6 Gennaio, 2012 – Otranto e la pioggia

Yuck. All I can say is rain and yuck!  (before you read further….there is a good end to the day!)

As the soccer match Lecce vs Juventus is happening on Sunday, Fra and I went out this morning to try and get tickets.  As today is the Befana, everything was closed.  So, we may go and try tomorrow to see if we can get tickets.  There is a special for ladies, a concession for 25E.  Could be fun!

On the way back from the hike to the ticket booth, Fra and I stopped in for a coffee.  On the way out, as it had started raining, I fell down the 3 marble steps at the front of the bar.  Ouchies.  Hit my back on the first step and ended up sprawled, quite indelicately, down all 3 steps.

A lovely gentleman from the bar came and helped me up, and admittedly I felt a little shocked.  A few of the people in our group were there so they said they're happy to sign the incident form for me - but the biggest pain was having to spend the day with a sore back- especially in the cold of the day....and it got pretty chilly I can tell you!

We hopped on the bus after a 15 min walk....in the rain, so were soaked and had to put up with the air con circulating in the bus to un-fog the windows. 

After about 40 minutes, we arrived at Otranto....with more rain.  It was a shame as it's meant to be a lovely port town with a lot of azure coloured water. Not today!

Otranto is famous for its castle, cathedral and the lighthouse near, which is the most eastern point of Italy. 

Our first visit was to the cathedral, which housed an amazing mosaic and a special room/santuary with the 800 bones of the Otranto martyrs....a very interesting story!

Let me set the scene....the year was 1480 and the fateful day of July 28, when a fleet of 70 to 200 Ottoman ships reached the city of Otranto, then part of the Kingdom of Naples. It was the beginning of the Ottoman wars (1453-1683) in Europe and invader Mohammed II had conquered Constantinople just 28 years earlier.

The garrison and the citizens took cover in the Castle of Otranto but as it had no cannons for defense, it was soon conquered and the garrison killed.

On August 12, 800 citizens were taken to the hill of Minerva, now called the Hill of the Martyrs, and beheaded because they refused to renounce their Catholic faith. Their remains were taken to the cathedral and the skulls preserved in the altar piece as a prominent reminder of these 800 martyrs.

The floor of the Cathedral was also amazing, as it was all mosaic, and the picture was the tree of life.  Depicting many bible stories and also....King Arthur!  It is one of the first, and only, representations of this famous historical character.

After the Cathedral, we went to the castle, again lovely, but by this time the wind had picked up so....I froze.

We left Otranto and went to our lunch destination....after thinking it too was closed for the Befana, we ended up with a lovely surprise....and an amazing lunch.

We had about 4 different nibbles for entree; frittata, rosemary focaccia, tuna 'melts' followed by awesome shaped pasta....like spaghetti all twisted up!!  And for main we had polpette and salad (with chicory).  It was outstanding!

With each dish we also had a matched wine.  Starting with Verdeco (white), 29 (red, negroamaro) and ending up with their specialty which was a 2007 Calamuri Negroamaro.  WOW is all I can say.

I ended up purchasing some to taste at a later stage....and perhaps some for Mike as his engagement pressie from me.

The bus trip home was...lively.

As the weather has been horrible (and now the wind has begun), we had a short walk in the main piazza and then decided that it was better to be at home, nice and warm.

So we've been sitting in our apartment for a few hours....and it's  now 9.30pm....potentially time for me to go to bed!  I have managed to take some pain killers and my back is feeling decidedly better.

Very excited for our 2 free days this weekend....and you'll see what I get up to in the next post!

Miss A

Challenge: Go online and google Otranto Cathedral Mosaic and see all the stories. Who was the creator of the mosaic? His name starts with a 'P'....

5 Gennaio, 2012 - TOO much language!!

Wow....that's about all I can say about today!

The ladies came up to our room at 6.30am - and i must admit I was worried I'd miss my alarm and sleep though it, so I woke up just about every hour from 3am!  It was really nice hearing them talk to their families...but I'm not the best person after an early morning!  Irene had a chat with her family in 3 places in Australia...hilarious to watch!

We had breaky and then went to class for a 9am start.  We did 2 hours of language....which was all about the lexicon used by young people. Had great fun doing some of the exercises, but I must admit that I did know more of the 'vulgar' ones and not the less strong versions!

After that 2 hour class, we had a short break and I grabbed a caffe again at the local bar.  Loving it!  I also had some salatini, which are so lovely, and stopped my tummy from rumbling too much!

Our second 2 hours class was grammar - the main focus for this was pronouns.  We've done these in class with most students (io, tu, lui, lei, noi, voi, loro) and this was quite basic.  We then got more advanced, talking about reflexive pronouns (mi, ti, si,ci, vi, si) and then direct and indirect pronouns.  Super fun!

I was quite happy with all of this as it's something that I was taught very well to begin with :)

Our lunch break came as a great relief after all those lessons.  The food was amazing (again) and we even managed a glass of wine!

Our entree was cream of asaparagus and potato soup, followed by a lovely chicken on the bone with olives and tomatoes.  All ended with 2 shots of coffee.  I think I'll be immune to caffeine by the time I get home :)

In the afternoon we had a lesson with the director of the university - and there were some great lesson ideas and we did some exercises that were actually very hard.  It took us a while to get through them - and now we have some to do for homework.

After the lesson, I walked through the old centre and through to a supermarket called 'Dico' which has cut-price goods and homebrand items.  We got some wine, meats, cheese and other nibbles and took them home.

From tehre, we had lots of people from the group come up, share some wine and food and then go.  Was a lovely evening and when it came around to bed time, I was really suprised to see it was 11pm!  My latest night so far.

Went to sleep like a baby

Miss A

Challenge - give me a sentence with a reflexive verb....and make it a decent sentence...not using the translate function!

4 Gennaio, 2012 - 'Easier' Day!

Ciao a tutti!

We were up and ready this morning, so early that we actually had time to make breakfast for ourselves in the room.

We're in a bed and breakfast, but to be honest, it's more 'bed' than breakfast!!!  We had a small carton of milk and a few biscuits.  We used our resourcefulness and created a magnificent breakfast after finding a small bit of coffee as well.  Marvellous!

After stuffing our faces, we wandered down to school to start our language lesson. This morning it was about the future tense and futuro anteriore.  It was quite an easy lesson and I did all the homework needed during class.

Our conversation lesson began a little late, as the lecturer was stuck in traffic, so we took ourselves off to a bar.  I had a lovely espresso and bought some salatini.  Salatini are little snack things, like we have sausage rolls and party pies.  But these are SO much better!!!  There were tiny pizzas, mashed potato fingers, as well as a few other unidentifiable food pieces.  All good though!!

Our language lesson for communication/conversation was all about words that young Italians use, hopefully these may be useful with older students in the future.....but I think that some words may be better left out....!!

One good one is - 'non mi rompere le scatole'
(dont be a pain in the bum)

After class, we had lunch and tasted dome really yummy new things.  Salad with carpaccio of beef and then a pasta plate typical for the region, which was chick pea pasta with chick peas through the sauce.  Really different, but yummy!

After some coffee, we headed back for some group meetings and ended up getting back to our 'rooms' at about 5pm.  From here, we ended up hosting a few people in our place for showers as they didn't have hot water.  Very italian!

As thanks, they brought some wine, so we had a little study session over a few bottles of wine (Negroamaro is the wine from this region) and we also started planning where we can go over this weekend.  We have a few days free so we're thinking of going to Bari and Gallipoli (the Italian one!)

At 7.30pm we all went downt to the bar around the corner and had a few glasses of wine.  It was lovely as they have a time called 'aperitivo' which means when you get a glass of wine, you then get served nibbles and food.  Not bad at all!

We crashed into bed at about 10pm as some of the ladies want to use skype tomorrow from our room, because we have a strong connection from here.  They've arranged 6.30am calls to the eastern states....augh!

The challenge for the day is to tell me what the quote below means!

I'll be setting up challenges each day and bringing back some prizes for the quickest responses!!

Buona giornata!

Miss A

3 gennaio, 2012 - First School Day

I was like a nervous teenager today!  First day at school/university!

We were all up quite early due to jet-lag (not really awake though!).  I found a fabulous little bar (remember....not for alcohol students!) and had a buffet breakfast of; pandoro, fruit, cereals and coffee for 4E (euro).

Really made my day!

We then met and went to the uni, which is just around the corner from our accommodation.  We had a brief introduction for an hour and then a 3 hours lesson.  I never want to hear any students ever complain about a double period....we have lessons either for 3 or 4 hour per day.  And had no break.

Today we went over the present indicative tense, both regular and irregular verbs.  We had a large bookelt given to us to complete if we wanted, and you'll all be proud to know that your teacher, the fab Miss A, handed hers in at the end of the lesson, all completed (yes, I'm a nerd...and proud of it!)

Below is a photo of a coffee vending machine....slightly more in depth than ours at home!!!

Lunch was pretty good, some rapa (spinach type leaves) with pureed beans, then followed by orechiette (look up this shape of pasta after you've had a guess at what it could be) with pomodoro e basilico.

Yummy.

I'm going to have to start running so I dont come back shaped like gnocchi.

After lunch we had a tour of the town - pretty amazing.  It was pitch black by 4.30pm.  Great.  Below is a picture of the entrance to the 'centro storico' (look it up!) and the current art installation project - theme is 'lights':

The tour lasted until we had a welcome party tonight at uni.  They had it all catered with lots of typical regional foods - pureed chick peans with prawns, mozzarella sticks, potator with octopus and lots of other yummy dishes.  Needless to say we didn't wat them all, and I made sure we carried 6 plates of the leftover food home so we can have them tomorrow.

I'm still exhausted after the flights and travel, so I'll take pictures and add them up tomorrow.

I would love to get at least 50 people signed up so pls share the site via facebook....I will start putting up some challenges as I have so many things I can bring home as prizes.....this town is so beautiful...you'll see in photos i'll put up soon.

Tomorrow we have a 4 hr language lesson and then either food making or paper mache classes.
Either way, I need my sleep to help my artistic talent....!!!

Buonanotte,

Miss A

2 gennaio, 2012 - Dubai to Rome to Brindisi to Lecce.

WOW!

What a long day!

We got into Dubai and then had 5 hours there before getting on a plane to Rome.  The flight went so fast as it was only for an hour (ish).

Once we landed in Brindisi, we collected all our luggage and hopped on a coach for an hour trip to the town we're staying in.

LONG day!

We found our accommodation and limped into our rooms.  Some of us grabbed dinner out (a really lovely plac with fresh mozzareally balls bigger than baseballs!) and then fell into bed.

I had a slight issue with my trundle bed, in that it broke, so had a lovely sleep on a few mattresses on the floor.  Probably better in the long run because my feet went off the bed - they would have got cold if I were on the frame as well!

Our room was nice and warm - and I slept all the way through until 5.45am.
Got to love jet-lag!

Miss A

1 gennaio, 2012 - Perth to Dubai

What a start to the New Year!   It has certainly been a rushed week, with arriving back from Bali with mum, to having Christmas (and a record number of different meats in the space of 24 hrs – salmon, lamb, turkey, ham, duck and chicken!), then Boxing Day and a trip down to Margaret River.

The first large surprise came with Mike taking me down for an indulgent picnic at Canal Rocks to watch the sunset….and then asking me to marry him.  Not expected – and left me quite speechless and shocked for a good few hours.  Pretty sure people thought something was wrong, as I’m not often left with nothing to say!!

After some lovely celebrations, approximately 24 hours later, when I was just coming to terms with being engaged…my best friend texted and said she’d gone into labour – 12 days early.  I was very excited as I thought I would miss it all, being in Italy.  7 hours later, it was announced that I officially have a god-daughter, Esther Denise.

WOW!  So, all this has happened, and now I’m sat in Dubai airport, trying to think what this year will have in staff for me.  Surely there can’t be much more than this!

After an early morning (after a very late 2.30am ‘night’) we drove back to Perth to pack, see Esther, my family and to get to the airport.  There were a few stressful moments, but as far as I can tell, I have my passport, money and air ticket so should be ok!!

I was very lucky to have cuddles with my little darling Esther and will treasure the photos for the next 3 weeks! She was SOOOO little and to be honest, I fell in love with her at first sight.  She is going to be a very spoilt little girlie!  Even when she was a little hungry and cried, I sounded more little the mewing of a little kitten.  Awww xxx

OK!  And so, enough of 2011! Onto 2012!

I am currently sat in Dubai airport, gate number 222, which is boarding for Copenhagen. I’m not going there…but scammed some awesome free and comfortable seats!  Free Wifi too, only I cant get it working on any of the stupid machinery I have, iphone, ipad and laptop.  Wish I had a few students here to sort it out!!

Flight from Perth to here was quite good – it was at night (left Perth at 10.30pm) so I fell asleep after dinner…which was pretty tasty!  Coconut chicken curry, yum!  I watched 2 movies in between snoozing; the first being ‘Zookeeper’ – pretty funny.  All about a zookeeper who gets help from the talking animals to get a girlfriend.

I then watched ‘The Help’ – which is based on a small American community and their  interactions between the white ladies in the households and the ‘help’ (African American ladies).  It was a great book to read (I read it over the October school holidays) and then just as good to watch as a movie.  I really cant believe how poorly people were treated (and still are) just because of the colour of their skin.  Really interesting and thought provoking.

I now have my coffee and sprite, to get the correct mix of caffeine and sugar, as I wait here for 5 hours before the connecting flight to Rome.  That flight takes 6.5 hours.  In Rome we have a 6 hr wait for the 1.5 hr flight to Brindisi Airport.  Then a bus to Lecce.  I hope my enthusiasm (sarcasm) for this part of the journey is getting across to you!!

I am, though, thinking of faking an injury so I can get a ride on one of the cool motorized scooter things that are dashing about from gate to gate.   I’m sure if I tell them it’s for research, as I’m an Italian teacher…they may buy it, or perhaps not!

For people reading this:

Students – make sure you’re doing some study!!  ESPECIALLY Italian students…I may have to post up some questions just to make sure you’ve been doing something….!

Teachers – Enjoy the last 3 weeks of the holidays!

Family/Friends – Thanks for bothering to have a read!  I am going to try and ensure not every photo is of food this trip…otherwise it may result in me hiring a marquee to use as a wedding dress!  Hehe, well at least I can still poke fun at myself no matter what the outcome!

Signing off from the first, exhilarating and informative edition of this blog…

Miss A

x

News!!!

Ok, I'm sat in the departures lounge at the International Airport.
The Italian experience is due to start very soon!

A little bit of exciting news from the past 3 days....
1) I have a lovely new little god-daughter names Esther.  Very very happy about that!  Had lots of cuddles today.  Will miss her for the next 3 weeks!

2) I am now engaged!!!!!

All very exciting and will cause quite a busy 2012!!

Will try and post from Dubai (possibly) but if not, look out for the start of the 'real' blog in less than 24 hours!!!

ITALY HERE I COME!!!