A social life! Go figure.

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Things here are going pretty darned well! I just got another private student tonight. She starts next week and comes to our home two times a week for lessons. I have one other student who comes one time a week.

They pay 35,000 lire/hr. At my regular jobs I am getting 28,000 and 24,000/hr. So this is a bit better and it's more convenient.

We went to pizza with one of my students the other night. He's from sardinia and he's absolutely lovely. His name is Pier-Giorgio. He and Ry hit it off and 4 hours passed like they were nothing. I feel very lucky to be teaching English because it has allowed me to start to get to know so many wonderful people. I feel like i am having a real cultural exchange. Today, for example, a student from one of my classes which usually has two people in it couldn't come so I had only one student for a two hour lesson. I thought it would be a good opportunity to do some intensive conversational practice. We talked about the Italian mind set, and political ideas and society. It was really neat and interesting.

We both had such a nice time and there is a feeling of closeness that develops from spending time with someone regularly each week. I wish Ry could have a similar experience--but, as long as we keep going out with people, he can have a lot of it, thankfully.

I tell you, our social life has been busier here than it ever was in the states. We have been turning down invitations lately because we have other engagement with people. and the people are all really really nice. So far we have met Carlo - He is an engineer and I met him my first month here when I was filling in for Charlotte with her private students. He is really nice and extremely energetic. When he and Ry get together, they both get really excited and noone can get a word in edgewise. It's really cute.

Then, there's Andrea and Maria-pia. Maria-pia hired Ry at Spaziozerouno and Andrea befriended him at work. Andrea lived in England for a while and is fluent in English, and MaPi (as people call her) used to teach Italian at university and speaks English willingly if not perfectly.

They, as it turns out, are a couple. We had them over for dinner a couple of weeks ago and had a great time. We also went to Mexican with them in Milan. MaPi has come over to teach us Italian and is currently looking for an Italian teacher who will eventually take over. She refuses to let us pay her.

At our Italian school that we went to a couple of times, we met a German guy named Uwe, and his Italian girlfriend (who speaks English, German and Italian) named Paula. We went to a pub and had a beer with them and they have since invited us to take day trips out of town to see other places with them.

We have been invited to go to the home of one of my students who is also a musician--his name is Stefano and his girlfriend's name is Letizia. They are both very very very nice. We had pizza with them and my boss (who introduced us to begin with) last month. We couldn't go cause we had plans with Pier-Giorgio.

We have also been out with Carlo a lot of times, walking in the park, walking in town, having a drink or having pizza with his friends. One of his friends submitted ry's resume to spaziozerouno in fact.

I have also invited a couple of my other students to join us for the English language movies that are shown every Monday at 9:30 and they have accepted happily.

So, I am very happy about all of this. It was really rough for a while, let me tell you and we were both pretty depressed, but things are really looking up. Ry is speaking like a pro and getting along beautifully, which is important for his spirits, and I am energized by the friendliness of the people around me.

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