Last 3 weeks in 'la dolce vita'

When I arrived at “Pieschera del Garda,” I was greeted with the biggest and most enthusiastic bunch of Italian mothers and children I have ever received in my whole 3years at ACLE. There was music, flags, loads of people and happy faces waiting for us tutors, as we all got off the train looking a bit confused and lost as to if we had arrived at the correct place. We all headed to a gelateria to get to know each other, since there were 10 of us all working together this week. I got placed in a room with an American girl called Jess, in a villa that overlooked a vineyard. We woke up to the most amazing view every morning and were waited on, hand and foot, by the Italian nonna who cleaned and washed and prepared absolutely everything for us. 

I had a class of 10 gorgeous kids, who were really easy and fun to teach, and we worked on tables outside in the garden all week. Italy was having a heat wave that week, so we had our camp meetings at the public pool every day after school. Our tutor dinner was at a restaurant that had a dance floor, so I hit the dance floor within seconds of hearing a song I liked. The camp show was at 9pm on the Friday night, with lights, cameras, important people and lots of hyper kids. It was a huge success and very sad to have such an amazing camp come to an end. I really enjoyed all the tutors, camp structure, kids, area and directors running the camp.

On Saturday morning, I then got transferred with Nick to a camp in Monza for 2weeks. The first week it was just us two with 28kids, but luckily the second week we got 2more tutors when the camp increased to 49kids! We made rockets, volcanoes, dances, egg drop and a recycling fashion show. My class was a bit bigger this time, with 17kids and some difficult characters, but I had really good helpers and directors who took most of the stress away. My host family took me to their holiday house in Balzio, where we slept the night because it was cooler.  

We also saw the famous Monza park and villa, which was really beautiful. The following weekend we went to “val bodengo” to go ‘canyoning,’ which was the craziest thing I have ever done in Italy so far. We rock climbed, then jumped off waterfalls 8m high, then tobogganed down rocks and swam under them etc for 3hours. Here is a video of what sorts of things you do:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QB2g-M4Ngo

I visited Toni and Amy on the weekend in Treviglio to pick up my bags and see them one last time before we all changed countries. It was pretty hilarious cycling to the train station with my huge bag on the back, while the other two shared one bicycle...while it was raining pretty hard. I changed host families for the 2^nd week and had to buy a new trolley bag since all my clothes didn’t fit into my travel bag anymore. The directors, helpers and tutors all went out on Thursday night to Monza, where all the Grand Prix festivities were happening since the races were taking place that weekend. 

Friday we all went to a bar for our last drink together and then I bumped into a South African on the way home and we chatted for a bit about Rooibos, boerewors, where we lived in Cape Town and Table Mountain. Friday evening I went out for gelato and a beer with my host sister, which was to be my last Italian gelato for a while. I continued packing Saturday morning, with my bags weighing a final total of 44kgs...luckily I was being driven to Milano Centrale station so my only train change was in Zurich. The train took just under 4hrs to Zurich and then another hour to Konstanz. I eventually arrived at about 4pm and was greeted by my family with four lovely kids holding pieces of paper with my name on it :) 

Lugano, Switzerland

Side note: I apologise in advance if my writing is terrible, I’ve realised my English is deteriorating as I learn to speak other languages, simplifying and losing my own native language at the same time!!

After arriving in Rome and sleeping in the central station, I finally caught my train to Piacenza, near Milan, where I was picked up by one of my Italian families. I was taken home, cared for and looked after, for the first time since the beginning of July – I almost shed a tear that evening when I realised I didn’t have to worry where I left my belongings, where my next meal was coming from and if I had enough money to afford the next day. I was sad to have left Asia, but I was definitely enjoying this family time. I caught up on my sleep and then we all got in the car and headed to Lugano, Switzerland. Lugano is still very much Italian and all the shops and people still speak Italian there. We spent a week there just chilling, taking things easy and hanging out in the sun. 

 

We went into town, walked along the lake, had gelato, went out for dinner, walked round some old castles at night and went to a water park with epic slides. I also learnt a new game called “diabolo” and got given my very own one at the end of the week – it’s pretty crazy to try master the tricks...so far I can only get a good speed going and throw it in the air. Haha.  

We headed back on Friday evening, and then went for a final breakfast in front of the duomo on Saturday morning before I was transferred to my new ACLE camp in “Pieschera del Garda.” 

I also then realised that I had left my camera in Switzerland...such a pro thing for a traveller to do. Besides that, I was well rested and relaxed to start another 3weeks with ACLE :)