A Home & A Destination

After three flights and a wonderful 24 hours in New York, I'm in Rome!!  I publicly transported myself to my first camp director from last year's apartment, where her husband, Nino, was waiting for me.  My goal had been to learn enough Italian in the last few weeks to be able to converse with him well, since he speaks very little English, and I don't really know if I succeeded, but I'm at least back to where I was Italian-wise at the end of last summer, if not a bit better.

Within 15 minutes of my arrival, Nino had pasta ready and we were immersed in the South Korea vs. Argentina game.  I was amused to realize that he and I use the same illegal website for watching tv online.  By the time I'd reached the halfway point in eating my plate of pasta, he'd finished, and handed me a second plate.  Of course this came with 'Mangia!'  One of the most commonly used words in this country.  He then offered me salad (just lettuce and olive oil, it was interesting), bread, and artichoke hearts.  But most exciting... he told me he would be making bruschetta tomorrow!  For those who tried my bruschetta over the last year, I learned from watching Nino, and mine is not nearly half as good.  So... I'm looking forward to dinner tomorrow.

Angela, my former director, returned from camp with her daughters, and it was really nice to see them all again.  And I'm going with them to camp tomorrow (the convent camp) where most of my campers from that camp last year have returned.  I'm really excited to see them again.  (I just had to stop typing because Angela handed me a taste of my lunch tomorrow, which I can best describe as a giant latke consisting only of spaghetti and eggs, it really just tasted like eggs, which is good).  And my favorite nun, Gabriella, will be there as well.

But in other news, I JUST found out where I'll be going on Saturday!!  Catanzaro Lido.  2 weeks.  Beach town.  About 50 miles north of Sicily.  Staying with a family.  So I'm super giddy right now.  The director of the camp already emailed me and the other tutors introducing herself and saying how excited she is, which is usually a good sign.  I really wanted to go South (although it will be unbelievably hot) becuase I've never been south of Rome and because I've heard such great things about the camps in general down there.  And because it's 2 weeks I'll have the weekend to go on a day or overnight trip, perhaps to Sicily.  Yeah... I'm excited.

Well I should go be more conversational with Angela and fam, so that's all for now.  And I don't know if I'll have Internet at the camp.  Hopefully!!