Buono sera tutti! How are you? This is the week that the world lost its mind. We failed as human beings this week. From the murder of 49 people of the LGBT community and their allies in Orlando, to English football fans forcing homeless children to drink beer and smoke cigarettes in Lille, to the murder of Jo Cox an MP in Leeds. We need to all join together to stamp out fear and suffering and promote love and unity. As the world grieves for the victims of these horrible murders we must continue to move forward together and make sure that we never see events like these again. Never underestimate the power of the LGBT community, we will get the gun laws in America changed and we must honour Jo Cox who fought so tirelessly for the rights of woman and to stop violence against them. We must fight for change. Everybody say LOVE!
On Friday night we had our traditional drinks in Caffe Yenne but I was at my language exchange speaking Italian until 20:30. When I arrived everyone had a couple of rounds of drinks and we decided to go to Wallabys which is an Australian themed bar in the centre of town. When we arrived it was so busy, full of English teachers and Erasmus students from Spain who were singing football chants at the top of their voices! I heard a rumour that Wallabys stocked cider…which was the only reason I had agreed to go there really. I’ve not had any cider since 2nd January because nowhere in Sardinia sells it. It’s on my list of things that is making me really homesick. I dream of cans of Strongbow! Obviously when I asked at the bar, yes they do stock it but no they don’t have any at the moment. SO CLOSE.
After we had finished in Wallabys we couldn’t decided if we should go home or go and meet Lucy and her friends from the UK for some drinks. So we did both. We came home and sat for 5 minutes before deciding that we would actually go out for a little bit…just one more drink. I realised as I walked back through town that I was actually quite drunk, I had managed to down about 5 Aperol Spritz though I suppose. As we walked through Piazza Costituzione I bumped into my friend Pamela who is my language exchange partner and she was with a few of her friends, I have no idea what I said to her but I remember speaking Italian. So I can even do it now when I’m drunk. That must be a good sign! I’ll be translating Shakespeare before you know it. After we said Arrivederci we set off to meet Lucy, Josie and Amy at Bar Florio which was just down the street.
Florio is a very very very small bar. Probably enough room for about 20 people inside but luckily it has a large seating area outside so we found a table quite quickly. Callum and I managed to force one more Aperol Spritz down us while we got Josie and Amy to tell us all their secrets about Lucy that we will now remind her of constantly. As I said last week it is always nice to meet people’s friends from home as you get to have an insight into their life outside of the teaching English for a second language world. As it turns out Lucy likes to drink just as much beer at home as she does in Cagliari. Unfortunately for us the night came to an abrupt holt when we realised it was past 2:00 and Lucy was in work at 9:00 to invigilate for some exams being held in the school. Work ruins everything!
As we approach the end of the school year the inevitable is happening: our friends that are English teachers are starting to leave Sardinia. As I mentioned in last week’s blog post we have decided to stay an extra four weeks to enjoy the sun but some of our friends are leaving now. It’s strange to be in the situation of living abroad in a country where you don’t speak the language. You feel safe around people that are the same nationality as you and you form friendships often based on the same frustrations of your new country. The teaching English as a second language lifestyle is so different from any other lifestyle, it’s very laid back and often you will move cities or countries every year. It seems strange that next year so many of us will be in different countries, some will move back to the UK, some will stay in Sardinia and others will go as far as Australia. The first of our friends to leave was Eryn who Callum very briefly lived with in September just before I arrived.
On Saturday night she had decided to host a BBQ as her leaving party. Her boyfriend Andrea lives in Assemini which is a town just a few kilometres from Cagliari and they wanted to have it there. Unfortunately the time of the BBQ was the same time as the first England match in Euro 2016 so we had to put up with the football in the background. Not that we paid any attention because Andrea has a dog. Callum and I basically spent the night either eating or playing with the dog or trying to convince everyone to play ‘old maid’. We are consistent, I’ll give us that. It was really nice to all get together to wish Eryn good luck on her new adventure, I showed her just how excited I was for her by drinking a litre of cherry vodka and eating about 17 burgers. I’m such a good friend. She got the send off she deserved.
On Tuesday we all found ourselves off work for the day (except for Callum who was working at 18:30) so the only option was to head straight for the beach. We were up super early to try and actually make it there at a reasonable time because Callum would have to leave around 15:30 to get back and get showered and ready for work. The best thing about working abroad is the relaxed work ethic, especially when it comes to summer. Every opportunity to relax and enjoy the sun then Sardinian’s take it. We arrived around midday and decided to stay near the beginning of the beach as the sand is the best there, we normally go further up the beach to find a quieter spot but not this time. The beginning of Poetto is traditionally where a lot of teenagers go. Boy, they love to follow a tradition. It was PACKED. Callum had told me that when he arrived in August last year that Poetto was so busy that you could hardly find space but I didn’t believe him. As it turns out he was telling the truth.
After about 15 minutes on the beach of decided where the exact best spot was…did we want to be near a beach bar? Was there enough space for 7 of us to spread out? Did it matter that there was a bin right next to us? We finally found a place and settled down. Ten minutes into our sunbathing I think we all looked at each other at the same time…time to go and buy some booze. So Callum, Lucy and I went to EuroSpar to buy up their supply of Ichnusa. I decided to stay off the booze (I was on a health kick-emphasis on was) but I was responsible for picking the food for lunch which meant no bread. Essentially we just ate fruit. The sea has started to warm up now so Callum spends most of his time swimming or splashing around. Somehow when he was in the sea with Lucy they managed to take over a pedalo with a slide and were using it to escape from two massive jelly fish that were ‘chasing’ them.
So next week we all have a very big decision to make with the EU referendum. Honestly it’s been quite a rollercoaster, I am not here to push my views onto anyone (however it’s my Blog so…VOTE IN for god sake!) but I have been really shocked by the support for the exit vote. For me it’s not about the economy, it’s not about trading with other countries it’s about the fact that the whole reason that most people are voting out is because of immigration. Now, I will remind you that I am an immigrant. I live in another country that is not my own, I work here, I use public services and I would like to think that you are all happy for me to do something that has changed my life for the better. So why do we want to take away that option for others to enter the UK and be happy? I could go on and on but this isn’t propaganda, I’ll leave that up to the leaders of the leave campaign…Nigel Farage, Britain First, Boris Johnson, Michael Gove, Katie Hopkins and Rupert Murdoch. It’s a who’s who of absolute disgraces but who I am to judge your decision?
We are hoping for some better weather this weekend, the past few days have been absolutely boiling and so so humid. It reached a peak on Thursday night and there was a thunderstorm which cleared the air a little bit. Callum is working tomorrow morning (so I will stay in bed) but this is the weekend that we have definitely planned to go to the beach bars to party. No excuses! No being lazy, we will go. Then on Sunday we will try and explore a new beach a bit further from Cagliari that is good for swimming (and avoiding the masses of people). Then for the rest of the week we will be preparing for Callum’s friend Jamie visiting. He arrives next Friday and will be here for a long weekend…just in time for Sardinia Gay Pride which we can’t wait to experience. The gay community in Cagliari is very small but apparently around 20,000 people attended the event last year so it should be fun.
Have a great weekend everyone,
Josh and Callum 🇮🇹👨🏼🍕👦🏽🇮🇹
abeardabroad 