Around Milazzo

2/3 July Thursday 

School starts at 9 which is not bad but it takes me about 20 minutes to walk in from where I am staying and of course I have to stop off for a coffee on the way. So my day starts about 6.30 when I drag myself out of my bed in my small and rather airless room. I dry myself off in the little bathroom I have while standing under the alcove for the skylight; that way I can actually stand up.  I get dressed standing under the skylight in the bedroom for the same reason.... I leave the house at about 8.15 after some breakfast and a chat with my hosts.  So far every morning has been bright and clear and hot.  

The classes follow the same format with no English spoken and three hours or so of teaching from Daniella.  It's been the joys of irregular verbs, definite articles and prepositions and other such stuff but while it sounds all a bit reminiscent of stale grammar lessons in stuffy old schools it is more entertaining than that with Joel and I being made to talk a lot. We still manage to throw in Spanish words and Spanish grammatical constructions between us and in general slaughter the Italian language and I suppose it is testament to Daniella's experience that she actually understands us at times. 

Yesterday (Wednesday) after school I had lunch with Joel in the flat he is staying in above the school and which he shares with other students.  I then came back to the house, did a quick turn round and then headed back for a tour of the old town and castle.  Milazzo is built on a peninsula in the north east of Sicily and the old town is at the northern end of that.  The school is only a short distance away.  We were taken along by one of the teachers at the school who is clearly enthusiastic about the history of her town.  It was three hours of continual Italian and while I understood more than I expected there was lots I did not.  The others on the trip from the school had been studying for three weeks or so and were pretty competent so I got the occasional translation from them but the teacher was determined that Italian was going to be the language of the day.... You know what it's like when you're on a guided tour that goes on, and on, and on.......well this was like that and then some. My head felt like it was going to explode if I heard any more Italian, and that included someone saying my name....

There was definitely a need for relaxation after that trip so the four of us who went ended up in a pizza place and bar sorting the world out (in English!) until the wee small hours.  At 2.30 when I snuck back home to the house, feeling like a naughty teenager, I realised I hadn't done my homework so it was up at 6 this morning and trying to avoid detention.....As they say here: sonno multo stanco.