What the whaaaat?

So guess who was in the local Italian newspaper? Oh the answer isn't you. Yes, me Rachel, Marlena and Jaryd this giant of a man from South Africa were in the local paper with the kids. I had a photocopy and then my host mom gave me a real copy for my birthday along with a little book/beach bag. It's adorable.

I'm currently sitting on some stairs int piazza waiting for my fellow tutors relaxing and updating you. This week has been great. For the kids that stayed two weeks, I think they have gotten a lot out of it. They have totally opened up more and just trying do much harder. With the kids, as with most people it's hard for me to get to know them, so the extra week gives me that. I know I'm not the most fun, or silly but I think my strength is being the most supportive and after the first week, I think they see it and try harder. I have also learned that if they see me trying in Italian, they try harder in English and respond in English. I have a kid that has a headful of hair like a lion so I call him my lion. If I was a 10 year old girl I'd have the biggest crush on him. He is adorable. Then I have twins that look NOTHING alike. When I told the high school helpers they couldn't believe it. Different color eyes, facial features, height, everything. One reminds me of Scooter from the Muppets the other of nothing. But the first week I couldn't get a word out of them. Now they try so hard I want to hug them to death. So speaking of high school helpers, we have a bunch of high school kids that help with translating and bitch work when necessary. They are to practice their English. Most of the time they nod when we ask them to do something when they don't understand. Sometimes I want to yell at them it's ok to ask questions. Anyway, there is this 10 year old girl in my class who speaks amazing English. Better than the helpers. Her father is Engish and mother Italian. I like having her cause thn she can explain everything even to the helpers but the problem is because she knows everything she doesn't give the kids time to think. Double edged sword. So as everyone knows I like to nickname people. At camp we have this kid we call Rogue because he has a blonde patch of hair growing out of his head.

In our final show this week, we did Zombies vs. Assassins with a Sherlock Holmes wrap up. My show even got a few laughs and they even got the twist ending! It was so good, one of my better ones. I felt like a rock star after the show. All the parents wanted to come up to me and talk to me and thank me and if I was coming back I had 2 parents offer to take me in. Even the twins mom! That would be super fun I think. The more I think about it, the more I think its a good idea just to plan to come back.

My next camp is in Ivrea with high schoolers. I am a little nervous but an excited for the students to understand what I am saying most of the time. But with each city I have been in, there has been one over arching theme. Italians are super accomodating. Here are some examples. When I was in San Remo, a friend of our trainer opened his bar up as after hours as a favor and despite our directors saying 10 more minutes for 3 hours, the guy kept the bar open as long as we were having a good time. Another example is that I asked one of my host mom's where I could get a black leather jacket. She took me to a department store. And as many of my readers are suffering from the summer, Italians are too and so their leather items are not out on the shelves. But this guy took me upstairs to their stockroom and had me try on a bunch of jackets but unfortunately the one I loved and could afford was not in my size. Maybe fortunately because they are pricey. So pricey it might be worth it for me just to buy it in the states and focus on other leather goods. A third example is that another host mom bought a backpack for me after I told her that my camp bag was falling apart. Another, I used this awesome bug repellent. We think it is citronella in an oil form. It calmed my itching and no more bugs. I went to the lady who let me use it to get the name of it and she just gave me the bottle. The only problem is that I found out about this oil AFTER being eaten alive by I don't know what. In my professional housing opinion I would guess fleas because I even checked for bedbugs. Thank you Kimo! I am not as bad as I was in Ecuador but I could give my old self some bug biting competition. But I have come to the conclusion that Italians are very accomodating.

Yesterday I went to the mall. They had a Sephora. It was so random. But they also had a store that was more like a K-mart but I didn't go in but I really wanted too. I did a present for my favorite sister that was perfect (you are welcome). We had our final show as previously mentioned and then had dinner. I had carbonera which is a pasta dish, but with a rawish egg and bacon sauce. Rachel, two nights before had that and got sick, and Marlena the night before that had raw items and was also sick so I was a little weary when it was told that I would be trying it. But my host mom did cook it a little bit so it was safe to eat. The taste isn't that different but the sauce is more silky than anything I've had. It was interesting and of course good. Actually, although the food this week was simple and a lot of vegetables it was delicious as has been much of the food in Italy. After dinner, the tutors and assistants went out to get drinks as a final day of camp/my birthday celebration. I asked the assistants if they could see someone and just know they weren't Italian. Michele, the guy assistant said yes, for sure. So after our waiter left he said "he is not Italian, maybe Yugoslovian or Albanian." I looked at him and laughed and laughed thinking about Kiah calling Matt Albania. Our waiter looked completely like a Russian spy with really intense chiselled cheek bones and demeanor but we never asked to confirm. But I thought it was hilarious, so Kiah, not all Albanians look alike or look like Matt apparently.

Ok and so it is getting to the point that the pressure is on to get a phone but I don't want one. So I tried just getting an application to text internationally. Curse the whole world who makes apps. Do you know how hard that is? I can text from here to the US no problem but I can't text from Italy to another Italian number or anywhere else internationally because the world is difficult. I think I found one finally, but I am waiting for my international people to respond to see if it will work. If anyone knows anything please let me know! I need help.

6 more weeks. Gotta make the most of it.

"A horse is a horse of course of course"

So in case you couldn't tell this is a food topic blog post. Today, I wanted to go to Venice or Padua to go check out the sights. I did neither. Instead this morning I went to a bakery but not the bakery I had been going to all week (who is the host family of another tutor so I felt like I was cheating on them) and then went to a meat market that ONLY sold horse.....For those of you wondering, horse looks darker than your average meat. It looks like the color of liver actually. Its a dark redish color. So they had sample horse meat....4 different samples....and I tried them all. Horse is saltier than I thought it would be and I don't know if its how they cured it or horse is naturally saltier but it wasn't easier for me to eat emotionally and physically. It wasn't bad, but it was like...oh, Mister Ed. Luckily my host mom bought the type I appreciated the most. I just don't know when I will get it in a meal now. Oh and it is expensive. I don't know how much exactly but I remember looking at the prices and thinking damn, that is pricey.

After the meat market we went to the grocery store. I really liked the experience to see what they had comapared to what we have. For starters, the shopping carts are all chained up but they each have individual chains. You put a euro in and it releases the chain so you can take the cart. Ater that, when you return it you get the Euro back. Very smart and they are not losing carts that way. Once inside, in the produce section, you have the bag where you put your fruits or vegetables but also little plastic gloves to pick said fruit to make it as clean as possible. The store has 2 different cheese sections. The first section are cheeses that are local growers. So all the chesses say the name of the cheese by so and so family and they were all really cheap, the cheapest cheeses I have seen EVER. The second cheese section are all imported cheeses and they were like 9 euro a whatever their unit of measurement was but that breaks down to about 13 dollars. No thank you imported cheeses, I will not be having any of you.

So then I came back and got an email from my fellow tutors about lunch. I went to meet up wtih them and we went to get pizza because that was the only thing open. I had a seperate menu from my friends. My menu had the name of the pizza, what it was in Italian and in English while my friends only had the Italian (keep in mind one of them knows Italian decently well). I ordered a brie mozzarella pizza with argula and cherry tomatoes. Yum. Robbie's was similar but better. Marlena got some other pizza that looked decent, healthy but something that I did not recognize on top. As the waitress put it down, Robbie who is our Italian langauge person says "cavallo"? Apparently it is shredded horse on top of her pizza! That was too weird for someone who even recently tried horse and didn't find it that bad. However, on the menu it was sfiliaccti (keep that in mind for those of you traveling in Italy) and it sounded ok right? No it was horse meat. We got that packed up for Marlena to take to her host family and ordered the same pizza without the horse meat. Luckily, Robbie was there and heard "horse" in Italian and saved her. It could have been bad.

We then walked around and hung out at Marlena's host grandmother's house talking or watching Robbie and Marlena bounce up and down on the trampoline. I enjoyed my pristine spot on the yard too much to lose it. Marlena's family apparently doesn't eat horse so they got a pizza without knowing what to do withit. However, it was so peaceful just to be there with nature on a beautiful not too humid day and just enjoy it. I was then dropped off at my home. Soon, I was invited to go eat with Rache's host family. Their neighbor came over and I don't remember what it was called but I rememebred what it was. For those of you that know me well, you know that I LOVE pumpkin. Well today, I had tempura flowers, but they were the flowers off the vine of the pumpkins. DAMN they were good. I asked for the recipe because I could have had the whole plate. I also had some cheeses, fruit, pasta and zuccini but the FLOWERS are what I will take away with from that meal. Can I have some more please? And with that, tomorrow I go to Venice. Apparently I have to get glass something as a present. Who knew about Venitian glass and how it was world famous? Not me. I missed that portion of my history class!

I cannot wait! More to follow!