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After a mere thirteen years away from the field, Charles made his triumphant return to the pitch. He played in a calcetto match (five on five) with some English guys from work and some of their friends. Even after warning them that he hadn't kicked a soccer ball in about thirteen years they were still happy to have him on the field rather than cancel their game, so I guess in the end, any warm body would have done.
Well, as it turns out, he's still a pretty decent player after all of these years. He still remembers how to play the game well, it's just shaking off the rust that's the problem. With his team up 2-0, he made a terrible pass across the middle of the field and was immediately scored on! He knows better than that but sometimes you have to learn/remember the hard way. Other than a few bad passes and the inability to run for more than 5 minutes straight without sucking air, he had a rather good showing. In fact, he scored a goal and played some solid defense for the most part. Though in the end his time lost in a fairly competitive match.
His teammates were quite relieved to find out that he is actually a decent player and they have invited him back this week. Just in time for my aching bones to finally feel normal again. That next day was a rough one, actually, the next 4 days were pretty rough but hopefully after a few more matches we'll get a win and my body will get used to a little physical activity again.
p.s. Allie took video of this debacle and hopefully we can figure out a way to get it onto the website for you all to join in on the laughs.
Last week marked a few firsts for Charles. After nearly a year in Roma, he rode on his first motorscooter and lived to tell about it.
Typically, after a night of work at the pub, Charles has a few options for getting home. The first option is to take a night bus to the main station in Roma and then take another night bus to the general vicinity of his neighborhood, these two buses plus a ten minute walk will get him home. In total, this option generally takes about an hour to an hour and a half. Sometimes less, it just depends on when the night buses show up but it's usually best to expect the worst when dealing with the night bus system. The second option is to walk home from the pub, it's about a 40 minute walk if you're hustling which isn't too bad but it's just no fun after standing on your feet at work all night. Also, in the muggy heat of Roma, by the time you get home after that 40 minute walk you're soaked in sweat. Lucky for Charles, a third option presented itself after work last week.
One of his coworkers has a motorscooter and offered him a ride home. The motorscooter is the preferred way to travel in the city center or Roma. They are crazy drivers and to most tourists it seems that there are no laws concerning them. In fact, in Naples, helmets are "optional". We've seen them drive down sidewalks, on the wrong side of the road, narrowly escape hitting other cars or motorscooters so we're a little bit frightened of riding on one to say the least. The ride home on the motorscooter took only 10 minutes and it was actually a lot of fun after the initial fright wore off. At 3 a.m. there isn't much traffic in Roma so that made Charles feel a lot better about it. Unfortunately, this option isn't available most of the time and he'll just have to continue to hoof it or to use the extremely unreliable night bus system to find his way home.
Charles now seems to be set at the Abbey Pub with at least 3-4 days a week and now he's going to begin teaching for the same school as Allie beginning this Tuesday. It will probably only be about 10 more hours a week for the rest of this month and maybe more in July. Then, of course, there will be absolutely no work except at the Pub, and supposedly it is really slow too. Hopefully, all of the work we are doing now will afford us the opportunity to get out and do a little travelling again because we are starting to get that itch. We'll probably do a couple day trips into Tuscany but we haven't sorted anything out quite yet.
We've actually began to develop a social life and have been going out with our small group of friends for nights on the town and Allie even took a trip to the Italian seaside! The bad news is that all of our new found friends seem to be moving back to their respective countries soon. So we'll have to try our best to be social again, which really isn't our forte.
Just a little reminder, Allie will be turning 24 years old on the 24th of June so if you can't make it out to the party, please send her a message!
As Charles mentioned in the last update, I was waiting to hear from yet another school I had interviewed with. The director said he would call by Monday to let me know his decision. Well, Monday came and went. Then Tuesday followed, as well as Wednesday! By this point I had basically given up all hope and had filed this one away with all of the other rejections piled up over these last few months.
It wasn't until Thursday that he actually called, and it was with some good news. He asked if I would be able to start on Monday! I mentally checked my empty schedule and said, "yes, of course!".
Later that same afternoon I met with the director to discuss some of the details, and unfortunately it turns out that in order to keep this job I will have to give up the summer beach job! While I was really looking forward to it, I have to take into account that this job pays better for working fewer hours, and it means I have a job for next year and on and on.
It was disappointing that I was forced to make a choice, but at the same time the decision wasn't a difficult one. I have to think about the long run, period. So, now I am faced with telling the family that I won't be able to work for them after all, and I'll need to try and find someone to replace me (anyone interested??).
And wouldn't you know it, I got this job yesterday afternoon, and this morning our boss from Washington school calls to offer me 10 hours a week that will now surely clash with my new schedule!! When it rains it pours!
First of all, sorry for the sporadic updates. But in all honestly, we haven't been doing a whole lot lately. Charles seems to have something of a set schedule at The Abbey which means he's working four nights a week. The Abbey is a fun place to work and it's a pretty easy job for the most part, though the money isn't great or even good for that matter! Complaints aside, it's more money than he was making sitting around the house and doing nothing! Another good thing about working at the Pub is that it will be work during August, in which there will be probably zero teaching hours since all Romans seem to take the month off and leave the city in search of crowded beaches and cancerous tumors.
Allie is waiting to hear from a school she interviewed with last Friday. The interview went well, ie, no mention of the dreaded work visa. The only problem was whether or not the hours would conflict with the job she just picked up for the summer. Why do things seem to be so complicated?
So, what have we been doing for fun lately? Well, we had a really nice out last Friday as a little celebration for selling our car (thanks ma and dad). First we got ourselves some fried fish (to go, it's cheaper!) from a famous little joint near Campo di Fiori. With fish in hand, we walked through Campo to Piazza Navona and stopped into The Abbey for a pint of beer (I get a small discount!) After that we headed to a tiramisu place near our apartment that was highly recommended to us by one of Allie's students. At about 11:45 p.m. we arrived to a packed house. There were literally 50-75 people outside sitting at tables and the same amount inside. Everyone was munching on tiramisu or gelato. We were shocked because this place isn't mentioned in any guidebooks (yet) and we were probably the only English speakers in the place. The tiramisu was fantastic (second best in Italy so far) and it was really cool to find such a great spot so close to home. In fact, it was so good we went back the following day for their strawberry tiramisu!
Pompi Bar - Il Regno del Tiramisu
http://www.barpompi.com/home.html (copy and paste, then drool)
View from the top of the hill
Underground pigeon coops
Orvieto Cathedral