Ciao tutti!!!
Just thought I'd fill you in on the beginnings of my italian adventure 2008. In a nutshell: so far so good! I got to San Remo with no problems and actually met a girl on the train from Nice to San Remo who ended up being my roommate this week. Our accommodations were beautiful - a balcony overloking the town and the Mediterranean (google the Villa Maria in San Remo).
The orientation week has been a whirlwind but really really informative. Weve had a chance to make lesson plans and work with groups of local children. We've played camp games, learned songs and done crazy skits. Its been just like going to summer camp. Our orientation group has really bonded and had a great time.
Orientation finishes up around 5 each afternoon. Then me and my roommates (4 of us) make a daily trip to the cell phone store because one or all of us has some kind of problem. My Italian has really really come in handy, and my vocabulary has really expanded in the domain of cell phone related issues. The people at the store recognize us ll and actually felt so bad for us they gave us a free sock for our cell phones. Finally things are more or less under control.
My incoming calls are free, so if anybody wants to call me in Italy, you're more than welcome to! :) After our trip to the cell phone store, we usually get gelato (tiramisu and caramel is my favorite, but honestly you can't go wrong!). Then we all go back and get ready for dinner. At night we all go to dinner at a privately reserved restaurant (there's about 70 of us, so we take over) then we usually hang out at a bar for a little while before heading back to our hotel.
So orientation week was pretty sweet - way better than I possibly imagined! Up next I'm traveling to Sicily with 3 other tutors from our orientation session. We will be working in a day camp for the next two weeks at a campground called Acireale (also feel free to google that one and check out the pool - we got pretty spoiled!) We'll be staying in bungalows on site, unfortunately not with host families, but with luck I will have an opportunity to do that at the next camp. We will be the only 4 tutors there in addition to the camp director. Our orientation leader told us (me, Jill, Amy and Chad) that they picked us for this camp because they have been really impressed with us this week and think that we will be well cut out for handling 30 rowdy sicilian children. We shall see I suppose! But we're leaving tonight on a sleeper train to Rome, then catching another train that goes straight to Acireale - and yes, Sicily is an island. Appoarently the train detaches itself and goes right onto the ferry! Cool huh? Yes, but basically this is a 20 hour journey, and we all know how much I love trains - not!
But I need to finish packing and get ready for dinner. I would love to hear from you guys, but please understand that my internet access will be sporadic throughout the summer, so bear with me! I'll check it whenever I can. Also, fyi I don't think I'll be able to look at any attachments, and I doubt I'll be able to upload any pictures before I get home. But don't worry, I'm taking tons!
Wish me luck!! Miss you all, let me know how you're doing!
xoxo
Melissa
PS I thought I'd Europeanize myself a bit, so I'm going by Mia here at camp!
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