SIMPLY SARDINIAN!

Finally a graduate!

So, nearly two years on, after closely recording my Erasmus adventure, I have once again caught the blogging bug! Many of you reading this will probably have been readers of 'Mi vida/vita Erasmus' (http://vidaerasmuszoe.blogspot.it) so I just wanted to say hello again, and I hope you'll enjoy this travel blog just as much as I will writing it! Having had an extremely stressful final year upon return to Leicester last September, I can finally say that I am officially a graduate in Italian and Spanish! I travelled up to Leicester on Tuesday night with my parents ready for the ceremony on Wednesday, and I can honestly say (trying not to sound big headed here) that it was the most proud day of my life! Just putting on the gown and mortar board made me all the more aware of my achievements- it just didn't seem real that it was me who had made it to the end. I make it sound like it was a challenge because for me it really was. I came very close to giving up so many times during this final year that my survival to complete this degree, and achieve a 2:1 with honours is by far my biggest achievement. I had such a wonderful day, and absolutely loved the ceremony. I hope you like the few pics below.

With my housemates Siân and Kat

Classic hat toss with Kat!

Me!

Hat tossing again!

With Kat and Siân

With my Italian class!

The professional photo we have ordered

Siân and me

Me outside the Attenborough building

With my proud parents :) 

Palau from the air- courtesy of google images!

The graduation ceremony for me marked the end of my time at the University of Leicester, and the start of the long awaited summer! I was sad to leave, but I feel that my time is finished there, and I have so many great memories and have made some incredible lifelong friends. Now it is time to 'look to the future' as one of my Italian lecturers said. I am one of the lucky ones as I have my plans sorted for September (through extensive planning throughout the year- not just pure luck!) and don't have to enter the precarious European job market just yet! I have a place on a trilingual MA Translation and Professional Language Studies course (Including Interpretation) at the University of Bath which I am very excited about. I have just sorted my accommodation in a postgrad house-share with 3 other postgrad girls, and I move in on the 13th of September! I am really excited to move to such a beautiful city as Bath, meet new people, and complete further study in my two foreign languages. Before then however, the summer stretches endlessly in front of me, and I am lucky enough to be sat right now with this view in front of me. Any guesses where I am? :)

The local beach- Palau Vecchio

I'm on the Italian island of Sardinia in the north-western city of Palau, and this is where my new postgrad travel blog starts which will record my overseas adventures over the years to come. Having au paired twice already, I knew that this is what I wanted to do again this summer for the last time. I know that it will be the last time as next summer I shall be busily doing my Masters dissertation, and then the following year I hope to be employed using my degree and Masters, or teaching English whilst having a gap-year in some far flung destination in South America! For now though, au pairing is perfect as I can improve my Italian before doing my Masters, teach English, earn a bit of cash and of course enjoy 7 weeks of Italian sunshine before the long British winter starts. My family are really lovely and they have a 4yr old daughter- Camilla. She's not at all shy, loves to swim, make sand castles, paint, play Lego and dressing up- so that's all fine by me! She loved the present I gave her of 3 sets of fairy wings (left overs from my days as a Uni fresher haha) - see pic below of Cami as a fairy! On first impression, she seems to be a really calm, well behaved, polite little girl. She already has a decent basic level of English which makes teaching her much easier than last year with Rebecca, and swims confidently even diving under water! She really is- as the Italians would say- a pesciolino! (A little fish!).

Camilla as a fairy!

With Cami

Yesterday was my first day with her, and we went to the local beach which is so beautiful-yet Silvia says it is one of the worst on the Island! (How can she think that?! this little bay is gorgeous!) We went swimming and played ball in the water, built a sand castle, and Cami showed me where she likes to sit and look at the view! We climbed up on some rocks overlooking the bay whilst she had an ice lolly and watched the boats go by. Of course, safety is the most important thing when au pairing as you are responsible for someone else's child, yet every time I have au paired a small accident has occurred! Nothing major, but still enough to make me feel sick and my blood run cold! Inés my 7yr old Spanish girl in Madrid ended up copying me doing cartwheels and back flips and managed to pull the muscles in her back and scream for hours and pretend to be paralysed, Rebecca my 4yr old Italian girl last summer in Milano Marittima fell down with the bike whilst strapped into the kids seat (thankfully she was wearing a helmet and securely strapped in), and then now on day 1 with Camilla I accidentally scratched her cheek with my nail when we were playing in the water. I'm really not a very good au pair am I! Cami was splashing me with the salty seawater and I couldn't see, and she was saying 'catch me' and I must have reached out and accidentally caught her face. She barely noticed and when I apologised she said that it was nothing and not to worry! It was such a surface scratch but did go a bit red, and i was petrified that I'd managed to injure her on day 1! I had no idea how her mum would react so took her to the beach bar to get it cleaned and a plaster put on! (just for safe measure). Silvia wasn't bothered at all luckily- I suppose at the end of the day it was just a scratch. Silvia, her mum, is really nice and speaks perfect English and German, and her husband Francesco is the mayor of Palau! He's very welcoming although super busy- and practically works all day every day- although their main holiday month is August so Silvia said that she hopes he'll be around a bit more in a few weeks time and we'll be out on their yacht most days cruising around the island where my job will be to play with Cami- oh it's a hard life!

The walkway down to the beach

Another view of the beach

Another beach with a cute lighthouse!

The pine forest with views of La Maddalena

Palau is quite a small town with around 5,000 inhabitants and is absolutely gorgeous! There are bright exotic flowers everywhere, beautiful beaches with crystal clear water and incredible views! Right in front of Palau is the archipelago of La Maddalena which is around 2km from the shore of Sardinia and sits in the Straits of Bonifacio between Sardinia and the neighbouring French island of Corsica. It takes only 15 minutes to get there and costs €1 for residents- so Silvia said that one Saturday (my day off) I can go over there for the day to explore and indulge in my passion of photography! I met an Italian girl called Alessandra through Chloe (Cami's last au pair who is staying until Tuesday) who has been showing me the ropes, and Alessandra said she would love to come over there for the day with me to chill out :) she speaks English, but wants to improve, so I'm sure I can be of help there!

Ice creams!

One of the main streets leading into Palau- love the coloured houses!

The view from the house! - yes the water really is that blue!

Chloe has been showing me around the town and this afternoon as I had the day off, we went sunbathing and for a walk through the pine forest along the coast where we saw a gorgeous little beach and lighthouse too! Then we went for the best gelato in Palau- a place called 'La Gelateria dell'angolo' (The ice cream shop on the corner) as it is literally on a junction! They had a big selection of authentic Italian homemade ice cream which was delicious- I should probably keep away from there in future if I don't want to return to the UK a few pounds heavier!

Okay I think that's all for now! Ciao ciao x