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.
Monday, July 4, 2011
Friday, June 24, 2011
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!!
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!!
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
What a day
Today, I:
- helped my students write a really random story about Casper the ghost, his dog Jimmy and their trip to the Manchester United stadium. *SPOILER ALERT* Jimmy got robbed and casper screamed "BANANA!!"
- finally started to get some colour on my arms... and perhaps even a slight sun burn: sunscreen tomorrow!
- pretended to be a platypus, worth 4 points
- was chased around the school grounds by 65 kids, or so, trying to get said 4 points for their team
- was a penguin who drank tea
- helped a 15 year old by correcting her pronunciation for her English oral exam: a report on the book Out of Africa
- was entertained by 5 Italian kids at supper
- babysat said Italian kids for an hour
- ate freshly made gelato: strawberry, chocolate, straciatella, vanilla and pistachio
- watched Disney's Tarzan in Italian
- sang along to the songs in English
- tried to convince myself I'd only be online for 30 mins (90 mins ago).
Sunday, June 19, 2011
And then the morning comes...
One thing I somehow managed to forget about last year: there are not enough hours in the night to wake up feeling rested. I stayed up until 1am last night and woke up at 8:30am this morning. That's still 7.5 hours of sleep, but I'm exhausted.
The family is going to a birthday party in an other town today. I'm staying home because they might not be back in time for the Camp Meeting (which I feel is important since we divide the groups and plan out two weeks worth of activities). The meeting is a 6:20pm... maybe I'll catch a nap after the family leaves.
I've been reading my book (Barney's Version) for the last hour or so. It's very funny and I can't wait to rent the movie.
Yeah... Maybe a nap now isn't such a bad idea...
The family is going to a birthday party in an other town today. I'm staying home because they might not be back in time for the Camp Meeting (which I feel is important since we divide the groups and plan out two weeks worth of activities). The meeting is a 6:20pm... maybe I'll catch a nap after the family leaves.
I've been reading my book (Barney's Version) for the last hour or so. It's very funny and I can't wait to rent the movie.
Yeah... Maybe a nap now isn't such a bad idea...
Saturday, June 18, 2011
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!
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!
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