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Published: June 28th 2008
Lonigo
view from walk I took in the hills next to my host families homeThe first time I have had the whole house to myself and I can not decide if I have just sentenced myself to a several hour task of writing and uploading pictures or if the thunderstorm outside and my fatigue from the week will set in and I will "finish later"......
Last you left me I was birthdayed and moved but I never really finished my Milan stories. There is not a huge amount to discuss.
Favorite moments from Milan camp: three of our worst behaved boys dancing like broadway tappers with stick "canes" as molly, abi, and I sing showtunes to them. Everything our director Silvana did (we bought her a mini keg for our thank you present....nuf said?) Watching my 10 and 11 year olds dance around the room in diffrent styles (hip hop was my favorite) and getting cheap thong underwear as a thank you present from a camper (molly and abi got some too).
So finished up the week in Milan. It was hard to say good bye to my kids. I was tempted to leave them my e-mail adress but felt like it wasnt quite the right thing to do, so i gave
Host Brothers
Francesco and Mateo (photo of a photo) them hugs and said good bye. I hope they had a good time. I think they learned some English. I had to yell a lot in that class and though I hated being that teacher, it made their good moments so much more special.
Unfortunately, the host family in Milan who I started out really liking did not leave me with the best impression. Single mom who is a phychologist, partner, and egyption man who works for the embassy. Valerio, typical seven year old boy and the five year old twins Rebecca are Arora (both VERY cute). It was a
rough week in the apartment. Cleaning women getting fired. Meeting the kids biological dad in my nightgown one morning while making breakfast. Listing to loud fights over the phone. Showers breaking. No internet... And finally asking my host mother if I could come home to pack, reply: no we are down town now, you can come back at 930pm or 8am the next morning. Okay 8am after my birthday it is. However when I was walking to my friends apartment about fourty minuets later in the same building cluster who should I see walking the dog. My family, who
Family
Grandma, Silvia, Me, and Mateo are ignoring my greetings. The crying children and shouting is my unfortunate intrusion into other lives but pretending not to see me is.....rude to say the least.
So woke up, still feeling my 22nd birthday. Went home. Packed. Made it to the train station to meet Geoff and drive for a couple hours to Vechenza. Ran into a friend from San Remo at the train station. Drove to Lonigo. Got sick on the drive (what better way to bond with your new supervisor the to vomit all over the side of his car while speeding down the high way?) I was very pleased that he wasnt a jerk about it and that we both ended up laughing about it for the rest of the ride. Drove to Lonigo and found the middle of nowhere trainstation. We were early so spent the extra hour trying to find someplace that was open for coffie during the seaesta time (noon-3ish on Sundays, during the week I dont know, Im at camp)
Met our host familes. My host mother is also our schools director. She is stunning and manages to be both very easy going with a type A personality. She has
Scooby
the host dog, Scooby two very sweet boys Francesco (7) and Mateo (5) who both speak very little english. My mother Silvia speaks very good english and hopes to stop teaching as an elemtary school teacher in Lonigo (which means she teaches the same group of kids for five year: Italian, English, Math, Gym, History, and Science....I think). She would like to be an English teacher and is always asking me to correct her. As the huge dyslexic that I am I feel a little un qualified but as long as I dont have to tell her why (first person passive, present tense formality etc) I do okay. The father I will meet on Sunday. He is away this week teaching tennis at a summer camp a little north of here. He is a tennis teacher during the week as well.
The house I am staying in is beatiful. The air out here is fresh and it is on a huge property. Quite the nice change from the angry, tiny Milan appartment experiance. I have my own bedroom and bathroom. Ther is always delishious fresh food in the fridge. Silvias mother lives in the origional farm house connected to the new house that
My Campers
Just before their pirate show Silva, hubby, and the boys live in. Everything I have eaten here has been amazing! Favorite would have to be grandmas home made neoke (potato pasta). She is amazing, speaks no english, but has told me (i think) about her traveling and family. Maps and photos were a great help. She has this wonderful zest for life and is so lovely to be around.
Camp is good. I got the complete opposite of my Milan class. I have thirteen kids ages 8-10 but almost all of them are quite good at English. As a city girl, as much as I hate to say it, I think village kids are just nicer then urban kids. I can play so many more games and do so much more with these guys because they can sit and listen to me and "want" to understand what I am saying. In Milan I often felt like a underpayed babysitter (5euro and hour is what i come down to, but i am being housed and fed every day). Coworkers are nice, not as close as Molly, Abi, Katrina, and I got but they are fine. Geoff and I are both the go getter "fun" councilers.
Eg: water fight day, Goeff and I with no change of clothes were soaked within the first three minuets. The other girls spent the afternoon giving death stares to any child with a water ballon and saying NO alot. It is a little frusterating because during breaks and such I often feel like I am the only one still working (ie watching the children, tending the the overdramatized ingeries of the wee Italians, making sure kids stay in the same place......maybe it is because I am living the camp director and her wanting everything to go along perfactly is rubbing off on me, I guess worse things could happen. I do my fair share of chatting but speaking of not doing work
Drama: Today, friday, very strange day. It has been boiling for the past three days. I come home soaked in sweat (sorry for the over share) and today was cloudy and muggy. It thratened to rain all day, even thundered but never rained. One of our tutors who, is a fine person but who in truth tend to be a bit of a downer, got fired today. Got cought by Silvia and our boss Christina reading a
Host Home
the house book during class time. Anyway I think she was ready to go, and they gave her the pay for all four weeks (even though she only worked three) but it will be strange being half way and getting a new tutor. I feel very sorry for Silvia who is so stressed, and home with out her husband this week, and who is trying to take care of everyone.
Probably will spend Saturday in Venice for the day. Leaving early in the morning and come home (save the money and sleep in my own bed). Sunday is Silvias brothers birthday and the whole family is have a BBQ style lunch at the house. I have already me Silavas sister who come home every week from the city. Excited to meet the rest of the family - It is SO nice to live in such a family orented house.
Even the community here feels diffrent. In Milan we went out for pizza with some other familes and kids. Here after only the first week I have: had my bday dinner at another host families house, gone to the pool with other host familes, and been taken to in vinyard for
The house (also)
the origional farm house that the rest of the home is built on a huge family style piea meal with several of the families. Been taken out for gelatto and drinks after school. Nice is an excellent word to discribe it here.
I feel as though I have written a lot of words but havnt really explained my experiance. What camp is like during the day, what I do with the kids, what I find myself thinking about....my time in Italy has been very full. Lots of news and firsts. Although I do not want to jinx it I am pretty sure I am going to be offered a job doing the TIE (theatre in english) school tours for the upcoming school year.
I would be working for the same company as an actor this time. We perform shows (these are not art, these are not shakespear, these are frosty the snow man, and lines like "hello helen, I really like your blue shirt!") in English for the kids at school and then do a 45min - 1hr workshop with them afterwards. I would get to tour Italy but, as with almost all tours, I would be spending ALL of my time with the two other actors (it could be great
MY room
My room and my very own bathroom if we get along, could be very bad if we dont - and probably there will be moments of both). I am seriously considering staying in Italy and taking the job, however I find myself wishing the same job was in Spain or Africa or someplace of more direct interest to me. If I take the TIE job I will get free housing and insurance for the year as well. The only expences i have are food.
Well it is almost 2am and I must catch an 8am train. Good night and more soon....
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