371. Don’t take anything for granted.

Today I taught a Japanese karate champion English literature. You?

Alongside the great works of the English language, we got to speaking about some of the time that he spent in the UK when he was younger. He happened to mention that his favourite place was the Lake District, and in fact it was one of the few places in the world he would like to travel back to.

370. You can still learn about the world from the comfort of your own home.

In these covid days, where travel is few and far between / completely forbidden, it seems unlikely that you could learn so much about the world from your own living room. But, the great thing about teaching people from all around the world, is that you’re always learning important things about different cultures and languages.

Take last week for example. I learned that if I attend a housewarming party in Korea, I should bring toilet paper as a housewarming gift. A lesson we must all learn at one point or another.

Naturally, I asked why. It turns out that the word for unwrapping/unrolling toilet paper is the same verb as wishing somebody good luck, or that something goes well (풀다). So, the Koreans tend to gift toilet paper when they visit their friends’ new home for the first time.

You can thank me later…

369. Any walk you do in the South will result in you saying how it isn’t as good as the North.

The other night, I went out for dinner with an old friend. Like myself, he has spent many years abroad, loves languages and learning new cultures and with everything that is happening here, feels ever increasingly further away from being ‘British’, whatever that means nowadays. I don’t feel like London is ‘home’ and I certainly don’t get a warm feeling when I land in Manchester airport.

368. In times of anger, take it out on a watermelon.

Sitting on the narrow streets of Trapani with some friends one night, drinking, talking and enjoying the hustle and bustle, our chill was interrupted by an angry Sicilian man walking with a watermelon under his arm. (I’d like to take this opportunity to point out that Sicilian watermelons are extremely large.)

367. Some people have it all figured out.

You know, every now and then again you meet those special kinds of people who make you feel calm and zen and like nothing in the world is ever as big of a problem as you think it is.

Whilst traveling Pantelleria this summer, I came across one of these amazing people. After what has been a terrible year for the vast majority of us so far, it was refreshing to see someone that hadn’t been phased by this global pandemic we are yet to grow accustomed to (although it is easier to accept all the terrible things of this year when your house is on a beautiful island and you sleep on a verandah with a view of the sea everyday).

366. The true art of negotiation can be found on a little island between Sicily and Tunisia.

This summer, I headed out to the beautiful island of Pantelleria – a little slice of paradise nestled between Europe and Africa. If you are looking for some of the most blue water, fresh food and people who have understood everything important in the world, then I recommend heading there to escape for a while.

365. Wear a mask. (Correctly.)

I have to hand it to the human race, we sure can be creative. You’d think that having seen masks being used by others or on TV or just using common sense about how they work, we’d all be putting them on in the same fashion, but there are just some that just keep knocking it out of the park and surprising me.

364. Watch out for dogs.

Picture this…

You’re out on a beautiful run in the middle of the Sicilian countryside. You’ve waited all day for the heat to die down and the sky is turning orange and pink, the vineyards and almond trees climbing up and down the rolling burnt hills.

363. Always always always ask the locals.

There’s no piece of advice more golden than going local when you visit a place – who’s going to know the best places to eat and adventure (ie. everything I live for) better than the regulars?

This summer I was fortunate enough to roam around Sicily for a couple of months. Here, asking a local is sure to lead you to a hidden gem, a good meal and most likely a friend for life. On a weekend exploring the Alcantara river, we were quick to note that the places with signposts were sure to be swarming with people by 10am – exactly the kind of situation that I am becoming ever better at avoiding at all costs and so we set out to find a spot of paradise to ourselves.

362. The joy of playing ‘Would you rather give up pasta or pizza’ with Italians will never get old.

If you’ve ever wondered what true panic and fear look like on the face of a human being then I highly suggest playing the following game with your nearest Italian.

Start with a simple one: Would you rather give up pasta or pizza? – watch for the change in expression before they eventually tell you something along the lines of ‘no no pizza. The pasta is sacred. Sunday with no pasta? I couldn’t.’ etc etc

Then I suggest you move on to the more thought provoking ones and get really into the details ‘spaghetti alla carbonara or penne alla norma?’ ‘orechiette con cima di rapa o linguine allo scoglio?, ‘la parmigiana o polpette della nonna?’, ‘prosciutto crudo o mortadella?’ (please contact me for a full list).

The biggest reaction so far has been ‘red wine o espresso’, at which point my boyfriend said no, stood up and left the house to go for a walk to calm down.