clooney's backyard

With six consecutive weeks of teaching over, it's safe to say I was feeling pretty exhausted. I'd planned to visit my good friend Rhea in Berlin the following week, but I had three days until I was due to head to Berlin. As I was in the north, I decided to check out Italy's largest lake, Como, for those three days on the advice of my previous host father, Luca.

So, I caught five trains and found myself in Como on Saturday afternoon, with no real knowledge about the place except it's Italy's largest lake, and George Clooney has a house there. If it's good enough for Clooney, it's good enough for me!

I'd booked to stay at an Eco-hostel in the Spina Verde National Park, which was completely cut off from the town apart from a walking track and a very steep, very narrow road for authorised vehicles only. The hostel's policy was to pick up their guests from the bottom of the hill when they were checking in, and drop them off when they were checking out - the rest of the time guests had to make their way up the road or along the beautiful pat, which was quite a hike.

This was my first hostel experience in Europe, and it was a beautiful 11th-century building which so much character but it was still very comfortable and about as pleasant as a hostel could be. 

After catching up on some much-needed sleep, I spent my first full day in Como - it was very touristy with a lot of shops and restaurants, but I wanted to check out the lake. I went for a huge walk along the lakefront and found a Lido (outdoor pool) in the grounds of a grand old Villa which was a tourist destination in itself. 

Kids cooling off in some fountains along the lakefront 

Because it was a steaming hot day, and you can't really swim in the lake at the city end, I decided to spend the afternoon relaxing at the pool, taking turns between sunbathing, reading, sleeping and swimming. In Italy, swimming at a public pool means wearing a bathing cap, so I invested in one of these bad boys (which was way too small for my giant head).

 

View of the lake from the Lido with the New Zealand flag flying!

It was such a lovely, relaxing and refreshing afternoon and when the pool closed at 6pm I strolled back to the city, taking in the gorgeous scenery.

For dinner, I decided to treat myself to a non-Italian meal, as I was getting pretty sick of eating pasta. I found a Mexican restaurant on my walk back to the hostel, and I was so excited! I love Mexican food, so, even though it was a bit pricy, I decided it would be worth it..... Well, it wasn't. It was definitely the worst Mexican meal I've tasted, and it taught me an important lesson - in Italy, the only safe bet is Italian food unfortunately!

coredo.

My last camp was one short and sweet week in Coredo, a small mountain town in the north about 30 minutes from the Austrian border. This was my biggest camp, with eight tutors and around 80 kids.I bumped into two of the tutors on my third train of five - Eva, from my camp in Asolo, and Chris, who I hadn't worked with yet.

I was hosted by a lovely family of four: parents Susanna and Walter, six-year-old Daisy and two-year-old Kevin. Despite the family not speaking much English (and me speaking next-to-no Italian), we managed to communicate well enough to get by. They have a wonderful family and the children are very sweet and very well-behaved which was great - and Susanna is a great cook!

Daisy and Kevin playing with Photo Booth on my iPad

The family live in a typical arrangement in Italy - a very large home which is shared with other family members. In this case, Walter's mother lives in the self-contained ground level which was really convenient as Daisy could stay with her Nonna while I took over her room for the week. On my second day, Sunday, Nonna and Walter's sister along with her husband and baby took me to a potato festival in a neighbouring town as the family was out all day. Nonna even cooked me dinner when I got home from a trip to the lake with the other tutors.

It's very common for Italian families to live in this arrangement, in fact, all four families that I stayed with had lived in the same small town for their whole lives (the wife may be from a neighbouring town but the husband seems to stay in his hometown) and the husband's parents will either live downstairs, next door or just around the corner, in the family home. One of my camp directors explained that the family home is very important to Italians and once they put down roots, they simply do not move! The family unit is very tight and, in fact, most Italians I have spoken to cannot believe how far away from home I am and how long I plan to be away for - the typical response when I would tell them about my travel is "how do your parents feel about you being so far away". They can't believe I'm happily on the other side of the world to where I grew up and where all my friends and family are. 

It's just the Kiwi way though - most of us are raised to be independent and our parents take pride in the fact we can stand on our own two feet and not be overly dependent on them once we're adults.

Anyway, after our camp meeting on Sunday, our new director Valentina and her sister Nadia took us to a nearby lake for the afternoon, which was absolutely beautiful!

The tutors at the lake

Because we had one extra tutor, a really rare luxury at camp, I had the role of basically overseeing and planning all our afternoon games. We have lessons in the morning, and games in the afternoon, and usually all the tutors get together either before the day starts or at lunch time to arrange the afternoon's activities. As I didn't have a group in the morning, I could spend this time organising the afternoon, and it worked really well - I was feeling a bit burnt out and sick of teaching so it worked out really well.

The amazing view from the camp

 

Camp activities - making paper mâché volcanoes with Coke and Mentos

Our week ended with an absolutely delicious meal at a restaurant which serves local cuisine - which is very different from that of other parts of Italy. Polenta, beef goulash, cheeses, potatoes, coleslaw, cold meats (which you'll find everywhere in Italy), apple strudel for dessert and lots of red wine. The town had more of an Austrian or German feel to it which makes sense as it's so close to the border - the schools teach compulsory German as well as Italian and English.

On my last night, Walter and Susanna took me out for gelato to an amazing 400-year-old castle about 45 minutes from our town - it was really beautiful and I regret not taking my camera or phone (I thought we were just going down the road!) 

It was a great end to what had been a very full on six weeks,  I had decided while at the previous camp that this week would be my last so it was time to move on with my journey.

zero branco.

With my first two-week camp finished, I headed to an equally small town called Zero Branco, only two or three train stops away!

This camp was my biggest yet, with five tutors and around fifty kids. We were greeted warmly at the Treviso train station by the camp director, Valentina, and our host families, before I headed out with my new family for some gelato and a walk around the town, which is one of the biggest in the area.

My new host family was parents Luca and Chiara, 11-year-old Gaia and eight-year-old Filippo, who started off very shy but came out of his shell very, very quickly! We had dinner at a lovely pizza restaurant with another tutor, Austin from Colorado, and her host family, who are friends with my host family. No sooner had we been seated than a massive hailstorm started, so severe that the roof started to leak. It was quite funny as the day had been ridiculously hot, around 30*, but we soon learned these types of storms are common in summer here (and they were soon to be welcomed as a respite from the heat!)

Filippo and Gaia after messy games

On Sunday, the day before camp started, I got another taste of Italian Nonnas' (grandmother) hospitality and talent in the kitchen, as we walked around the corner to Luca's mother's house for lunch - and what a lunch it was! A huge plate of pasta followed by a selection of meats, bread, salad, and three types of desserts, along with free-flowing Prosecco and coffee to finish. For lunch! I still have not gotten used to the size of the meals Italians eat, especially the lunches! Luca's parents were lovely (despite nearly wanting to force-feed me) and we undoubtedly walked home a couple of kilograms heavier!

One aspect of Italian cuisine I just have not adjusted to is the coffee. I've never liked coffee but I decided to give it another shot a couple of times, but I just don't like the flavour. My Italian families have all been shocked when I decline coffee, because for them it is almost like oxygen, and unless it is breakfast time, they will nearly always drink it as a straight shot, like a short black, only ever a cappuccino or latte in the morning!

After lunch we took a walk down a beautiful river nearby, which was a really nice and relaxing way to walk off the meal. It was a lovely path which was brimming with families enjoying the sunshine and tranquility and we saw some interesting sights, including the "boat graveyard", where the locals literally just left the boats they no longer needed to become skeletones... it was quite eerie.

The camp at Zero Branco was the first of its kind in this small town, and all the parents, children and organisers were excited to see what each day would bring. It was challenging, as none of the children knew what to expect from the camp or what the activities, songs and games would be like and we really had to work hard to get them to leave behind their self consciousness and embrace our activities, but by the end of the two weeks it was really encouraging to see all the students' progress.

My host parents are only slightly older than me (31), which was quite funny as they are obviously at very different life stages to me! The small age gap was great though and meant we could relate to each other quite well - especially because both Luca and Chiara speak English well (no matter how much Luca claims he can't). It's quite funny here and in other parts of Europe, the locals are often embarassed about their level of English and will tell you they can only speak a little English, when in actual fact their English is very good!

My Zero Branco host 'papi', Luca

The other four tutors were great, and because we all lived close to each other and close to the school, we would walk to a nearby bar at the end of each day for a Spritz or two before heading home. We also went out a couple of nights, Luca taking us to a nearby town called Mirano for drinks one night, and dinner with all our host families at a lovely restaurant in Treviso later the same week.

On Saturday we headed to a popular beach about an hour and a half away from Zero Branco, which was a great way to spend a ridiculously hot day - relaxing in the sun, sleeping, reading and swimming in the wonderfully warm Mediterranean. Some of Luca's family were spending the week at the seaside, so we headed back to his sister's place for a great dinner, followed by gelato (of course) and a late-night walk through the town.

Sunday meant another huge, yet delicious lunch at Luca's parents' house and Monday was a special day for Chiara's family - her sister graduated from university, which meant a big party at Chiara's parents' house with around 80 guests. It was a really great evening - the highlight of which was a fun Italian tradition. When Italians graduate from university, their friends and family get together to write a poem about the graduate, kind of an embarassing thing similar to when friends make speeches at our 21sts here in New Zealand. The graduate has to read out the poem to all the guests and if they stumble over a word, she has to take a drink. Guests would try to put her off by throwing food and drinks over her as she read, it was really funny, even though I had no idea what was being said!

Another highlight of Zero Branco was another incredible hailstorm which hit right as the kids were leaving camp one day. It had been a stinking hot day, which is very challenging as the kids' attention span and enthusiasm just plummets. We couldn't believe when it started to hail, out of nowhere, and soon the small grassy patch in front of the school was flooded - so the tutors decided to cool down and have some fun by playing mud football - was a really fun afternoon!

On our final night, after the kids had put on their final show for parents and grandparents, us tutors headed back to my place for pizza and drinks, was a really nice way to cap off the two weeks, and most of us only had one more week of camps left.

The tutors and Luca on our last night

asolo.

With one camp under my belt, I headed for the small town of Asolo, only half an hour from Caldogno, for my first two-week camp. Again it was a small camp with only three tutors - Liza from the USA and Eva from Ireland.

We unexpectedly met on the train, which was nice, and were greeted at the Castelfranco train station by our lovely host families. My host family was made up of four sons!! Aged three, six, 10 and 13, and their wonderful parents, Francesco and Francesca.

Being hosted by Francesco and Francesca was a real treat, as Francesca studied English at university and speaks English impeccably. Also, Francesco's relatives from Australia, Elsa and Glenn, were staying with the family too, so it was nice to hear a familiar accent and speak with people for whom English is their first language.

On my second day, the family along with Francesco's parents and Elsa and Glen took a trip to an Agroturismo, a beautiful vineyard which produces all its food on site, growing vegetables, farming their own meat and the food was AMAZING. Mostly antipasto: meats, veges, bruschetta and pasta and it was divine. The region is known for Prosecco, a type of sparkling white wine, so there was plenty of Prosecco to go around, both at lunch and for the following month at two host families!

The beautiful view of the Agroturismo

The home, although super chaotic, was very welcoming and friendly, and although the younger boys could not speak any English at all, it was still fun to hang out and play football and video games. The six-year-old, Federico, loved to chat away to me, unaware that I haven't got a clue about what he's saying, and no matter how many times I would tell him (in Italian) that I don't speak Italian, he would still sit there and chat away, trying to help by speaking reeealllyyyy slowly, teach me little games and get me to pick him up.

Federico's favourite game - holding himself up by his fists in my hands

The 10-year-old, Fabio, was in my camp group and although he is quieter than his younger brothers, he's a super sweet boy and really made progress throughout the two weeks.

Our camp director, Barbara, was really enthusiastic and organised all kinds of trips for us tutors after camp, so that we could see the local area and experience all of the little towns nearby. She also took us to Venice on the weekend and the beach, Jesolo, which was a fantastic, relaxing day.

Eva, Liza and Me on the Rialto Bridge in Venice

Venetian traffic jam

The walled town of Castelfranco

All three host families were friends, so on the nights there was nothing planned, we often ended up either bumping into each other planning evenings together. On my first night in Asolo we walked up to the historic town, where the locals were partaking in an annual tradition where groups of young men dress up like Romans and tow a carriage with a lady in it up this massive hill to the fortress, was so fun and you would think the team that won had won the football World Cup the way the singing and chanting and cheering went on for hours!

Dinner one evening with all the host families

With three of my four host brothers - Fabrizio, Federico and Fabio

My camp group before the final show

My very talented host mother Francesca made a beautiful cake for our final show

Tutors and camp director after the final show

Ice creams on my last day at the Pellizzers'

With my host father, Francesco

I had such a great time in Asolo, with a beautiful, welcoming family and was kind of reluctant to leave... but I didn't have a choice and the next destination was only 20 minutes away!

caldogno.

It's a strange experience, being given a train ticket to a small town you've never heard of, travelling with people you barely know, being greeted at the train station by two ladies you've never met and before you know it, being welcomed into a strange home by a very friendly family with limited English.

It's something I have to get used to though, and I found myself in the small town of Caldogno, in the province of Vicenza, in a huge home complete with my own guest wing, huge kitchen, gym, wine cellar with 1200 bottles of wine, three outdoor entertaining areas, a security system to rival most banks and, most importantly, a very friendly and welcoming host family.

My host father, Giuseppe, is taking English lessons with a private tutor so he was very excited about being able to practice his English every day with me. Better than that, he's an exceptional cook but on our first night he treated us to a superb dinner in a nearby town, complete with Champagne (which would become a regular dinner beverage for the next week), three courses and a beautiful rural view.

The two girls, Valentina and Gaia (11 and eight years old), were very shy to begin with but it wasn't long before they opened up... as much as girls who speak another language can. With the school my first camp was based at just a three minute walk away, it was a fantastic start to being hosted, which is quite a nervous experience. You know absolutely nothing about where and who you will be staying with for the next week, it is a strange situation!

Our camp directors, Antonella and Monica, were fantastic. They essentially organised the camp and oversaw all the work that me, Victoria (from Canada) and Sally (from Ireland) did. They also arranged a couple of outings for us, taking us to the famous (and beautiful) Verona on one evening. Verona was fabulous, and a city I probably never would have checked out if I had been simply visiting Italy as a tourist. We were in town the night that Paul McCartney was playing at the Verona Arena, a venue similar in structure and to Rome's Colosseum, but which is still used today for concerts!

Me, Victoria and Sally in front of the Verona Arena

We had a lovely dinner in Verona and then sat outside the Arena eating gelato and listening to a few of Paul's songs, before going for a stroll around the town, specifically to check out Juliet's balcony but sadly it was closed off! We could see kind of an obscured view of the balcony but what was really cool was all names written on the wall of the tunnel on the entrance to the balcony. People write their names and the names of those they love on the walls, believing that it will make their love everlasting.

There's also a bronze statue of Juliet which has the metal of the right breast worn bare due to a legend that if a person strokes the right breast of the statue, that person will have good luck in love. Although Monica disputed this legend, saying she had rubbed the statue many times and has not been lucky so far!

Later in the week we also took a trip to Vicenza, the main town in the province also called Vicenza. While not as well-known and steeped in history as Verona, it was nonetheless an absolutely beautiful town to stroll around, with its old medieval buildings, huge statues, churches, pillars and Palladian architecture.

All in all, my first week of teaching was a really positive one. I had a great (noisy, boisterous but fun) group of kids aged 8-10 and they were really enthusiastic about learning which was really cool!

My first camp group

 

long time, no blog

So, I've been busy and haven't had a chance to update the blog since I've been tutoring.... Will try to update it over the weekend but in the meantime here are some photos from my first three weeks...

Verona Arena with the two other tutors of my first camp...

The beautiful walled village of Castelfranco

A mountain of spaghetti shaped gelato

Cheese shop in the centre of Caldogno

In Venice with the two other tutors from my second camp

Gelato in Asolo with my second host family (four boys!!)

My second camp group before the final show

With three of my host brothers after the final show

Dinner with all the host families - second camp

Last day with the Pellizzers in Asolo

a crazy, exhausting week in taggia

After a four and a half hour train ride, we arrived in Taggia Arma, in Northern Italy. I had arranged through a Facebook group to meet up with three other tutors in Milan for the trip, which was nice. I sat with Rebecca from Australia, who luckily knew how to speak Italian, which came in really handy asking for directions and ensuring we were getting off at the correct stop.

We (well Rebecca, mainly, as she was doing all the speaking) befriended a couple of older ladies on the train and they were really entertaining. I soon learned that Italians are super hospitable and friendly if you make a little bit of effort - after a few minutes they were sharing their food with us and asking all about our lives. On the next train we met a crazy old lady who was sharing her conspiracy theories with Rebecca, was a right laugh!

So we were met at the train station by a couple of tutors who would become our mentors for the following week, teaching us all we needed to know about teaching Italian kids English. We stayed at Castarello Golf Resort which was a beautiful, sprawling complex high in the mountains but it was not exactly a holiday - early mornings, late nights and hot weather making for a really tiring week.

Our course covered everything from energiser games and songs to play with the kids to start the day, how to deal with the language barrier, how to deal with young children who aren't used to such a long day (in Italy, the youngest children only go to school until lunchtime), arts and crafts, games and activities, lesson planning, how to use gestures to convey information and instructions, and so much more! We were given a comprehensive manual which provides all the basic information we will need, including lesson plans for every level, but we are also encouraged to bring our own ideas and experience.

There were around 60 of us doing the course, and the majority of them were either teachers on their summer break, or studying to be teachers.

Not having any teaching experience, I went into the week pretty unsure about my abilities but over the course of the week, I felt like I was gaining more and more knowledge and practical experience. By the last day, I was feeling pretty good but still nervous about meeting my first host family and camp group!