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!

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!

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!