By this Author: Lizzy001

     We have been having a great time back at Blue Beach Bungalows at Bussana, a small town on the outskirts of San Remo. I am so glad we took time off between camps to rest, recuperate, and have fun. Our roommates, Amy and Evie,  left us yesterday morning for Cinque Terre. I already miss them. They were my roommates during the training portion of our stay threes weeks ago. Probably the coolest girls we met so far. Yesterday, we went to San Remo and ate at Teo's house, which is the Cuban guy we met during our training week. Him and his other Cuban buddies played dominoes with Ray and I hung out with the women. We had a great night. 
     Today we spent the day in San Remo, checked out the casino, then Teo dropped us off at Bussana Vecchia, which is the old city within the city where we are staying. Holy shit it was beautiful. It was on the top of a mountain. The old city is literally made up of castle ruins. So cool! We ate dinner at a little outdoor restaurant overlooking the rest of the city and met a German couple on their honeymoon. They gave us a lift back down, close to our Bungalow, and I got to see "gold baby Jesus." 
    

     Today we leave back to San Remo after two very busy weeks. Working with Italian children took every last bit of patience I had. I've never seen such badly behaved children. Of course, it could have been the language barrier. They most likely thought I was stupid because I didn't speak the language. The look of shock on the last day of the camp when I told them (in Italian) that I spoke Italian and understood every single thing they said was priceless. The overall experience was great. 
     I worked with an amazing team of people, and my host family was caring and fantastic. When getting on the train, the mom and older daughter cried. I was very honored at being a part of their household. Besides my family, and my husband, I have never lived with anyone else. They made the transition easy. They were patient with my difficulties in understanding them and them understanding me, but at the end of the two weeks I have learned a lot of expressions and phrases. I thank them from the bottom of my heart for accepting me in their everyday rituals.
     About four days ago we got an email from the company I am working for asking me if my husband and I would like to take a two week break between camps, since we were suppose to do three of them. They had over booked tutors and the tutor coordinator thought of us. Hell yeah we want to take a two week break. So off we go back to San Remo.

     Last night, I went with my host family's dad to listen to him sing Italian cover songs with two of his childhood friends. They performed at the second home of Charlie, the more extraverted of the three. To get to the house, we went through two or three little towns. These towns were quite impressive. The old buildings were on an incline and were built against each other for support. (It was getting dark so I didn't get any good pictures.) There were also beautiful stone churches hidden at each town center.  Charlie's house was about a mile away from the last town we passed, hidden by the thick foliage of the surrounding area. Behind his house, he had a field of sunflowers.
     Now, I must explain to you the comical aspect of the evening. The host dad, Michele, is Albanian. He speaks Italian with a very thick Albanian accent, or so I am told. So, we had three Albanian men speaking Italian, one who studied In England and knew about two handfuls of English words, and then there's me. I speak an awful mix of English, Spanish, and Italian.
     I spent the first ten minutes concentrating on figuring what the song lyrics meant, and the rest of the time laughing at the men's foreign antics. Like typical men, they dedicated songs, made fun of each other, and drank. Every song they played was cheesy and spoke of love, it was very entertaining. They were a lot better than I expected them to be.

     It has been three days since I got to my host family's house. They have been exceptionally nice and considerate. The parents who took me in have three children: Alessandra,19, Francesco,4, and Chiara,3. They gave me Alessandra's room for the two weeks that I am here, and I am eternally grateful.

     Today was my first day working at the camp, and I can honestly say that it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. The children were respectful, but it wasn't easy communicating and they were easily bored. The camp theme is Arthur and Friends, so the tutors split up there classes into four groups, Archers, Lords & Ladies, Knights, and Dragons. The groups from each class came together and created banners, battle standards, and flags. It was really cool. The best part was when we got the entire camp together for a tournament on who had the best artwork.

     For the past couple of days I had to rely on the host family's computer because they didn't have wi-fi. Today, after Rays superior guidance,I set up their wi-fi, which they did indeed have but had no idea how to set it up. The first thing I did was contact Ray through the iPad program called FaceTime. Now, I am am able connect to the rest of the world again!!

  ===   For the past few days, we have been training from 8:30 am until 5 pm. We are learning songs to sing with the children, and working on lesson planning. Ray and I got placed in the same camp (thank god!) and tomorrow we find out exactly where our camp will be located. Our group consists of three supervisors and us. That rocks! People that were placed in other groups keep calling us the "super group." I can't wait to get started. We meet our host families starting on Saturday, which is also very exciting.

     I got to stay with Ray the whole time, even though the apartment is supposed to be only guys. We have a small room to ourselves, which has been a blessing because we were both really sick. Plus, it helps knowing we got a little extra time together before the camps. I have met a lot of interesting people with amazing stories and backgrounds. What an adventure! ===