No buses for ages, then two turn up at once!

Hello again compadres!

After the blog-barren spell, when I trust you were all nervously updating my blog every 15 minutes for the next thrilling installment to no avail, you get two posts in the space of 3 days! Lucky people!

Not alot to say today though, I'm mostly just killing time until I have to go and get my bus for my last lesson of the week. I've read everything I wanted to on the BBC Football website, and after that I run out of uses for t'internet. I'm not really 'switched on' to it's awesome power I'm afraid web fans/geeks.

Two astonishing insights into the lives of Italians though.

1) Dogs
There seem to be two varieties of dogs here. Either tiny rat things, or massive bear/dog hybrids. Not a regular Kip sized hound at all. It's quite strange. The wee ones are all yappy and are apparently determined to be stood on by me while their (generally) elderly female owners totter down the street, zig-zagging like me walking home on a Saturday night. Meanwhile, the bear/dog monstrosities are big enough that they could quite easily escape their leads and cause havoc on a mildly irritating level.

2) Language
Although many an Italian might mistake me for a particularly pale native, my Italian is coming along slowly. It has some quirks that make no real sense when translated into English, such as when you talk about how old you are. Instead of saying "I'm 25 years old" (Sono 25 anni), you say "I have 25 years" (Ha 25 anni). Although this may seem triflingly small, I'm getting older and more cantankerous, and so this seems like craziness on a voting-for-Sarah-Palin-cos-she's-a-hockey-mom-just-like-me scale. Seriously, she's not, and she doesn't like Polar bears. Also she's an avowed creationist. Stupid, stupid Yanks. But I digest.....
Also, instead of asking "how someone is", they ask "how someone stays" (Come stai). What!??? When I point out these obvious flaws in their language my students generally say that they think English is silly for being different. Who's language is used almost everywhere in the world? Who won the World Wars? Exactly. Case closed. While I'm on this subject, they have six different ways of saying each verb, depending on who they're referring to, but one word for why and because. Why the amazing multitude of words for one thing, but strict economy on the other? Perche indeed (in the 'why', rather than 'because' sense, obviously).

Ah, that feels better.

In more Michael related news, I'm thinking that I'm going to get tattooed once more. Genoa is famous for many things (allegedly), but iconically has a lighthouse, which is quite cool. It's surrounded by Command & Conquer style power factories, but of you ignore them it's quite a quaint spectacle. It doens't seem to be on my memory stick, but I'll put a picture up next time.

So yes, thinking I might get that, with the light being projected the tricolore. I'm not sure though, this came to me in a fit of inspiration this afternoon, so will have to have a think about it. What use is the internet, if not as a sounding board for half-baked ideas though?

My bus will be coming soon, so g'day that's all for now folks.

Ta ta