New Camp, New Kids, New Experiences

Well we are half way through the third week of camp and we have moved locations and switched kids. I was assigned to the Level 1 (beginners) again at this camp with one of the other girls. (I am hoping that meant they were happy with my performance in the first two weeks) There are some huge differences between the kids at this camp. Their vocabulary is about the same but their writing and spelling abilities are way lower. But in general they are much better and speaking and know a ton of phrases. We are at a elementary school and there is a playground there which makes productivity at this camp go way down, but the kids are having fun and that is what matters. My kids again love Duck, Duck, Goose and all day every day they ask "Ahhhhdrienne, play Duck?"

After we went over numbers and colors we decided to play Uno with the kids to see how they liked it. Turns out Uno is a pretty widespread game and most of our kids knew how to play, but the ones that didn't caught on quickly and we all have tons of fun. They say "Stopo" for Skip, and "Passo" when they pick up and card and still can't go. They also all conspired against me today and kept making me pick up cards. Luckily I got them back when I won picture Bingo later :-p

One thing I love about this group of kids is anytime we say the word Happy they burst into song. I had never heard of it before so I decided to research it today and I found what they have been singing. It's kind of catchy and I've had it stuck in my head all week because of them.

I am picking up more Italian words and can only slightly communicate to various people around town. I pretty much have the numbers, most of the colors, lots of fruits (because of gelato), and various greetings and common phrases. I wish I was learning more, but it's not as easy as I thought it would be.

Rome - Round 3

So I went to Rome again this weekend with Claire. I don't know what it is about it there but I find it all so..... romantic. Rome makes me feel comfortable, safe, confident, happy, sad, excited, and romantic. It's like no other city in the world. And it always leaves me wanting more.
I saw many things that I had already seen in Rome but got different experiences. I saw about 20 rooms at the Vatican I had never seen before. For whatever reason I appreciated the Sistine Chapel much more this time. I got to go literally everywhere you can go in the Colosseum, hiked up a bunch of trails in the park that is near there, and just got to explore more in general.

 Vatican Gardens

 Modern Art in the Vatican

 Other side of the Colosseum that I did not go to last time

My second favorite place in Rome, Trevi Fountain

Also to make this trip a little different and fun I did a Robowrangler in Rome picture series :-p It was awesome and I hope everyone has a chance to check it out.

On Saturday night Claire and I were shopping for various souvenirs. I ended up buying some amazing Balsamic Vinegar that is more the consistently of oil. It is aged like 20 years and delicious. I am bringing it back to the states! I was also looking for a Rome tote bag and a magnet for my classroom and we went into this random store and ended up talking to the two guys working there for like 30 minutes. They both spoke amazing English and were pretty nice to look at :-p We discussed traveling and where we have been and what our favorite cities were etc. We exchanged names and said good night (after many bella american and you have beautiful green eyes comments). Much the my surprise the next day in the park by the Colosseum I hear "Ahh-drienne" (because that's how all Italians say my name) and what do you know! It's the same guy from last night. I decided fate was trying to tell me something and we talked for a while took some pictures and just had a nice romantic moment in Rome. It was incredibly refreshing. And more proof that I need a reality show, because this is what happens unscripted in my life. 

Italy is good for me. It fits. My skin is soft, and incredibly tan. My hair is healthy, soft, shiny, and requires no styling. My heartburn is non-existent. I have lost some serious weight to the point where my pants are starting to fall off. My calfs are rock solid. My allergies are tame. And I'm laughing non-stop. Coming back to the states is going to be nice, but I will miss life here. It is relaxed and freeing.

Robowrangler in Rome

Pantheon

Fountain of the Four Rivers

Spanish Steps

Colosseum

Nathan Face :-p

Showing my guns

Dance Moves

I have to say, I think this is hysterical.

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.

Adventures in Venice and Verona

So we took our first weekend trip this past weekend and had a great time. After camp on Friday we raced back to the apartments and then had to walk like a mile to the train station with all our luggage. (not fun) We had about a 5 hour trip and we had to switch trains twice which was a little stressful only because the train stations were a little hard to navigate. But we made it into Venice at about 9pm and only got lost twice getting to our hotel. We did have a map the problem with Venice is the maps don’t have street names and there are little no to street signs on the actual streets either. We stayed at Hotel Trei Achi (which means three arches, because it is right by a bridge that has 3 arches, only took me a day to make that connection :-p) We found it last minute on worldhostel.com and it was a tiny room with 5 single beds and a much nicer shower then at our apartments so we were pretty happy. We attempted to go out to dinner, but a very rude man literally kick us out of our table because we apparently didn’t order enough for them to keep the kitchen open. It was very strange. So we cut our losses and went back to the hotel and got some sleep so we could get up early the next morning.

At 8:50am we boarded out train to Verona! It took about an hour and then a 20 minute walk to get to the city center, which is home to the Roman Arena. I am such a nerd when it comes to roman architecture. I just think it is so amazing and to think about them building it with pretty much their bare hands and some simple machines. I just love seeing it and taking it all in. We weren’t sure if we would have time to go inside so we headed about 5 more blocks down to the famous Juliet’s house. It was mobbed with people in the courtyard, but not a lot of people actually go into the house. It was only 4 euro for students so we went up and took pictures on the balcony of course. We only stayed for about 15 minutes and then headed over to the Sanmicheli's bell tower because I read online that it was supposedly the best thing to do in Verona. Again for students it was only 4 euro so we went to the top, and all of us had to catch our breath when we saw the view.

 Entrance to Verona Centro

 The wall along to entrance to Juliet's house

 Juliet's Courtyard

 "The" balcony

 View from the top of the bell tower

We went shopping a bit afterwards and then decided we had just enough time to head back to the Arena. It was amazing inside and set up for the summer opera series that is put on there. Claire and I just sat inside for a while taking it all in. We hurried back to the train station and headed back to Venice for the afternoon. 

We took about 30 minutes to regroup in the hotel and then Claire and I headed to Piazza San Marco while the other girls went shopping. My only regret in Venice is not being able to go into the San Marco Basilica but the outside was incredible so at least I got to see some of it. We then headed up our second bell tower of the day for some amazing views of Venice and the surrounding islands.

 Bridge of Sighs

 Rialto Bridge

We headed back down and took a walk around the streets around there and stopped and took some picture of the bridge of sighs. The one that is supposed to give you luck if you kiss underneath it, but I wasn’t really into watching a bunch of couple on gondola’s kissing under a bridge, go figure. We were meeting to other girls at the Rialto Bridge at sunset so we decided to head over there and get dinner before then. We ordered a bottle of wine and took in the scenery and then had some great food. We ended up sitting next to a wonderful Australian couple and talked to them for about an hour about their travels and where we should go when we come to Australia, and it was one of the best parts of the trip! They told us this amazing story about the last time they were in Venice they had their oldest daughter with them who was 7 at the time. They never got to go on a Gondola ride because they were on a budget and she was having a meltdown and they had to go back to the hotel. Before they came on this trip their daughter gave them 200 euro and said, make sure you go on a Gondola ride this time! So cute. We ordered another bottle of wine while chatting and we nice and toasty when we met up with the other girls. Sunset was of course amazing!

Right afterwards we decided to take a gondola ride, it was expensive but you know when in Venice you have to do it! It was really fun, even though our guy was kind of a jerk. Afterwards I proved once again that my sense of direction is better then average because I managed to get us back to our hotel without getting lost while being a little (understatement) under the influence of alcohol. 

 Gondola Ride

 One of my favorite pics that I've taken on the trip

Claire, Me, Kaydee, Angelica, and Allison 

(this picture was taken by a guy from Plano, go figure)

We got up on Sunday and had almost a 6 hour train ride home, with 2 stops which was grueling after the exhausting weekend, but it was all well worth it. I loved Verona and Venice and I'm so glad I got to experience them with good company. Although this weekend was hard on me emotionally (Saturday was the 3 year anniversary of my Dad's passing, and Sunday was Father's Day) it was good to be doing something I've dreamed about doing and something that I know he would be so happy I was doing. I also was able to talk with my mom, aunt, and uncle on Sunday which was really nice because not being with them has been tough. The second week of camp has started (with a bang I might add) but I'll share updates about that later.

Daddy

I miss your laugh.

I miss sharing beers with you.

I miss hearing you tell stories.

I miss coming home and having you make sure my car was safe for me and taken care of.

I miss you making pizza.

I miss listening to music with you.

I miss seeing you smile.

I miss giving you hugs.

I hate that I still want to tell you things and pick up the phone to call you.

I miss you, I can't believe it's been 3 years.

Happy Fathers Day.