I am back to civilization!!

Casamaina di Lucoli
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The past two weeks were some what of a 21st century experiment.  Take the girl out of the city - from the office in Times Square with high speed internet - and send her to the Italian country side for a taste of the simple life in the mountains - where even cell phones barely work.

Allora (so)...I spent two weeks in a little town called Casamaina di Lucoli. Where sheep out-number humans in population, and a fashionable New Yorker is obviously an oddity.  One morning as I walked down the street to the one and only store in town, the local folk not only oggled with curiosity but literally came running out of their houses in their pajamas to get a glimpse of the "girl not from here".

While it was nice to escape to the middle of no where for a bit of silence and solitude, neither of these were absolute...because I was in the middle of no where with 107 teenagers.

Casamaina di Lucoli
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I must admit that it didn't take me long to mellow out and embrace the simple life.  Most importantly, the afternoon siesta.  Why we don't have this in the states is beyond me!  I remember (in my old life) coming back from lunch and doing everything possible to stay awake at my desk.  Usually a half-hour of ebay browsing was all my mind could handle after my usual salad.  In Italy, you have the biggest meal of the day at lunch.  Hence, the reason for lean Italians...you have all afternoon to burn off the calorie intake.  Allora, my usual lunch was a three or four course meal of pasta, meat/fish, vegetables, and fruit.  After such an indulgence, you have an hour after lunch to relax!  Most days I would take a nap during this time.  I would wake up feeling totally refreshed and ready to tackle another class.  A much more productive and enjoyable afternoon than I ever remember in New York!

Kids headed to Castle in L'Aquila
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While it was nice to escape to the middle of no where for a bit of silence and solitude, neither of these were absolute...because I was in the middle of no where with 107 teenagers.  It was deja vu everyday, and I was constantly reminded how tough it is to be a teenager.  Not a time period I would like to re-visit in any way.

I have to admit that I did really enjoy teaching.  Minus a few tough kids, most were really sweet.  We had three days off in which the group made excursion trips to nearby attractions. The first trip was to the town of L'Aquila.  Our first stop was a 15th century castle which is now a museum.  It was really cool.  The coolest part was seeing a bunch of Roman-era jewelry and coins.  Mostly because I found out what "ferro" means.  I spent at least 12 years of my life living on "Ferro Drive" in Washington Township, New Jersey.  I never gave much thought to the name of the street, or what it meant.  I guess I assumed it was some dude's last name.  Well, as I found out on this day in L'Aquila, "ferro" means "iron" in Italian.  Pretty cool!

Andrea outside the castle in L'Aquila
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Our second stop was a church in L'Aquila where Pope Sistine organized the order of Sistine Monks and also where he is buried.  He is the only Pope buried outside of Rome.  The church was not that impressive from the outside, but very beautiful inside.  There just so happened to be an english tour passing through while we were there.  That's the only reason I know anything about Pope Sistine and his monks!

Our third stop was the shopping mall.  Yes, I spent another two hours in a shopping mall.  It was torture...and you all know how much I love shopping!  The other English teacher and I hit the supermarcato and bought some beer.  Gotta love Europe.  No open container laws here!  We sat outside the mall and enjoyed a few beers to kill the time.

The resting place of Pope Sistine
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I skipped the second excursion trip because Andrea came up to visit me.  We spent a lovely day in the historical center of L'Aquila and hiking in the woods near my camp.

The third excursion was to Grotte di Stiffe.  A really cool cave with waterfalls and neat-o rock formations.  Since the tour was in Italian, I really can't tell you much about it!  It was beautiful though.  After that we went to a park and had lunch, then back to the same shopping mall.  This time, I did a little shopping.  Going to the supermarcato by myself was a little scary, but I survived (and probably gave the cashier a good laugh).

My favorite student, Davide
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What I'm learning about Italy and Italians:

There is no tolerance of cold - in the form of weather or beverages.  On a cool day of about 60-65 degrees everyone was complaining about how cold it was.  I thought it was quite comfortable. Granted they don't understand the heat on a New York City subway platform in July, and how much coolness I would gladly take over that experience.  Save the Italian who ever has to work in corporate America where the thermostats are kept at a brisk 55 degrees May through September!!!

More favorite students - Claudia and Melania
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In the past two weeks, I have drank (at least once) room-temperature water (haven't seen an ice cube since New York), coke, juice and beer.  None of which I complained about.  Coke is hard to find in the middle of no where, and after one particular rough day, I would have drank boiling beer!

Words I've learned:

Being one of three people who spoke English at the camp, I learned a lot of new words.  I'll skip all the boring, practical ones like breakfast, lunch and dinner (colazione, pranzo and cena respectively) and share the more exciting expressions learned.

More students
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Basta! - Enough; State Zitti - Shut Up (I used this a lot); Stronzini - litle shits (learned this one from the counselors); Silenzio! - Silence; Che palle! - What balls!  (this is my favorite)

That's it for now.  After two weeks of the simple life, I detest spending the past two and a half hours in this internet cafe.

Ciao,

Kristall