I seem to be in Bologna
(Sorry about the cut-and-paste email post but I felt there needed to be a permanent record that I responded to Jon's thrown down gauntlet. Plus I know some people love this site so much that they have given up on email and use this as their sole point of contact with the outside world.)
BOLOGNA is BIG!
Well at least bigger than I remembered. I had maps of the city and imagined quickly zipping around town on foot, and as the train pulled in through the suburbs I had to adjust my plans. It is also hot (in the 30s) and I’ve basically spent all my time walking and drinking water by the litre. I had said to myself “When I’m in Italy it’ll be the start of autumn” and hadn’t quite thought through that what I was actually getting was the tail end of summer – backpacks and business suits and heat do not mix.
It’s beautiful too. I’ve basically been in survival mode, madly rushing around the city getting maps and bus tickets and stuff and trying to find an apartment, but every now and then I stop and look around and just have a bit of a chuckle at how ridiculously gorgeous the red buildings and the cobbled streets are. I was doing a bit too much of this admiring on the bus today (when I wasn’t thinking “How the hell are we going to fit down this street”) and I ended up in totally the wrong place, got on another bus at random and ended up way out in the sticks. I figured if I stayed on it long enough it would eventually get me back to the city, which it did, but yeah, things like that kind of explain why I’m taking a while finding a place to stay.
I then came home and locked myself in the hotel toilet. No, I don’t know why I’d locked the toilet in my private hotel room, but I did. Eventually gave up on trying to unscrew the lock and yelled for help. The hotel guy thankfully heard me straight away and let me out but hmm embarrassing. He showed me how to do the lock and made it look shamefully simple, but I’m not going to try my luck again.
SAY IT ISN’T SO
Did Steve Irwin really die? On the bus they had a TV screen with news flashes (state-of-the-art busses in Bologna, little known fact) and they said that the crocodile hunter was dead! I didn’t get all the details, some kind of fish – a shark attack maybe? How sad. I can tell this is going to be one of those “Where were you when you heard” things.
The reason I’m writing such a long email is because my otherwise 1 star hotel has free wireless internet – how awesome is that! Even if I didn’t have any news I’d be compelled to write.
JOB! (or maybe JOB?!)
Had a job interview the day after I arrived, which was a ridiculous thing to do but went well. The boss is going to get me to do a trial lesson and there seems like a good chance of some work, even if it’s only this one particular class of Italian pre-school children. The full horror of those last three words has just begun to sink in. I keep thinking of how I’m going to pull this off and all I keep coming back to is threats of violence and lollies.
The boss is even trying to find me a room in a flat, which makes it seem like she’s pretty confident I’ll get the job. Don’t know if I really want to live with other English teachers but the renting scene in Bologna (hundreds of notices posted to pillars near the uni all offering beds in shared rooms, usually to female students) is so depressing I don’t think I could say no to a decent place.
OK, keep in touch guys. I don’t think I’ve slowed down enough yet to properly start missing people, but I have had that sensation of “Wow, just about everyone I know and love is hundreds of miles away, that was a bit careless of me, wasn’t it”.
BOLOGNA is BIG!
Well at least bigger than I remembered. I had maps of the city and imagined quickly zipping around town on foot, and as the train pulled in through the suburbs I had to adjust my plans. It is also hot (in the 30s) and I’ve basically spent all my time walking and drinking water by the litre. I had said to myself “When I’m in Italy it’ll be the start of autumn” and hadn’t quite thought through that what I was actually getting was the tail end of summer – backpacks and business suits and heat do not mix.
It’s beautiful too. I’ve basically been in survival mode, madly rushing around the city getting maps and bus tickets and stuff and trying to find an apartment, but every now and then I stop and look around and just have a bit of a chuckle at how ridiculously gorgeous the red buildings and the cobbled streets are. I was doing a bit too much of this admiring on the bus today (when I wasn’t thinking “How the hell are we going to fit down this street”) and I ended up in totally the wrong place, got on another bus at random and ended up way out in the sticks. I figured if I stayed on it long enough it would eventually get me back to the city, which it did, but yeah, things like that kind of explain why I’m taking a while finding a place to stay.
I then came home and locked myself in the hotel toilet. No, I don’t know why I’d locked the toilet in my private hotel room, but I did. Eventually gave up on trying to unscrew the lock and yelled for help. The hotel guy thankfully heard me straight away and let me out but hmm embarrassing. He showed me how to do the lock and made it look shamefully simple, but I’m not going to try my luck again.
SAY IT ISN’T SO
Did Steve Irwin really die? On the bus they had a TV screen with news flashes (state-of-the-art busses in Bologna, little known fact) and they said that the crocodile hunter was dead! I didn’t get all the details, some kind of fish – a shark attack maybe? How sad. I can tell this is going to be one of those “Where were you when you heard” things.
The reason I’m writing such a long email is because my otherwise 1 star hotel has free wireless internet – how awesome is that! Even if I didn’t have any news I’d be compelled to write.
JOB! (or maybe JOB?!)
Had a job interview the day after I arrived, which was a ridiculous thing to do but went well. The boss is going to get me to do a trial lesson and there seems like a good chance of some work, even if it’s only this one particular class of Italian pre-school children. The full horror of those last three words has just begun to sink in. I keep thinking of how I’m going to pull this off and all I keep coming back to is threats of violence and lollies.
The boss is even trying to find me a room in a flat, which makes it seem like she’s pretty confident I’ll get the job. Don’t know if I really want to live with other English teachers but the renting scene in Bologna (hundreds of notices posted to pillars near the uni all offering beds in shared rooms, usually to female students) is so depressing I don’t think I could say no to a decent place.
OK, keep in touch guys. I don’t think I’ve slowed down enough yet to properly start missing people, but I have had that sensation of “Wow, just about everyone I know and love is hundreds of miles away, that was a bit careless of me, wasn’t it”.
posted by tim at 01:00
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