met a girl called Lauren from London and we became fast friends, we had a real laugh together about the idea of making everyone at the conversation club queue up for their food (as it was all gone by the time we got there)and this turned into quite a debate! Valerio, Lauren's boyfriend, stated that queueing is a form of slavey! If you are interested there is a video of part of the conversation somewhere on Facebook! Funny! I don't think it will work, only the English form a queue for everything!
This weekly get together is now definately on my list of priorites for the week, I will be trying to get there earlier whenever possible to actually get some food and to meet some more lovely people.
I also went to a few new places this week, a nice bar near the port and a club in a different part of town which led to a mini adventure! Pippi was driving and somehow,he may have haad some alcohol.... when reversing down a hill, managed to get his car stuck up on a wall, so that the car was leaning over to the side and only two wheels were on the ground. Pippi, then decided to reverse more and gt it well and trully stuck! Now, I am no stranger to being in a car tilted on its side and being completely stuck, but I was lucky enough to be stuck on a country road where a farmer passed by with a tractor to tow me out! Pippi's car was in a quiet street at about midnight! (no tractors around - haven't seen any tractors here at all)
So, we got out, looked at the car, tried a bit of pushing, a lot of revving the engine and a few swear words, nothing helped! Then it started to rain!
Mark and Pippi eventually decided the only way to move the car was to lift the back up, Luisa took the driver seat, Mark and Pippi took their positions at the rear of the vehicle and I stood well back and supervised! They lifted the car, it moved, all was well!!!! We went to the club laughing at Pippi and worrying a little about getting home.
The club was very full and the DJ's were loving random English music, playing everything from Shout to Losing my Religion and Baggy Trousers and everyone was singing along and dancing like mad, it was fun.
Last night I went to Taormina with Luisa, Sturt and Pippi and some of Luisa's friends, Lauren and Valerio met us later. I had the BEST night!
Taormina is so beautiful, really touristy in some ways and really Italian in others, I had some fun spotting tourists and then being a big loser and posing for touristy photos (loved it! British Pharmacy!)We went to an Irish bar and then to a REALLY expensive bar to drink a REALLY terrible cocktail and then Lauren and Valerio took Stuart and I to a bar called Deja Vu wile Luisa and Pippi went to some other club... we danced and drank more, I enjoyed myself so much!
Then we went to meet Luisa and Pippi and had a random 'discussion' with some Sicilians about somehing I don't remember, along the lines of Taormina is part of Messina... Lauren and Valerio left ad we went to to find food and more drinks until Luisa was ready then we made our way back to the car with some more fun photo stops on the way, oh, and I may have fallen over, three times!
Stuart and I feel asleep on the way back and got home at around 5 to a beautiful sunny day! (I didn't see much of the day to be honest....) All in all a very good time!
I love Sundays when I get to speak to 'me Mam', and do my blog, it makes me realise how lucky I am, I have such a great family and such lovely friends at home in the UK and so many great friends here too. Thanks Mammy for being so wonderful and thanks to everyone who makes me smile...
Sunday, 2 May 2010
frogs legs, fish and chips and fish bones
I've had a good week this week, some rain, some thunder, mostly hot days and nights and no working in the mornings! I had some good and strange eating experiences this week...
Last Saturday I went to a Chinese restaurant, I was firstly surprised that they didn't sell pizza OR pasta and then moved on to order some food including spring rolls, beef and bamboo and of course, a must when visiting a Chinese restaurant in Sicily, deep fried frogs legs! We got these to share; I was there with Luisa, Pippi, Stuart, Mark and Lisa, but the others were less eager to eat them. I thought they tasted mostly of the batter they were fried in, were a bit boney for my liking but the meat tasted of nothing realy... just like chicken!!! We had deep fried ice cream for desert and I couldn't really tell the difference!
The week at work was really good, we have finished working in the state schools now so my mornings are free, I have slept, been shopping, gone for 'coffee': which for me means tea and been out in the sun in the mornings this week instead of walking for an hour to have large groups of teenagers ignore me (actually I miss some of them, they were interesting and some classes were a pleasure to teach).
On Friday we went, as usual, to Ligresti bar and I had a few drinks (Southern Comfort not gin this weekend) and then we (Stuart, Mark and I) decided to go into the town centre for food and more drinks, we were a bit too late to go to a restaurant and I fancied a kebab (they are nice here, not like in England!)but instead we went to a small place which sells fish and chips! Yes, we ate fish and chips with salt, vinegar and ketchup in Catania! We then met some Italians, one of who is Stuart's student and they took us to a nice bar where we had cocktails.
On Saturday, I went to the beach, the local black, rocky beach where there is more dog shit than sand, but it is the closest place to go and enjoy the sun so we went there! It was relaxing and so lovely to be sunbathing in a bikini on the 1st of May! After the beach Stuart and I went out for dinner, we went to a fish restaurant where the first thing the waiter said to us when we entered was 'only fish' (in Italian), we had understood that it was a fish restaurant so we continued..
We had an antipasta of fish, squid, octopus, prawns and bread (lush) and then I had spaghetti with clams, prawns, tomato and zucchini (amazing but too much). However, there was a bit of a problem I got a fish bone stuck in my throat, right in the back of my throat. I was coughing and it really hurt, I went to the toilet to see if I could do something about it, like maybe make myself sick (which I can't and couldn't do!) but it wouldn't move, I tried to gargle with water and wine, I tried to swallow huge mouthfulls of spaghetti to dislodge it but nothing worked at all (poor Stuart, he offered to try and get it out too), anyway, I left it and hoped for the best. I woke up this morning and it is fine! I did however dream that my garden was flooded with water and loads of sea creatures were stranded there, octopus', fish and stuff and I had to rescue them! Never had a fish dream before!
Today, Sunday, I have been to the beach for most of the day, I enjoyed looking at the people there, one man in particular who obviously didn't want white marks from his small, small trunks so had them rolled down exposing most of his ass! And one woman who had a similar problem to one I had at Easter, she was at the beach in the boiling sun with no bikini, so she just stripped down to her underwear... I was pleased it is not just me!
All in all a good week full of sun and seafood (do frogs count as seafood?)
Last Saturday I went to a Chinese restaurant, I was firstly surprised that they didn't sell pizza OR pasta and then moved on to order some food including spring rolls, beef and bamboo and of course, a must when visiting a Chinese restaurant in Sicily, deep fried frogs legs! We got these to share; I was there with Luisa, Pippi, Stuart, Mark and Lisa, but the others were less eager to eat them. I thought they tasted mostly of the batter they were fried in, were a bit boney for my liking but the meat tasted of nothing realy... just like chicken!!! We had deep fried ice cream for desert and I couldn't really tell the difference!
The week at work was really good, we have finished working in the state schools now so my mornings are free, I have slept, been shopping, gone for 'coffee': which for me means tea and been out in the sun in the mornings this week instead of walking for an hour to have large groups of teenagers ignore me (actually I miss some of them, they were interesting and some classes were a pleasure to teach).
On Friday we went, as usual, to Ligresti bar and I had a few drinks (Southern Comfort not gin this weekend) and then we (Stuart, Mark and I) decided to go into the town centre for food and more drinks, we were a bit too late to go to a restaurant and I fancied a kebab (they are nice here, not like in England!)but instead we went to a small place which sells fish and chips! Yes, we ate fish and chips with salt, vinegar and ketchup in Catania! We then met some Italians, one of who is Stuart's student and they took us to a nice bar where we had cocktails.
On Saturday, I went to the beach, the local black, rocky beach where there is more dog shit than sand, but it is the closest place to go and enjoy the sun so we went there! It was relaxing and so lovely to be sunbathing in a bikini on the 1st of May! After the beach Stuart and I went out for dinner, we went to a fish restaurant where the first thing the waiter said to us when we entered was 'only fish' (in Italian), we had understood that it was a fish restaurant so we continued..
We had an antipasta of fish, squid, octopus, prawns and bread (lush) and then I had spaghetti with clams, prawns, tomato and zucchini (amazing but too much). However, there was a bit of a problem I got a fish bone stuck in my throat, right in the back of my throat. I was coughing and it really hurt, I went to the toilet to see if I could do something about it, like maybe make myself sick (which I can't and couldn't do!) but it wouldn't move, I tried to gargle with water and wine, I tried to swallow huge mouthfulls of spaghetti to dislodge it but nothing worked at all (poor Stuart, he offered to try and get it out too), anyway, I left it and hoped for the best. I woke up this morning and it is fine! I did however dream that my garden was flooded with water and loads of sea creatures were stranded there, octopus', fish and stuff and I had to rescue them! Never had a fish dream before!
Today, Sunday, I have been to the beach for most of the day, I enjoyed looking at the people there, one man in particular who obviously didn't want white marks from his small, small trunks so had them rolled down exposing most of his ass! And one woman who had a similar problem to one I had at Easter, she was at the beach in the boiling sun with no bikini, so she just stripped down to her underwear... I was pleased it is not just me!
All in all a good week full of sun and seafood (do frogs count as seafood?)
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