So..... This family I am staying with now... Yeah, last year my friend Anna stayed with them and she ended up with food poisoning.... Jenn and I are scared to death to eat anything..... Last night we steered clear of the chicken and only ate a few potatoes and some bread... .Tonight thank goodness we are going to Perugia with Brian's family to have a kebab and walk around.... Tomorrow to Spello for pizza with a kid from Lucca camp and then after that we will be on our own again.... Wish us luck!!!
Our last camp here is going well... My class is very good. Very well behaved and they are pretty good at English. I am ready to come home though, I am burnt out on trying to understand these little kids... Its super fun to hang out with Brian and Jenn though. They are probably my favorite two tutors to work with. I feel like we just understand each other and we all three are really good at making sure the workload is even. :)
So proud of Hannah Banana!!!! She is a nurse now!!! WOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOO!!!! I knew she could do it. I had a dream last night that she passed her exam and whatever..... Maybe Mum was in my head telling me the good news. :) I am so proud of her...
Thats about it for now. If you have any good ideas about the whole food thing, let me know! :) Haha. Will post pictures soon, I hope!
Ciao!
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Friday, July 16, 2010
Pontefalcino!
the assisi camp was very fun. we had a great group of kids. they were well behaved for the most part... there were a few kids who were absolutely hysterical.....
i feel like my blogs are getting less often and less detailed as the summer goes on, but i think that is probably because fewer things are new now.... so i feel like i have less to talk about....
last night we went to ted's host family's house for dinner... it was really good and very interesting to sit and visit with them. Its really entertaining to try to have a conversation with someone when very little common language is used. we seemed to get the messages across and we shared many laughs. we were asking how to say things in italian and then we laughed because we would say something like knife in italian.... col....tel....lo.... to them that probably sounds similar to niiiiiiiffffffff..... yeah? hahaahah. its an interesting and very funny funny thing to think about. :)
at camp we made t shirts and then the next day we did a vine walk.... our theme was jungle so we did a model runway (cat walk) but adapted to our theme.... the kids loved it. it was reallly funny.... here is a picture of all the kids in their t shirts. :)
i feel like my blogs are getting less often and less detailed as the summer goes on, but i think that is probably because fewer things are new now.... so i feel like i have less to talk about....
last night we went to ted's host family's house for dinner... it was really good and very interesting to sit and visit with them. Its really entertaining to try to have a conversation with someone when very little common language is used. we seemed to get the messages across and we shared many laughs. we were asking how to say things in italian and then we laughed because we would say something like knife in italian.... col....tel....lo.... to them that probably sounds similar to niiiiiiiffffffff..... yeah? hahaahah. its an interesting and very funny funny thing to think about. :)
at camp we made t shirts and then the next day we did a vine walk.... our theme was jungle so we did a model runway (cat walk) but adapted to our theme.... the kids loved it. it was reallly funny.... here is a picture of all the kids in their t shirts. :)
have many more pictures, too late to upload tonight.... hope to have internet access in pontefelcino, but if not i will be home in 2 weeks and will upload pictures then! :)
Ciao! Io vado a letto!!!
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Saturday!!!
So super excited for saturday!!!! I will be reunited with Jenn and Brian.... My final camp here in Italy will be amazing....... I am very excited to work with them. My last camp is in Pontefelcino.... Only about 30 minutes from the rest of the tutors in Santa Maria... Yay! :)
The Assisi camp has been super fun. The kids are all really well behaved and my host family is so nice! :)
It has been super hot here.... I have been super tired as well. Ha. Can't wait to jump in the good 'ol Chewaucan River! :) Tomorrow after camp I am going to do some souvenier shopping, then finish that up in Roma when I go to the airport. 19 days until I'm home!!!
The Assisi camp has been super fun. The kids are all really well behaved and my host family is so nice! :)
It has been super hot here.... I have been super tired as well. Ha. Can't wait to jump in the good 'ol Chewaucan River! :) Tomorrow after camp I am going to do some souvenier shopping, then finish that up in Roma when I go to the airport. 19 days until I'm home!!!
Monday, July 12, 2010
3 weeks until Oregon bound!
This blog is a combination of a variety of things because I kept thinking I would have internet access to post a blog.... I didnt have much.
So the first camp is over.... I am sitting here at Danielle and Anna's family's place because mine left for the beach... Probably is for the best because my host sister wouldn't even talk to me at school today. haha. This camp was crazy!! The kids were so naughty, and some got better while others got worse... Either way I am glad its over.
I am headed to Lucca for a week.... Actually, by the time this blog gets posted I might already be done with Lucca. I don't have internet access here at this place, not sure if I will be able to connect tomorrow anywhere. Hope so! :) Lucca is an overnight camp. I am super excited about it. We get to do all sorts of fun stuff like ride horses, hike and camp, swim, all that jazz. :) It should be a super fun time! We will only have 8-10 campers so it will be VERY easy.
Only a month until I am back in Oregon.... Crazy how fast, and slow, time is going... I wish I could be home for Mosquito Festival, but I will barely miss it. Oh well.... BBQ party when I come home! :)
So now I am on the train in Florence waiting for it to leave toward Foligno.... We will be in Assisi for this week and I am not sure where for my final camp session.... Lucca was awesome!!! I absolutely love Carla and Mauro... They were so awesome. The kids were great and it was fun to work with Kim and Ted. We will only have between 10-15 kids for this week in Assisi and I think about five of them will be kids from Lucca... It should be another fairly easy week... I am excited to meet my host family. I hope they have internet that I can use to at least email and post this blog... It would be really nice if I could skype home at least once and chat with everyone... Carla gave us each a bottle of olive oil and a bottle of red wine... And I bought another bottle of wine and 2 of oil... I will be sharing those with the family at home...
My favorite story from Lucca was from our nature walk the second night. We went bird watching and we started walking toward the next small town over. It was a very easy walk and it was all downhill. The kids weren't really looking for new birds so Mauro told them that they must find 4 new species if they wanted ice cream in San Gennaro. So they got right to work listening and looking for new birds. We made it to San Gennaro and walked down to the ice cream shop... It was closed! Hahahahahaha! The lady only opens the shop when she feels like it, so we turned around and walked back up the hill to Petrognano. One of the little tykes was not very pleased with the fact that we didn't get ice cream. He said, "We did all of this for nothing!?" I couldn't help but laugh because it was such an easy walk down to town and even the walk back to Petrognano was fine. It was super hot, but swimming was after nature walk anyway. After dinner Carla gave us ice cream bars so we got our ice cream after all.
Camp here in Assisi is going well... We had 15 kids today, not sure if we will have more tomorrow or not. I am teaching the 10-11 year olds. It is fine. My family here is very nice. The daughter, Caterina, is 12 years old. She is very quiet but very polite. She goes to English Camp. Her brother, Ludovico, is 14 and he is very nice as well. The parents, Alessandra and Paulo are very nice. The mom knows some English, enough for us to communicate. The first dinner I had here she taught me the names of many fruits.... I don't remember many now, but it was interesting. :)
I can't believe how tired I am... I think it is interesting how much I take for granted... Like talking to my fmaily and friends. I have talked with mom for a total of like 30 miuntes this month that I havebeen away and hardly at all withmost of my friends. This has been a great experience both for my career and for me as a person. I think I am ready to come home. I think that I would love to do this same kind of thing next summer, but maybe not in Italy. I didn't realize how much of a home-body I was until this past week. I am going to keep my eyes open for different opportunities throughout the US and maybe even Canada for summer camps that I could work for.
So the first camp is over.... I am sitting here at Danielle and Anna's family's place because mine left for the beach... Probably is for the best because my host sister wouldn't even talk to me at school today. haha. This camp was crazy!! The kids were so naughty, and some got better while others got worse... Either way I am glad its over.
I am headed to Lucca for a week.... Actually, by the time this blog gets posted I might already be done with Lucca. I don't have internet access here at this place, not sure if I will be able to connect tomorrow anywhere. Hope so! :) Lucca is an overnight camp. I am super excited about it. We get to do all sorts of fun stuff like ride horses, hike and camp, swim, all that jazz. :) It should be a super fun time! We will only have 8-10 campers so it will be VERY easy.
Only a month until I am back in Oregon.... Crazy how fast, and slow, time is going... I wish I could be home for Mosquito Festival, but I will barely miss it. Oh well.... BBQ party when I come home! :)
So now I am on the train in Florence waiting for it to leave toward Foligno.... We will be in Assisi for this week and I am not sure where for my final camp session.... Lucca was awesome!!! I absolutely love Carla and Mauro... They were so awesome. The kids were great and it was fun to work with Kim and Ted. We will only have between 10-15 kids for this week in Assisi and I think about five of them will be kids from Lucca... It should be another fairly easy week... I am excited to meet my host family. I hope they have internet that I can use to at least email and post this blog... It would be really nice if I could skype home at least once and chat with everyone... Carla gave us each a bottle of olive oil and a bottle of red wine... And I bought another bottle of wine and 2 of oil... I will be sharing those with the family at home...
My favorite story from Lucca was from our nature walk the second night. We went bird watching and we started walking toward the next small town over. It was a very easy walk and it was all downhill. The kids weren't really looking for new birds so Mauro told them that they must find 4 new species if they wanted ice cream in San Gennaro. So they got right to work listening and looking for new birds. We made it to San Gennaro and walked down to the ice cream shop... It was closed! Hahahahahaha! The lady only opens the shop when she feels like it, so we turned around and walked back up the hill to Petrognano. One of the little tykes was not very pleased with the fact that we didn't get ice cream. He said, "We did all of this for nothing!?" I couldn't help but laugh because it was such an easy walk down to town and even the walk back to Petrognano was fine. It was super hot, but swimming was after nature walk anyway. After dinner Carla gave us ice cream bars so we got our ice cream after all.
Camp here in Assisi is going well... We had 15 kids today, not sure if we will have more tomorrow or not. I am teaching the 10-11 year olds. It is fine. My family here is very nice. The daughter, Caterina, is 12 years old. She is very quiet but very polite. She goes to English Camp. Her brother, Ludovico, is 14 and he is very nice as well. The parents, Alessandra and Paulo are very nice. The mom knows some English, enough for us to communicate. The first dinner I had here she taught me the names of many fruits.... I don't remember many now, but it was interesting. :)
I can't believe how tired I am... I think it is interesting how much I take for granted... Like talking to my fmaily and friends. I have talked with mom for a total of like 30 miuntes this month that I havebeen away and hardly at all withmost of my friends. This has been a great experience both for my career and for me as a person. I think I am ready to come home. I think that I would love to do this same kind of thing next summer, but maybe not in Italy. I didn't realize how much of a home-body I was until this past week. I am going to keep my eyes open for different opportunities throughout the US and maybe even Canada for summer camps that I could work for.
Thursday, June 24, 2010
pictures!
Sunset behind the restaurant where we had pizza one night during orientation camp... best pizza i have ever eaten. mozzarella di bufala. yum!!!
brian, me, alastair, anna and danielle. our last night together in santa maria.
jenn and i enjoying some wine in a juice box before dinner.
beautiful view from my room.... lightening storm over assisi one night....
my group at orientation camp.... the simpsons.
one of the harbors near FCO..... beautiful sunset.
I think this was looking down from Spello...
all of the tutors in Spello. such a fun group! :)
Monday, June 21, 2010
first real camp
Wow, so it has been a while since i have sent a blog, yeah? well.... it is because i didnt want to pay to use the internet to blog, so i have been waiting until i got to a family to use their internet. i am sitting in my bedroom here at my family's house.... just figured out today that they have wireless. ha.
i guess to catch you up.... we did our 4 day orientation camp in santa maria degli angeli. it was so fun.... they kids were great and turns out they were VERY well behaved. i made the mistake of telling the 12 and over kids that my name was bob one day, so for the rest of camp they called me bob instead of sammy. oh well. it was funny times. i miss those kids already and it has only been 3 days, AHH!!!! haha.
Nate drove us up here to Roma Frascati. I was hoping to work with Jenn and either Brian or Alastair for camp, but I am with Anna and Danielle. They are both awesome and very good with the kids so it all worked out. :) I am teaching the oldest class here in Frascati. Tomorrow my plan is to work on verbs- past tense, yeah?
My host family here is super nice. They all speak some English so it is pretty easy to carry a conversation with them. It is mom and dad, Angela and Enzo, Eduardo 18 and Beatrice 11. Beatrice (pronounced Bee-ah-tr-isha) goes to English Camp and is in my class. She is very sweet, and just a little sassy! When I got here saturday they picked me up from camp and we came home. I unpacked and did a little laundry then we walked around Frascate a bit. They actually live in Monte Comparti which is about 7 km from the school where camp is held. Their house is beautiful, and overlooks Roma. Sunday afternoon we went in to Roma to watch Bea's roller skating competition... Basically it was like olympic ice skating, only on roller skates instead. I met Angela's mother and she was very nice. She doesn't speak any English, but was very pleasant.
Camp started today and went okay. It is very different from orientation camp because the kids are at different levels of English. Also, this camp is the first one in this town so none of the kids are familiar with the structure. The nuns are very helpful and so sweet. I think that by wednesday or thursday the kids will settle down some and we will be able to hit the ground running.
I find it entertaining how my speech has changed in just one week. I now talk much slower and with more ums and uhs, even when talking to Americans.... I also talk in sentence fragments and very simple sentences. I can only imagine what it will be like in August when I return to Oregon. Haha!!
Oh, my host family loves the Simpsons, so when I told them that the creator is from Springfield OR they were very excited. Ha.
Better get going on lesson plans.... Will try to upload a few pictures. :)
It is taking too long to upload pictures right now.... Maybe tomorrow??? :)
Love and hugs from Italy!
CIAO!!!
i guess to catch you up.... we did our 4 day orientation camp in santa maria degli angeli. it was so fun.... they kids were great and turns out they were VERY well behaved. i made the mistake of telling the 12 and over kids that my name was bob one day, so for the rest of camp they called me bob instead of sammy. oh well. it was funny times. i miss those kids already and it has only been 3 days, AHH!!!! haha.
Nate drove us up here to Roma Frascati. I was hoping to work with Jenn and either Brian or Alastair for camp, but I am with Anna and Danielle. They are both awesome and very good with the kids so it all worked out. :) I am teaching the oldest class here in Frascati. Tomorrow my plan is to work on verbs- past tense, yeah?
My host family here is super nice. They all speak some English so it is pretty easy to carry a conversation with them. It is mom and dad, Angela and Enzo, Eduardo 18 and Beatrice 11. Beatrice (pronounced Bee-ah-tr-isha) goes to English Camp and is in my class. She is very sweet, and just a little sassy! When I got here saturday they picked me up from camp and we came home. I unpacked and did a little laundry then we walked around Frascate a bit. They actually live in Monte Comparti which is about 7 km from the school where camp is held. Their house is beautiful, and overlooks Roma. Sunday afternoon we went in to Roma to watch Bea's roller skating competition... Basically it was like olympic ice skating, only on roller skates instead. I met Angela's mother and she was very nice. She doesn't speak any English, but was very pleasant.
Camp started today and went okay. It is very different from orientation camp because the kids are at different levels of English. Also, this camp is the first one in this town so none of the kids are familiar with the structure. The nuns are very helpful and so sweet. I think that by wednesday or thursday the kids will settle down some and we will be able to hit the ground running.
I find it entertaining how my speech has changed in just one week. I now talk much slower and with more ums and uhs, even when talking to Americans.... I also talk in sentence fragments and very simple sentences. I can only imagine what it will be like in August when I return to Oregon. Haha!!
Oh, my host family loves the Simpsons, so when I told them that the creator is from Springfield OR they were very excited. Ha.
Better get going on lesson plans.... Will try to upload a few pictures. :)
It is taking too long to upload pictures right now.... Maybe tomorrow??? :)
Love and hugs from Italy!
CIAO!!!
Friday, June 18, 2010
to Roma Frascati!
just blog to let you know i am headed to roma frascati tomorrow.... will blog and post pictures later. time is almost up at internet cafe! haha. miss everyone, loving it here.
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
first camp half over
Sooooooo much to report... um, camp is going well. love the little kids here. they are so sweet and very eager to learn! um, today one little 8 year old maybe taught us a dance. it was super cute. will post pictures on here maybe tomorrow.... i will have to bring my laptop down to the internet store. um, we have had some delicious dinners and lunch too for that matter..... homemade lasagna, pasta, pasta, pasta, pasta. its the best. also have been watching lots of futbol-- soccer... quite entertaining.... um, having gelato twice a day is pretty normal as well. so much for losing weight this summer. hahahahahahahaha. getting ready to send some postcards... if i dont have you address please email it to me at samanthacarlon at gmail.com.... i hope everyone is having a great summer!! home in less than 2 months.... will post a more detailed blog in a few days..... leave santa maria on saturday for my first full camp.... dont know which tutors will go with me, but there are three camps at the same time so at two camps there will be three tutors and at the third there will be four. i am getting excited... dont really know what else to tell you.... will review my journal and blog again tomorrow or friday. ciao!!
Saturday, June 12, 2010
day 3 in Italy!
Our motel is just across the street from the Assisi train station, but Assisi is actually the city up on the hill. We are in Saint maria or something... I am still not sure. Ha. AAnwyay it is beautiful here. Very hot, but I am surviving. Drinking lots of water. Bottled water is very expensive so I am glad that I brought my Nalgene... not sure if Italian water is safe to drink, but until I start feeling sick I will take that risk.
you will have to excuse my lack of capitalization and misspellings. it is very strange to type on these keyboards!
there is a ginormous church here. it is a church inside a church. a long long time ago saint francis would walk down to the small church and pray. eventually so many people were following him and sleeping in the forest that they decided to build an even larger church around the old one. we are going to go into it this evening or tomorrow morning. you cant wear shorts or shirts that show your shoulders or dresses... no pictures inside either. so we will come back later with longer pants and t shirts on.
We met two of the other tutors last night. Had pizza and walked around with them. They are both very nice guys!! One from UK and the other is from kind of all over he said. Nate and Ashleigh are super nice and they found us in town last night and we had a drink and got to know each other. sounds like it is going to be a very busy and fun summer. i am really looking forward to working with them.
i dont have much else to report... oh. yes i do. so there is a mc donalds here in this smaller village. crazy!! and the drive through is called a mcdrive. haha. apparently its way better than american mcdonalds but we didnt go there yet.
drivers in rome are so ridiculous. i have pictures to show how they park.... basically they will park anywhere and they weave around each other like its no big deal.... i dont get it. i was concerned that all of italy drove like that, but the drivers around here are much more like drivers at home. i was really surprised to see that they have fords and chevys and stuff here... like i saw a ford focus. but you can definitely tell that it is an european car because it looks more square than an american ford focus. very interesting. haha.
well my time is about up on this computer. will blog again in a few days hopefully.
love from italy!
ciao!!
i guess that is about all i know for now.
you will have to excuse my lack of capitalization and misspellings. it is very strange to type on these keyboards!
there is a ginormous church here. it is a church inside a church. a long long time ago saint francis would walk down to the small church and pray. eventually so many people were following him and sleeping in the forest that they decided to build an even larger church around the old one. we are going to go into it this evening or tomorrow morning. you cant wear shorts or shirts that show your shoulders or dresses... no pictures inside either. so we will come back later with longer pants and t shirts on.
We met two of the other tutors last night. Had pizza and walked around with them. They are both very nice guys!! One from UK and the other is from kind of all over he said. Nate and Ashleigh are super nice and they found us in town last night and we had a drink and got to know each other. sounds like it is going to be a very busy and fun summer. i am really looking forward to working with them.
i dont have much else to report... oh. yes i do. so there is a mc donalds here in this smaller village. crazy!! and the drive through is called a mcdrive. haha. apparently its way better than american mcdonalds but we didnt go there yet.
drivers in rome are so ridiculous. i have pictures to show how they park.... basically they will park anywhere and they weave around each other like its no big deal.... i dont get it. i was concerned that all of italy drove like that, but the drivers around here are much more like drivers at home. i was really surprised to see that they have fords and chevys and stuff here... like i saw a ford focus. but you can definitely tell that it is an european car because it looks more square than an american ford focus. very interesting. haha.
well my time is about up on this computer. will blog again in a few days hopefully.
love from italy!
ciao!!
i guess that is about all i know for now.
Friday, June 11, 2010
Day 1
WOW! What a day... First, Kim's luggage was lost. Then, it took us forever to find a hotel to stay in.... Turns out it was 110 euros, kind of a lot, but we decided that we weren't finding much else. So we throw our bags there and change clothes then walked around Rome a little bit. We saw the VAtican city, but didn't take the tour. Back to the hotel, after some delicious pizza downtown. CAlled the airport and Kim's luggage had showed up. We talked and decided that rather than spending so much to go in and out of the city we would try to get a partial refund on our room and find something closer to the train station. Italians don't give refunds. Stupid. Found another motel out by the airport for a lot of money again. Headed to Assisi today. Thank goodness they already have a room booked for us. Its our last day of really being on our own. Yay! It will be nice to be around some people who can help us out a little bit. We don't have a ton of internet access over here. I will try to blog daily, or at least weekly, but I make no promises. :) Ciao!!
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
PDX
It is currently 5 AM and we have been ready to go for 30 minutes now.... We are sitting at our gate watching the minutes tick away. Well not really. We're both busy on our computers. :)
As it turns out, 30 pounds feels a TON heavier than I thought.... Not even all those summers of fighting fire has prepped me for packing my backpack around Europe this summer. Ha. I will survive. :)
I have this little netbook. So I will be in contact this summer. Don't know how much time I will have to post blogs and send emails, but I will find time. :)
As it turns out, 30 pounds feels a TON heavier than I thought.... Not even all those summers of fighting fire has prepped me for packing my backpack around Europe this summer. Ha. I will survive. :)
I have this little netbook. So I will be in contact this summer. Don't know how much time I will have to post blogs and send emails, but I will find time. :)
Monday, June 7, 2010
less than 48 hours!!!!!!!!!!!!
Bags are packed.
Homework is ALMOST done.
Leave in the morning for Italy!!!! :) :) :) :)
Homework is ALMOST done.
Leave in the morning for Italy!!!! :) :) :) :)
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