Pictures!!

So here are all of the pictures I would have posted along with my posts had I been able to.

1) On Saturday when I returned to my first camp director's family in Rome, her husband drove me to their beach house an hour outside the city... on his motorcycle! It was my first time on a motorcycle and it was really, really fun.

2) My last and best host family. This is in the courtyard in front of their house (they had a courtyard in front of their house).

3) My host-great-grandfather, the incredible bike.

4) My giant but extremely well-behaved class in Calcio, my last camp.

5) Everyone from Sarego waving goodbye as we departed.

6) Some of those amazing Sarego kids at our Friday dinner. Veronica is the girl in the yellow (she always wore yellow) and Alex is between Sara and I.

7) Little Nicho with his gnocchi!

8) An opera at the Verona Arena. Lots of people in the audience lit candles at the beginning.

9) Wine tasting with Rafaella, our director, and Giovanni, the intensely passionate winery owner.

10) Vicenza.

11) The rolling vineyards of Soave.

12, 13) Lago di Garda... beautiful.

14) The ENTIRE camp the first week in Sarego.

15) Baseball during California Time.

16) Marco, the genius, with his egg protection that he turned into a dog.

17, 18) The California maps and baseball stadiums that every kid drew.

19) My bike path to camp in Sarego.

20) Exterior of the Verona Arena.

21) Me at the Apicoltura (bee farm)!

22) Verona

23) The view from my bedroom in Sarego.

The End

Today is the last day of camp, and probably the last time I will have decent Internet before I get home... the day after tomorrow.

I've been thinking of a way to wrap up this blog, and haven't really thought of anything, mostly because it hasn't hit me that this European time is truly ending. It was supposed to end in May... and now it's August... but it still feels like it will continue.

When I arrived in Prague, I had no plans to start a travel blog. But I decided to for two main reasons. The first was that within a few days, several people had asked me the same questions about the beginning. I wanted to tell everyone about my experiences, but I knew that I would get sick of repeating the same stories every few days. So I figured that if there was just something that people could read, if they were curious about what I was up to, that would be much easier.

The second was that I am incapable of keeping a steady diary. I started in January by writing lists of exciting things that happened each day so that I wouldn't forget them, but I got tired of doing that after two or three days. But, I thought, if I knew other people were reading my entries, maybe I would be more motivated to write regularly. And 50+ posts later, I think I was right.

I'm still not fully aware of who reads this, but I enjoy it when every so often I hear from someone I did not know was a reader. Thank you so much for reading, it's been a lot of fun to share all of these exciting times from the last 6+ months, and it's enabled me to keep a sort of diary for myself as well.

I think there will be one more post... a massive amount of pictures from the last few weeks. That'll come from Palo Alto.

THANK YOU!

EasyCamp

I am pretty much done. And camp this week is soooooooo easy. I'm not sure if it's because everything has become so routine, or because my host family is my best yet, or because the director is relaxed, but it's just really easy.

My group is also very manageable. There are a lot of them (13), but for the first time since my first camp, I can leave them for a few minutes, come back, and they'll still be sitting quietly. They get pretty excited about any game I teach them, they eagerly study their lines for the show, and they actually enjoy rehearsing the English Camp song that most kids dread. It's miraculous. AND they voted to do a Pirates of the Caribbean show... which I did four weeks ago, so I didn't even have to write a new script.

My host family is great. I spend most of my time at their house working on a 1,500 piece puzzle that I think we might be able to finish by Saturday morning. The 15 year-old son speaks the most English in the family, and he really enjoys knowing more than everyone else. It's tough to find an Italian teenager who will willingly speak English, since most are shy about trying a different language, so I appreciate his constant translations. But it's also fun stretching my limited Italian and hearing the parents stretch their even more limited English.

Oh and I'm riding a bike to camp again this week, but it's much different. It's not as scenic as Sarego (no vineyards this time, only cornfields), and it's much longer (4-5 miles each way), but my bike is amazing. It belonged to my host-great-grandfather. I feel like an old Italian man riding it because my back is perpendicular to the ground and it is so relaxing.

One more reason this camp feels easy... our daily hour during lunch to use the computer room. But that's ending now, so back to work!

Lists

Things I'll Miss

1) My Italian cell phone

I bought a phone during orientation in June, mostly for emergencies and also to call my co-tutors. But it has turned out to be a really nice addition to my life in Italy. I continue to text former co-tutors, host parents, and directors. It's so nice to get messages from them and I'll miss them when I'm home next week and they're much more distant.

2) New Foods

I have always been a picky eater. I've been transitioning into a normal eater in recent years, but this summer I've really outdone myself. There were a few new foods I tried in Prague, but since I've been in Italy, I've begun to eat: peaches, plums, apricots, tomatoes, pie, mushrooms, and many other foods that I never would have voluntarily eaten before. But I'm worried that when I go home, these foods won't be as tasty as they are here. We'll see. And it's also really nice to eat things that are from the region where I am (i.e. Parmasean cheese in Parma) and lots of other local specialties, particularly wine.

3) Balconies

Balconies are so beautiful in Europe, especially in Italy. I think part of it is just their varying shapes, and part of it is the flowers that cover them. I spend quite a bit of time staring at them.

4) 'Bo'

When an Italian wants to say "I don't know," he or she says "Bo." It sounds like a combination of 'boh' and 'buh.' It took me a while to get used to, but I'll probably be using it myself for at least a few weeks after I get home.


Things I Won't Miss

1) Flies

They are everywhere! In Sarego, my host house was filled with flies and I woke up on several occasions because there were flies on my face. When I ate, there would sometimes be four or five flies on me. At the camp I'm at now, there are these gnats/flies which fill the air and you gotta keep your mouth shut sometimes to keep them out.

2) Long meals

I think this is something most people like about Italy. A dinner out will usually take about 2 and a half or three hours, with most of that time spent waiting for the next course. I get super tired just sitting, even if the food is really good, and all I want to do afterward (and often during dinner) is to go to sleep. So I'm excited for those, 'we're to busy to sit here, and the restaurant wants us to leave' American meals.

3) Living Out of a Suitcase

I've been doing this for 3 months now, and it won't end until I finish unpacking in St. Louis at the end of the month. I've gotten used to it, but it'll be so nice when it ends. Also, in Sarego, I picked up two bottles of wine, two jars of honey, two jars of homemade jam, and a bottle of olive oil, so my jumbo bag is now somewhere around 60-65 lbs.

4) Lack of Familiarity

I've made some really great friends this summer, which isn't something I was expecting out of this experience. But still, it will be so nice to go back to Palo Alto and to St. Louis, where people know me and I know people.


Things That Will Be Strange


Kids who speak fluent English


Being around only Americans (and not Canadians, Brits, Scots, Australians, etc.)

When I work with Brits, I become very aware of my accent. I'd never been able to hear my own accent before this summer, but now sometimes I think I sound like such an American. I'm not sure if that'll go away anytime soon. also, I've met a TON of Canadians. Who knew there were so many?


P.S. This week I'm teaching in Calcio (translation: soccer) and living in the village of Fontanella. It's about 45 minutes southeast of Milan, and very close to my second camp this summer. My family is wonderful, the co-tutors are great, and the kids are pretty good. It's my last week so I'm kind of on auto-pilot, especially since I got pretty attached at the last camp. I'll take a train to Rome on Saturday morning, and I fly home on Sunday!

Four Fantastic Nights

1) Wine Tasting

I think my European experience may be complete, since I've now been to a brewery and a winery. On Tuesday, Raffaella, my director, took Sara and I to her friend Giovanni's winery in a nearby village. He is one of the most enthusiastic people I've ever met, and he eagerly showed us around. Both Sara and Raffaella translated for me, so now I have a general idea of how wine is produced, and I think I'm more prepared to visit Napa Valley, which I'll do in a few weeks.

After the tasting, Giovanni took us to his house down the road, where his wife had prepared aperitivi for us (an Italian pre-dinner mini-meal). The food was delicious, especially these sundried tomatoes on toast, which I ate almost all of, and we tasted a few more wines. My host family was not really into eating a lot of food or fresh food, which made this even better.

Giovanni took us back to the winery afterward so we could buy some of the wine. I bought my favorite (cost=4 euro), one of the ones I sampled at his house, and then he just threw in one of his 8 euro dessert wines as a gift. And a really handly bottle opener. It was amazing.


2) An Opera in the Verona Arena

The next night, I went with my host mother, her sister, and Sara to an opera. But it wasn't a normal opera. In Verona, their operahouse is an ancient Roman amphitheatre, built 2,000ish years ago. They start the operas after sundown, so it ran from about 9:30-12. And at the beginning, a lot of people lit up candles which is a tradition there, so that was pretty cool.

We saw Turandot, an opera about a Chinese princess... or something like that. I really had no idea what was going on, except that there were three ministers named Ping, Pang, and Pong (really?). But the set was huuuuuuge and at times there were over a hundred people on stage, so watching it was amazing. And 'Nessun Dorma' is in it, which I never knew by name but I definitely recognized it. It was incredibly beautiful and the conductor was the liveliest person in the arena. He was jumping and shouting at times, and everyone around me was cracking up.

Oh and one of the people sitting behind me was a really amusing old German woman. She heard Sara and I speaking English so she asked where we were from. It turns out that she is a tour guide at this famous church in Dresden I visited in February, and she actually gives tours in English. She kept talking to us, and eventually offered me some grappa (hard alcohol) that she snuck into the arena. I turned it down, but she gladly accepted some of the wine we brought (from the tasting the night before).

(I had to take this picture from a website because I still can't access the Internet from my laptop, but I'll post my own pictures when I get home)


3) Gardaland

On Thursday night, my host family took me to Gardaland (on Lago di Garda), which is pretty much Italy's Disneyland. We went with a couple other families, so it was a very 'kiddie' experience, and pretty fun. Although it would have been a bit less strange if my host family had ever introduced me to the other families, since we were with them for 4 hours... but whatever. I hadn't been to an amusement park in a really long time, so I had fun just walking around. We went on a few rides, but lines were the major problem. In July, it's open from 7-11pm for only 10 euros, so the average wait was about 40 minutes.

My favorite parts were this new 'ride' called Ramses and a gigantic roller coast we went on at the end. Ramses is this huge laser gun game. You go around on a track with a laser gun and shoot different colored targets. It's Egyptian themed so there were mummies and pyramids everywhere, and it reminded me of Laser Quest which made me happy. The gigantic roller coaster was definitely the biggest I've ever been on. I used to be afraid of them, especially the upside-down part, but I'm happy to say that fear has subsided, so I screamed my head off with Marina, my 8 year-old host sister.


4) Farewell Dinner

I haven't talked about it much, but this camp I just left was amazing. There were some trying times in the middle of this past week, because some of the kids who only came for the second week weren't really into the whole spirit of the camp (songs, games etc.). But the last couple days were great, and I'm really going to miss most of the kids who were there for both weeks. Because the group was so small, I got to know them very well.

Marco is a genius who I had for both weeks. He is only 10, but he was in my older group because... he is a genius. Anything I told him once, he remembered permanently. Thus, he memorized 'Take Me Out to the Ballgame' after only singing it a couple times looking at the words (part of California Time). I have this on video.

Veronica is a really fun girl who took a while to open up. She knows a lot more than she will admit. She laughs more than anyone else I know, and I think everyone at camp liked her. She complained everytime I told her to draw or color something. She would draw a stick figure, I would tell her it was ugly (jokingly), she would erase it, and then draw a really good picture of a person. I think that sums up who she is.

And then there's Alex. I'm pretty sure he was my favorite camper this summer, at least of those I had in my class. He is the ideal ACLE camper in that he is bored by normal school, so he understand everything but never does his homework (Rafaella is his English teacher), but he loved the songs and games and even the class part of camp because it's more fun than school. He was the one kid in my group who Rafaella warned me about beforehand in terms of behavioral issues, and yeah he was a loud at times, but never in a bad way. He also has a really funny, deep voice that I would make fun of him for, and I think he enjoyed that.

But back to the dinner. So on Friday night we had huge dinner at Alex and Veronica's grandparents' house (they're cousins). Alex's siblings (including his sister who was also in my class and his adorable 7 year-old brother, Nicho, who was in Sara's class) were all there, as well as Veronica, her sister, and her friend. And all of their parents, the helpers from camp, and Raffaella and her mother.

To start, Alex's stepdad made about 8 mushroom pizzas in the brick oven in the backyard (which also included a vinyeard, vegetable garden, and swings). Then, we all ate gnocchi made by Nicho, the 7 year-old. I'm guessing his grandma helped but I'll give him the credit. Some of the gnocchi was with cinammon, sugar, and cheese, which apparently is traditional in the Veneto region, and it was really good. After that, we had chicken and I tasted rabbit, which almost everyone else ate. Afterward Nicho came up to me and said 'Bugs Bunny.' I was like, 'Bugs Bunny...?' So he crossed his throat with his finger and made a dying noise. I ate Bugs Bunny.

After dinner I could hardly move. But the kids wanted to do one last warm-up circle so we sang songs and played games for probably about 45 minutes. Usually, the last thing I want to do on Friday after a show is play games and sing songs, but with this group it was just so fun. We finally said goodbye close to 1 am.

But that wasn't the final goodbye. My host family was late in getting me to the train station on Saturday afternoon, but when we arrived, almost everyone that had been at the dinner was there to say goodbye again. I was sad because I only really had time to wave and hug/kiss a couple of them goodbye. But they followed us onto the platform and waved goodbye as we departed. About half an hour later Alex texted me, first in Italian, and then in English. He said, 'For ever sara e daniel! grazie.'

I'm starting to cry so I'm gonna stop for now. But it was a really, really great group in Sarego. It's going to be hard to go to camp tomorrow and not have them there.

Lago di Garda

Yesterday I went on an absolutely amazing day trip. I wish I could post my pictures but that'll have to wait until I have internet on my computer. So I'm posting a few that I found online of the area of the lake we saw.

We went to Lago di Garda (Lake Garda), which is about 40 minutes from where I'm staying, and it's the biggest lake in Italy. Sara and I left early in the morning and had really good luck with trains and buses, so we arrived at the northern tip of the lake just after 10 am (which is a 2 hour bus drive from the southwest corner).

It was unbelieveably beautiful. This part of the lake is in the Alps, or at least the foothills of the Alps, so it's surrounded by massive green and rocky mountains. It's also not that far from Austria, so we heard about half Italian and half German. And the restaurants served goulash!! But I stuck to pasta and pizza.

We walked along the beach for about an hour and found a great restaurant for lunch, and then went in the water. It was the perfect temperature. It was cold when I walked in but the sun was so strong that within a minute the water felt warm. And then I looked around and all I could see was this huge lake and towering, jagged mountains.

We had bad luck with buses back down to the bottom of the lake, so we walked for a bit and then saw a sign that said 'Panorma' and had an arrow. So we followed it. The path took us up into the hills, past some remote houses and vineyards, until we had a view of the lake with a vineyard in the foreground, then the small town of Torbole, then the water, and then the mountains. Sadly my camera didn't know what to do with the variation of lighting so I couldn't capture the scene, but it was amazing.

Today we're going to Vicenza, a city only about 15 minutes away with lots of stuff designed by Palladio. He was a Renaissance architect that I'd never heard of, but the whole city is a UNESCO site because of him, so I guess he's pretty important. And perhaps he is why the 'Palladium,' Prague's biggest mall, has it's name. I really have no idea.

Bees and Honey

I spent most of today at a bee farm (I have no idea what it's actually called). We skipped morning lessons and all walked about two minutes down the street after warm up to the bee farm (aka this woman's house). It was something my director did with her students during the year, so she was excited to do it again.

My director and Sara, my co-tutor, translated the whole story about honey production, as I was the only person there who doesn't speak Italian. After the whole explanation, we got to sample different honeys! They were all delicious, but acacia was definitely the best. The beekeeper also showed us how to make candles with the wax, which was too dangerous for the kids. But Sara and I asked if we could come back to make our own candles after camp, and she agreed. I also got to try on the beekeeper's costume that kind of makes me look like Neil Armstrong.

Camp today was reaaaaaaaally hot, around 95 Farenheit, so it was the perfect day for water games. And right after, Sara and I biked back to the bee farm. The beekeeper... I forget her name... was so nice. She got all of the candle-making equipment for us and explained in more detail the processes of wax and honey, which I mostly understood from gestures, but Sara translated the rest.

Among the things I learned...

Queen bees can choose the sex of their offspring
Bees work 24 hours a day for the approx. 45 days they live
When bees notice their queen slacking off, they elongate the eggs of her female offspring to make a new queen (aka. a coup)

So we got to make candles, and taste much more honey. She brought out fresh bread for us and I don't think she stopped talking for the hour and a half we were there. It was a lot of fun, and such a random experience.

This weekend I'm going to Lake Garda on Saturday, which should be beautiful and very touristy. It's the biggest lake in Italy and less than an hour from here.

Also, I'll be home in two and a half weeks!!

California Time!!

My first day at the mini camp was challenging. It is actually really nice to have a super small group for circle songs at the beginning and end of the day, because they all sing and they learn the songs much faster. But a five person class is difficult. Any activity we do takes about half as long as it does in a 10-12 person class, and most of the kids are staying two weeks, so I will have to think of tons of activities.

But the best part of the day was California Time! Our director asked Sara and I if we had any ideas for a camp theme. We'd never heard of such a thing, but Sara remembered that we're both Californians, so she suggested the best state in the union as our theme. After lunch, we spend an our and a half teaching something about our state and doing an arts and crafts activity related to the topic of the day.

Today, we started with geography. We taught them the major cities, valleys, and Lake Tahoe, and then they colored in the regions. After that, we painted a huge map to put on the wall. It was a lot of fun, and made both Sara and I so happy. Tomorrow we are going to talk about California sports, and we'll split into Giants and Dodgers and play baseball, teaching them lots of good vocab. On the agenda for later in the week... technology, the environment, cinema. Please let me know if you have other ideas!

How I Became Harry Potter (And How Julia Became Ron Weasley)

On Wednesday, Hermione (Irene) told me she would not be at the final show.
On Thursday, Harry (Francesco D) told me he would not be at the final show.
On Friday, Ron (Francesco F) did not show up to camp.

What do you do when you lose your three main characters? I had enough time to remove Hermione from the script, but I ended up drawing a lightning bolt on my forehead and becoming Harry Potter, and Julia (my co-tutor) played the part of Ron Weasley. It was frustrating, but the show must go on.

Most importantly, this camp is over. I completed the camp evaluation form, and gave the directors the lowest marks I've ever given anyone on an evaluation, but it was a joke. There's just no way to completely express how disastrous this camp was. In the comment section at the end, I only wrote about things that happened yesterday, the last day of camp. These included:

1) The directors charging each camper 3 euros for each camp picture (these are always free), even though they cost 0.38. The reason? The directors want to help pay for the restoration of the school. So they are doing that by making kids pay for their pictures. Most of these kids don't even attend the school.

2) The directors not coordinating our transportation to the train station today, which is a requirement of their job.

3) At the beginning of the show, they both gave an introductory speech, which was great. Then, one of them left, and did not reappear until she was chatting in the back of the room with people, which echoed to the front and no one could hear the show. The other director stayed, but thought the show was over before we gave out the diplomas, so she told the parents they could leave, and started chatting with some of them. Many of the parents missed seeing their kids receive diplomas.

4) When we tried to get kids to stop talking during the performances, the director who was still there would just smile at them because she thought they were cute for misbehaving. One of these kids was her son.


Ok, this is the end of my complaining about this camp. But all that happened in one day, and every day this week was as bad or worse.

On a happier note, I mostly enjoyed preparing for the show with my class. They did an excellent job making the cardboard signs, and the girls put together a solid Mamma Mia dance which saved the show. These are the girls in my class, all of whom I really like, except for that girl on the right... she's a pain. The one in the back middle, her name is Irene Russo. I think she must be the Apple version of the actress.

After the show, we got to spend time with the good people from these two weeks. We said goodbye to Marco, Enza and Camilla, which was my saddest goodbye in Italy.

We went out for dinner with Anita, the amazing helper/director, in Parma. The dinner/gelato redeemed the city in my eyes... until we got stuck there for the THIRD time. The first was when we took the wrong #11 bus 2 weeks ago, then last week the Happy Bus never came, and this time we called the main and maybe only cab company in the cities, and they had NO taxis. So we walked to Anita's house and her mom woke up at 12:30 am and drove back to the school, cramming 8 of us into a 5-seater.

Now I'm off to a new and hopefully happier place, where I may or may not have Internet!

Montechiarugolo is finished!

Angels, Festivals, Prison Camp & Bologna

Angels
There are these absolutely wonderful people who can make camps so much better. At my first camp, it was Sister Gabriella, who is one of those people that even when you speak different languages, you can tell is just a really good person. But here, at a place in dire need of angels, there are 3.

One is Anita. She pretty much runs the camp. She keeps the kids in order, helps out when we're organizing games, comes around to check up on us, prints out notifications about shows and water games for kids to give their parents, and asks how we're doing in general. She is not a director, she is a helper – a volunteer who is at camp because she can speak English and probably has nothing else to do for the summer. She is sixteen.

The others are Marco and Enza. They are the groundskeepers at the school who live on our hall. We learned a few days ago that Marco's other job is designing concentrated juice factories, and he travels all around the world with three other guys building them. When we first arrived, he was very stern with us and told us the ground rules and was not too friendly. But as days went by, he talked to us more and more (especially to those who speak Italian). However, a couple days ago, he got angry.

Usually, for dinner, we eat the leftover lunch cafeteria food, frozen food, and smelly canned vegetables. When Marco found out about this, he and his wife, Enza, were extremely disgusted. On Sunday, they cooked us an amazing dinner with pasta, vegetables, cake, and wine. Then, last night, they improved upon that. Marco's boss recently went into the mountains looking for porcini mushrooms, and brought back about 600 euros worth of them, and gave some to Marco. He put them into a creamy pasta and served them to us. I cannot describe how delicious they were. But that was only the first course. He also cooked us kebabs with four kinds of meat, and vegetables.

We feel guilty because they are paying for these dinners, but if the directors found out what he was doing, they would freak out. Apparently they did not even say "Hi" to Marco until a few months ago (he's been here a few years), and they assumed that he and Enza would not even allow us to use their kitchen to cook our own food. They've told us that the dinners make them really happy because it feels like home (they have a teenage daughter in Sardinia). So these are our "host parents," and definitely the most hospitable people we've met here.

Also, they feed their dog, Camilla, pasta. And I just found out... they both LOVE Ricky Martin. And, Enza's ringtone is Rihanna's "Don't Stop the Music." Marco's is Beyonce's "To The Left."

Oh and one more thing about angels. Today my campers were working on a page about opposites. One fill-in-the-blank was: "The opposite of far is _____." So I walked around, checking everyone's work, and the best student in my class wrote: "The opposite of far is angel." I was completely confused and made a halo with my hands above my head and she nodded. I told her... "San Francisco is far, Parma is near. I don't know what angel is." So the next question was: "_____ is the opposite of high." She wrote, "Angel is the opposite of high." I have no idea what wires in her head could be crossed, so if you have any ideas, please let me know.

Festivals
I think I mentioned before how I went to a small village festival at my last camp, where they had a fireworks show afterward. On Friday night we went to another one in this town. The town is small, but the festival was huge. Literally the whole town was transformed into a market, and I think every resident was there. It was a much needed fun end to the week. We went there with Marco and Enza, and when we ran into them by the food tents, they insisted on buying us fried bread and Parma ham. Of course I didn't have the ham, but it was really nice to be offered. And the fried bread was delicious.

Prison Camp
A little update... For the most part, things haven't improved much. I don't want to go into detail because I've complained so much to a lot of people. We sent a letter to ACLE, and they sent one of their top people immediately and he stayed with us for a couple days. But really, we all just need to get out of here. We're fenced off from the world with hardly any way out, and the food is hardly edible.

But my kids, for the most part, are one thing that's going right. Last week I did a Pirates of the Caribbean show with most of the kids who were only staying for the first week, so it was a large cast. I was worried about arranging costumes for 16 kids, but their costumes were amazing! I needed 14 swords (for everyone but Elizabeth and the monkey), and my kids actually brought 14 plastic or wooden swords from home. I needed 7 or 8 eye patches, and 5 or 6 of them brought eye patches. I needed white sheets for the ghost pirates, and they brought them. I needed a monkey tail and a girl brought one. In the end, I had to make one eye patch. That's it. They brought every single other thing.

This week we're doing a show in which Harry Potter and Ron Weasley visit Fred and George's joke shop. They play with the trick wands, one of which causes all of the witches in the store to start dancing to "Mamma Mia." You gotta find a way to please everyone.

Bologna is my favorite city in Italy... Bologna is not my favorite city in Italy
We went on an overnight trip to Bologna last weekend, which is about an hour train ride from Parma. The city is beautiful. It's definitely my favorite city in Italy to walk around, maybe because of the colorful buildings, maybe because all of the sidewalks are covered by the buildings. We spent most of our time there walking in massive circles around the city.

One of the more memorable things about the city was the gelato. One place we ate at is "internationally recognized," according to my Lonely Planet, and they had a letter from some organization in New Jersey naming it the best ice cream store in the world for 2009. It was really, really good. I had one of their creations that combined caffe espresso, chocolate, stracciatella (chocolate chip), and mascarpone. It was really, really good. On Sunday we tried another gelato place that's known for serving gelato in focaccia. I was the only one bold/gross enough to try it, and I thought it was pretty good. The crema (vanilla-ish) worked really well, but the caffe... not so much. Also, the bread was too huge.

But there were problems with Bologna. We went to the main park, and its sketchiness is only comparable to some areas of Golden Gate Park. We couldn't believe how bad it was after walking around such a beautiful city, but we decided to sit down anyway. Bad call. About 10 minutes after we sat down, two guys about 20 feet in front of us started pushing each other. One lifted up his shirt and pulled a knife from his waist. We left.

It was also really difficult to find anything to do at night, which was especially disappointing since my co-tutor Julia and I were trying to celebrate our birthdays. But I'd gladly go back to Bologna when school is in session (they have the oldest university in Europe) and students are everywhere.


Well, I only have a couple more days at this camp, and then I'm going to a small town between Verona and Padua. It's northeast of here, about an hour west of Venice. I'll be at the camp for two weeks, and I'm going with one of my co-tutors from here. I'm really excited that I'll be with a host family, because I could use some hospitality after these two weeks. But... this camp has TEN campers. In the whole camp. And those 10 campers are at SIX different English levels. I will have 5 in my group and Sara will have five. We will each be teaching three different levels in class. The second week of camp... there will be 16 campers. It's going to be crazy. But I'm actually pretty excited about it.

This post seems to be waaaaaaaaaay too long, so I congratulate you for reading it all! Thanks!

This is NOT a Good Camp

I am trying to stay positive. It is really difficult. The 2-week camp I am at now is kind of a nightmare. I could go on and on about what is wrong, but I’ve already done a lot of that with this list I made about things that went wrong during our first two days here. Here are some of the highlights. Keep in mind this is only about half of the list.

You know something is wrong…

When your camp director assigns you a parking space to sit in for an hour until the other tutors arrive.

When your camp directors disagree on the number of campers.

When your camp directors disagree on the length of the camp.

When your camp directors bring you to a specific place for lunch on Saturday that does not make food on weekends, and then force you to eat their old food anyway.

When your camp director is not willing to look up a taxi number after you take the wrong bus and you’re stranded on the side of a road on a Sunday evening. (Thank You, Dad, for looking up taxi numbers on your Blackberry)

When your camp director gives you your list of campers and the color of book you’ll be using less than 15 minutes before camp begins, and many of the book assignments are incorrect.

When the bus carrying half the campers arrives at 9:20.

When there is another camp you were not told about using the camp space.

When your camp directors adjust group assignments while you are calling your group for the first time.

When your camp directors create groups based on friendships and not on English level.

When other guests in the school are allowed to eat food made specifically for us.

When your camp directors do not know how long the kids plan to stay at camp.

When your camp director interrupts your class to tell you what she expects her son (who is in my class) to learn so that he has sufficient English to travel to the US, regardless of whether or not that information is in the book.


Aside from these things, we are about 15 miles from Parma, which is a very nice city. It is known for food (Parma as in Parmesan), and it has amazing gelato, which we enjoyed on Sunday. However, we are on the side of a road, about a 20 minute walk from civilization to the left and a 45 minute walk to a decent-sized town on the right. There is a bus that runs occasionally, but it is hard to catch, and on the way back from Parma on Sunday we took the wrong #11 bus. Apparently there are multiple #11 buses, and they run different routes. Who knew?

All that being said, my class here is actually a lot of fun... most of the time. They enjoy the games we play and songs we sing much more than my last group. Also, they speak to me in English! I can’t say how much I appreciate this. Part of it is that they are 11-12 instead of 10ish, which makes a HUGE difference in terms of English level.

Funny story… we were playing the game where you write the name of a famous person on a piece of paper and stick it to someone’s forehead, and they have to ask the class questions to figure out who they are. Well, one of them was Madonna (I always give this one to the sporty boys). It’s pretty hard to get though, because they don’t really know any of her songs, and she’s not in the news too much now. So they got creative. Just when I was going to jump in and give some major hints, one girl shouted, “The mother of Jesus!” Soon after I recovered from laughing reeeeeeeally hard, a boy shouted, “Two kids from Africa!” But the poor kid still didn’t get it, oh well. The next name was Hilary Duff. Martino shouted, “Beer surname!” It took me a second to understand, and the girl who had Hilary Duff on her forehead did not understand at all, even when he shouted, “Simpsons Beer!”

Here are some things that have gone well, just to balance out this post:

The Happy Bus — The bus we took into Parma on Saturday was the #11 bus, but it was actually a large van labeled “The Happy Bus.” We were pretty skeptical, but the driver said it was the #11, and that it went to Parma, and he was right. On board, we heard such hits as “Mamma Mia” and “The Reason” (the later of which made it seem more like an Emo Bus than a Happy Bus).

Trampolines — There is a fenced area with six trampolines that are SO much fun. We spent about an hour on them each of our first few days here. We might have a choreographed routine down by the end of the two weeks.

The Hurricane/Tornado Today — It was sunny and hot around 11 am. It was sunny and cool around 2 pm. In between, there was a hurricane/tornado. I thought the 50-foot tall trees were going to fall over, and the rain was so intense. But our reward… the first cool afternoon in weeks.

Lastly, here are some pictures that I should have posted a while ago.

In no particular order...

Sister Gabriella, the best nun in the world.
My group in Frattocchie, right before the show
We were celebrities in Frattocchie. I really miss being a part of a community, even though I couldn't speak the language.
Bergamo, the beautiful city near my second camp.

5 Simpsons, Garfield, Jon, Odie, and a Jonas Brother

This is the cast of my upcoming show. Basically, the plot is that the Simpsons are being themselves (except I have on Lisa because my Lisa can't come to the show), when Joe Jonas comes in looking for his two brothers. The Simpsons don't know where they are, but they call up Jon, who brings over Garfield and Odie. They don't know either, but Jon and Homer offer to sing as substitute Jonas Brothers.

It could be a disaster, but the show is really about whatever the kids like. Five of them love the Simpsons, and four of them do not. So I asked the other four what they liked, and for a few minutes they insisted that there was nothing that they liked, but finally one said, "Garfield!" And two of the others also like Garfield. But there was one who was still unhappy. He's a pretty big kid, and I was surprised he didn't like the Simpsons, because every boy here (and most girls) love the Simpsons. I was shocked when I asked him what he liked and he said, "The Jonas Brothers!" So he's Joe Jonas.

My group is very different from the one I had at the convent. But they are the same age and they use the same level book. This time, I feel like rather than them being at English camp, I'm at Italian camp. They REFUSE to speak to me in English. This is a big problem because I do not speak Italian. Most of the tutors at this camp do, so at least they can understand what's going on and choose whether or not to let the kids know that they understand. But I have no choice other than to say, "English!" and then they just give up trying to tell me something and walk away. As a result, I am learning more Italian every day. They are pretty fast with the workbook, in English of course, but they just won't speak it. So today when I handed out the script for the show, most of them looked at it and said "Inglese!" I have no idea why they thought I would write a script for them in Italian.

Aside from these frustrations, I have another great group of kids. They have a smaller range of English than my kids last week (which went from two girls who couldn't say two words in English to the guy who used the word "disassociate"), so I don't have to wait as long for a few kids to finish. I am also lucky to have a real classroom this time so I can explain things using a blackboard. But, it is a huge room and the walls are bare, so every little noise echoes. Thus, when two people talk, it's very, very loud. And when five people talk, it's deafening. Still, it's really nice to have an actual space this week.

This week I have a host family. My host mom, Simona, speaks fantastic English, so I can have real conversations with her. My host sister, Sarah, is 5 and my host brother, Omar, is 8. I talk/play with them as much as I can, which is difficult when we speak different languages. But yesterday I spent some time playing with Sarah and three of their neighbors in the apartment building. And that was a lot of fun.

Simona took me to the annual village festival on Monday night for dinner. I'm living in Bolgare and teaching in Calcinate. This area is a bunch of villages probably about 5,000 people each and the camp draws from four of them. It seemed like half the town turned out for the festival, but we left when it started to rain. But we watched the fireworks from a flat on the third floor of our building, and considering this is a town of 5,000 people, the fireworks were incredible. They lasted for about 15 minutes, and while some didn't make it above the treetops, there a lot of amazing ones.

Something else that I've been noticing a lot this week is race. Most places I've been around Italy have been almost entirely White. But here it's different. When I went grocery shopping with Simona on Saturday, I could tell that this area was much more diverse than the other places I've seen. I asked her about it, and she said that there has been a huge wave of immigration in the last 10 years or so. Her building is mostly Indian, and her ex-husband is Egyptian. But at the festival, it was about 99% White. She said that the town is pretty racist, so I'm thinking that the immigrants don't feel at all included in this area, even though they make up so much of the population now. I think it's really hitting me because I spent four months in the Czech Republic, which is about 95% Czech, and just haven't been in a racially diverse area for so long. This is another reason I'm excited to go home.

Well I'm here until Saturday morning, and then it's off to another camp. I should find out my destination tomorrow! And I'll post a bunch of pictures as soon as I get internet on my laptop.

Happy July!!

Parma Ham, Bacon, Clams, Mussels, Prawns, Beef with Cheese, and Other Un-Kosher Delights

Camp #1 ended today. I am pretty glad it's over. The final show went really well, and talking to the parents and eating their food was great, but the last few days were rough. My well-behaved group turned into a not-so-well-behaved group. But they nailed the show, they all memorized their lines perfectly, and they had some amazing costumes.

My favorite part of today though was the food after the show. Unfortunately I missed part of it because of a name mistake. For the kids' portfolios/diplomas/certificates, I used the names they wrote in their workbooks. Well, one girl wrote "Elisa Vitalina Benedetta." So I wrote everything as "Elisa Benedetta," but apparently her name is "Elisa Vitalina." Oops!

But after that, I started eating. Two parents came up to me and told me that they'd made dishes specifically for me. Everyone here knows that I don't eat pork. One cooked me a mushroom/cheese/bread dish and another made a tuna rice dish. But then I was standing next to the massive pork, and a woman I don't even know came up to me when she saw me looking at it and waved her finger in a very concerned way, saying "You can't eat it! Pork!" I still don't know who she is, but she knows who I am. I also came out as a Jew to a few people this week, although it was more the Italian-speaking tutors coming out for me. Everyone accepted it smoothly, one guy asked if I'd been to the synagogue in Rome, and Sister Gabriella (the cool, young nun), was happy to finally understand my dietary restrictions.

More about food... last night was an incredibly bizarre dinner. Every week night we've gone to a family's house for dinner, and the food is always amazing. But last night the four of us went to a fancy restaurant for weddings/other events owned by the family of one of my kids. It was us tutors, three of my kids, their mothers, and a bunch of teenagers and I don't really know if they were friends or siblings, because no one every told us. We got there at 8, and we didn't have a conversation with anyone until 11. We sat at one end of a double table, surrounded by kids who refused to talk to us in English or Italian, 20 feet from the mothers who did not say a word to us. They just served us food and watched as we ate it and pointed when we didn't eat certain things. The title of this post was part of the menu. The least Kosher dinner... ever. At least there was some fish, and as for the spaghetti with clams, I just picked out the clams. And the dessert was good.

Well tomorrow I head to my next camp. I'm going with my friend Mike (!) from school to a city of 5,000 about 40 minutes from Milan. I'll be transporting for 7 hours, but 4 of them are on the speedy train which I've never been able to afford but now that I'm not paying, it'll be wonderful.

I'll post some pictures from today soon.

More Fun in Frattochie

Some stories from the last few days...

"Her water is wrong!"

At the end of every camp there is a show for the parents. My kids wanted to do one about a crazy American family, so I am letting them. We'll see if it turns out to be a good idea. One of the original scenes that is no longer in the script is one where the mother gives birth. I let the kids figure out the show in Italian and then perform it for me in English so I could understand what was happening. The one who is really good at English ran up to me and said, "Her water is wrong! Her water is wrong!" So I responded, "Stefano, what are you talking about?" And he pointed to the mother, giving birth to another girl in my group and repeated, "Her water is wrong!" I asked, "Her water broke?" He said, "Yes! Yes!" I cut that scene.


Photo Booth

Kids love Photo Booth. I think people of all ages love Photo Booth, but especially young kids. I brought out my computer to play "Hello Goodbye" for them when I was teaching opposites, and the techie in the group noticed the camera above my screen. So when we finished learning the song/motions, I turned it on and took a picture of them. Then, today I brought it out to work on the script for the show, and was quickly mobbed by half my group. So I told them that they could play with it during lunch. They spent the first 20 minutes of lunch taking pictures of themselves with different distortions. This is one of my favorites.


Nuns + Water Balloons

Friday was Water Games Day. We did Over/Under with huge water balloons, and the game where you hold a water balloon under your chin and pass it from neck to neck. But the best part was when Sister Gabriella (the young, cool nun) got ahold of the extra water balloons. And after a while, she moved onto the hose. I was really tempted to peg her with a water balloon while she was spraying me with a hose, but God might have struck me down immediately. I wish I had pictures.


Secret Shabbat

I'm going to guess that this was my convent's first Shabbat... and they don't even know that it happened. I got some wine and a lighter in Rome, Samira had leftover birthday candles, and I took some of the rolls they have daily in the canteen. And towels served as kippot. It was the first Shabbat for my three co-tutors and for Lauren, my good friend from Wash U who visited for the weekend. I think we went through about 8 birthday candles because they burnt out in like 15 minutes. It was definitely a unique experience.

Shoe Shoppin'

Yesterday I went shoe shopping with a nun, and today I went with the mother of two campers. When I arrived on Saturday, I told the camp director that I wanted some sandals, since the ones I bought in Prague cut into my feet. We looked for about half an hour but found nothing. So, she made it her mission to find me some good sandals.

Today, at the end of camp, I was waiting around as parents took their kids home, when one approached me and asked, "Are you looking for shoes?" I thought that she thought a camper had lost a shoe and she found it, so I said that I wasn't looking, but she seemed confused. Then she said, "Open-toed shoes?" and I realized that Angela had told her about my search. So I went with her and her two campers/daughters to a discount store. We walked in, she knew the owner, and when she pointed at me, he said "Ah!" in recognition, so I guess everyone in this town knows that I am looking for sandals. The only problem... this store doesn't sell men's sandals. Oh well.

Luckily I actually found some good ones at the next store we went to. I took off my shoes/socks to try them on, and when I went to the mirror to check them out, I realized that the two girls had put my shoes and socks in a shopping cart and were trailing me. SO cute.

Today was another fun day at camp. We focused on months/days of the week/present continuous (-ing) and then played a really fun all-camp game in the afternoon and my team lost by one point, but was really proud to get second place. And now we're off to some pizzeria on a mountain that one of the camper's families owns for dinner! Life is crazy.

Life in a Convent

I just returned from a shoe shopping trip with a nun. I'm not sure how to begin to explain my last few days.

But here are some pictures from San Remo, where I had orientation last week. The first is from the Old Town, which I walked around with a couple of my roommates as soon as we arrived. The second is a view from the villa where we had orientation.

I am living in a convent about 20 minutes outside Rome. It is very rural, pretty hot, and extremely Catholic. I am a tutor/counselor for an amazing group of 9-11 year olds, all of whom go to school here. Their teachers are all nuns except for one, Angela, who is the camp director. Camp goes from 9-5 Monday-Friday, and this is a two-week session. This is the first year that ACLE (the organization I work for) has had a camp here, and this is the only session this summer, so it's pretty much a trial run. That means that the camp director is new, and no one here knows that to expect.

For the most part, camp has been great so far. I was really anxious because the orientation was unnerving at times and overwhelming at others, I've never been a camp counselor, and I've never taught a language. But as soon as the kids arrived, everything fell into place. I was worried about having a group of rowdy, uncontrollable kids like I had during the practice morning during orientation, but with the group I have now, I can leave them for minutes at a time and they will be completely responsible. I want to desribe all of them but that would take forever, so I'll just describe a few. Two of them are siblings and their mom is a former English teacher. One of them, Stefano, knows a ridiculous amount of English. Today he walked away from a group of kids, looked at me and said, "I disassociate myself!" I don't think American 10 year-olds would have any idea what that means. When someone is that far ahead, it can go either way: He can completely remove himself from the group, or he can participate and explain things to the other kids. And he is the latter, which is wonderful.

There's a boy named Francesco who is about a foot shorter than all the other boys, and he is unbelievably cute. And there's a girl named Federica who enjoys playing loud, fun games, and she comes up to me after them and says "That game is crazy!" But my favorite might be Giammi. We break up into teams with kids from every group in the afternoon for mini-olympic games. I am the leader of Team Redwolf. Giammi is also a part of Team Redwolf, and he cracks me up. He always makes silly faces, his shorts are way shorter than everyone else's and also tighter, he tried to choreograph our team cheer, and after people lie on the ground, he runs up to them and wipes their backs clean.

But more on living with nuns. None of them speak a word of English. They know that I don't eat pork (although they don't know why), and on Sunday they served a dish that looked like pork, so I walked into the back room, where I expected to find only Gabriella, the youngest nun who we communicate with mostly (2 of my co-tutors speak fluent Italian). But I walked into a room with about 10 nuns sitting and eating. Each was seated at their own personal table, and they were all facing each other. And as soon as I started talking, they all started speaking at me in Italian. This was one of those moments when I just kind of withdrew from myself and thought, "How did I get to this point?" I was standing in a room with 10 Italian nuns who were all talking to me at the same time in a language I didn't understand. Well anyway, it turned out that the meat was beef.

We're staying in a mini-apartment building on the property. Us 4 tutors each have our own rooms, with bathrooms included. And we have a terrace balcony (pictured). So it's nice. I was a bit bummed when I saw that I'd be living in a "flat," and not a homestay, but it's turned out really well. And I learned at dinner tonight that we have dinner plans for the next 5 nights. 5 campers' families have offered to have us over, which I am really looking forward to, although that's a lot of busy nights when are days are already packed.

There are statues of Jesus everywhere, and crucifixes in every room. And there's also this poster of their plan to Evangelize. Oh and tonight during dinner, we were served a peach that had a cross in it!

It starts with an F...

Sadly this is all I remember about my first destination of the summer. I was told twice, but I forgot to write it down! It's somewhere near Rome, and I'm taking the night train there tomorrow night.

Orientation has been a crazy week. It's in San Remo, which is about an hour from Nice and only 20 minutes from Monaco. My hotel is about 2 minutes from the sea, and the orientation takes place in a villa filled with palm trees and flowers, overlooking the sea. It's obscene. But for such a relaxing location, there's been a lot of stress.

I realized that it's been a loooooong time since I've been in a place nowhere near anyone I know. So that's been a little rough, and I have absolutely needed daily internet access to maintain sanity, which I know is not the best thing. I'm sure I'll get used to this quickly. And I haven't been a camp counselor before, which is a challenge even before you consider that these kids don't know very much English.

But the games and songs we've learned this week are so fun, and that makes everything better. I can't wait to teach them to all of the kids. It will be an adventure when I walk into a classroom with 10-12 Italian kids on Monday and do my best to teach them English. And I'm expecting it to take a few weeks to really find my footing, but it should be a lot of fun.

Oh and I'm excited to post stories like Maryse's about teaching kids, and I have one so far. On Wednesday morning we went to a school and worked with kids, and we were doing a game where we shout a color and they have to find something that is that color. We shouted "Pink!" and two kids walked toward me, with one pointing to the other's cheek. But the kid was really tan. So his friend pointed at the cheek, and then pointed at my face and said "Pink!" They found my pink cheeks.

Greeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeen (Scotland)

We landed in Scotland, and it was green. That was actually the main reason I wanted to go to Scotland. But I didn't expect to see a sunset that would rival Florence's.

We arrived at a distant Ryanair airport, and just missed the train to Glasgow. Stranded for a while, we looked beyond the station and saw an incredible sunset above the brilliantly green landscape. It was so nice that we considered passing up the next train to wait for it to set, but decided to get on board anyway. But about 5 minutes into the ride, we went along the water, and the sun was setting on the water, and I thought, "I have to get off this train and go to the beach." So the next stop, we got off, not knowing if another train would be coming soon or at any point that night. Luckily, the next one would come in an hour. We walked, and then ran, through a small, nice beach town. I ran to the water and took probably close to 100 pictures. I think it was the most beautiful sunset I've ever seen. That's how Scotland began.

That beauty was upstaged on Day 2. We took a train and ferry to the Lonely Planet-recommended Isle of Arran, about a two-hour journey from Glasgow. As we docked, I noticed that the island was shockingly similar to Milos, the island I went to in Greece. The shape of the island was similar, and where there were mountains on Milos, there were mountains on Arran. But the white and blue of Milos turned into intense green, everywhere. The first thing we did was picnic on the beach with food from the grocery store there (Where the aisle markers were in both English and Scottish). The pincic concluded with two problems and one solution: What do you do when there are too many Pringles and your chocolate bar metled? Pringle fondue! It was delicious.

After lunch we embarked on a journey toward Brodick Castle, which was a much more challenging walk than either Audrey or I expected. But we saw all kinds of birds, some wrecked boats, and managed to make it across all of the streams that crossed our path. We walked through the huge territory of gardesn around the castle for a while, and had some authentic Arran ice cream, which was the best ice cream I've had in a long time (I'm not including gelato). But then it was on to Glen Rosa, which was my favorite part of Scotland.

Glen Rosa (Rosa Valley) came at the end of an hour-long hike through green hills, passing flowery fields with sheep and horses. When we first saw it, I instantly thought of the Great Valley from the Land Before Time. There was a river flowing through, some very isolated and interesting-looking trees, and just green everywhere. Audrey took a break so I went on a little farther, and came across a very simple bench, and sat for a while. I was in this huge valley, listening to the river below me, and I could not hear or see anyone. It was amazing.

Edinburgh is a unique city. It's classically gray and there's a valley that cuts through the city where there's a beautiful park. The castle reminded me of the Akropolis (keeping with the Greece comparisons) because it just shoots out of the ground into a plateau. On the first day we went on a free city tour with an exceedingly awkward guide, but the stories made the tour worthwhile.

The second day was more interesting. We stopped by a coffee shop in the morning so Audrey could get a latte. This should not have been complicated. She asked for a "latte," and he looked confused. "A watte?" he asked. Audrey paused... "A latte." He said something like, "Do you want a watte?" At this point I couldn't contain my laughter and ran out of the shop and started laughing on the street like a crazy person. Audrey eventually got her "watte" but threw it out in favor of better coffee a block away.

For lunch we went to the Elephant House in Edinburgh, where J.K. Rowling began Harry Potter! So that was exciting. We also went to the Scottish National Museum, which had a stuffed Dolly the sheep, and a fun but very difficult simulated F1 racing game. We ended the night on a free pub crawl from the hostel (my first), where we met a really nice Australian, and a Puerto Rican who knew all about Wash U (It's rare that I find anyone who has heard of Wash U).

The UK... They Speak English!!

I've been in the UK for 9 days now, which is an eternity when traveling. But it's been a really good eternity. I've been staying with Audrey at the University of Sussex, and we just got back from 4 days in Scotland.

Before we went North, we alternated between exploring Brighton and London. I took the train in from Paris last Thursday morning, and got off in a land of English speakers. Being able to ask anyone for help and assume that they could understand me was bizarre. I took advantage of this while getting lost trying to find the British Museum, which was the place I went to immediately. But on the way, I found a Tesco Express where they sold fresh chocolate chip cookies! I haven't had a fresh chocolate chip cookie in months, so that was my breakfast. I explored the British Musem for a few hours (Rosetta Stone and Parthenon marbles in the same wing? It's insane) and then reunited with Yael who I hadn't seen since Greece.

Brighton is a beach town that is California-ish with its pier and beach food. I probably spent half my time there skipping rocks, and the other half trying Audrey-approved British food (so as to avoid the stereotype of awful food here).

We went up to London last Saturday and had a really fun, busy day. It began with an ordinary walk to Buckingham Palace, where they happened to be rehearsing for the Queen's birthday party. It was a fun parade, and I wish I could go back for the real thing. We met up with a bunch of people from school (one coincidentally) and saw Waiting for Godot with Sir Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart, which was entertaining but very much caught between moments of intensity and moments of Three Stooges reenactments. But Ian McKellen was in it, so it was good.