The News

We have been complaining a lot lately about our lack of hours, which naturally equals a lack of funds, but we’ve been putting ourselves out there and we have some promising aspects coming up that we thought we would share with you. So, we haven’t written our suicide pact yet, and we haven’t bought plane tickets for a return trip home; we’re hanging in there!

First of all, Charles had his first night of work at the Abbey Theater Pub, which was more or less an audition for the job. He felt confident in his performance, but he won’t know anything until the week after next, and we assume this means they are auditioning other applicants before deciding who to hire permanently.

Allie has a job interview on Monday at another language school, so hopefully all will go well with that and she will be able to get a few extra hours every week. She has also been in contact with another school, who can’t hire her because of our legal status, but the director had a friend who wanted math tutoring for his young daughter in English, and this job was offered to Allie. The details are still being worked out for that, but hopefully it will start soon (if you know Allie you are stuck on the “math” thing, but the child is seven, so this is math she is confident she can handle).

If that wasn’t promising enough, the director called Allie yesterday and asked if she could cover for one of their teachers for a few weeks for “cash in hand”. They are meeting on Tuesday to discuss the student and the details, and that will start the week after next. She also has a few private lessons she’s been doing, and some prospects for a couple more to add to that list.

So, as you can see, things are no longer on such a downward spiral, but we still have a long way to go to get out of this hole. So, for a while there probably won’t be any more fantastic trips, at least until our monthly income covers rent and groceries! It’s a good thing Rome offers lots of free or inexpensive attractions to keep us entertained.