Another exam! Didn’t you just finish?

L-R: Anna-Raffaele-Valentina-Cristian-Angelo

Earlier on my journey I told you about Cristian Telesco, who is doing a study on the migration of people from Puglia to Australia and beyond.

I met Cristian early in my trip when he asked me to participate in a seminar he has been organising in Lecce about his work.

It meant returning to Lecce one more time. The seminar was held last Friday (1 April).

Cristian asked me to talk about my memories and experiences as the son of post WW2 migrants to Australia from Puglia.

He said I could do it in English and he would translate. I was honoured to be asked, accepted and then set myself the task of doing it in Italian.

I am happy to say I think it went well although I was more than a little nervous. You see two of the people in the audience were Anna Luperto and Valentina Capone. Anna and Valentina were from the School of Italian for Foreigners and Valentina was my grammar teacher.

It was a bit like doing another exam because although I had finished my course and done my exam I knew this was coming up. In reality my course would not be finished until this seminar was over. And of course my teachers were in the audience watching.

Our first departure from Lecce was a little rushed so it was a chance to return, put my new language skills into practice, and say goodbye and say thank you again to my cousin Melina and her family, Anna and Valentina, Cristian and of course Lecce.