17 Gennaio, 2012 - Sick Day :(

Sorry folks, not much to tell about today.

Was feeling very under the weather when I woke up, and then got dressed to go to the school visit, but I got out and spoke to our group leader, and she said I didn't look too good and that I should go back to bed.

So I did!

I didn't even get up for lunch - Fra was very kind and got it takeaway for me.

Managed to skype home and then went to sleep again.

Jess came home at about 6.30pm and then we went for a small walk around town. I got a pair of new sneakers, men's ones, for $20.  Very happy.  Have to get men's shoes as they're big enough for me!

After that, we came home and watched a movie on my laptop (dad's laptop) and went to bed when the battery ran out.  Shame the room only has one socket....and it was nowhere near where we could watch tv from!!!

Night,

Miss A

16 Gennaio, 2012 - Big Day!!!

What a fabulous day today!

Our lessons in the morning were really good - a detailed look at the subjunctive tense, with a great powerpoint slide to go with it (look out yr 12s) and then a fun lesson looking at dialects and regions of Italy, with presentations to each other afterwards.

We had lunch, as usual and then had a half hour rest before we headed to the afternoon activities.
I was to go to 'carta pesta'.

I had been speculating about this -as I didn't think paper mache was that hard a thing to learn - but the ante was definitely upped when we walked into the shop!!  To put things clearly for you, there are only 8 artisans who can do this level of paper mache in Italy...and the guy we learnt from (Claudio) has made models for the pope, famous actors and also Russian dignitaries.  WOW.

So we started with a naked body made from terracotta (hands, feet and head) with a scrunched body made from newspaper.  It was bound with strong to give it some shape.  Claudio brought out brown recycled paper (quite a specific type), which had already been damped with glue (made from flour and water).  We had to then follow his instructions to make a wise man from paper mache.  I absolutely loved it and have called my wise man 'Alfonso'.

I coudn't get lots of pics as we were using glue and wearing gloves, but I will add some so you can see my little man :)  Not sure how I'm going to get him home, but will think of something!  Am very proud of my work!!!

We had a great time chatting with Claudio - he's really funny.  We told him our plans to go to Novoli for the focara and he said he'd come along. SO at about 8am, the people from our group that were keen, headed off to the train station to go to Novoli - only 10 mins by train away.

I couldn't believe the size of the festival when we got there!!!  SO many people, markets all over the roads, fireworks and the huge bonfire.  The atmosphere was electric.  I was thrilled to be there.

WE walked down to the bonfire and saw the fireworks - then headed back to get a sandwich.  I had an arrosto misto (mixed grill) and ate everything - really nice.  Afterwards, I found out one of the specialties was lambs liver wrapped in goodness knows what.  Oh well - was nice when I ate it!

After that,w e walked around (well, pushed) and had a crepe with smarties....yummy!  Also tried some very strong local liqueurs to keep ourselves warm. Pretty happy!  Some of the others were cold and tired, so they headed home - and Irene, Claudio and I stayed longer.  We had a great walk around and caught the train home, ending up walking in at 1am.

Fab evening and day!!!

Miss A

15 Gennaio, 2012 - Ostuni e Alberobello

This Sunday was a little different to last Sunday, in that we didn't have a free day, but were taken on a tour by Barbara (organised by the uni).

After walking to the parking area in Lecce, we all hopped on the bus and started the 1.5hr journey to Ostuni.
As last night was a late one, most of us managed to have a decent sleep on the bus.

We had a lovely trip down the coast, looking at the sea and little towns on the way - leading up to Ostuni which was about 4km in from the coast.

Our first plan of action was a visit to the toilets (not very lovely to be honest) and then we met our guide for the morning in the main town square and had a coffee.  We walked up through the hilly town and saw some lovely churches and interesting houses.

The so-called "Old Town" is Ostuni's citadel built on top of a hill and still fortified by the ancient walls. Ostuni is regarded as an architectural jewel, and is commonly referred to as "the White Town" ("La Città Bianca") because of its white walls and its typically white-painted architecture. A monument on its own, the town's largest buildings are the Cathedral and the Bishop's Palace, together with a number of palazzi of local aristocratic families.

We had a lovely look around and then walked a fairly decent walk to a hotel which served us lunch.  Again, the food was amazing! Had to walk a lot after lunch to use up all the energy!


After Ostuni, we hopped back on the bus and made our way to Alberobello - about a 45 minute bus trip through some windy and curvy country roads. Super fun!

In Alberobello, there are lots of 'trulli.'  A trullo (plural, trulli) is a traditional Apulian dry stone hut with a conical roof. Trulli were generally constructed as temporary field shelters and storehouses or as permanent dwellings by small proprietors or agricultural labourers.  Additionally, the cone itself may have a symbol painted on it (as shown in the picture of the trulli in Alberobello.) Such symbols may include Christian symbols such as a simple cross, a cross on a heart pierced by an arrow (representing Santa Maria Addolorata, ie Our Lady of Sorrows), a circle divided into four quarters with the letters S,C,S,D in them (for Sanctus Christus and Sanctus Dominus according to one source, but more likely the initials of Santo Cosma and Santo Damiano, the two saints the local basilica is dedicated to) and quite a few others.

After a lovely (but very very cold) walk through the trulli,we boarded the bus again and made our way home. It was about a 2 hr trip on return and I was keen to get into the warmth of our house!
We were pretty exhausted from the long day, and didn't eat out- just had some snacks from home.


Early to bed!


Miss A


Challenge: What is the white paint based on in Ostuni? (A type of rock!)  And what does the white paint keep away?

14 Gennaio, 2012 - Gallipoli!!!

Free Day!!!!

Francesca and I decided to head to the little seaside town of Gallipoli today.  First of all, we had a small sleep-in and then Fra spoke to her children back in Sydney.

We packed our gear for the day and found the train station (thanks to all the lovely Italian men out on their Saturday morning stroll!!).  Bought our tickets and then had a coffee and bought a snack at the bar in the station.  Lovely little place with 2 men in lovely uniforms serving!

We hopped on the train and had a slight misadventure as we got on the wrong one.  Not our fault as there were 2 trains attached to each other, both going to the same first stop (on the same engine) and then were to detach.  Not that anyone saw it important to let us know about this....until we were just about to leave.


Also brings up the very horrible and nasty experience in the Italian train toilet.  Never again.  I'll hold on next time.  let's just say that I don't think many of the men managed to get it in the toilet.  Bleh!

A lovely hour later, and a chat to the engine driver, we arrived in the lovely little town of Gallipoli.  This comes from the Greek word, Kallipolis which means "Beautiful City".  There are roughly 21,000 people living there.  The main things the city exists for is tourism and fishing....and I can't say the weather was good enough for many tourists!!  This resulted in many of the shops being closed for us :(

We had a walk around the point, and saw the 'calm' sea on one side first.  We came to main castle and historic area before walking back up the 'rough' side.  This was very icy and windy....VERY cold.  Our train didn't depart for another hour and a half, so we headed to the one bar that was open to keep warm.


Fra had a child's icecream bowl and I had some wine, which came with a large portion of aperitivi.
We sat quite happily for a while and then went downstairs to have a coffee.  I had a koala clip on thing and gave it to the guy who served us...only to be rewarded with some sweets!  Augh! Didn't really need them but it would have been rude to leave them.

We hopped on the 3.45pm train and arrived back in Lecce at 5pm, caught the bus to the main square and did some shopping.  I was a little upset that all the shops had jackets that didn't fit - and were all black.  Fra did some shopping in Zara and on the way home, I did a quick pit stop into United Colours of Benetton and saw that their jackets were 40-50% off!!  I tried 2 on, and they both fitted beautifully....so ended up getting both.  A lovely white long coat and a stylish grey one to go out in when it's chilly in winter.  Really love them and both together were under $100.


Very pleased with myself.

When I got home, we got dressed up to go out for Kristy's birthday - went for a drink to 'Persone' bar again.
We were there from 8.30pm - midnight and then went searching for somewhere with some music to dance to, but found places with good music, but no room to dance.


We got home at 1am and slid into bed and fell asleep.  Was woken up at 4.23am when Jess came back in from the discoteca.  Need to get up to be out of here for the day trip tomorrow at 9.30am.  Will be a tough one!


Miss A


Challenge: What is the name of the little Italian island where the cruise ship sank recently? Read the news!!

13 Gennaio, 2012- Visit to a private school

Today was our first school visit - and was to one of the private schools in Lecce.

We left our rooms/area at about 9am and walked to the school.  It was only about 15min from the centre and was an amazing building to look at as we walked up.  Once closer, we met the director of the university and she introduced us to the sisters/nuns who run the school.

It is called 'Istituto Marcelline' and started in 1861...now you can start to imagine what it was like inside. It was very old with high ceilings and lots of old things hanging on the walls, from painting to tapestry (the looked just like the ones that are in the Vatican).

We were first introduced into some junior classes and my first realisation was that there were no carpets on the floor, or rugs...this meant there was a lot of echoing!!!  There were 24 students in the yr 3 class, but the classroom was half the size.  The teacher had great control over the students, but I must admit, when a few of them spoke, the noise was unbearable.  I hate to think what it was like in the gymnasium....which again had nothing to absorb the sound!!!

At recess, the bell screamed (and echoed like a fire alarm down the shiny hallways) and we were escorted to a special meeting room that looked like it was from the pages of a history book!  We had coffee and a torrone and relaxed talking to the teachers for a bit.

After recess I went and had a tour of the kindy area, where they had some students starting from the age of 2, 3 and 4.  They have them all in mixed classes and start at 8.30am until 4pm, 6 days a week.  Wow.

Last stop was in a high school class, quinta (yr 12), where we discussed Australia and they asked us questions.
Again, very interesting to hear their points of view and have quite deep discussions.  I really enjoyed the fact that the students had a lot of knowledge behind them from their studies of history, philosophy and religion.  made for interesting discussions.

At 12.30 we left and headed to lunch at the usual place.  Pasta and greens:)

We had the afternoon in school, with 2 hours of grammar (based on the conjunctive) and then 2 hours where we acted out the Pirandello scene from 'La patente'.  It was quite a long session after being in the school all morning and we were pretty pleased when 6.30pm rocked up!

Irene, Fra and I headed out to a local bar for an 'aperitivo' - where you pay a set price for a drink and get food free.  We didn't realise it was quite a big night out in town and ended up in a bar called 'Persone' with a drink and food, plus dj and pumping crowd!

Quite fun actually!!  We had a few drinks and then headed home to get some much needed rest :)

Miss A

12 Gennaio, 2012 - Uni day.....loooooong day

Not much to tell about today to be honest....

We started our language course at 9 and finished at 12.  Today we had a very fulfilling lesson from a powerpoint presentation on the 'passive' use of language.

We'll do this with the yr 11/12s when I get back...and it's very simple, but very effective.
Instead of saying:
I ragazzi leggono i libri (the boys read the books)......you can say...
I libri sono letti dai ragazzi (the books are read by the boys).

Simple!  Just need to swap the object and verb...effective and sounds good too :)  Only a few thousand rules to go with this!

After this long lesson, we then went to lunch and FINALLY had vegies!!!!  Lots and lots!  We were so glad to see mountains (and I'm not exaggerating) of cabbage, fennel, chickory, turnip leaves and some omelette.

YAY!!!!  I felt better already after that.  Too many days of just eating pasta and pasta and pasta.  I was starting to feel like a gnoccho (singular of gnocchi).

So...after this yummy lunch, we then went back into class and had a 3 hr lesson of lexicon with Dario.  Today we read through a play called 'La patente' (the licence).

It's actually very funny, and is about a man who who brings bad luck to everyone around him. At the end, he goes to the magistrate to ask for a licence to bring bad luck so he can work in this field.  Hilarious to be fair!  Written by Luigi Pirandello in 1917...read up about him!

So, after that, we had a half hour meeting for housekeeping, which only brought out the fact that we cant use the gym here...because by the time we go through all the processes, getting a medical and getting the card, we'll be leaving already.  A shame because we told we'd be able to use all the facilities and still haven't even had a tour of all the uni buildings.  Disappointing seeing as it's a government run thing to be honest.

After the housekeeping we had an ATEC meeting - seeing how we can transfer our experiences and knowledge back to the classroom.  We had a very productive suggestion time/meeting and have devised a website to be able to share resources through.

I spent the evening playing around with the website and taught myself how to add things etc.  Pretty pleased with the result - think I'll have to make a website now for school.  www.wix.com/2012lecce/italiano

Have a look and see what you think!

The girls came back at about 11pm and then we all went to sleep!!

Miss A
x

11 Gennaio, 2012- Coffee Factory Visit

I slept in this morning!!!  At 8.45am I woke to see Jess starting to get ready.
I laid in bed for a while and then decided to get up and get ready for our outing for the day - which was to a coffee factory.

We were a little late leaving, but made up the time walking to the bus parking place.  We met Barbara on the way and jumped on the bus.

As it wasn't a short trip (35 min), I read the new book I bought - which is very addictive.  It is about a lady who is reading through a diary she wrote a year back when her life was a little complicated.  She then comments on it as she reads back through.  Really good, easy to read and interested.

When we reached the destination, we were very warmly welcomed by the son of the person who started the business.  Their surname is Spinelli, and so is the name of the coffee factory/brand. (http://www.spinelcaffe.it)
He began by giving us each a coffee from the vending machine - which I assumed would be crappy coffee....but it was AMAZING.  I had a mokacino - coffee and chocolate.  REALLY lovely and smooth!

So after that, we also tried out the vending machine for heating food - another cool invention.  You choose the food you want, and it heats it after it falls down through the trap door.  Fabulous!  All this was free!!!!!  YAY!

The reason for this, was to show us what they also do...as they are a company that focuses on preparing and roasting the coffee, selling and making machines, as well as selling lots of vending machines that offer fresh and  healthy food.

So, after that,we watched some very interesting movie clips about vending machines in Italy, and then some info about their company.  We then had 2 tours.  The first was of the roasting and grinding parts of the factory and also where they prepare the pods for the machines (different to the coffee pods for Nespresso) and the other was to see the offices.

It was very interesting to see both sides and learn how all the coffee is made - this will be a lesson or 2 for the kids when I return!!!

Once we had watched some advertising they'd done, we took some pictures, jumped on the bus and headed home again.  We had to walk to lunch quickly, as we were late from the factory...so we rushed there, also quite quickly (we had a lovely spinach/zucchini soup and then meatloaf with bacon inside) and then had to go straight to class with Patrizia - who is the head of the uni.

The lesson was interesting as we played a few games that we can replicate with our students...wont explain them as they wont be fun in class then!  Needless to say....I have a lot of preparing to do before I implement them all in class.

After the lesson, at 6.30pm, I went home and read some emails and completed homework, while others went shopping.  The girls are now doing their homework as I write this, and I'll help them in a minute if they need.

I'm dying to get back and read more of my book- but the lighting in the room is very poor.
I had a great chat with Talei tonight and got to see some pics of Esther...really looking forward to cuddles when I get home. xxx

Anyway...homework and explanations are calling.  The girls here have done a great big shop tonight and we now have lots of fresh food and drink.  So off to eat and drink....and be merry!!

Miss A

Challenge for today : come si chiama 'pod' for coffee in italiano?  usate il sito web di spinelli!!