Week 12: Ultimate Week

Sunday:

No church today as no way of getting there instead I went with the family to watch Fede participate in his first moto race. They took his older motorbike but then found out it wasn't powerful enough to take him up the hills so they had to drive back to take his other one. It takes about an hour to drive to the race place. He did okay, stalled the bike a lot but he isn't as used to it as the other one. But he managed a lap of 7 minutes which was good. It started to rain later in the afternoon surprise surprise. Last day in Rovescala tomorrow morning we go back to Milan. 

Monday:

Left Rovescala at 10 they were all sad to leave but I'm glad to be back in the city I prefer it there. It's busier and more alive, peace and quiet is nice but after a while I longed for a noisier place. The kids don't understand why I prefer Milan and Fede said as much that I must be stupid to prefer the city. I don't think they realise that not everyone has the same opinion as them. I half unpacked and then repack my big suitcase so the things I use I can just throw into my small one. Took Fede to the park most of his friends are back from holiday now so he had people to play with. 

Tuesday:

Didn't get much sleep, I think because I changed beds hopefully tonight will be better. Bit of a slow morning as Bea and Fede did their own things homework etc so I just had to supervise. Fede was making a book that he had written gluing various pieces of paper etc together. Bea was translating songs for me from Italian to English and English to Italian. She was very good. When she wants to she can speak English well...she just often does not want to. Fede loves the 'What does the fox say?' song and keeps asking to replay it he likes the video too. Went our to the park and took an ice cream at Massimo's as he was back open. 

I found Rebecca the cat sat on my bed.  

Wednesday: 

Early awakening. I go to bed too hot so I sleep without the covers but then when morning comes I'm cold so I wake up tired. Today is colder, yesterday was very warm even too hot and the all the mosquitos come out so the cool is better. 

In the morning I did English with Fede then tired him out by walking to Porta Romana to see the hole made by all the rain but we couldn't find it. Then we walked into the centre and I picked up some final gifts for family. I read the map wrong at one point and we ended up going the long way round Fede wasn't impressed and we took the tram back. 

After lunch we went to see some friends of theirs. They live in Porta Romana near the hole so we got to see it after all. 

It was bigger before but they have already stated repairing it. All the heavy rain washed the ground away because underneath it is hollow where all the underground parking is for the flats. 

Another ice cream from Massimo's. I had salter caramel and passion fruit. The caramel was nice not too salty and not too sweet. 

Thursday:

Last full day. In the morning went out to the centre. I picked up some more bits and bobs. Gifts for the kids to say thank for the summer. Alessadra bought me a book, it's cool because on one side of the page it is in English and on the other side it's the same page but in Italian! I choose A Midsummer Nights Dream. After lunch I finished packing had a dilemma run out of weight space. Why I brought so much stuff with me is beyond me I didn't use half of it. They gave me a load of pasta to take back but I don't know if I can because of the weight. When I weigh it in at the airport tomorrow fingers crosse there will be enough room. Had a last last ice cream at Massimo's. Mandarin and Passionfruit the two best flavours. 

Built a race track with Fede out of kapla - jenga bricks. And we raced ball bearings down it. 

For my last dinner Alessandra made Lasagna yum! 

Day 31: Art Museum

Normal schedule in the morning.

Then after lunch we went out. We went back to the old art gallery museum - The Brera. They have a huge painting gallery and we went to look around them. There were thousands of paintings and of many famous artists going right back to the 1400s. 

This was my favourite painting called 'il baccio' (the kiss) by Hayez. 

A state of Atalanta

This Tritta was very cool the paintings looked 3D. 

These were some frescoes taken from a church 

On the way back we stopped at Massimo's for ice cream. This could potentially be my last ice from Massimo's as we go to the hills on Friday and they close in August. 

I took passion fruit and apricot. It was so nice!

As we were in the centre we stopped off at a few shops. I picked up some more postcards, a tshirt and a ring and some jewellery for my sisters. 

My blue infinity ring

Initialled necklace for Louisa

They didn't have an 'R' necklace so I got a bracelet for Rebekah. 

Also from The Brera I got a phone case. 

Guess what picture was on it?

You guessed it. I was tempted to get a canvas but probably not an easy item to transport back to England. 

Day 28: One Month

Hitting the four week mark is weird. A third of my summer is over. The next third proves to be more exciting though (not that this third wasn't).

This week is the last week in Milan, then we move up into the hills permanety for the rest of the summer. We actually only have a week in the hills and then we go to Tuscany. Exciting. 

Tried to go to church today but the trains were cancelled due to strikes so I couldn't make it. Hopefully they will be running next week! Luckily when you buy tickets they are valid for a month before you activate them so I can use them next week. 

So instead we chilled at home. Played chess, watched super bike which is actually quite fun and of course the Germany Argentina football match. As Italy is out they were all rooting for Germany - and they won! Hooray! There's going to be a certain nearby Argentinan restaurant who are going to have I take their flags and balloons down today! 

In the afternoon we went to a medieval village called Bobbio. To get to it all the roads are twisty and twiny. You drive through the mountains to get to it. We stopped of at a mountain pass where they normally go skiing in winter the air was so fresh and clear. 

When we got to Bobbio it was raining. We met up with the family of a friend of Bea's who lives in Bobbio. We saw the church of San Colombo, the Duomo and saw Ponto Vecchio and had ice creams. My ice cream was meringue and chocolate. 

Church of San Colombo

The Duomo

Me on Ponto Vecchio with the River Trebbia

Me, Fede, Bea and Alessia.

We got back around seven thirty so we left late for Milan didn't return until ten thirty. Finished watching the football then went to bed. 

Day 26: Market Day

Friday is market day. It takes up three streets nearby the house. All the stuff is interesting but most of it you know you'll never need no matter how nice it looks.

Bea struck some bargains today. A stall was selling Hollister and Abercrombie clothes for €10 each. Most of them were worn, or fake but there were a few good items there. Bea got an Abercrombie skirt and I was tempted by a few t shirts but not entirely convinced of their legitimacy passed. 

We have now nearly finished Bea's English comprehension book! 'The Great Yellowstone Adventure' probably the worst story ever written. 

For dinner we had chicken and chips. 

The men came to fix the boiler so we have hot water again. Though after lunch we packed up to go to the hills so won't really feel the benefit until Monday when we are back. 

Weather forecast predicted rain and thunderstorms for this weekend but so far it's just lovely weather. 

After unpacking at the hills, I played badminton with Federico and then Bea neither of them really got the hang of it and both said they preferred tennis. 

Then Stefano and Fede were gettig Fede's new bike ready to take down to the mechanic. Me and Bea went with them in the pick up. We also picked up some bread and bits and bobs for the house. 

The pick up interior 

Hardware store we went to

I also finished reading Jane Eyre. I love rereading books I find out so many things I missed the first time. 

This was my favourite bit reading it this time. I love Mr Rochester he's my favourite character. I've seen two productions of Jane Eyre the one with Ruth Wilson and Toby Stephens and the more recent one with Mia Wasikowska and Michael Fassbender. Toby Stephens' Mr Rochester is infinitely superior to Fassbender's. You could put the two films at a par with the two Pride and Prejudices. Stephens is Colin Firth (therefore the best) and Fassbender is Matthew McFayden (the inferior copy, worth watching but in no way a patch on the original). I also found out on research that Toby Stephens is the son of Maggie Smith. 

Ciao. 

Day 24: Dinner Out

More English work.

More tutoring.

More eating. 

We visited ikea. They have three in Milan. This one was only ten minutes away and was I three floors. We stopped halfway round and got something from the caffè before 11.30 you get a deal where you can get a brioche and a cappuccino for €1. They made my cappuccino without coffee. So it was basically fluffy milk with cocoa on top. It was very nice - after I'd added sugar to it. The cocoa was bitter. 

In the evening Elga had invited us all over for dinner. It was very nice. We had pasta, meat and a cheese soufflé and then an apricot tart. It was very nice. 

Me Alessandro, Francesco and Federico played Scopo a type of card game and uno. We also played a football/catch game mainly it was me trying to stop the ball knock the photos off the wall. 

We got back quite late at 11.00pm so I went straight to bed. 

Day 23: Movies

This morning after breakfast I did English with Federico using the duolingo language app. He hadn't done it for a long time, so he had a lot of sections to catch up on but we got up to date.

After that I did another section of English with Bea. We used her comprehension book and then also used the culture book they have in which you learn about the cultures of English speaking countries. Whilst we did this Fede carried on writing his motorcycle story on the laptop occasionally switching to the internet to research the next motorbike he wants. One with a more powerful engine. 

Once I had finished English with Bea, and Fede had done his guitar practice Bea practiced the piano while I played chess with Fede. I won both games - checkmate. 

After chess I read Hansel and Gretel in English with Fede his pronunciation improves every time he reads as he rememebrs words he has read before, also his fluency is becoming better. 

Then lunch. 

After lunch I did some more English using the picture dictionary they have it has a whole section on adjectives so we worked on that. 

Then went over to tutor at Elga's. Today she asked if she could record me speaking out a list of words she had compiled so after I leave she knows how to pronounce them. So we spent some time doing that. I got out of breath quite a bit, but it was fun. 

When we'd finished Alessandra came over with Bea and then we all went to the park. Whilst we were there one of Elga's friends came in with her son. They were English! She was called Helen and her son Edward and they were from London. So it was nice to talk English to an English person again. She married and Italian and he must have an amazing job because both their children go to the English private school in Milan which is €10,000 a year, per head. 

We came back and had tea, afterwards Stefano and Bea wanted to watch The Hostel. A scary movie. So me Fede and Alessandra watched The Adventures of Despereaux in her room. We were going to watch it in English with Italian subtitles but Fede refused to watch it so we switched it to Italian with English subtitles. 

Ciao. 

Day 22: Crazy weather

We are getting into a routine now.

After breakfast Fede watches cartoons on television whilst I do an hour English homework with Bea in the kitchen. After that Bea stays home and does math work or cleans the house or practices the piano whilst me and Fede do to Elga's to tutor.

I tutor Alessandro and Francesco wholst Fede completes some Italian homework. He has already finished his English book. Today we did the body again. I drew another picture with arrows and they had to label all the parts. They did well on the major parts like leg and arm but struggled on things like thumb and hips. After that we did adjectives that are opposite. Eg light and dark, old and new and they had to give examples of these properties. 

When we got home I repeated the English exercises with Fede. He had to match up opposite adjectives and then write and sentence using them and draw pictures to match them. I think he quite enjoyed it. 

Then we had lunch eggs and salad. We chilled out a little after lunch, and thene and Bea went out to the shops with her friend Matilde and her sister Constanca. 

We went to Subdued a kind of younger hipster fashion shop, Zara and Abercrombie and Fitch before it decide to start raining and we had no jackets or umbrellas. 

I bought a necklace from subdued. 

Nice gift bag

M for me, Maria. 

They had a smaller one that was a black triangle with the star signs so I might go back and get a libra one!

Abercrombie was a nice shop, very big three floors. Worse lighting than Hollister and twice the price. You could also get your picture taken with a model on your way in. I thought it was a bit silly so I didn't get one Bea and Matilde did though. Although it's expensive I think I'll save up and treat myself to something from there before I leave. 

We got back from shopping wet and tired the rain became really heavy. Crazy weather as it was boiling hot only minutes earlier. It also started thundering quite badly! When you use the trams, buses and trains you stick your ticket in a machine and it gets dated and timed. 

The back gets stamped with a time. 

Date: 07/07/14 Time: 17.52

Matilde stayed for tea and hung out afterwards. I google hangouted my family which was fun. Louisa, Bea and Matilde had face pulling contests. 

Their adopted cat Rebecca likes me she kept rubbing against my leg and purring whilst I was on google hangouts. 

Ciao. 

Day 19: Pepperon, Forchett, Cortell

Stefano has this funny game he plays when trying to translate Italian words into English. It is basically take the last syllable off. So Pepperoni (bell pepper) becomes Pepperon. Forchetta (fork) becomes Forchett, and Cortello (knife) becomes Cortell. It's quite amusing at times some of the words sound very funny!

Today is market day so we went to the market again. They literally sell everything. I bought some screen protectors for my phone two euros for two screens, or so I thought. When we got back I discovered it was actually one screen for the front and one for the back. Who cares about the back of the phone I have a case to protect that. Anyway it didn't matter much as I absolutely suck at putting them on. What was even more frustrating was the easy four step instruction pictures on the back. It is so hard. I followed them I even used a credit card to smooth it out and still bubbles were everywhere. I gave up and now they are screwed up at the bottom of the bin. Such a good idea but so impossible to do.

In the fish market they had a swordfish and an octopus which I thought was both cool and weird, like who was going to want to want to eat them? The swordfish still has his sword on!

Fede hates shopping, he also hates the smell of fish so we didn't stay long. When we got back after failing to apply my screen protectors I did some more English with Bea. She had finished the required grammar sections in her ridiculously large grammar book, but still had a whole book of comprehension to do. I will never complain about homework again after the amount I have seen them required to do! They have it 100 times worse.

We also went inside the church they worship in when they are in Milan. They have recently been renovating it and it looks beautiful!

Google hangouted my mum and dad before dinner! Which was nice, William waved at me but was more interested in the fact that he could also see himself and kept saying 'baba'.

This afternoon we are going up to the hills for the weekend, unluckily it has been really warm this week but has only today decided to rain! Which sucks as I was really looking forward to going in the pool. Oh well I guess more bike rides and reading books. I have managed to fit 1984, Italian pride and prejudice and Jane Eyre into my bag hopefully that will last me.

Alessandra also loaned me a copy of the Italian 1984 so I can read them alongside each other and compare words. It is a little difficult as the book is already quite hard, and things aren't translated word for worf. For example the opening sentence 'It was a bright cold day in April' in Italian is 'Era una fresca limpida giornata d'aprile' which literally translates as 'It was a cold clear day of April' so little things but enough to make your sentences grammatically incorrect if you didn't check the difference.

We got Mirror Mirror out of the library the movie with Julia Roberts and Lily Collins and Armie Hammer and are taking it with us to watch in ENGLISH with Italian SUBTITLES (hooray for me) in the hills this evening. Incidentally Mirror Mirror is called Biancaneve (snow white) which is the story it's based on rather than Specchio Specchio which sounds a little weird.

Buongiorno.

Day 18: Andiamo

Last night I was woken at about 5.30am by the sound of an alarm probably a house alarm that was so loud and would not stop. It felt like forever but it was probably only five minutes but even sticking my head under the pillow didn't cancel it out.

As I result I overslept a little to compensate but even then I spent the day running on sugar.  

I did another hour of English with Bea, this morning it was all on modal verbs 'must' and 'have' etc. more revision of what I've studied the past two years. After that, me and Fede went to Elga's house to tutor. Same structure as yesterday except today France finished his exercise book so I'm going to have to think of something else to do with him!

They also read through the books very fast. Both of them have finished two books in three days. I am going to have to get some more out of the library. 

Fede stated for dinner at Elga's they were having lentils which he likes. Me and Alessandra went back home. I started reading 1984 again but then Bea asked if I wanted to watch 'Bianca come il latte, rossa come il sangue' which is a film of an Italian novel of the same name. 

It's a sad film and I cried. You can only watch it in Italian but luckily they had English subtitles so I could understand what was going on. If you have seen the movie Charly I'd say it's kind of similar to that everything is fine and them boom a bombshell is dropped and yore a wreck for the rest of the movie. The title in English incidentally is 'White as milk, red as blood'. 

We stopped for lunch and the continued it afterwards. 

After lunch I went with Bea to pick up her friend Bianca and we went to a huge department store called 'Coin'. It has eight floors and sells everything. Although after a while I began to notice that it sells expensive everything. Even in a 40% off sale things were still hundreds of euros. We also went to a Milanese make up shop called Kiko. They also had a sale on as it is now July. They sell loads of different types of nail polish. I got one called 'cupcake' which is a solid colour with spots of other colour in it. 

After that we went back to Bianca's flat. They wanted to make over me. So I acquiesced. Probably not the smartest decision, it started out okay but the green eyeshadow was bright and garish and I don't really like eye shadow. Then came mascara, if I ever wear it it's very little because my lashes are so long it coats my face when I blink. I had lots of black lines on my face after that! Next time I will say no. 

We came back and had dinner - risotto. Someone in another flat was playing Lana Del Rey which was so good to hear! Four of her songs in a row! 

I am so tired after that early awakening this morning I am going for an early night. It's a constant struggle to make myself reopen my eyes after blinking. 

Ciao. 

Day 17: Bambina

Today was a busy day!

This morning Alessandra had to leave early for court. So after clearing up breakfast I spent some time with Bea helping her with her English book. Her English grammar homework book is like 400 pages long. Big pages like A4 size but not quite, the weird textbook size pages. Luckily not all 400 pages are required to be completed by September but she still has so much to do. Today we looked at adjectives, comparatives and superlatives and negative comparisons. Studying English Language for two years put me in a really good position to help her!

One exercise was quite hard to fill in though. Differences between elder/older eldest/oldest and further/farther furthest/farthest? After thinking long and hard I came to the conclusion that if there ever was a difference between older and elder and further and furthest noone cares about it now because I hear and use them interchangeably. Though I did some research and found that 'farther' refers to physical distance like miles or feet and 'further' refers to non physical difference like effort or time. Like I said I think they are now pretty much interchangeable although I hear further a lot more than farther. With elder and older, elder apparantly refers to differences between two people e.g Hannah is Lucy's elder sister whereas older refers to age only e.g John is older than me by two years. I think elder just drops from use too archaic and old fashioned sounding. Plus I think the religious connotations scare people from using it.

After that, me and Fede went to Elga's house 10.30 till 12.30. I tutored Francesco and Federico first today, well Fede mostly sits there and does his Italian work because he has finished his English book and Elga is paying for France (pronounced Franky) not Fede. So I practiced with him the trouble words we identified yesterday and then we did some more exercises in his book. We also looked at labelling the body or il corpo in English with a rather badly illustrated child that I drew. Then we finished off reading Peter Rabbit and made a start on Hansel and Gretel. Same process for Alessandro. Ale had made a huge improvement on his words although he still pronounces find with a shorter I sound so it rhymes with tinned. We were looking at telling the time in his book and then we started reading Hansel and Gretel.

We came back for lunch, and then after that went to visit Alessandra's friend Laura at the hospital. She had given birth to a little girl a few days ago. The baby was so sweet and tiny only 3500g (3.5kg) she was very small! But so cute. Italian hopsitals are quite like English ones though less plasticised they actually have real walls. Though the floors are covered with the weird lino stuff, and yes they smell the same I don't really know how to describe it except for it being a sickly hospitally smell. We stayed about three quarters of an hour Fede wanted to go to the park and Bea had a friend she wanted to see.

Bea went off to see her friend, and me Fede and Alessandra took a little tour of the surrounding area. We walked through a large green park area, past the public university which was orignially a hospital built by Duke Sforza. After it was bombed it was remodelled into a university. The architecture was lovely I like all the white marbly stone they use everything looks so fresh.

We carried on walking, saw some more old Romanesque style churches and went into the usual park. Luckily lots of Fede's friends were there to play with. I sat on a bench and carried on reading 1984, I think it is a book I am going to have to read over once I have finished as I am not entirely understanding what is going on. Ironically about twenty minutes in Fede complained wanting to go home! He who had begged so hard to come to the park. We left journeying home past Massimo's and of course went in to get ice cream. I usually get Mandarin but they didn't have any so today I had passionfruit. It was so lovely. They make it all from the actual natural fruit and the flavour was strong and sweet. It's a pity I can't bring the ice cream back with me because it really is something.

For tea we had PIZZA. I think I have had pizza every week since I have been here but I am not complaining Alessandra makes a very nice pizza.

I also taught Alessandra how to use google hangouts. She has an aunt who lives far away and only contacts by email so now she can hangout her which will be better!

Ciao.

Day 16: Naviglie - or The Canals

This morning we "took a trip on a boat down the seine" just kidding though points to you if you got the song reference! No what we actually did was go look at the boats on Milan's naviglie. One naviglia (canal) two naviglie (canals).

They are quite a way from the aparmtent, so we used publics transport. You used to be able to get a tram the whole way their, but roadworks meant we had to swap to a bus when the tram route ended early. 

There used to be a lot of water in Milan but now it's all pushed to the south east side into two canals. They are very long and if you cycle down the path alongside it you would arrive at Piacenza. They had lots of boats on and also a floating football pitch. One of the boats was a restaurant which I thought was pretty cool. 

It's like triple decker!

Alongside the canals are the old painters quarters and the houses are in old traditional style with long internal balconies providing access to different flats. 

All the buildings are highly decorative and in different colours. 

The old painters quarters was very nice. Smaller houses in a reddy pink with external balconies and hanging plants. 

The sun makes me look like I have no hair!

For some bizarre reason their was a fake cow with a bicycle seat on it's back?

After looking at the painters quarters Alessandra showed us a really old bit of Milan. Some stones where women used to wash their clothes. The stones she said were from like the 800s and used up until the 1950s but the timber frame will be newer and replaced often. Still it was very cool. They would scrub the clothes on the stone then dunk it in the river and re scrub. 

The stones are set at 45 degrees

Timber roof structure 

Close up of one of the many stones

Covered and uncovered areas 

As we carried on the down the street we came across a church. We thought it was really old as the architecture hinted that it was quite ancient. However we discovered dorm what disappointingly that it was dedicated 1909. We also discovered that a wedding was about to take place so we hurried on quickly. 

Face of church above the doorway

Doorway

We also saw anther church. The church of Saint Eustorgio. 

Doorway

One thing have noticed is that the churches are all very wide. 

When the weather gets very warm the pavement melts slightly. Anyone someone had clearly taken advantage of it in that state and spelt a word out in bottle tops. I can't remember what it was MEZZ*N** something like that. 

The new street art!

We came back for lunch and then after that went to tutor Alessandro and Francesco. We finished Snow White with Alessandro and began Peter Rabbit with Francesco. 

Once home me and Fede finished watching Puss and Boots. It's an okay movie one worth watching but not buying it's not one I'd watch over and over. Then we played chess - I won check mate. My queen, king, castle, bishop and pawn against Fede's king! 

This evening I laughed and cringed myself through 'Meet the Mormons'. Nice to see some familiar faces but the woman who narrated needs to stop making her voice sound so biased. Her whole tone was 'oh these poor young men forbidden any cultural activity and contact with the normal world how are we letting people do this to them? However I'd like you all to note I'm half speaking in a professional voice so as not to appear out rightly disgusted' with another tone of 'and because they are in pairs they have no privacy they must only pretend to like serving a mission'. Yeah okay, just because you don't understand something doesn't mean that the people who do can't enjoy doing it. I hate watching football mainly because I don't have a clue what's going on yet if I bothered to educate myself I'd probably find it very interesting. If you haven't watched it yet take it with a pinch of salt. If you have watched it and have some weird ideas about Mormons take it with a pinch of salt and please ask someone (preferably a Mormon) about it - ask me! 

Important fact about Mormons: We are normal people, just like you. 

Ciao.