Addio Orientation!

As I sit in an internet cafe on the main piazza of San Remo, I am filled with so much excitement and anxiety. Today was the last day of orientation, which means many things. The first of which is that the knowledge and practice I have today is all that I will have going into my first classroom. The bad part is that tonight is perhaps the last time I will ever see most of the other tutors that I have grown so close with this week.

A few hours ago, our first placements were announced... out of the 90 tutors at this week's orientation, only a little less than half of us were placed in camps for next week. Everyone else stays on-hold in a village indefinitely, until a position opens up for them. Luckily, I was given a placement (YAY!!!). In about 12 hours (Saturday morning), I will board a train to Piacenza, Italy (northern region, near Milan), where I will live with a host family by myself and teach at the camp there for one week. I was told to expect excessive heat and mosquitos in that area. There are 6 other tutors placed at the camp (and they're all really fun and cool). We will each be given our own class of about 7-12 students. I won't know what age group I have until I meet with that camp's director tomorrow. I believe that the age of students at that camp ranges from 6 to about 12 or 13ish. Needless to say, I am STOKED!

The leaders keep telling us that we become like little celebrities to the neighborhoods in which we leave. Most of the families greet us at the train station with hugs and kisses (Italians are VERY touchy!). We are told that they will probably want us to meet everyone they know, and that they will shove food at us all day until we either refuse it or throw up. (No complaints here!)

Things I've observed since my last entry:
-Dogs are even allowed in the grocery stores, rubbing their noses through the produce.

-Italians walk so slowly...ALWAYS! It's a 25 minute walk through the busiest street in the city (with a million shops, cafes and a casino on it)from my hotel room to the orientation centre, and sometimes I'm in hurry... especially when I'm walking it by myself. So I either have to leave a little earlier than I think I should or risk looking like a COMPLETE annoying tourist, shouting "Scuzi!" as I weave through herds of people and scooters.

-I think I prefer red wine to white. I had my first drink less than a month ago, so I don't have much to compare it to... but I've had complimentary wine with my dinner every night since I've been here. It really is easier to find and cheaper to drink than water.

-Dancing at bars in Italy is just as much fun as dancing at bars in America.

-More people can't locate Missouri on a map than you would think... A lot of the friends that I've made here (all the ones from Canada, the UK, and Australia) ask questions like "Where is that?" or "Oh yeah, that's on the west coast, right?" It's really opened my eyes to how unaware Americans are of certain things. I feel like the culture I grew up in made me assume that everyone knew so much about the USA because 'we're the best'. I never really thought about the fact that they don't drill the 50 states into students' heads in London. Likewise, I became very embarrassed when my roommate asked me if I could name the eight provinces and three territories of Canada. (I can now, though!)

Anyway, I am sad to leave so many friends, but I am very excited to see what next week has in store for me! And I can't wait to have a classroom of kids eager to learn and have fun! I think I am going to try to find a full-size Italian flag to have all my kids and host families sign throughout the summer, so that I will have something tangible by which to remember them.

"To teach, you need a degree; but to educate, you only need to be yourself."