Oderzo

How do you set about going back to a blog you haven’t touched in over a year?  Keep it low-key, I reckon.  Stream-of-consciousness online scribblings are back.  Let’s move on.

TA DAAAAAHHHH I live in Italy now!

That’s the big news.  Backpacking did its thing for me, I went home with a vague idea of what to do with my life, scraped together some pennies, got a teaching qualification and blagged my way into a New Exotic Life as a TEFL teacher in Italy.  I’m obsessed with it – this is the vom warning for the weak of stomach.  I literally don’t have anything to say that isn’t gushy.  You’ve been warned.

So, here I am in Oderzo.  I arrived last Thursday and started teaching yesterday.  The accommodation is palace-sized by English standards – there’s 3 of us so far, all teaching at the same school, with space for another 2.  We live right on the edge of town by the river, and if you stroll along the river bank for about ten minutes you arrive in the piazza in the centre of town, which is where work is.  I’ve been teaching a little bit this afternoon, and then took a break to go downstairs to the cafe and do the crossword in the sunshine.

The new pad.  We have all the yellow one and the top floor of the green one (!!!!)  My room is the two windows on the far left of the top of the green bit.  

We spent the weekend exploring our new abode.  Oderzo is actually in the Venice plain  on a little loop of the Monticano river, with a stunning view of the Dolomite mountains in the background (sorry if I misinformed anyone about it being in the mountains – it isn’t.)  There’s a lot of bars to cater to one’s prosecco/beer/stylish espresso needs, some lovely Roman archaeological remains, and a fair number of ridiculously beautiful houses.  I think it’s worked some kind of quintessential Italian magic on me – I spend most of my time strolling around feeling relaxed and fabulous.  Realistically I probably just look weird with a goofy smile but I’m too chill to care now.

The piazza

More lovely piazza

Roman tiles and things.

“The commute”

It’s a bit nice eh.

That nice white building on the right is the school, I’m currently in a little classroom at the back of the building mooching WiFi.

And finally, teaching so far seems to be a good choice (thank goodness.)  I’ve only given a few lessons so far but they’ve all gone sort of OK, my students are all lovely people and I’ve enjoyed the first few days.  It’s a nice break from summer camp to be honest – I miss the buzz of kids lessons a little bit, but on the other hand it’s quite nice to be teaching people who don’t bite each other when communication breaks down!  Anyway, it’s early days.  I’m told that the school will pick up a lot in a week or two, and gone will be the days of chilled one-to-one lessons and long breaks.  It would seem that now is the time to wrap my head around the lesson plans and spend my evenings drinking local wine.  Most bars have a prosecco MENU and a glass is about 2 euro so….it’s rude not to.