Day 25: Ultimo Giorno

Today was the last day of tutoring Alessandro and Francesco. On Monday they go on holiday to Naples for two weeks and then after that they spend a month on the coast of South Italy. They come back the afternoon of Friday 5th of September and I leave on that morning. So today was the last I saw of them.

Today we focused on conversations. Which we wrote down as we spoke so Elga had a copy of examples of questions and answers. 

Then I helped Elga set up her google hangouts account so she can google hangout her mum who is in Naples. 

We came back and had lunch. 

After lunch me and Bea had a question and answer session to help her with varying her English. The heater has broken in the flat so there is no hot water. The people came to inspect it last week and it was fine but yesterday it decided to die. So cold showers until tomorrow when we are in the hills and will have hot water again. Bea didn't want to wait to wash her hair so she has gone to a shop to get her hair washed and dried and straightened for €10. 

Then Bea stayed home and her friend Judita came over, Fede and Stefano went to buy Fede's new motorbike from Turin and me and Alessandra went sightseeing again. 

Then as Fede was out we had fish for tea. A shrimp pasta thing and a fillet it was very nice. 

Ciao. 

Day 15: Bibliotecha

The sun was certainly shining on us today. It was not a promising start with the overcast greyness present this morning, but it soon brightened up.

After waking up and getting ready for the day I took myself and Federico to Elga's house where I spent two hours tutoring her two children. First I tutored Alessandro, we spent half the lesson doing some exercises in his English book, and then the other part of the lesson, we looked at practising pronouncing the words we identifed last week and then read some more of Snow White (Biancanieve). His pronunciation is getting better although he often pronounces the english letters with italian sounds. It gets confusing because Italian E is said Ay and Italian I is pronounced Ee. 

After Alessandro, I tutored Francesco. We did the same pattern. Exercises in his book and then practicing the words and then reading aloud. He has also improved in pronunciation.

When we finished, Alessandra came and all of us went to the park. Both Elga and Alessandra had planned to go to see a friend of theirs who might be moving to Saudi Arabia but she wasn't there. The boys (Alessandro, Francesco and Federico) played basketball. On an afternoon and evening the basketball court and football pitch all full of the older lads, but on a morning it's empty so they could have the run of it.

I had brought  Alessandra's Italian copy of Pride and Prejudice with me so I sat reading it whilst they chatted. It's lucky I have read it so much in English and know the first chapter pretty much by heart so I could translate the meaning of all the words. Alessandra also got me to read aloud to Elga and her to practice my pronunciation.

We had carbonara for lunch and after that Alessandra took Bea to her piano lesson. Interestingly in Italian the piano is the piano forte and the english piano forte is the piano fortissimo. While they were out Fede continued writing a story about motorcross, I then had to persuade him to do some guitar practice. Point of difference in Spanish toca is you play, in Italian it is you touch. So I accidently told Fede to touch his guitar for fifteen minutes instead of play it! He did however correct me and I will not be making that mistake again.

After guitar practice we played on the wii unlocked some new levels and then played scarabeo. By the time we finished scarabeo Alessandra came back. Bea had gone to see a friend who had just come back off holiday. Me Alessandra and Fede then went out to the library, we returned the DVDs from last week and took out some new ones: Puss in Boots, Kung Fu Panda, Mirror Mirror and Aladdin King of Thieves as well as some Naples comedy thing that Fede wanted to see. I also got out some English books, Jane Eyre, 1984 and Mirror Mirror.

We tried to watch Kung Fu Panda when we got back but the disc was so scratched it wouldn't play so we swapped to Puss in Boots instead. This time we watched it in Italian with English subtitles but the next movie we will watch will be English with Italian subtitles.

Thanks to everyone who is reading this it's gratifying to know my life is somewhat interesting! I have had sniggers directed to me about my poor spelling and grammar despite the fact I have just completed two a levels in English Literature and English Language. My apologies! However let me explain why:

1. I am writing from an Italian computer where the keys are in different places
2. Also spell check is in Italian and every word is underlined and I do not have the time or patience to check them
3. The punctuation keys are deceptive. It says it's an apostrophe but it's actually a an: à the apostrophe is actually located on the dash key.

So please please please read it with a little lenience for my poor brain clouded with Italian that I don't understand!

Buonanotte!

Day 11: Museum

It was raining again this morning, how delightful! It makes it hard to go out to do anything.

This morning Alessandra had to go out to the office, but afterwards we were going to go to the Museum of Natural History about an ten minute drive away. However, once at the office things came up that meant she would be engaged the whole morning. So, we shuffled plans, Alessandra rang Elga and we arranged that I would come and tutor in the morning for an hour so we would have the afternoon free to visit the museum.

I took to the tutoring an English Fairytale book for the children to read aloud to practice their pronunciation. It worked really well and we made a lsist of all the words they struggled on to be practiced for the next day with pronunciation guides written next to them. However, I forgot to bring the book back with me so I will have to pick it up next week.

After lunch (which was hamburgers, gherkins and cheese and salad), myself, Alessandra and Federico went out to the Museum. Bea does not like museums, or anything really that is not a shop so she stayed at home. It was about a ten minute drive. It is strange because usually we walk everywhere or get public transport as there is very little parking in Milan, and also there are not many areas cars can drive in. The internal city is split up into zones.

The Museum was huge and in a lovely 19th century building with arched windows and coloured stones. It had a large exhibition inside, however they do not keep good care of the displays, the glass was very dirty and in need of a good clean. They had displays on insects, dinosaurs, animals also a mineral section but it was closed.

The museum

It's name

Fossil that looked like flowers 

Colourful shell 

Dinosaur

Giant clam

Ceiling above the stairs

Part of a huge whale skeleton

The museum is set in the grounds of a large parkland, so we explored it after. In it was a dodgems, carousel, pond-lake thing with ducks and playpark areas.

After we got back from the museum, Alessandra and Beatrice went out to see a friend of Alessandras who is near her pregnancy due date. Whilst they did that, me and Federico walked to Massimo's to get ice cream (Fede got chocolate and cream and I got mandarin  and cream) big plus I ordered correctly in Italian!

Massimo's 

When we got back to the house, we watched the other DVD we borrowed from the library - Aladdin. We watched it in English with Italian subtitles so he can get used to hearing English spoken and some new words.

I also called my family again on google hangouts, as tonight we go to the hills and there is not any wifi up there and internet connection is poor and slow. We will probably be at the hills until sunday, hopefully the weather will be good like last week and we can go in the pool again and on a bike ride.

I have all my train times sorted for Sunday as well! So everything is prepared.

Fino a domani.

Day 8: It's been a week since England

Busy, busy! I slept in a little this morning I was so tired still and felt better for it.

This morning I had my appointment with another mother Elga to spend an hour on English with each of her sons Alessandro and Francesco. So after two hours of English work I easy up by €20 which was nice! I will have that every day this week till Friday so it's a nice little job on the side. They boys are friends of Fede as well which means when they aren't working they can play. 

After that Alessandra had work, she is a lawyer like her husband so she had some hearings at court and then a school governors meeting after. Me and Fede built some more of his Lego models. The box is nearly empty of bricks now we have built them all nearly. 

Vehicles

Pirates

Ambulance

Castle

Dog

Car

Once we finished this, Bea went out to her piano lesson, her father picks her up on his scooter and drops her off. While she was out me and Fede played chess he won again! Then we went to the park, because some of his friends were going to be there. We spent an hour or so before his friends had to go home and the we left. 

When we got home we played Italian scrabble - Scarabeo and went on the wii. When we play scarabeo we have to allow English and Italian words otherwise we'd never be able to make any words! 

Scarabeo with the Fede. 

After we finished on the wii we all got ready to go out to dinner at a friends house. It was a short walk away. The evening was really nice, the food was lovely, Alessandra even made Tiramasou that had nesquik powder instead of coffee so I could have some! The family we had dinner at have a very cute child called Alessandro he is two and so adorable, he goes around doing little evil laughs it's was very sweet. 

They run on different time schedules in Italy even now at 11.33 we are still at the house I wouldn't be surprised if I wasn't back home before midnight! I think I'll be sleeping in tomorrow otherwise I won't be able to function. 

Oh it's also started raining heavily and there has been lightning. I didn't bring a jacket to the dinner and none of us brought umbrellas. Oops! 

Ciao.