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.