Ciao from America!

Well, I'm writing this blog post from America.  I arrived on August 27th.  I had said back in my post on Dublin that I was 95% sure that I was moving back to the states at the end of September because my lease was up in Rome and that I was done teaching at my school. It is true that my lease is up and it's also true that i'm done teaching for my school in Rome, however, I am headed back to Italy this Tuesday, September 11th.

A couple days before Anna and Giuseppe's wedding, I met one of Giuseppe's cousins who happens to have the same name. He lives in a town called Matera that's 30 minutes from Irsina with his wife and 3 sons who are 18, 15 and 5. I was talking to him about how I didn't like Rome and I was going to move back to the US when he offered for me to come live with he and his family in Matera for the fall. Matera has always been one of my favorite cities and I love the close proximity to Irsina and my friends there! The family owns a small apartment on the first floor of their building complete with a bedroom, kitchen and bathroom that I get to live in. They live on the 3rd floor in a much larger and more beautiful apartment.  They have offered for me to stay at their house for free and would like me to speak english to their children.  As of now, I will be tutoring 15 15-year olds in the afternoons and am hoping to find a part-time position for a company in the mornings to keep me busy.

Matera is a town of 60,000 people compared to Rome which has 2.8 residents. Matera is one of the first human establishments in Italy and dates back to 9,000 years ago. It is roughly 5 hours by car from Rome and the closest major city is Bari, only about 1 hour 15 minutes by car.

I'm very excited for this next chapter in my Italian adventure! The family has not asked me to stay for a set-period of time and have said, if I like it, i'm welcome to stay and if not, i'm free to go.  I love this flexibility, but am also fairly confident that I will love living in this city.

All of this means that I will continue to be blogging! I've had the best travel year of my life and I can't promise that my fall will be as exciting as the spring, but i'll definitely keep you posted on my adventures.