Well Ive survived my first week at camp and to be honest it went as well as I possibly could have hoped. There are 23 children and 4 of us tutors. Honestly Im so spoiled because I only have 5 and they are all really good kids - 2 boys, 3 girls ages 7-9. I work really well with the other tutors - Chad (20 from Phoenix), Jill (22 from Boston) and Amy (25 from Australia).
Were a pretty good team and bring diverse perspectives to the job which means we have a lot of good ideas all pooled together. Whats even better is that we only minimally bug each other, and since we spend all day and night together, thats a good thing! At the moment we are in Palermo, about a 3 hour trip from the camp ground we are staying at. Palermo is really cool, lots of gorgeous architecture and the main sites are pretty close together (good for walking).
Tomorrow we are planning to take the cable car up mount Etna. In fact, the night we arrived in Sicily, from the train we could literally see lava flowing down the side of it - no joke. We freaked out a bit, logically, but after speaking with the locals we learned that its when you DONT see lava that you should actually start worrying cause that means theres a blockage somewhere which potentially would lead to an eruption.
Weve made friends with some of the other people working at the camp - the lifegaurd, the chef, the receptionist, the acting troop. Everyone is really friendly and patient/encouraging with our Italian. Its a little tricky during the day because we need to pretend in front of the kids that we dont speak or understand any Italian, so we have to play dumb with the staff. Its difficult and makes us look stupid, but hey, thats the way it goes. Honestly im having so much fun practicing and its astounding that ive only been here 2 weeks. the amount of progress ive made and how much more comfortable i am in that short amount of time is very promising.
Apparently the fours of us have been a big success at the camp because weve been invited to stay for another 2 weeks. Im really tempted because im really enjoying Sicily and the campgrounds are a really nice place to stay. The downside though is that for those 2 weeks the camp will be an overnight camp... im not sure im ready for that. In addition, well have about 50 kids and 8 tutors - much larger scale. So im debating. Ill keep you updated of course!
So theres no internet where were staying to speak of, but once in a while the receptionist will let us check our email on his computer if the big boss man isnt around. So I have time to read messages but not really to send them. But please keep in touch!
Miss you all
Mia
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