Slainte and salute

After the walk home I woke up with a tiny blond Zara's face an inch from mine talking in a very loud high pitched heavily accented voice "Are you sleeping?" To which if govanuh would have been added I probably would have peed myself laughing. She's like 6? and a spoiled little princess indeed, but also cute as hell. I got out of bed, showered, had a coffee, and hopped on a train back to Rome. The rest of the day was pretty chill, after all I had both work and school starting tomorrow, did I tell you as soon as my contract was signed I walked two blocks to Dilit International language school and slapped down 500 euros for 3 weeks of 2-4:45pm Monday through Friday intensive Italian? No? Well I did. Tired on a school night, I went to bed early. My first week went pretty fast actually, work at 11:00am to 2:00pm, school from 2 till 4:45 and work from 5 to 11ish, long days, but not really hard work you know? Fun really. Everyone in school is pretty cool, there's like 14 people in class, a lot of Swedes, a nun, an older American guy, an Irish playwright from Belfast, just a pretty eccentric group, but we laugh a lot. It feels like a break from work, not work. I'm actually communicating pretty good in Italian now after just a week. Last Saturday I was ready for two days off, from both work and school. I left the room for lunch and a read and ran into Marco, Charlie, Claudia and Luigi (Franceco's son, in town from law school in London) they invited me to hang so I joined them at this totally off the tourist radar local place that featured something like 40 Italian microbrews, very modern cool place down some alley that you would never see, I didn't, Marco had to come find me. It was cool. After a few beers (so much for the read) I met Tad at Scholars Irish Pub by the Piazza Veneto, and hung out in the snook and watched some football, yes soccer. In case you don't know what the snook is, it's a nook in a bar, a little private room, this one with its own TV. So when the bar is packed, and it was, you get a seat and your own little room to hang out in, no crowds. Compliments of the owner Decklan who Tad and friends are friends with. I hung out with Ian, the aforementioned Liverpoolian archeologist, Tad, Kevin from North London, Dave from Tipperary and yours truly. We were there for a few hours, we saw Liverpool play, all fans, lucky David wasn't there, then Tad and I went to the Yellow for a minute then back to his place for a few beverages and to wait for Justin to join us. Tads girlfriend got a job nannying from 10am Saturday to 10am Monday live in on weekends, so he was ready to party. By the way she might quit beacause the 4 and 6 year olds she's babysitting have to be spoonfed. Not cause they are handicapped they're just that fucking spoiled, can you believe that, they shout "Ho fame! (I'm hungry)" and just lean back and open their mouths, what little assholes. Anyway, after Justin came we went for some late night Argentinian food, yummy. The next day I said I would be back at Scholars for the Manchester game, but decided to sleep in and missed the game, oh well. I did go though and then afterwards we went to The Abbey Theatre to watch the Bears/Cowboys game, in Rome, in an Irish pub, I know. Not that i'm a big sportsfan, but it was fun anyway. Met more expats, is it true that they are all English teachers and tourguides?, yes it is. I chatted up a very cute Scottish cocktail girl named Cory, she said I was the highlight of her night, mmmm, out of town but back next weekend, The Abbey anyone? OK....and then had a pretty early night, back to work and school tomorrow.