Loveandpizza.it

8. ~ Exploring the city ~

Gwen and Carl had helped us move in and taken us shopping to a nearby supermarket. They invited us for lunch, but we kindly thanked them, saying that we had a lot to do before the classes started on Monday.

We cleaned, and organised our books, which Gwen and Carl had brought in the car, I made a quick pasta and off we went to explore Napoli a bit and look for our students' houses. Since we already had the addresses, we thought it would be a good idea to find our way so that we weren't late for our first lessons.

We headed to Chiaiano Metro and went to see Lisa'saddresses. She would be working around Piazza Dante, centro storico and Vomero, while my lessons were more located in the Riviera di Chiaia area and Vomero. I could walk to most of my lessons, or take a short funicolare ride. I had to take the bus just a couple of times a week, which was brilliant. One of my students lived near Villa Comunale, which was great, as I could walk back to the metro station along the seaside promenade, on Via Caracciolo and Via Partenope.

This was our weekend, really. Going from one place to the other, finding our students' houses, and timing our journey between one lesson and the other. It was quite easy and interesting. We would be going to streets so hidden and narrow and dark that if they weren't where my students lived, no way I'd be getting anywhere near those little alleys.

Sunday night came and Lisa and I were ready for the big day. We didn't have a TV at home, nor Internet so far, but Gwen and Carl had lent us a few books, so after we had food we wrapped up warm and sat outside to read and chat.

'Do you think I'll be ok,' I asked. 'I've never taught anything in my life.'

'Course you will, silly. Don't worry. You'll be just fine. Remember, you'll be teaching one-to-ones, there isn't much that can go wrong. I've already told you that I'll help you, remember?'

'I know, but what about the in-company classes that start tomorrow morning? I'll be teaching a whole group. What if they're horrible people, and totally get that I'm not a teacher at all? What do I do then?'

'Well, you're the boss in the classroom. Pretend you know what you're doing and carry on. Trust me on this: first days are awful. Even for me. I'm sure that once the first lessons are over, you'll just forget about all that and you will be fine. Trust me,' Lisa smiled and gave me a hug.

***

'Oh my.... Look at the time, Lisa! We're going to be late!'

'No, Carolina. We're not going to be late. We are good. What worries me is this rain. We are going to get soaked, that's for sure. Gosh, and they said that Napoli had great weather! Yeah, great weather for fish and dolphins and mermaids, that is. Come on, Carolina. Get your umbrella. We'll have to risk it, or we'll be late for real.'

'Great. First day of class and I'll get there to teach looking like a witch. My hair is definitely not water proof. Aff.'

I couldn't be more right. We got to Chiaiano Metro station and the trains were packed. We travelled standing like sardines in a tin, for about thirty minutes to Dante. It was school time, work time, time for everything else, but for that rain to stop. By the time we got to Dante, I was afraid my hair had a life of its own, and that it was going to kill me, like all the snakes in Medusa's head.

We got out of the station, umbrellas open again, but the rain was so strong it didn't make any difference. It was raining horizontally, if you know what I mean, and my jeans and my shoes were just drenched. What a perfect impression I was going to give on my first day at work.