17 January 2007
Work: My head is spinning with verb tenses. I can’t help but wonder who came up with terms like ‘present progressive’ and ‘past perfect’. What were they thinking using so many ‘P’ words? It leaves me feeling slightly punch drunk just trying to get them all straight in my head.
I have spent a good part of today at the Inlingua school at the Vomero. I didn’t have any classes today, and it’s much closer to Dana’s place (where we have just about outstayed our welcome) than the school at Centro Direzionale where I work. My big Provincia group has about five lessons left of their course. They have to take two tests. In addition to the regular test reviewing the last five units in the text book, we also have to revise the WHOLE text book for their final exam.
It’s a bit of a scary process so I have to spend some time preparing. There is nothing worse than facing 2 ½ hours in front of 20 Italians and trying to fudge your way through it.
Weather: we are waiting for winter to arrive. With the end of January approaching it is hard to believe that the days are still relatively mild, normally about 16°C. I’ve stopped wearing jumpers during the day as it just gets too warm. One half of me is confident that I can make it through the rest of winter without buying a warmer coat. The other half of me remembers previous Februaries spent in Naples, with the wind and bitter cold penetrating despite the multiple layers. I’m guessing though that it will be miserably cold in Naples the week that we are in London. And if London is true to form it will be freezing cold over there as well. Buying a coat in London though will be a much easier process. The women in Naples are all generally shorter than me, and they are either small and slim, or they are small and round. I have resorted to buying men’s jumpers in order to avoid exposing my mid rift and the bit between my wrist and elbows where the ladies’ jumpers fail to provide cover.
Entertainment: the last time Gi and I had any fun was New Years Eve. So when Dana told me that a local cinema at the Vomero was recommencing its original language movie program on Tuesday night I was very excited. Gi and I haven’t seen a movie on the big screen since February 2006. We went to see ‘Black Dahlia’ starring Josh Hartnett and Scarlett Johanssen. Unfortunately it wasn’t as good as it should have been, but it was an enjoyable experience nonetheless. The movie started at 10pm, at least according to the schedule. It was delayed about twenty minutes, probably due to the fact that the previous film was yet to finish! Then half way through the movie the lights came on and they flashed up ‘Intermission’ on the screen. It’s been decades since films in Australia paused for a break. But this is Italy, and while they do refrain from smoking in cinemas now, it isn’t reasonable to expect people to go for almost two hours without a nicotine hit. The final oddity was the fact that we couldn’t leave via the front doors, as they were closing up. Instead we went down a passageway and exited through the back doors. Luckily it was a more convenient exit for us.
Regardless it is nice to finally have a cinema showing movies in their original language. Everything gets dubbed into Italian normally, which is strange because at home we rarely dub, but keep the original language and have English language subtitles…which means that people who don’t like reading subtitles tend not to see foreign movies. I guess there are always people who are unsatisfied with the norm wherever you are.
Work: My head is spinning with verb tenses. I can’t help but wonder who came up with terms like ‘present progressive’ and ‘past perfect’. What were they thinking using so many ‘P’ words? It leaves me feeling slightly punch drunk just trying to get them all straight in my head.
I have spent a good part of today at the Inlingua school at the Vomero. I didn’t have any classes today, and it’s much closer to Dana’s place (where we have just about outstayed our welcome) than the school at Centro Direzionale where I work. My big Provincia group has about five lessons left of their course. They have to take two tests. In addition to the regular test reviewing the last five units in the text book, we also have to revise the WHOLE text book for their final exam.
It’s a bit of a scary process so I have to spend some time preparing. There is nothing worse than facing 2 ½ hours in front of 20 Italians and trying to fudge your way through it.
Weather: we are waiting for winter to arrive. With the end of January approaching it is hard to believe that the days are still relatively mild, normally about 16°C. I’ve stopped wearing jumpers during the day as it just gets too warm. One half of me is confident that I can make it through the rest of winter without buying a warmer coat. The other half of me remembers previous Februaries spent in Naples, with the wind and bitter cold penetrating despite the multiple layers. I’m guessing though that it will be miserably cold in Naples the week that we are in London. And if London is true to form it will be freezing cold over there as well. Buying a coat in London though will be a much easier process. The women in Naples are all generally shorter than me, and they are either small and slim, or they are small and round. I have resorted to buying men’s jumpers in order to avoid exposing my mid rift and the bit between my wrist and elbows where the ladies’ jumpers fail to provide cover.
Entertainment: the last time Gi and I had any fun was New Years Eve. So when Dana told me that a local cinema at the Vomero was recommencing its original language movie program on Tuesday night I was very excited. Gi and I haven’t seen a movie on the big screen since February 2006. We went to see ‘Black Dahlia’ starring Josh Hartnett and Scarlett Johanssen. Unfortunately it wasn’t as good as it should have been, but it was an enjoyable experience nonetheless. The movie started at 10pm, at least according to the schedule. It was delayed about twenty minutes, probably due to the fact that the previous film was yet to finish! Then half way through the movie the lights came on and they flashed up ‘Intermission’ on the screen. It’s been decades since films in Australia paused for a break. But this is Italy, and while they do refrain from smoking in cinemas now, it isn’t reasonable to expect people to go for almost two hours without a nicotine hit. The final oddity was the fact that we couldn’t leave via the front doors, as they were closing up. Instead we went down a passageway and exited through the back doors. Luckily it was a more convenient exit for us.
Regardless it is nice to finally have a cinema showing movies in their original language. Everything gets dubbed into Italian normally, which is strange because at home we rarely dub, but keep the original language and have English language subtitles…which means that people who don’t like reading subtitles tend not to see foreign movies. I guess there are always people who are unsatisfied with the norm wherever you are.
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