A sense of achievement...

I have achieved something great. It has taken me a while and I have thought about giving up. There have been times of happiness, and there have been times when I have been really rather confused.

Yes dear readers, I have finished a book. A book, in Italian. Here it is:

You may recognise this from my previous ramblings. Read a synopsis (in Italian!) here.

Any of you who have managed to finish a book in a foreign language may also understand my elation at doing so. Watching as the pages go by (LOOK! I said to my boyfriend, LOOK how much I've read! As I shoved the book in his face, showing him the *great* amount of pages), the words actually sink in, and you really start to get into the story, you have this wonderful sense of achievement. My Italian learning process has been slow yet steady, so, after just over18 months of living and working in Italy, I have done it. I've officially read a proper book in Italian. From start to finish. 

I didn't understand every single word. And sometimes there would be parts of the text that I'd have to re-read several times. And If I wasn't fully concentrating, I might as well have been reading Japanese. Focus was necessary. It also took me a good while to get through the 350 or so pages. But I persevered. And luckily, it was a good story (Sophie Kinsella's words never fail to amuse me), so that made things much easier! 

So let this be an encouragement to any of you who are in possession of a book in Italian, German, Chinese, or any other language for that matter, and are dubious about starting it. It may be there on your bookshelf, tempting you, challenging you. But instead of shoving it out of sight,  just read it, because it feels oh so good when you've finished! Then, as well as be able to boast to all your friends (I haven't done that, honestly...), you will feel much better about reading more in the future.

Happy reading all you fellow bookworms!

This week, I have been mostly....

1. Cooking. Mostly with aubergines, actually...

2. Entertaining. Cooking Italian food for Italians?! Tricky. But not if you've got a great Italian man to help you (watch out for his ridiculously good Parmigiana recipe in the future!). I'm proud to say that the antipasto and dolce were all my doing though...

3. Drinking nice wine. This is a lovely Rose from Salento..

4. Reading- in Italian! A lovely birthday present which I've just got round to reading now. I've read some of Sophie Kinsella's books before, and this one is really good so far!

5. Watching friends feed my terrapins pineapple. Apparently it's something that should be given 'very rarely...as a treat'. Well, let's just say that several chunks of the stuff were fed to them. 

The (not so secret) pineapple feeding taking place

6. Looking forward to my UK trip. I leave on Thursday morning. Yaaaay!

please please let it be like this...

 7. Writing an article on teaching in Italy for expat arrivals. Watch this space!!

Hope you've had a great weekend!