“Anna is: staring cold, cruel homelessnes in the face.”

(The title of this post is taken from Anna’s current facebook status for reasons that will become clear shortly)

So! It’s been a while since I last posted- apologies to my dedicated readers (aka: Mom)! So in bullet list format, here are some updates…

• Some of you may recall that the original plan was to be in Bologna until the end of August and then move to Rome in September, in part because Riccardo was supposed to have a fantastic job down there thanks to his adviser. Well, that hasn’t quite panned out yet, so one thing leads to another, and Anna and I are going to be sticking around in Bologna at least for the month of September, and likely a bit longer. I don’t intend to pass up the chance to live in Rome while I’m over here, but it likely won’t be in the next few days!
• Of course, this brings us to the fact that, in anticipation of our moving to Rome in September, Anna wisely chose a few months ago to finish our lease at the current apartment at the end of August. This means that now we are staring at homelessness come Sunday, the 31st. Oops! We’ve been apartment hunting and are waiting for a few calls back, as well as a few appointments to visit potential places on Monday and Tuesday. Unfortunately, that leaves us with a few homeless days. We’re likely going to get a room in a pensione for a few nights, perhaps a week (hopefully not that long!). It’s either that or camp out in Piazza Maggiore and bathe in the fountain. Perhaps a less than sage plan, but hey, nothing is off the table at this point!
• Students are returning from holiday and I’ve gotten a few more in the past days. I’ll be applying for work at a couple schools in the next few days (perhaps when we have a more or less permanent address…)
• Last night we went to Ferrara to check out the Buskers’ Festival (an annual gathering of Buskers with talents ranging from the musical, the “magical,” and/or the fiery.). It was pretty awesome (and I’ll put up some pictures as soon as I load them to my computer) and made me want to start some sort of traveling fire-dancing/drum-circle act… then again, maybe I should stick with the English teaching.

And that’s about all! Anna and I are cleaning the apartment and packing up (read: digging into a pile of things and getting terribly distracted by the contents for about 45 minutes). I’ll be sure to update if/when we ever find a place to live! Wish us luck and lodgings!

The Mother Tongue…

While I enjoy many aspects of teaching English, one of my favorite parts of the experience is discovering the many vagaries of this language which I thought I knew so well. For instance, did you know that you can’t use the modifier “less” with words comprised of fewer than two syllables (i.e.: not with one syllable adjectives)? Strange but true!

Progress!

Bad news: It’s still hot.

Good news!: After a day trip to the beach last week, we’ve had a bit of a break in the heat, and were AMAZINGLY productive on Saturday. Well… amazingly productive by our recent standards (admittedly, the bar is set a little low). We got a little shopping out of the way, ran errands, and went to the archaeological museum (fantastic Egyptian and Etruscan collections! Those who know my nerdy side also know of my deep and abiding love for the Etruscans, so imagine my delight at hallways filled with Etruscan pottery, bronze work, knives (lots of knives), skeletons (!!)…). We were a little worn out by the end of the Etruscans (no AC in that wing), so have resolved to return for another day to visit the Greco-Roman bits. Before heading back to our cave, we had aperitivi and an Italian lesson at a cafe near the towers. Now, in theory, I can say things in the past, present, future, and reflexive… crazy, huh? Now if only the Italians would come home from holiday so I could practice on them…

To top off the day (feeling very smug about all our activity- “See! We do stuff when it isn’t 98 degrees outside!”), we had a bit of a “spa night”… largely in celebration of the fruits of our shopping trip (Finally! A pumice stone! My spoils of the day were a cool, LSAT-Friendly analog watch and a pumice stone. I was-still am!- equally thrilled about both. It’s the little things, no?).

In other good news, I’ve got a couple relatively regular gigs at the moment (fantastic for this time of year when, literally, the city is a ghost town… the locals are all on holiday, businesses are closed, piazzas are echo-y and empty, and the tourists walk under the portici speaking with the hushed tones usually reserved for impressive museums and churches… it’s creepy.). I am doing some proofreading via email and today had my first of at least 4 lessons at TWYO, where Emily taught when she was here (thanks again, Emily! Lifesaver!).

So all in all, things continue to be good, we are still savoring the cool breezes, teaching, looking forward to the return of the boys this weekend, and… well… that’s about it!

PS- I’ve added a link to Anna’s blog on my blogroll to the right. Enjoy!

Fa Caldo.

It’s hot in Bologna these days… very very hot. Anna and I have been trying to lay low (and by low, I mean very close to our fan) and have become a bit vampiric in our schedules (ie: only venturing out into the world after the sun goes down… when it is bearable). On the plus side, this is a great money saving tactic, and, since all of Bologna is on holiday (except, it appears, our neighbor upstairs, whom I have dubbed “peg-leg-iron-foot”… but luckily is usually drowned out by the constant whirring of our fan), we aren’t really being anti-social. We’re planning a day trip to a beach on Thursday, and, since it’s going to hit 100 degrees on Friday, we may go to the (air-conditioned!) museum that day… for several hours. Of course, in a few months when it’s chilly again, everyone should feel free to remind me about any complaints I may have had about the heat.

I’m waiting for students to return from holiday, and, in the meantime, will be doing some editing/proofreading work via email (not to mention LSAT prep and learning Italian… of course. Today Anna taught me the past tense! Happily it bears a striking resemblance to French grammar, so it’s not entirely new). We’ve also been rediscovering our love of Greek food (which culminated in what I am affectionately thinking of as GreekFest2008, which basically consisted of making tzatsiki sauce and frying pretty much every vegetable in our fridge… it was amazing), and also celebrated a friend’s birthday at a neat Jazz club here in Bologna- amazing food, fantastic live music, and a thoroughly charming host.
So… to sum up, life is good, and there’s not a whole lot going on, which is great, because it’s too hot to do much of anything!