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!