My annual springtime flu

I got back to Milan on Saturday after 4 super intensive weeks of teacher training. The good news is that I passed the class with flying colors and am now a certified English teacher. The bad news is that Monday night I came down with the flu. Like clockwork, every spring I seem to get sick.

Alberto and I move into the apartment this weekend. Iolanda has been hard at work getting it cleaned up and ready for us. I can't wait to move in, have my own space, and make it a little more me.

I've got a couple of leads on jobs here that I should know more about next week.

So, apart from this damn flu, all is good.

I forgot...

I forget sometimes how nice it is to have a musician in the house. My dad plays the guitar and I absolutely loved listening him play while I was growing up. That probably has something to do with why I can't get enough of Paula. If you've ever wondered what No Woman, No Cry sounds like in Portuguese, just click here.

I am alive

This course has been kicking my ass for the past two weeks. I'm sleep deprived and thinking of nothing but grammar these days, so I'm thankful for the moments of fun that we get to sneak in every now and then. My favorite moment of the day is usually in the evening when my Brazilian roommate Paula (I seem to love living with girls with some version of that name :-) whips out her guitar and breaks into song. It's the perfect pick-me-up after hours of teaching practice and lesson planning and grammar study.

They warned us...

On the first day of class, the director of the program told us "The first week is OK, the second week is challenging, the third week is extremely challenging and the fourth week is good". I can tell I've officially entered the challenging phase, and I'm terrified of what next week will bring. I'm spending hours every night on my lesson plans and grammar practice. I'm afraid my days of drinking beer in the afternoon sun are officially over. Thank god I was able to have an awesome weekend before "challenging" bore down on me. I'll post pictures whenever I catch up with my work.

Now the good news: teaching English is the most fun I've had in a long time. I absolutely love it so far!