Our Pumpkin!

My husband is so talented!

He looked for a pumpkin face design on the Internet, and copied it EXACTLY!

Halloween!

Do I spook you???

When the going gets tough, the tough gets going!

So I've been battling for the last two years with "insecure" jobs or as I like to call it "job hopping". It would be nice to have my own real job, and a real check at the end of the month, but here in Italy things are getting worse every day, even as I speak. We have a Prime Minister that is a crook, passing laws so that he doesn't need to have fair trails for things he's done, a Misses Minister for Public Education that is firing half the public school teachers and combining 20 student classes into 1 class of about 35-36 people, Naples is invaded by trash again, they don't know where to put it, in my city farmers have occupied the regional building, and train workers have occupied the train station because they haven't been paid for months, I could go on and on but I think you can get the picture.....

My job interview responses still are "Oh, you're over 30" or " we're looking for someone between the ages of 24 and 26" or "out of the candidates with the same requisites, we're sorry to inform you that we've chosen the younger candidate". . . makes me feel old even if I really am not. 30 is old because if you're younger they can give you a contract with government facilitations, such as free taxes and benefits that the company doesn't have to pay.

Another problem is being 30 and married: nobody wants to hire a woman who is 30 and married because they're afraid that they'll just get pregnant and go on maternity leave which amounts to almost a year here in Italy, and then you have the right to demand part time work hours when you actually do go back to work. So no one wants to hire women over the age of 30 (and married). Another reason is, is that if you are younger they can make you work more with the excuse "oh everyone has to do over time at the beginning" and they don't pay you for it.

As I was saying, I would like a good job, but at the moment I have to scavenge for what is available. I have organized my working day with private ESL English lessons, where I go to peoples homes or offices for the lesson, making it easier for them not having to take the time to move from one place to another for the lesson itself. Tiring, but it pays. I have also managed to pick up 2 contracts to teach at a school in 2 different projects, one is Sardinia Speaks English, an 80 hour Regional course offered to the citizens to perfection their English and the 2nd is 50 hours as a mother-tongue lecturer to support English teachers and students at High School with correct pronunciation and any extra perks I can give them.

So the saying is true: When the going gets tough, the tough gets going!

A Surprise Party!

I had fun organizing a surprise birthday party this weekend for my friend Maria-Elena. It was hard to keep it a secret from her, but in the end it turned out well! here are a few pix of the evening!

The Location

The buffet....

Maria Elena strongly dislikes Hello-Kitty,

so I thought it would be funny to buy party favors and spike 'em up a little bit!

Getting out of the car.... they brought her with a bag over her head so she couldn't see where they were taking her!!

Waiting for the right moment to walk in...

Surprise look on the birthday girl's face!

Raffaella, Me & Marta the other girl who helped organize.

Birthday Girl and Eleonora

Some of the gals with the DJ!
Serious
Goofy!

Anna, Me and Daniel

At midnight we lit sparklers and sang happy birthday

Yummy cake..

And champagne for all!

....and then we danced the night away!

Indian Summer!

An Indian summer is a meteorological phenomenon that occurs in autumn, in the Northern Hemisphere. It is characterized by a period of sunny, warm weather, after the leaves have turned!

We sure are having one here right now! 82°F and rising!