Amore

VENICE. Oh my goodness people, you have got to get yourself there if you have never been. I really think it might be my favorite place in the world. For sure in the top three. It is truly like being in a fairy tale with the canals and little secret passageways through buildings and the little bridges. And the 50 bazillion tourists. All of it is so so cool. The tourists, not so much, but there are places you can find with less peopel. Being there this time was sooo different from last time I was there, but it was just as fabulous. There were 8 of us that stayed in the hotel together and then went into Venice for Saturday and Sunday. I was the lone loser that couldn’t make quite make it there Saturday morning and had to go separately a little later in the day. A little too much Prosecco for this goober the night before. But, I pulled it together and met up with everyone. I am actually kind of glad I went later because when everyone else left, it was pouring and it suddenly got beautiful when I went. Also, everyone else was anti-water bus because it was a little pricey. I, however, knew it was totally worth it and hopped on one to meet them in Piazza San Marco. I love LOVE being on the water and the water bus is sooo stinking cool! And you get a great view of the city. I took a little video for you lovely folks, so you could feel like you were there with me. It’s kind of lame, but I’m going to share anyways. What you don’t see in the video is the Italian couple making out in front of me for a good ten minutes. Sad, I know. Anyways, after my bus ride, we basically just wandered around acting like American fools, buying ridiculous souvenirs, eating as much gelato as possible, and finding shade to sit in. We also did a little dancing in the streets to the late, great Michael Jackson. Man in the Mirror sounds so much better when strolling down the Grand Canal.

After an extensive amount of strolling and gelato, we headed back to the hotel to rest up and then hit the town. The hotel was right outside of Venice, by the train station and we were convinced no one lived in the town because we could not find a bar or anything open for a good mile or so. I should have known better because EVERY Italian city, no matter how small, has a hopping piazza somewhere! So we finally found it, found a cool bar and just had a super good time. (Don’t worry, I controlled myself and was up and ready to go the next morning.) It was a slightly bizarre evening, involving a lengthy debate about whether or not Tupac is considered a legend (he shouldn’t be), but it was still really fun.

Sunday, it was back to Venice for more random wandering. Both days were super hot and crowded, but this day was slightly worse because we had to carry our bags around with us. But whatever, it was Venice. I sucked it up. Sadly, we had to say goodbye to three of our friends so they could go back to their camps, so we had a little tearful moment thrown in there, but we got some gelato to cheer us up and carried on. I was a little upset because I kind of wanted to have some purpose to our wandering, but no one else seemed interested in that, so I just let it go. Purpose involved money and line-waiting, which normally I’m against, but I really wanted to go back into San Marco (the actual church) but the line was ridiculous. I’ve been in it before, so I was ok, but I really wanted everyone else to experience it…it’s unreal in there! Oh well, I’ll just have to go back again sometime! Also, no one wanted to go on a gondola ride because it was too expensive. If only they knew how awesome it is! Sad times for them, but I’ve done it before, so whatev.

So that was my weekend. To sum up: I love Venice and need to find a gondolier to marry so I can live there forever and go to Christmas mass at San Marco. I am also still upholding my stipulation of getting engaged there. If I get asked anywhere else, I’m going to have to say no. Sorry fellas, I don’t come cheap.

Anyways, only four more days of camp and then it’s off to Greece! Craziness! Italy has gone by SO fast! I am going to miss it and definitely all the cool people I’ve met. But I’ll cry about that later….time for dinner…pesto pasta, my favorite!

PS-Click on the link (the blog title...amore) for photos....they are at the end!

Shum On

I am not going to lie, I am super sad about Michael Jackson's death. Yes, he fell off the deep end and was a total creeper at the end. But shum on, it's MICHAEL JACKSON. We had a moment of silence today at camp for him. Then we listened to 'Blame it on the Boogie' seven times. I don't know if the kids understood, but I know MJ would have appreciated it. RIP buddy...I'll be rocking out to you in Venice and beyond.

Perfetto

Whoa! Two posts in two days...yall are some lucky people. I just wanted to share because today was just a super fabulous day. Seriously. So great. Things started off with a rainy car ride to school, where we listened to the same song we listen to every day...Parla Con Mi (sp?) and I feel cool because I can kind of sing along now. I am so hip that I know Italian music, it's awesome. But then, it cleared up at camp and turned out to be a really great day. I am really enjoying this camp, even though it does a few annoyances. Apparently the nuns are all about the schedule, which is kind of a pain. The schedule is very binding, and slightly stupid, so it sucks to have to actually follow it. The last camp we had no one looking over our shoulders, so if we sometimes decided to extend break by a few minutes, no one really cared. But now the nuns care, so we have to stick to it. But whatever, camp is still good. I have successfully figured out how to take up huge amounts of time while still being productive and I am just so pleased with myself. And today we had a fashion show and it actually turned out ok. Last camps fashion show was pretty pathetic, so this was a nice change. Oh, and my attempt to trace a child on a piece of paper fell short and this is how I compensated. I crack myself up....


After camp Matt (a fellow tutor) and I wandered around to the center square for a little happy hour and it just made me really happy. The Padova city center is such a cool place...the pics prove it! Then I decided to go into one of the churchs before heading home on the tram and I was once again struck by the hugeness of Italian churchs. The outside is just like, whatever and then you walk in and it's like, Oh. Mi. Dio. It's insane. And even though I have been in tons of them, they never cease to amaze me. So I just sat and soaked in its humongousness for awhile, even though it smelled like fish inside. Then mass started and about 10 priests came walking out with incense and I literally teared up. It just really hit me that I'm in Italy and I am so happy. I love it. I'm sure you can see why...this is what I was wondering around in:





And then I got to come home spaghetti and mussels, and these cuties:



Perfetto! Ciao ciao :)

PS-Apparently something happened with Sanford? Facebook was all crazy with Sanford bashing. Who's got two thumbs and could care less?? THIS GIRL.

PPS-I am normally totally against selfies (taking pictures of yourself with your camera), but I took one..or two...so you lovely people could see the Italian haircut. Thoughts?

Cosi cosi

Ciao people! GREAT news! I think my hand/foot ailment is getting better! Hooray! Rejoice, everyone. My new family is so fabulous and are taking such good care of me! They got me medicine and cream and check on me every day...its fabulous. Not that my last family wasn't concerned...but I just didn't make as big of a deal about it, and it wasn't as bad. It was totally my fault I let it get this bad. But, like I said, things are getting better and we are on the road to recovery!

My new Italian family also took me to get a fabulous Italian haircut today. It was not exactly what I was going for..but I think it looks...ok. Cosi cosi. I was a little frustrated with the hairdresser...I guess she was assuming I didn't have any input since I couldn't speak Italian, so she just kind of did whatever. And then she blow-dried it straight. Which is fine and dandy, but it was some sort of super crazy hot Italian blow drier and it was burning my forehead! Also, we all know I don't have the time, patience, or equipment to be blow-drying my hair all the time. So it looks fine now, but it won't always. We'll see what happens after I take a shower. I'll let you know. My Italian mom is also buying me a new toothbrush tomorrow because she saw mine in the bathroom and decided it was time for a new one. Love it! And the little girls are sooo cute! They say things like, mammia mia! For real, like in everyday conversation. Also, they watch the movie Mammia Mia pretty much every day. And Padova is a cool place...even though it has rained both days of camp. Pictures soon!

In other news, the new camp is going really well. I am actually kind of sad that I won't be coming back for another one after this. Today, we did relay games with all the kids and they were really really funny. One of them was the kids hopping down the gym with a ball inbetween their knees and it was freaking hysterical to watch. Then we did another one where you had to crawl under everyone's legs in a line and then turn around (if that makes any sense) and I participated with my team (GO TEAM USA!-their choice, not mine!). I was bigger than most (all) of the kids, so I had to do more of an army crawl through everyone's legs, rather than go on my hands and knees. It was quite funny. And slightly painful. I got a little gym burn on my knees.

Also, this new camp has twice as many kids as the last one, but they are, for the most part, better behaved. It is at a school that is run by nuns, so the nuns help us lay down the law sometimes. It's fantastic. I have green this time, which is the level up from yellow, which I had last time. But honestly, some of them are on the same level. I have a few that are ahead of the game, but some of them don't even know the alphabet. Most of the English letters are different from Italian letters, but I feel like after 3 years of English, they should know them. It's a little frustrating. So guess what we did today!? Coloring!!! Yay! Everyone loves it....can't go wrong.

And with the nuns we also got these great little medallion things to pin to our shirts everyday. The school is called Don Bosco and he was a priest or something and his face is EVERYWHERE! Including our pins...it cracks me up. There are flags with his face too and I am totally going to steal one! They look like something you would wave at a football game. Oh yeah, and we get to have prayer time each morning...which is awesome because its twenty minutes that we don't have to be in the classroom. So nice.

Anyways, more pictures soon. A bunch of the tutors are going to Venice this weekend and spending the night in a hotel Friday and Saturday...SO FREAKIN PUMPED!

Ciao ciao!

Triste

Sad for many reasons:

1. I did not get to record LO SPETTACOLO. Sad for everyone, really, because it was fabulous. Ok, so not really fabulous...but better than expected for sure. My kids were super cute and did everything correctly and I was so proud. I have some pictures...but I was not at a good angle for photos during the show, so I don't have many.

2. I had to leave the Family Lugli today. :( They were such a good host family! They were so nice!!! Even though I was a terrible house guest and had all sorts of problems. Multiple illnesses, injuries and requests. I would have been annoyed by me, but they were always so happy! It was great! And, they gave me really good Balsamic Vinegar and BV and strawberry jelly...sounds strange but is actually super tasty.

3. There was no dancing in Carpi. So depressing. I was really wanting to do some dancing last night and it was just not happening. Apparently dancing is not that popular in Italy in general. Italians, PERCHE?!?? So lame! I remember dancing in Rome..but I guess things are different in the smaller towns. Such is life. There will be dancing in Greece though! I have been promised this by my family.

4. The itchy hand disease has still not gone away. SO annoying! My new family is going to take me to a dermatologist soon and hopefully something can be done about this nonsense. I'm over it.

5. My hair is out of control and seriously needs to be cut. I am a little afraid for an Italian haircut, but it must be done.

ALLORA. There are also many reasons to be happy though....

1. My new host family is super nice and super cute. They have two little girls, 3 and 6. They are soo cute! And sooo crazy! But mainly cute. And the mom made homemade pasta today, so tasty and tomorrow, homemade lasagne! Can't wait!

2. I am THIRTY MINUTES from Venice! So exciting! Some of the tutors are going to try and go next weekend and the very idea just makes me so very happy.

3. I'm still in Italy. So I think that trumps all sad things by a million.

More pictures, soon!

Here is the link to the ones I have on facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2025231&id=49500152&l=6355cf675b

Schifo

People! I am going to cut off my fingers and feet. They are driving me INSANE. I went to the Italian doctor yesterday (it was just one room…an office, bathroom and examination room all in one…very efficient) and apparently I have some skin disease children normally get. It’s apparently nameless and will (hopefully) go away in a few days. PLEASE cross your non-itchy fingers for me! I haven looked on the internet and haven’t been able to find anything that fits. They are just itchy bumps…not red or swollen. It’s just bizarre. I have ruled out scabies, AIDS, and syphilis, thank goodness. I am hoping they are just stress related and will clear up soon. The rest of me is itchy too, but there are no bumps. WTF?!?!?! I don’t know. It makes me feel dirty and gross. Whatever. Moving on.

Camp is better. Still annoying, yes. But I think I turned a corner (as I always do) and have learned to just be an idiot and walk away when I can’t deal. I take a little breather and mainly just laugh at the ridiculousness of these kids. I also like talking to them like they are adults and can understand me. I’ll be at the board, asking questions about things and when I get blank stares, I’m just like, really? That’s cool…love your enthusiasm. You guys are so smart. More blank stares. Then I pass out paper and we color. Or we play BINGO. BINGO is good because it’s animals in English…so I feel like they are learning a little. But like I said, the emphasis has moved away from learning and more towards me not hitting a child.

Oh yeah, and I want to talk about the lunch food. We get lunch everyday from the cafeteria and it’s so fabulous. They come in these little plastic squares (see picture) and every day we get a pasta for a first dish and then a veggie and meat for a second. The little squares always crack me up, but there have been a few that just tickled me to death. Tuesday, we got pork cubes and carrots. And the carrots were just this huge pile of shredded carrots. I found it hysterical. First off, it was way more carrots than any one person would ever eat in one sitting. And second, why shredded? That just seems like way more work and shredded carrots are just awkward to eat. Especially plain ones that really seem more suited for a salad. The next day was even better. Instead of a meat, we just got two hardboiled eggs and tomatoes. In my opinion, that’s kind of cheating with the meat and veggie concept. I don’t really consider eggs a meat…they have protein, but would you really call them a meat? Probably not. And, tomatoes are technically a fruit. I just thought the whole meal was funny. Luckily, the pasta dish is usually enough food for me…they give us a ton! I really don’t understand how all Italians are not fatty mcfat fats because they eat SO much food ALL the time and so so SO many carbs. It is seriously starch fest 2009 here. For example, one day for lunch I had white bread, white potatoes, and white pasta. For dinner, more white past, more white bread and some chicken. YUM!



Anyhow, our big final show is tomorrow: LO SPETTACOLO. And oddly enough, spettacolo just means show. Not spectacular. Which is good, really, because they show is going to be faaaarrrrr from spectacular. More on that after. Andrew, one of the other tutors, is calling it lo disastero. Can’t wait!

To end, here are some pictures of my crazy students. And some videos. I don’t know how good the sound quality is, but please excuse my singing. Mainly please focus on their singing back. I wish I had done the video earlier in the camp because it was initially them literally just mumbling nonsense and doing the motions. And the last one is some of the girls dancing to “Poker Face.” I couldn’t take any more High School Musical (we’ve listened to it all day, every day for two weeks), so I put that on. The girls went crazy!!! It was sooo funny! I didn’t get the first dance, but I guess they are emulating the video? I haven’t seen it, but the first shot is my favorite…the girl (Francesca) laying on the ground. I didn’t get the really good portion of the dance, but that pose just cracks me up. Enjoy!



PS- I am for sure headed to Padua Saturday. The family is apparently really pumped about me coming because they have facebooked me multiple times and have already promised me “internet to keep in touch with friend and family,” good food, a clean room, and “all our love.” I am a little nervous I am not going to be as fabulous as they are making me out to be! We’ll see!

Pazzo

Hey people. So, I am ready to kill some Italian children. Seriously, they are driving me INSANE. They have gotten worse as the week goes on. They are a few cute ones, but collectively, they are beyond ridiculous. They just do not shut up. Ever. And when I’m trying to get their attention and I’m literally screaming at them, they just look at me like I’m crazy. So then I try the opposite and just sit there quietly with the be quiet face and they ignore me. I really just can’t win. So I sit at my desk and play music and give them worksheets to do. That works sometimes. Other times I can’t take it and we just go outside and they run around and I sit in the shade for a few minutes and pull myself together. Then we go back inside and try again. The camp has its fun moments, but it’s also super frustrating. Especially because there are forty of them, and only three tutors. And the Italian camp director is no help at all. She speaks less English than some of the kids (I know, wtf? How did she get this job?), and is not much of a disciplinarian. Today I asked her to watch my class for five minutes while I cleaned up after paint time (whoa, bad idea) and I could hear my kids screaming from down the hall. I walked back in the class expecting to see her laying down the law, but she’s just standing there and all the kids are crawling around on the floor, screeching and hiding under the desks. What the hell lady?! So then we had some outside time. And to show them how mad I was, I wouldn’t let them go to the bathroom. I know, so harsh. (Don’t worry, they are not suffering…they all ask to go to the toilet at least 10 times a day).

Anyways, other than the children driving me insane…Italian life is pretty good. The food is fabulous, as always. We went to a tortellini festival last night and it was probably the best pasta I’ve had in my life. And the festival was just so very Italian, I loved it. It was like a church bizarre type of thing, but so fancy and everyone got wine and bread and the food was SO good. We got three types of tortellini for the first course and then rabbit, donkey and polenta for the second course. Polenta is kind of like grits…only better. And, yes, rabbit. And donkey. It was actually good…it was like, BBQ style. Only not actual BBQ, obviously. I don’t know what it was, but it was tasty. I don’t ask questions anymore, I just eat. I found out the other day we had horse for dinner one night. That’s mainly why I don’t ask anymore. No need to know I am eating Black Beauty for dinner and ruin it.

I made another trip to the huge Italian grocery store today. Complete madness. People were everywhere, running other people over with their carts. Italians shop the same way they drive, like crazy people and with no concern with anyone else. The lack of manners here is making me a little frustrated. It’s just their culture, really, but as a proper southerner, I expect an excuse me when you bump into me with your shopping cart. They don’t. They also don’t think twice about cutting people in line. Actually, there is really no concept of a line. It’s a free for all and the pushiest person wins, regardless of who got there first. You better speak up or you will never get anything accomplished. I’m learning. This Italian experience is SO different from last time I was here. Probably because I was with Americans most of the time. And I was more in control of what I did and ate. I was less absorbed in actual Italian life when studying abroad. Here, I work and live with Italians, so I am getting the real deal. It’s exhilarating, frustrating, fascinating, fabulous, ridiculous and exhausting all at one time. If you can even imagine such a thing. It’s a lot to handle.

Oh, and the athlete’s foot is not getting better, in case you were concerned. In fact, it’s worse. And, I now have itchy everything. My hands are the worst. They have all these little bumps on them, like I had an allergic reaction to something. What? Who knows. It’s getting old. I don’t know what to do…cutting off my toes and fingers does not really seem like a viable option, though tempting. I’m still waiting for the “crema vaginale” to work it’s magic.

All in all, things are good. I am really happy here and am looking forward to changing things up next week. I think I am going to Padova, which is near Venice. Things are not certain yet, so we’ll see, but I’m excited about the possibility of going back to Venice. It was one of my favorite places to visit last time. We’ll see.

Keep in touch people! I miss everyone! Ciao ciao!

I got 99 problems, but a clown ain't one

Right..so that's not Italian. It does, however, kind of sort of fit my life at the moment. And I think it's funny...the theme of the camp is CRAZY CIRCUS, and the other tutors and I were trying to think of rap songs to change to a circus theme and that was one. So there ya go.

Anyways.

Ok people, here is the long awaited, extremely entertaining and more extensive blog post. I hate to admit it, but nothing too exciting has happened lately. So, I’ll just tell you about random things I find entertaining.

First off, I have been in Italy for two weeks now. Which seems crazy to me because I feel like I’ve been here for way longer than that. But, I’m having a good time and settling in. I have gotten used to the different keyboard, for one. I found the apostrophe, which made me extremely happy because it was really bothering me to send emails that were grammatically incorrect. It’s the little things really.

Camp is going well. I guess. I have kind of given up on actually teaching things and am focusing more on games, listening to High School Musical, coloring and dancing. This new attitude seems to be working better than teaching. Last week I made myself sick and got a sore throat from trying to yell and/or speak louder than the kids. I was obviously quite unsuccessful. I don’t think there are any people louder than Italians. I should have already known this from living with Ray for 10 years. Silly me.

And speaking of not feeling well…I seem to have picked up some strange ailments since I got here. First off, I have athletes foot. And it’s freaking itchy and disgusting. I’m kind of embarrassed of it…but I wanted to share anyways. Mainly because when I went to visit Davide this weekend, I showed his dad (he’s a doctor) and he gave me this cream to put on it. Only…the tube says “crema vaginale.” Soooo yeah. Not sure how that is going to work. Since his dad speaks pretty much no English, I gave up trying to ask for an explanation. I am just going to cross my fingers and hope that this “crema vaginale” will cure my athlete’s foot because I am getting pretty sick of itchy toes. I’ll keep you updated. Other ailments include being tired all the time (nothing new, really), not being able to stop myself from eating-even when I’m not hungry, being itchy all over, and having random sneezing fits at really inconvenient times. Like on the train, while an old woman is giving me the evil eye.

Oh yeah…the train. So that was an interesting time, going to Rovigo. First, it was 30 minutes late. Then, I get on and there are no seats. I was like, whatever, my ride is only 20 minutes, I’ll stand. I walk to the back and there are two nuns sitting in a row with an seat in between them with two bags in it. They don’t move it, so I just keep standing. But then this other woman walks back and asks if she can sit there. And the nuns say no! NUNS, people! I mean, what is that about?? And in Italy, home of the holy city itself. I was a little disturbed…and disappointed. I mean, if nuns won’t help you out, who will? Honestly. Then the woman was like, bitching to me about them, but in Italian so I don’t really know what she was saying. But I know she was mad. I told her, in Italian, that I didn’t speak Italian, but she kept on talking anyways. Finally she left and I guess the nuns felt guilty or something because they finally moved their stuff and asked if I wanted to sit down. I don’t know, maybe they asked themselves WWJD? or something and decided he would not deny a seat to someone because his bags needed a place to sit.

Anyways, moving on to Davide’s house. I forgot what a goober he is! It was super fun to hang out with him. I only got to see him for a little bit Saturday because he had to go to work. So then it was just me and the parents…which was kind of a challenge. With my limited Italian and their limited English, we had an…interesting…time trying to communicate. His dad can’t just sit either. They showed me a photo album of their trip to Sicily and he felt the need to not only explain the pictures, but also the historical significance of the things in the photo. The words needed for those kinds of conversations are waaay out of my Italian scope. I tried for a little while…but then it was making my head hurt, so I tried to look uninterested in hopes that he would stop. He didn’t. So I went to the bathroom for 15 minutes when we were finished with the album viewing. Then, thankfully, it was time for dinner. We went to the restaurant where Davide works, Pizza e Vino and had just that, pizza and wine. We had pizza with sardines on it, which was not my fave. I guess I didn’t notice when I was here before because I was in control of my food, but Italians freaking LOVE salt. And I can’t handle it. I try, but I’m done after a few bites. Anyways, we made it through dinner and even got to dessert and limoncello…yum!

Breakfast did not go as smoothly. First, they made fun of me for not drinking coffee. And when I said I just wanted water, the mom (Maria Chiara) was appalled and insisted I drink orange juice instead. Then, she asked if I wanted Nutella and toast, and of course I said yes, but I think we got our signals crossed because I ended up with a Nutella sandwich. Which would be fine, only it was an extremely large sandwich and she was piling the Nutella on. Seriously, it was like half the bottle. I mean, I love Nutella, but it is so bad for you! I’m sure it was enough calories for the entire week! So yeah, I’m definitely going to get fat here. Oh, and they also somehow thought I wanted mozzarella cheese as well, so I ate that, my Nutella sandwich, a banana, yogurt, cookies, and orange juice. I was pretty full. Then, his parents wanted to go to this art exhibit in town on Art-Deco…which was interesting, but we did this guided tour and of course I didn’t know what the guide was saying! Davide’s dad wanted him to translate everything, but she was talking way to fast…so we just wandered around by ourselves and I had another sneezing fit. Don’t know what that was about. Oh yeah, and his dad (Silvano) was sporting a fanny pack, socks with sandals and this fabulous Hitler-esque moustache. It was pretty entertaining…esp when he decided the museum hadn’t angled the lights correctly and started adjusting them himself. So funny!

Long story short, it was really nice to see Davide and his family again. Then I took the train home and decided I needed a Coca-Cola Light (Diet Coke) and went to the McDonalds in the Modena train station. McDonalds here cracks me up! Of course they have Big Macs, but they also have all these other crazy things like chicken sandwichs on foccacia bread with pancetta. So fabulous! Then I came home to my Carpi family and we ate mini paninos for dinner and they were super good. Seriously, I am going to gain like 50 pounds.

Ok, well this might be little much for one post, so I’ll stop for now. There is so much though! I would like to say though, that everyone here has been SO nice to me! It’s unbelievable! I don’t know how to repay everyone, but I am so so happy to be here with all these wonderful people. (That is excluding the punk Italian kids at camp...they can suck it). The next post will further discuss my Italian children and how they are crazy, annoying, and fabulous all at one time.

Ciao ciao for now! Baci per tutti! (Kisses for all)

PS-Sorry for the lack of pictures, but I am having some problems uploading them....I'll try again soon!

Andiamo

Hey people! Sorry my posts are so few and far between....I don't have a lot of internet time. I am either tired as hell, or out doing something. I will post soon, I swear! With lots of pictures..Promise! Right now I am on my way to see Davide, our foreign exchange student from Italy 3 years ago..so excited!

Ciao ciao!

Allora

Hey people! So, I dont have a lot of time because I am super tired right now and need to go to bed...but I wanted to update really quick. Also, I may or may not be slightly drunk. Don't judge.

So anyways, camp started yesterday and the its crraaazzzyyy!!! I have 10 kids, ages 6-10. 7 girls and 3 boys. And they know slim to no English. So that's kind of a challenge. It's kind of fun though. And by kind of, I mean, it is super hard. I try to play games and teach them things and I get total blank stares. So it's like teaching a class, or working at camp, only 10 times harder because the kids have no idea what I'm saying. There are a lot of hand gestures and demonstrations involved. Sometimes they understand, sometimes we do things half-right and sometimes I just give up and we move on to something else that involves less explaining. The camp is from 8-4. It is a very long day. It takes a lot of energy to explain yourself 10...no 50 times in one day. But it's fun. And lunch is so funny! It's so Italian, I freaking love it! We get a pasta first course and then some sort of meat for a second dish. The meat is kind of struggling, but the pasta is always ballin'! And the dishes come in these plastic wrap, its very elementary school cafeteria. Only its times more fabulous because they have things like fresh tomatoes in them. And it also comes with a piece of fresh bread and oil and vinegar, if you so desire. Oh, and salt. These people are ALL about salt. It's slightly ridiculous. And then today we had gelato for dessert. Perfetto! I love it.

So that's my life. Yesterday I had to go straight home and take a nap...I couldn't take it. But, today I was a little more used to things and the other tutors and I went out to a bar...or two. And then I came home to my family and spilled water all over the dinner table. Oops. That's what happens when you start drinking at 5 and have dinner at 9.

Don't worry though, I behaved myself otherwise. And now it's time for bed. More later...and pictures soon, promise! We are currently watching Sleepless in Seattle in Italian and it is freaking AWESOME. Tom Hanks is way hotter when speaking Italian.

Ciaooooo!

Grazie

So...I've decided to switch to random Italian phrases as post titles, instead of songs. That might have to be switched again soon, seeing as how I know only a select amount of phrases. I am hoping to pick up on a lot more though, now that I am living with an Italian family.

Ok, lets recap. First, training last week was in Armi di Taggia, near SanRemo and it was AMAZING. First off, we were RIGHT on the beach. Literally, I walked out of my bungalow door and there it was. It was so fabulous. My two roommates there, Kelley and Niemh, were amazing as well. We got along so great and had tons of fun. Niemh is Irish and she pronounces her name all crazy and Kelley is from New York and she is just crazy in general. And the rest of the people in my program are great as well. It was one of the least stressful and productive trainings I have ever been involved in. There were 14 of us this week, and then next week 150 tutors come. I am really glad I was in the smaller group because I don't really like training with a huge group of people. So anyways, we basically sang songs and learned random things all day and then hung out at the beach, drank wine, and ate cheese and bread. We got three free meals a day at this restaurant close by. Which was actually kind of a disappointment because the food there was not so good. The first meal started off good with this amazing lasagne...but then we got some sort of mystery meat with mystery gravy for the second dish (secondi piatti) and things just went downhill from there. I wish I had taken pictures. One dish was some sort of ham ring filled with green mush. It was not tasty. But no worries, I didn't starve, we found a grocery store nearby. And, they usually had a good dessert for us, so it wasn't all bad. And, the 14 of us always had a good time so it was always fun to show up for a meal and guess what we were eating. I seriously cannot say enough good things about my group. We all got along great and I was sad to see everyone leave.

We are split up into different groups because we all go to different camps. So I am working with 2 other tutors and we are in the city of Carpi. Everyone else is in a nearby town and we all stay with a different host family. Hopefully we'll get to see each other some. But after these two weeks, we all go to completely different camps. We had to take 3 trains to get to Carpi yesterday, which was kind of a challenge after our last night celebration in Armi di Taggia. But, I managed.

My host family, the Lugli family, is super nice! They sent me a facebook message before I came, which I thought was so cute! Last night they took me out to dinner and we had some local cuisine, which I have already forgotten the name of. But was basically a bunch of meat and cheese and you made your own sandwich type thing with this really yummy bread. There were also veggies you dipped in oil, but they were eating like, entire onions and I couldn't handle that...way to strong for me. And of coures we had dessert! I had some sort of ice cream thing..it was fab. Anyways, the family has three sons, Ricardo-21, Michael-17, and Eros-13, who is going to the camp with me. I actually haven't met Eros yet because he is away at a hockey tournament for the weekend.

Ok, well just wanted to give everyone an update! Things are going so fabulous...much better than I ever imagined! I am looking forward to camp starting on Tuesday and seeing what these crazy Italian children are all about it. More later! Oh! And I got a phone with free incoming calls, so shoot me an email if you want the number. Here are some pictures from last week....the rest are on facebook.

My fabulous group!

The roomies!

View from the restaurant where we ate every meal

View from my room

More photos

Ciao ciao!

Va Bene

Ciao everyone! I still have to pay for internet, so time is limited. But I did find out I am going to be working at a camp in Carpi, which is in Modena, where they make balsamic vinegar...yum! Also, I will have the youngest kids...6-7. Should be interesting!!!!

The weather is beautiful and everyone here is so nice and we are all getting along great. I love it. Seriously, I feel like I am back where I belong.

More later!!! Ciao ciao!

Ciao!

Im here!! And internet costs me money, so Im not here on the computer for long. My hostel is beautiful and right on the beach, so I am super happy. I was crazy jetlagged yesterday, but all is well today and I am ready for some gelato! More later...

And again, thanks to all my beautiful friends who wished me well and helped me on my way. I appreciate and love everyone!

Ciao ciao!