Dreaming of Gelato and Buffalo Mozzarella

It still does not feel right to blog from home, but I'll be in Rome by the end of the week!  I'm heading back to teach English at ACLE camps again for 6 weeks. 

Very early tomorrow morning I fly to New York.  I'm getting my last dose of the USA at the Phillies/Yankees game with a whole bunch of good people before flying on Wednesday to Dublin and then on to Rome.

I'll be staying with my first camp director from last summer and her family on the outskirts of Rome until I head to my first camp on Saturday.  I will spend my Roman time trying to see friends from last year who are working camps there now, and stuffing my face with pizza and gelato. 

I have no idea what this summer will bring, because the experience depends on the camp (I'll probably work 4-5 of them).  But I will have about 10 days after I finish working to wander around, and I'm intentionally leaving that time unplanned.

One thing that will be different this year is the WORLD CUP.  I can only imagine sitting in a village square watching the Azzurri (the nickname of the Italian team) with all the locals screaming.  Hopefully that becomes reality.

Also, a brief life update... I'll be working for a year in Chicago beginning at the end of August.  I'll be working at a low-income housing non-profit through a Jewish affiliate of Americorps (called Avodah).  I'm really excited about it, although my mind is pretty focused on New York/Italy at the moment.

I hope to update the blog as regularly as last year, and with pictures even more regularly than last year, but that all depends on my internet access at each camp.

I did change the layout and title of the blog to Italianize it, but I left the url the same.  I felt a bit funny writing about Italy on a blog with a Czech name, so I changed the Czech word for school (Skolska, also my street name) to the Italian word for school (scuola).  The new picture at the top is just a house that was next to the agriturismo (agricultural tourism park) where we held camp one day last year when there was a wedding at the convent.  I tried putting a picture of some famous Italian thing there but it didn't work... this looks and feels much better.

The next post will come from Rome!  And hopefully by then I'll know where in the country they'll be sending me on Saturday for my first camp!