Second week of camp

Well we are half way done with our second week of camp, and our last week of camp in Porto Sant'Elpidio. (The last 2 weeks we will be at another camp about 30 minutes away) We had mostly the same kids in our group this week as we did last, although we did have one leave and 2 new students start. One of the new girls is the cutest. She has a broken arm but doesn't let it stop her one bit from running around playing all the games. She even wrapped it in saran wrap to play in the water today. The first thing she said to me during lunch on her first day was "English is my life." It was completely adorable.

Since we have mostly the same kids we are building from our start last week. On Monday our agenda actually had us begin prepositions which I thought were going to be very difficult. (Above, behind, on, under, in front of, etc.) But it turns out the kids caught on really quickly, and retained the information because I have been using the words all week to show them where to stand and they seem to understand still. I still have a few students that I am convinced think I speak Italian I just don't want to speak it to them. They will come up to me on breaks and tell me a long story in Italian and then I just have to say "English, I don't speak Italian." but they obviously are not advanced enough yet to tell me in English and so the story is lost in translation.

Today however was a great day. We were all told to wear swim suits and about half way through the say we were given a few"water games" to play. Example: two teams race with a soaking sponge on their head through an obstacle course and squeeze out as much water as they can into the bucket on the other side. We had a blast! Then we made our kids favorite game Duck, Duck, Goose into a water game with a sponge and you squeeze the whole thing out on the goose. It was amazing. We have the camp on a baseball field, and for the last half hour or so they just turned on the sprinklers and let the kids run around. They used buckets and kept filling them up and dumping them on us and it was a blast. (Although it reminded me of the 148 epic water fight in St. Louis and made me miss my kids in Texas a little) However I was so exhausted I was literally falling asleep at the lunch table.

Today I came home, took an hour nap and then met Claire at the travel agency to figure out our Rome trip. We went there because we can't buy tickets for anything online because we don't have a printer, and we can't buy tickets for anything at the train station or bus station because they don't take cash and none of our credit cards or debit cards will work in the machine for some reason. It is making travel a little frustrating, but we were able to get bus tickets to Rome for 27 euro, which makes us much happier then the 100 euro we spent to get to Venice. We are going to book a hostel tonight online and hopefully buy advanced tickets for the Vatican, so we don't have to wait in line. I have already been, but the other people I am traveling with have not. So I am going to visit again because there is SO much to see there.   Other then that the trip is wide open so we will see what happens.

The beginning of the week as been a little rough. I think the novelty of being here wore off a little and I was forced to deal with all the emotional stuff I came here to deal with. I was feeling very alone here, which is not that big of a deal but I started to realize that living alone, running errands alone, and having to start my single life is something that I am going to have to do when I get back to the US too. I have always hated living alone and I am anxious about doing it again. It makes it difficult when my attitude is such a roller coaster between "I am woman hear me roar" and "I don't remember how to be single, and I don't really want too." But for some reason today I am feeling better. I think that part of it has to do with in the past couple of days I have gotten little emails and notes for a lot of my very good friends from all aspects of life and from all over the country. I think what it all is going to boil too is that I love my friends (and more importantly my friend in Texas) and I love my career. There are many horrible things I could dwell o about my life, but the reality is I am healthy,  I am mostly financial stable, I am educated (and will soon have my Master's), I love what I get paid to do, and I have an amazing support system. So I know that the hard part isn't over yet, but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel and I need to focus on that.