Second Generation...

I've been teaching a few groups of people since I arrived here in October. This past week was the end of the course for most of them and it was actually a bit sad from my end because I was used to them and feeling comfortable to joke around about almost anything.

But, it was a fun end of the course last Wednesday for the three groups that were in the same bank. We took many pictures and talked about meeting this coming week to have aperitivo, hang out, go watch a footbal (soccer) match at the San Siro Stadium (probably Milan's game), go dancing, etc.

We were so loud that the HR head came (next door to us) to complain... It was a bit scary actually because he looked very mad... hehe Oh well...

I already got a new student this past week and more this coming week. Next week I will have a FULL LOAD, mostly in school instead of out as I've been doing which means more teaching instead of traveling from one end of the city to another. I will need to re-adapt to their learning style and personality, but I think it'll be a good generation of students! =D

I loooooove Barcelona!!!

Barcelona it's just a BEAUTIFUL place!!! =D

The trip started this past Friday night. It was a bit rushed, as always, because I was trying to get the directions to Kika's house when I was supposed to be out of the doors to meet my travel companions at the train station to head to the airport.

Kika: my high school friend from Brasil who I haven't seen since 2006.
Travel companions: Mathang (Indian), Michela (American), Carlo (Italian)

After rushing, running and "pushing" the crowd, Michela and I finally made it to Centrale Station to meet the guys. The bus ride to the airport was filled of expectations! When arriving at the airport of Bergamo, off course, we saw a bunch of people but that wasn't a problem as we checked-in in time. HOWEVER, a VERY strange thing happened... I felt discriminated!!!! OK, not that bad... But, how can the three of them get priority to board but me if the tickets were all bought together!? I had to wait at a different line to board the plane with a bunch of mad people... Sleeping on the way to Spain was impossible... just too many people talking!

After around one hour I was in the airport in Girona. We had to take a bus to Barcelona which takes 1 hour. Because we're the last ones, there were no space in the other 2 busses... Thus, we had to wait a bit until the guys figured out how to program the bus display or something like that. After all, we ended up riding in this huge coach with one other person, it was more like a private bus. =D

Bienvenidos a Barcelona!!
Let's walk and find our way to the famous La Rambla.

The 3 of them needed to find a place to sleep and I needed to find my way to Kika's house. This did not happen until after they ate this huge Falafel at Moaz and our late night stroll on La Rambla. I left them and made my way to Kika's. I felt really safe taking the metro and walking on the streets at 2AM by myself. It was very nice to see her but didn't talk for too long as we're all very tired.

Buenos Dias!! I woke up with a beautiful warm sunny day! =)
Trouble: No money in my cel to contact the guys about meeting place and time! No need of details but to let you know that we met up and started our adventure walking around the city, taking pics after pics, finding places by accident, soaking up the sunlight on the beach and around, climbing trees and diving to the ground (Mathang is ok now), seeing crazy man shouting and swearing for a long time for whatever reason, etc. We had a break at this little place by the Parc Güell where we had hot chocolate with churros, saw La Pedrera/Casa Milà and Casa Batlló, many other places and ended the day with the traditional paella de marisco at the Barceloneta region. We're WAY TOO TIRED to go party at La Rambla or just walk to the beach... A nice warm shower and bed was what I was looking forward to! =)

Sunday coo-coo morning call only happened because my cell was set to always have the alarm on or I wouldn't have woken up. It was a bit sad because it was a cloudier day... =( Got everything ready and left to find an adaptor to charge my camera battery... I just failed to remember that EVERYTHING is closed on Sundays in Spain... I asked some Spanish for info and they're all very nice but no chance in finding open stored... Thus, had to be very strict and selective in what pics to take...

I waited for them at the Plaça Spanya for 45 min!!! I was ready to leave without them when they finally showed up... Sunday was another day of non-stop walking. We took the bus up to the Castell de Monjuiïc and made our way down on foot seeing things like the Estadi Olimpic de Monjuïc and Palau Sant Jordi where the 1992 olympics took place, gardens, Palau Nacional de Montjuïc Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya, Caixa Forum (Chaplin en Imatze, Princips Etruscos -Etruscan Princes, Euphoria by Petra Mrzyka & Jean-François Moriceau), etc.

Off course we didn't forget La Sagrada Familia! We got there around 5pm and stayed until 6pm when they kicked us out. The design is just amazing!!! Gaudí had so many ideas, the whole building is a mixture of everything and really needs a lot of time to understand all that!! I just wonder how long it'll take to finish it since it started in 1882 and they're not even half way done...
Racing from North to South, trying to see as much as possible... Lost some companions on the way, had to wait for a while but found each other.

Beated! Went back to Kika's to spend some time with her before I leave to Milan. Met up with the guys at mid-night... where?! Moaz for more falafel!!! =) Unfortunately, it started to rain... we spent 2 looong hours at this H3 eatery, made our way to Estació Nord for the bus to the airport where we ate once again and waited for our flight at 6:20AM. Yes, I was excluded from the priority group again...

Sleeping 1 hour here and 1 hour there wasn't enough at all!! Though, some times I felt energized and thought I could go without sleeping until later in the night. I was supposed to teach at 1AM giving me only 2 hours at home after arriving in Milan. It was cancelled! Thank God!!! =) Ended up falling asleep for 1 hour just before my 5pm class. It was a sleepy class, let me tell u...

So, this is the story... I really enjoyed the city, the atmosphere, the people... I forgot how nice it was to have so much green area around me... the beach, the breeze, the waves, walking on the beach and feeling the sand in my feet... And just being able to understand people and communicate!!!

I'm definitely considering going back in the Summer!!!

African brothers and sister!

The week after our adventure, I was invited to have Kunda's cooking along with Yvonne and Sam (they live in the same apt.).

The dinner was really fancy, placemats and candles to set the atmosphere... =)

Kunda made this wonderful lasagna and smoked salmon salad. I couldn't finish but didn't want to let it go... LOL

For dessert we had a refreshing fruit salad which Kunda didn't want to reveal his weapon and also had this Italian hazelnut pie-ish Sam brought home.

Later, we hung out more, talked and the guys were helping me searching for an affordable ticket to Taiwan. Unfortunately, I had to go home...

BUT, I went back the next morning for brunch!!!!

Sam made this Freeeeench Toast and had syrup!!! =D There was honey, nutella, butter, jam,... yum yum!!!! I was totally spoiled with them!!!

After that, "we" watched a movie while Kunda was chatting on the net and the other 2 fell asleep beside me... It was a beautiful day, so we went out for a walk and the streets were quite busy... We never made it to Parco Sempione as we wanted to check out the snowboarding presentation... but it was all good because my new boots were killing me! hehe Kunda showed us this lil cute park close to their house with playground, chess tables and old men playing this sort of ball games... I wish there were one close to mine.

Arriving home, we had dinner... My left over lasagna was tasting great!! Ate tons of dessert, went all and about for some of us... hehe

For some fun, we played scrabble!!! It was my first time and... check out the scores in the picture!!!! =D

I had a lovely time with them!!! Thank God for amazing brothers and sister!!

Two Sundays ago...

I really wanted to find a church when I arrived in Milan in October 2007, so when I finally got settled in my appartment I researched all the possible churches which had services in English. I wrote down all of information on the back of my little 2007 Murphy's Law calendar (gotta recycle!) hoping to visit each one and later decide which one I like the best to make it my new church.

Weeks and weeks passed by and I only managed to go to one, Milan Bible Church which is the closest to my place. Finally, two weeks ago, my friend and fellow teacher Yvonne, said she'd like to try this other one that has service in the morning (because all of the other ones are at around 5:30pm). I was excited and so we went... Yvonne (Zimbabwe), Kunda (Botswana), Sam (Ethiopia) and I (a mix like u know) went to look for this place. We walked around and didn't see anything but a restaurant as per the address.

Not long later, I saw 2 Asian ladies and thought they'd know because there were only Italians around and it's an international church... Thus, they're going to the same church! I followed them and asked if they knew where this church was... They looked a bit strange at us, a few seconds of silence and asked some questions to confirm that we wanted to go to the same place as them with that particular pastor. Since I got no memory, I didn't remember the church's name nor the pastor's... haha But when they said it, I remembered and confirmed...

They tried to understand this situation and we finally understood... it was an ALL PHILLIPINO church preached in tagalog... We were going to turn back, but they asked us to go up with them so we did. We arrived during worship and decided to stay for it since it was in English. There were about 15 people. Yes, all phillipinos! We were kindly asked to write our names and got introduced by Pastor Andy Manano. To our surprise, he decided to preach in English so we, the four foreigners, could understand and take away something from the service.

It was a great service, very direct and strong. We all enjoyed this experience and their kindness. Almost the whole church came to shake our hands!!!! =D God's blessing!!!

The loooooong overdue update...

Ciaaaao tutti!!!

Merry belated Christmas and Happy "belated" New Year!!!

Hope all is well with you and you had a great time with your family and friends during this Christmas season & New Year's!

What have I done you may ask...

I spent most of my winter holidays with my friend S. Truby and her family in Frinton-On-Sea, Essex, England.

It all started on Dec. 21 when I left Milan to catch my plane scheduled to depart at 22:05 from Bergamo. I arrived at around 2100 to find that the airport was in a chaotic state with overflowing passengers everywhere, check-in line, x-ray queue and to add to my desperation the passport cabin officer decided to disappear during the Christmas rush-hour... I was stressed out because nobody here knows what a line is... EVERYONE just pushes and crams and pretends to be in front of you totally ignoring your presence!!! Thus, I was afraid of missing my flight... After long waits and finally making to the gate, I found out that my flight was delayed for 1 hour... GREAT!!! Without Truby's number, I had to text Vina in Calgary to inform Truby in the UK that I was going to arrive late from Milan. After a few minutes, I had to text Vina again because the notice changed adding another hour to the delay which was due to the fog in the UK. At the end I waited for at least 2 hours which felt like forever because the floor was cold, kids screaming, people talking loudly, couldn't really fall asleep but too tired to read...

Finally, I arrived in Stanstead, UK in the early morning (1ish) and saw 2 friendly faces, Truby and Matt!! =D SOOO HAPPY!!! England was coooold compared to Milan!! We reached Frinton (3ish) after driving through the foggy roads of England and finally slept at 4ish.

I won't describe my day-to-day in Frinton to spare you from reading about me sleeping late and waking up really early 50x and how lazy I was..., but it was GREAT FUN times at the Truby's! I was definitely spoiled by Truby and my new family!!

I had:
- Truby's English breakfast and soldiers for breakfast
- Tried Scottish Eggs, crumpet, and all the traditional English things at Christmas

Matt took us for a day trip:
- Orford to see the castle,
- Snape to see Santa by ship (missed him tho), walked around an estuary: nice-scenery-water-front-muddy-trail location (tons of fun!), ate Jacket Potato with coronation chicken
- Dedham to see the Dedham Parish Church

Beaumont-Cum-Maze: to get our turkey with dad and got some explanation on mansard roof (http://architecture.about.com/library/blgloss-mansard.htm)

Bluewater: met up with Tara who kindly brought me some stuff from Calgary as well as some Christmas gifts from Vina and Curtis

Frinton-On-Sea: the beach, the garden, the 2 churches, the rock (? new public washroom by the beach), main avenue and around, saw Truby's painting for sale, Peacock store, Cricket Club

Walton-On-the-Naze: played at Walton Pier arcade, walked til the end of the pier, brought home real English Fish and Chips, played at the Naze Cliffs just to help with the erosion process (oops!) and got splashed by the North Sea waves

Colchester: met Lucy, went to Castle Park with nephew Jonathan and had tons of fun dressing up and taking pics

Kirby-Le-Soken: the Ship Inn, Hamford Water National Nature Reserve (the backwaters when low tide one can cross to the island by car or whatever means chosen if not stuck in the mud)

Clacton: Clacton Pier, beef liver pie, played at the arcade again

Met friends and lost family!

I went to many villages around Frinton throughout my stay. It was indeed a real English experience, just lovely!! =D Thanks to Truby for having me and everyone for making this such a memorable experience!!!

For New Year's Eve I went to London to see the fireworks. There were around 700,000 people everywhere!!! I haven't seen this many people since I left Brasil...!
It was beautiful seeing the colorful fireworks in the sky between the Big Ben and the London Eye, the chill in the spine when counting down to the new year and just thanking God for another year. =) I didn't want to party or anything after that, so walked around for a little bit in the Trafalgar Square area. It took me more than 2 hours to get in the tube station!! N-ways, it was a nice New Year's Eve experience!!

I stayed in London from Dec. 31 to Jan. 3 and left on the 4th to Oxford where I spent 1/2 day walking around and exploring as much as I could. The weather wasn't very nice, but I liked the feel there. The colleges were so nice that I would go back to school just to study there! HAHA

Came back to Milan on Jan. 6 after a pit-stop in Frinton and felt like running away... Not much motivation to teach anymore... hehe

K, I'm tired of writing and will post the pics shortly on my Picassa... stay tuned.

I will try to write more... even if something short or I'll never write... just can't help it, I like to tell as many details as possible...

N-ways, basta!! You probably fell asleep reading this entry...

Have a great week!!!