It's 2016, For Fuck's Sake!

No but seriously. It's twenty-fucking-sixteen. There are things that should be easy by now!

For example, is it really so difficult to find cough syrup that doesn't taste like ass? I'm congested, so I took some Benylin. It tasted like mentholated chemical strawberries. Absolutely disgusting. They've been making this stuff for years, you'd think they'd have perfected the taste by now.

Addition Elle is selling this beautiful top,
but I really want those shorts!! 

And another thing: it shouldn't be this difficult to buy shorts! Okay, maybe it's not shorts season and maybe there aren't that many choices of styles in stores... but come on! Why can't I find nice, casual bermuda shorts? Old Navy seems to only have either short shorts or work shorts. Addition Elle has nothing at the moment, but when they do it's either work shorts or horribly impractical dressy shorts. I just think that I would have different choices in what I wear depending on whether I'm going to work or on a picnic with friends. The worst part of the Addition Elle website is that they're selling a sleeveless polo and the model showing it is wearing a pair of shorts I want... and the shorts are not even on the site! That's just mean!

Why am I looking for shorts in March, you may ask? Well, that brings me to a different point. I'M GOING BACK TO ITALY THIS SUMMER!!! WOOHOO!!! My mom and I (and some of her friends) will be spending two weeks in Praiano, on the Amalfi Coast (with an overnight trip to my mom's village). My mom and I will then be traveling, by train, to Milano (Duomo, Luini's, maybe some shopping) for a night, to San Remo (Baiardo, the beach, the casino) for two nights and finally up to Nice (France) for one night.

I'm looking forward to showing my mom some of my favourite places from when I was with ACLE, Baiardo especially. Some of my best ACLE memories are from there. I'm also looking forward to seeing my mom's village. I never thought I'd see it with her. She hasn't been back in over 40 years. I'm excited to see how she reacts to seeing it again.

Anywhoo, the search for shorts continues. If you see anything stores (that ship to Canada) and have cute shorts, let me know!

Carisolo/Madonna di Campiglio

Oh. My. God. I'm living IN the mountains these next two weeks. Not on, not near, not at the base of, but IN. THE. MOUNTAINS. It's beautiful. Everywhere I look: mountains. And it's like 10-15 C here. There are just no words....

Also, I'm living in a hotel. Hotel Europa, to be exact. It's in a village called Madonna di Campiglio, which is essentially just hotels.

You know, I started this post 2 weeks ago. I'm finishing it now. I'm exhausted. The Dolomites are beautiful. It was cold. Somehow "I don't agree" turned into "I don't like green" and we're still not sure why. My kids did Phineas and Ferb as their final show and it worked out okay (or as okay as it can be when you give an orange group the script on Thursday).

ACLE has no more work for me, so I'm "stuck" here for 17 days. I'm going to Baiardo until at least August 6th with the plan being that I'll bus it to the beach in San Remo every day. After that, I'm either doing a Contiki type tour in London for 5 days. Or I might go to Munich to stay with a BNL friend. Or I might make different plans with someone I meet in Baiardo. Who knows? I sure don't! Isn't it exciting (and kinda terrifying)?

I miss my friends, I miss my family, I miss my dog, I miss my bed.

Ciao!

Switzerland for a day

Yesterday, we had a "tutor outing" and went to Switzerland. It was only a hour away. It was BEAUTIFUL!!!

We woke up early to catch the 7:50am train... but that didn't work. Two tutors got there late and we missed the train by, like, 20 seconds. But that was okay, because as we were walking, looking for a cafe for breakfast, we found a store we need to go back to that had ADORABLE flats for 15€. We will go back on Monday.

We had espresso and "toast" (ham and cheese sandwich) at this great little cafe and then walked back to the train station in time to catch our train at 8:50am. The ride from a Milan suburb to Chiaso, Switzerland only took about an hour! It was so beautiful and the train was nice and air conditioned... Have I mentioned yet how hot it is here? And we're getting a heatwave from Africa next week? Tempurature is supposed to be in the 40s all week. Eww. But I digress.

Once in Chiaso, we bought our tickets to go to the lake (Lugano, Switzerland). We had some time to kill so we went to the train station's mini grocery store and stocked up on lunchables for a picnic. And so we were off to Lugano!

What a beautiful place. The train ride alone was breathtaking! We really outed ourselves as tourists, but that's okay. Once in Lugano, we were completely blown away by its beauty. We couldn't stop taking pictures. It took us a good 20 mins to get from the train station to (what I'm going to refer to as) the center of town (which would have taken normal people about 5 minutes). Everything was just so photographable.

So we walked to "the center of town" where we bought postcards and stamps so that we could mail out some stuff ASAP. I think it'll be fun for whoever I sent my postcards to. They'll receive some proof of my being there for the day. Oh and guess what was happening there? Some sort of Harley Davidson motorcycle show! There were some gorgeous bikes on display. I'm sorry, I still can't get over how beautiful it was! And the group I was with really made it a lot of fun. We had a lovely picnic by the water and then wandered around for a while, taking in the sites. We finally ended up taking a nap, in a park, under a tree. We were there for 40 mins, and I'm sure I could hear people laughing at us, but I don't care. It was so hot and our feet hurt and we were tired... and we were nice a refreshed afterward! Then we did something that you really can't do anywhere else in the world, especially not Montreal... We went shopping at H&M, hahaha. I bought a cute top. It's a little snug, but I think I'll fit in it perfectly by the end of the summer.

After Lugano, we went to this outlet mall in Mendrisio, Switzerland called Foxtown. There are outlets for Puma, Guess, Pepe Jeans, Versace, Valentino, Fendi and a ton of others that I just can't afford, outlet prices or not. It was nice to look at! And I had awesome gelato (chocolate and raspberry).

On our way home, I bought THE CUTEST cow mug... it made me so happy. I also bought a little bag of Toblerone for my host family. All in all, it was a good day!

Today, the tutors and I met the two new tutors coming to our camp. They seem super nice and we're all on the same page about just about everything. I'm so glad we're all getting along so well! Through an ACLE (or just our camp director) misunderstanding, the two new tutors have a private apartment (since everyone here was informed that they are a couple). This works out nicely, though, as we are planning a movie night at their place. We planned all our songs for the week today (warm-up and cool down) as well as all our Olympic activities and any other games we want to plan.

After the meeting, my host family took me to Milan to shop. And guess what? I bought a new bag! It's a good size, it's a nice colour and, best of all, it's not something I'd find in Montreal. The camp assistant (who's super cool, by the way) has one in red and I commented on it yesterday, saying I was looking for something similar. When I saw it in pink in a store today, I didn't even hesitate to buy it. And it was on sale! Woo! So, she should be flattered that I'm copying her good taste.

Anyway, I need to be at the camp tomorrow at 8am, so I should probably go to sleep now...

Good night!

Third time's the Charm

I'm now with my third host family and my second camp. My first camp director was fantastic: she knew how to choose sides (between parents and tutors) when needed and she knew that a camp like this needs to go with the flow. You can't plan every minute of everyday.

This new camp director is the exact opposite of the last one. This new one, let's call her S, wants us to not only plan who sings what song in the morning (a reasonable request), but how long each song will last. Our end-of-the-day meeting (which usually takes 15-20 mins) took ALMOST AN HOUR. 20 mins for S to talk to parents and then 25-30 mins of her talking but never really answering our questions. And when we'd answer hers, she'd ask again... and again... I think it was either to make sure we answered the same way each time or to try to change our minds to her way of thinking. The meeting only ended when two tutors told her their host mom had been waiting for them all this time. Tomorrow, I'm leaving after 20 mins max: I have a 20 min walk home.

S was upset that I won't be getting there early tomorrow. I think she wanted me to ask my host mom to either drive the kids to camp at 8am (camp starts at 8:30am) or to make two trips: one for me and one for the kids. Uhh, no. I'm not going to ask that. It's ridiculous! I don't need to be there 30mins early EVERYDAY. You'd think it's her first time as a camp director, but no. She's been there all 4 years the camp has been going on. WTF, mate?

Other than that, my new host family is awesome. The daughter (a camper) is 14, the son (a helper) is 16. The mother is an architect and the father is an engineer. Yesterday, they took me to Lake Como where I totally..... didn't see George Clooney. But I'm pretending I did, in my mind. Yep, I close my eyes and there he was, in front of the lake. It was love at first sight and I'm going to the Oscars in 2012! Hahaha, I wish.

So, a fellow tutor turned me onto Contiki tours. I want to take one for my last week or so in Europe, but I just can't find one that interests me, fits in my budget and in my time frame. I'm a little bummed because I found the PERFECT one and all the trips leaving around when I'd be free are full. Boo. Maybe next year, I'll plan for one ahead of time. With a friend. Maybe.

I'm still reluctant about long-term traveling with friends, after the whole Ships and Dip III fiasco. And considering I get annoyed with people sometimes after a 3 day trip... I don't know how I'd be.

MY host mom and I are going for a walk soon: I get to explore a bit of this suburb. Hopefully soon, I'll get some information concerning the relatives my family found in the area: maybe I'll go out for supper with them!

It's exciting, this life I lead. I wouldn't trade it for anything. The travel periods, although few and far between, are what keep me sane during my sedentary moments. I've never lived healthier as I have when I'm on "vacation" if only because I'm always moving.

Ouf, I'm tired

Being a day camp tutor is HARD. Long days, lots of physical activity, hot sun, annoying kids... But it's also rewarding. I've learned to find the good in the bad. Long days: more experience for my job. Lots of physical activity: I'll get in shape. Hot sun: maybe a tan. Annoying kids: they're using the correct verb tense to mouth off to me.

I have two particularly difficult students for two very different reasons. One is a 13 year old boy with the maturity of a 5 year old. He's very smart but refuses to do any work. The other is 12 and I'm convinced he's got undiagnosed... something. He freaks out of what seems to us to be no reason, he shows ODC tendencies, he eats his glue and pencil shavings.... I really don't know what to do with him. He's okay during actual lessons, but refuses to socialize at breaks or at lunch time... So I just let him be. I include him (in what I hope to be a non-aggressive/non-scary way) during the lessons and simply make sure he isn't doing anything dangerous during the breaks. So yeah.

Today was a lot of fun. This morning, we played a version of tag. What was great was that the tutors were "it" and I had a chance to go after some of my students. Sadly (and hilariously) this backfired on me. A kid sidestepped me, out -maneuvered me and I ended up face-planting into a wall. I was a huge (but not deep) scrape on my right arm that'll bruise up nicely. War scar, I think lol.

Tonight was my last night with this host family. They had never hosted a tutor before and requested to only have one week with me. The host mother assures me that the next host family is fantastic, so I'm optimistic. My host family had guests for dinner and it was so much fun. The mother spent almost 5 years living in England and relished the idea of practicing her English. I was also treated to stories about how the fathers met, gossip about other host families and the families of other students and a plethora (well, 2) of suggestions of where to go out tonight. They were so understanding of my desire to spend for English adult time (as they called it) with some fellow tutors, minus host families and students. We ended up at this sketchy bar called Area 51. It was sketch going in, but once out back it was great. There were BBQ pits going where people were cooking food (smelled AWESOME), a great patio type getup and a good 10€ bottle of red wime for the three of us. My host mom didn't even think twice about "letting" me go out: she gave me the house keys, walked me out and showed me exactly where to go. Fantastic!

Well, it's 1:33am and, guess what? I'M EXHAUSTED! I barely slept last night and I seem to have allergies.

Good night.

I do miss you <3

Boone St-Jean!!

In Italia!

Hey y'all! I'm in Bella Italia! My plane landed in Nice (France) yesterday at 6:30am my time (12:30am Montreal time). I ate an "American breakfast" (3 eggs sunny side up cooked on ham) at a cafe at hopped on the 9:30am train to Ventimiglia (Italy). From there, I got on the 10:30ish am train to Milan. I was on the train a good 4.5hrs: my ass hurt by the end of my ride! From Milan Central Station, I bought a 48hrs Urban Metro pass and took the underground to my hotel for the night. What a nice placed! It was 3 stars, small but very comfortable and clean. Cleaner than some 3.5 or 4 star hotels I've stayed in. The woman at the reception was very nice in answering my 7000000000000 questions about where to find certain things: a phone shop, a supermarket, a good and cheap restaurant (I ended up at McDonald's because I couldn't find it and was mega hungry)... I tried really hard to stay up so that I wouldn't be too jet-lagged today: it didn't really work. I conked out at 9:30ish... and woke up at 5am.

After tossing and turning and drifting in and out of sleep until 9am, I got up, showered, shoved everything from my carry-on into my suitcase and checked out for 11:30am. I hopped back on the underground, back to Milan Central Station to store my luggage... and had to divide my luggage and my carry-on once more (because everything together was more than 20kg which was the storing luggage max weight). I was meeting my camp director at the train station at 2:50pm, so back on the underground I went to kill some time.

Last year, I spent a weekend in Milan with some fellow tutors. One of the tutors' host moms told us about Luini, a hole in the wall restaurant near the Duomo in Milan. We went, we ate, we were happy. I decided to go back this year: why not? It was just as good this time around! I also got some postcards (despite the Post Canada strike (I meant lockout. My dad asked me to correct this.), haha) and some lemon granite (like an Italian slushy). Effing yum, by the way.

At 2:30, I headed back to the train station, picked up my luggage, shoved my carry-on back in my suitcase and headed up to meet my camp director. After a minor miscommunication, she found me and I met the 5 other tutors (3 camp from a camp last week and 2 are straight out of orientation) and my host mom. She's so nice.

I'm staying in a gated community 10mins south of Milan. She works in HR for a telecommunications company. Her husband is a physiotherapist. Both speak English very well. They have 2 kids: and 8 year old girl (who is going to the camp) and a 13 year old boy (who went to camp last year but is not going this year). The little girl is really shy and is always whispering, asking her mom what we're saying. The boy asked me to correct his English homework (yep, they have summer homework) and was very proud of himself when I said it looked good. He's trying to practice his English with me.

Alright, so it's almost 1am here. We just finished watching a movie as a family (Apocalypto!!) and I'm exhausted. Good night!

Memories...

And no, I don't mean the song from Cats.

I've been cleaning my room (yep, still doing that) and, obviously, I've been finding old photographs. From music competitions in high school to concerts and random fun in CEGEP to the printed digital photos of my cruises... And a very entertaining one of my friends at my "surprise" 17th birthday party. I say "surprise" because my boyfriend and best friend (at the time) did a horrible job of keeping it a secret. I remember C calling my house, talking to me for a few minutes and then asking to speak to my sister. And A taking me out for the day and asking what my favourite cake is and then disappearing to use the payphone. And telling me we couldn't go back to my house yet because he had to make a phone call first... to my parents. I mean, it was a good effort! Just, you know, a failed one. It was a great party, though.

So, I want to take some time and go through all these old photos and categorize them, organize them, stick them in scrapbooks and tell all my friends the stories behind each moment. I want to be the annoying older person (cause, you know, I'm soooo old at 25) who tells all the youngsters (you know, my 23 year old friends who are soooo young) how it was in the "good old days." Thing is, it's starting to sink in that the "good old days" weren't the best times of my life, as I previously believed. I'm starting to think that I actually can have way more adventures in the future.

It's 100% official, by the way. I am going back to Europe. I've been having some issues with the Spain people, what with them not being sure they have a place for me. I've now decided that I'll just pay for my own damn ticket to Milan and just work in Italy is Spain doesn't have the camps. You know, it's a little silly for them to STILL be waiting on the Spanish government for answers about how many tutors they need. So, I'm going. No matter what.

And here's Memory:

Sad Michele is less sad then yesterday.

I'm not going to Hong Kong. I was so sad and upset and frustrated about this yesterday. Why didn't they pick me? I'm awesome! So I thought to myself, "What would Barney Stinson do?" and I answered "Well, I can just stop being sad and be awesome instead." And that's the plan. I'm going to plan to do something awesome and incredible and fantastic, because that's who I am and that's what I do.

I'm going to try to plan a European trip/extended teaching experience. I'll start with a sure thing: I'll go back to Italy. I'll also apply to this program I know of in Spain, where they pay for your flight. From there, I would like to see Portugal, Amsterdam, Greece, France, the UK, Austria, Switzerland... I want see it all! Yes, I know this is expensive. I don't think I'll be able to do everything this summer, but I'll be able to do enough. Italy, Spain and Greece are the main points on my list. And my main goal is to be in Spain for La Tomatina in August.

Do you know what La Tomatina is? It's a GIANT tomato fight. In the town of Buñol, Spain, THOUSANDS of tourists invade and throw over 50000 pounds of tomatoes at each other. I don't know about you, but that sounds like a really good time to me. In fact, it sounds like it's a fantastic thing to attend and every one should go at least once in their life.

What will I need to help me with this? A job, for starters. I've applied at a private tutoring company. I'm hoping to hear from them this week. If I don't get it, I'm not worried: I'm getting $30 for participating in a Linguistic study tomorrow. Oh and I won $6 on a Bingo lotto scratch ticket. I did, however, spend $20 on lunch, but that's because we have no food in the house, again. Hopefully, someone will go grocery shopping tonight.

I have my sculpture class tonight: I really like it! I thought it would be awful and too intense, but I like it a lot. I'm carving plaster for now. Then I'll make a clay thing a little later this semester. I'm really enjoying it, but I'm at a loss as to what to carve on a certain section. I could easily do "whatever," but I'm going to be spending a lot of time on it and I'd like to be able to display it when it's finished.

The moral of the story? I think I'll be fine.

Home again, home again

Well, I've been home from Italy for about 5 days now. First, let me say that it was one of the most incredible experiences ever. Having the opportunity to teach English in Italy was well worth the expense of having to *get* to Italy. I will definitely be doing it again, maybe even next year.

Meanwhile, it's back to normal life here, or as normal as it gets. I got back last Sunday and started my second summer class on Monday. I've been going, non-stop, all week and I'm exhausted. Along with class, I've been having to deal with family and friend drama, so of course, what happens now? Oh that's right, I don't sleep. I mean, why else would I be blogging at 5am? Hello, insomnia old friend, long time no see!

I know I suck, but that's all for now.

Cannes/Monaco/Rain

I’m finding out where I’ll be placed for camp tomorrow. I’m nervous, yet excited. Nervous because I’ve never done this sort of thing before but excited because, after all, this is what I’m here to do.

Today, it was raining in Baiardo. To be honest, it was raining yesterday and all of last night as well. To prove this fact, my school bag is SOAKED, completely and thoroughly soaked. I’m so glad that my electronics were in baggies, or else they’d be ruined. I’m going to buy a new schoolbag tomorrow (mine smells REALLY weird now and is about 6 years old so I can justify a new one). I need a new suitcase as well as this one (my first ever that’s only 4 years old) is broken. This isn’t a HUGE problem for me, but the fact that the handle won’t go down might be a problem on the airplane back home. I’m going to hold off on purchasing that, though, until my last camp so that I’ll have actual money to buy it with.

We went to Cannes and Monte-Carlos today, but sadly I hadn’t set my converter to the right setting and my camera’s battery drained completely over night instead of recharging: no pictures for me... One girl was nice enough to take a picture OF me in Monaco, so that’ll be tagged on Facebook... eventually... once we all have access to high speed internet.

Well, I should probably be off to bed now: it’s 12:20 am here. Tomorrow, I’ll be sleeping in and then going to the beach. Woo!

Bajardo

On the top of a mountain, 1000 meters above sea level; the clouds look like they’ve invaded the city, much like that movie The Mist. I’m in Bajardo, a little town in Italy, population 200 or so. I’m “on hold,” which means I’m one of 37 people who could not be placed at a camp right away because there weren’t enough camps this week. One the bright side, I’m getting paid 100 € to relax and the founder of ACLE is organizing a trip to Cannes/Monaco for us. So exciting!!!

In Bajardo, there are wild, feral cats, fog all around, no breeze and, wait for it, SCORPIONS. Yep, scorpions. WHAT THE EFF, MAN!!?!?!?!?!? I really don’t know how I feel about that, other than a little freaked out. I’m not so freaked out that I’ll let it ruin my trip, but a little freaked out none the less.

I need a new suitcase too: the 10 min uphill hike on cobble stone absolutely destroyed my poor bag. Also, I think a backpack style bag might be easier to carry. And, if there are useless things that don’t fit, I can simply ship them home. I just wish I could find a plus sized clothing store to buy some more shorts and send home some pants home. I don’t need my dress pants. They’re also way too tight! I didn’t realize it when I packed them. It seems like I lost some weight, though. My size 18 pants/shorts/skirt seems to be falling off of me. That might make things awkward in the summer camps.

Well, I’m not even half way through Love, Actually and I’m really super tired. I suppose it’s goodbye for now!

OMG!!!

It's been a while, I know. Almost a month! Sorry! I had class, and work, and... well... I was lazy.

MY ROOM IS CLEAN! WOO!!! Mission Accomplished, with a week to spare (I finished last Sunday). Now, I just need to get a move on and start packing, seeing as how I'm leaving TOMORROW! Holy crap!

To celebrate my leaving for ITALIA, my most of favourite people and I got together for dinner at Zyng, then for drinks (well, a drink lol) at La Distillerie. I really like both those places. The food at Zyng is so tasty and the drinks at La Distillerie are well worth their price. Not only that, but I had a really fantastic evening with some of my best friends. These ladies have been there for me through thick and thin and I have a feeling that they will continue to support me and love me for a long time. My friend from high school was there for a little bit. She and I used to be inseparable, then lost touch in CEGEP. I'm so glad that we're getting closer again, I know that she was one of the few REAL friends to come out of RHS. Finding such good friends in university helped me realize who my real friends in high school were, and let me tell you: there weren't many of them! But that's okay. I'm a better person for knowing all those people, good or bad.

Speaking of Italy (well, we weren't really, but that's okay), I'm so excited that I'll be there to watch at least three World Cup games in which Italy will be playing. That will be INTENSE! I'm really looking forward to it: hopefully I can actually watch the games.

I'm really excited! And nervous! And kinda freaking out...

Alright, I have to go pack.

Ciao!