Week 1 of the program is in the books.  Long story short, it was a week of rolling with the punches, adjusting, and learning the ropes.  The hardest part for me so far (other than the incredible lack of sleep) is learning how to get through to the kids.  My only camp experience is teaching swim lessons to kids under 6 years of age and the only experience I really have with high schoolers is the very limited time I spent subbing at the high school.  They are a completely different breed of kid, and I'm definitely struggling to find a happy medium between acting like a teacher and acting like a camp counselor.

Apart from the sincere stress that accompanied that first week, overall, it was a really good week.  Sunday was spent picking up the group from the airport in Rome, and Monday was dedicated to orientation, walking tours, and a scavenger hunt between "families" (each counselor has a group of students assigned to them), which my group won!!  The real fun started on Tuesday, though.

I was assigned to course 1 on Tuesday, which meant that I spent the morning walking around the city with the photography class.  Because of the scheduling for the day, I had the early afternoon off.  The entire week of staff orientation, I tried to go visit my neighborhoods, but we never had the time.  So, I took this opportunity to go up to Piazza Savanarola, visit the Villa Rossa, get lunch at Taverna degli Artisti, and get gelato at Badiani.  It was the best afternoon!!  I had some much needed alone time, spoke nothing but Italian for those several hours, and didn't see a single American or tourist.  I love that area so much, and it was so great to be walking those familiar streets again.  That afternoon, I brought a big group of students shopping at the San Lorenzo markets, and that evening, we brought the entire group down to the Arno Beach to watch the World Cup that they were playing on big screens outside.  Though the US lost, it was still a great experience for both the kids and counselors alike!



Wednesday was another relaxing day!  I was assigned to accompany the Business class to an oil and wine shop by the Santa Croce.  Though they didn't get to taste anything, it's a great place to keep in mind!!  That afternoon, I got to accompany a small group of students to the spa...which means I spent the entire afternoon soaking in Turkish baths and getting my steam on in the sauna.  It was incredibly relaxing and felt so incredibly great.  That night, I had the opportunity to go with a group of kids to the Palazzo Vecchio (something I never got to do while I was here).  There was a Jackson Pollock exhibit on display, so we got to check that and the rest of the museum.  Because it was so late, there very few other people there, and it was like we had the entire place to ourselves.  It was amazing!


Thursday was a very interesting day.  During the afternoon, I brought a group to the Botanical gardens.  The bugs were out in masses, however, so they were itching (literally) to go home early.  That night was the night we had all been dreading...the first time we would bring them to Space, a multi-floor club that I went to once and then never went to again.  We were truly dreading the creepy men the girls would encounter and the trouble they could get in.  Fortunately, it's pretty well known that Thursday night is high school program night, so the real creepers didn't come in until we were on our way out.  It ended up being so much more fun than any of us could have expected.  We started off downstairs, where they were playing wicked throwbacks, and the counselors all rocked out together.  Once they opened up the top floor, the students started dancing, and the counselors all danced like complete fools.  We looked ridiculous but had the best time doing it!!  If every Space night is like this, it won't be totally horrible!


Friday was another day with another first.  I got to accompany a small group of students to the Palazzo Pitti for a modern art and diamond exhibit.  I had never been inside the Palace, so I was very excited to see my first exhibit there.  It was beautiful!!  Most of the students ended up just sitting and hanging out in the courtyard, but that just meant that I had an hour and a half of exploring the gallery by myself, at my own pace.  So lovely!!   In the evening, we had reservations at the Diner, and American restaurant, to celebrate the 4th of July and then spent time packing for Venice.  Ushering a group of 60 students around Florence, a city I know very well, was difficult enough...we were all very nervous about having to do the same thing through a maze of a city.  It was going to be an interesting weekend for sure!

I set out on my latest adventure about two weeks ago.  This summer, I'm spending a month in Italy working for a summer camp/study abroad program for high school students from all over the country.

Fortunately, the counselors had about five days to get everything ready, relax, explore, and enjoy some quality time with each other before the students arrived.  Though we were nonstop all week with early mornings and late nights, we had a fantastic time.  Though days were devoted to planning, organizing, and preparing, meals and evenings were ours to bond with each other.  We had the BEST food.  I was really nervous about what my eating situation was going to be like, but everyone in Italy is very knowledgeable about celiac and, if they don't have gluten free pasta or bread, they can at least suggest items on the menu that are safe to eat and will often do anything they possibly can to accommodate.  This is the best I have eaten since the last time I was in Italy and COULD actually eat gluten!! I've had gluten free pasta with pesto and boar, amazing salads with fresh seafood, and all the prosciutto, buffalo mozzarella, gelato, coffee, and truffle oil a girl could ask for.

Though things are MUCH more stressful, we have very limited free time, and the counselors rarely have the opportunity to all hang out together (and Blake, the Barcelona director who was staying with us during our orientation, has left for Spain), it is still absolutely amazing.  I am so happy to be back in Florence, a city that is so incredibly special to me.  This is truly my favorite place in the entire world and I'm so grateful to have the opportunity to be back here for the next month.  I've already been able to go back to my old stomping grounds, visit my school, and go to Badiani, my favorite gelato shop.  I'm very much looking forward to revisiting my favorite places and seeing all the things I never got the chance to see my first time here!!

‘Twas the night before port and all through the ship, visions of shamrocks danced through our heads.

 

I don’t think I could have possibly been more excited for Ireland than I was.  I had already been trying to figure out how and when I was going to go back before I even left the first time.  I’m not sure what it was about the country- the people, the countryside, the culture, or a mix of everything- but something about it just felt right…I felt like I belonged.  I absolutely fell in love.  And I was so beyond happy to be going back again.  I had such high hopes for this port, and, as expected, it lived up to everything.

 

Our first day was incredible.  I was BURSTING with excitement (literally jumping up and down).  Me, Dani, Kait, one of Kait’s friends, Emily, Ashley, Shari, and their friend Matt all headed out to Howth Head for a day of hiking.  Howth is one of the islands off the coast of Ireland that is just south of Dublin.  There are four different trails you can take that vary in length and take you around the coastline and then cut back up through the middle of the island.  We decided we wanted to be out there for the whole day, so we started on the longest trail- a full 10km.  The trails start off together by heading up to the cliffs and follow them around.  Our group quickly split up so we could all go at the pace we wanted.  I was glad that we did because almost immediately, we veered off the path to explore the cliffs.  Dani, Ashley, Emily and I went off on other beaten paths, climbed some of the cliffs, and just sat and looked out over the ocean.  We had so much fun and it was so beautiful.  The flowers were just nearing the end of their season, so there was still so much color in the fields that really popped from the green landscape.  It still continues to amaze me just how colorful this country is.  We eventually started back on the path, but made MANY stops along the way.  There were wild blackberries growing in bushes along the path that we stopped to pick, and we explored a few beaches we stumbled upon along the way, spending so much time looking for shells and seaglass.  We were supposed to meet up with the other group at 3:30, but we didn’t finish our hike until closer to 5:30.  We had hoped they decided to just leave since we were late, and fortunately they weren’t there when we did get to the meeting point.  So, we decided to wander around the town for a bit and go to dinner along the dock.  We found a market that sold some gluten-free goods, so Ashley and I got pasta and fudge.  We then found a restaurant called the Brass Monkey.  We looked at the menu outside, and the entire menu marked which items were gluten-free!  It was a little more money than we usually like to pay, but my friends felt so bad that we never eat at places I can actually eat at that we just went for it.  And it was amazing.  I had incredible seafood chowder that came with gluten-free bread!!  I also had BBQ shortribs that were quite good.  I spent way more money than I had hoped to for dinner, but it was one of the most delicious meals I’ve had since leaving home.  Between the huge meal and the exhausting hike, we were struggling to stay awake on the train.  We didn’t want to go out, but we also didn’t want to miss having a drink on our first night in Ireland either.  So, before we got to the ship, showered, and got settled, we decided to just stay out while we still had some energy left in us.  Fortunately, there was a bar right next to the train station that was open, so we headed straight there.  During my last time here, I fell in love with this one particular local cider, and unlike other English ciders, I’ve never been able to find it in the U.S.  I was SO looking forward to having it again in Ireland, and I FINALLY got it!  It was just as good as I remembered!  It was the perfect end to a great day.

 

The second day was the beginning of one of the best trips I’ve had on this voyage so far.  Dani and I decided that we wanted to try hitchhiking to Cork with Jillian.  We had a rough start in the morning, however, and nothing went to plan.  By the time we figured out where to go and how to get there to even START hitchhiking, it was already late morning.  We went to the bus station to check out whether we could take one as a back up plan, and we discovered we could get them for very cheap.  Dani and I not only wanted to hitchhike, but we also wanted to actually see Cork and Blarney, so we decided it would be a good idea to just take a bus up.  Jillian ended up deciding not to come and headed out on her own.  Dani and I caught the next bus, and three hours later, we were in Cork!!  When we pulled into the station, we saw that there was a bus leaving for Blarney almost immediately, so we hopped on!

 

Blarney is your quintessential small Irish town…the little we walked through was so cute.  As with every other place, I really wish we had more time to spend there than we did!  We made our way to Blarney Castle and it was absolutely beautiful.  The layout was a little different than I expected (although I don’t really know what EXACTLY I expected either).  There is one steep and winding staircase that leads you up through the different rooms of the castle to the top, where the Blarney Stone rests.  Kissing the stone blesses the kisser with the gift of eloquence.  In years past, visitors just bent over backwards across a gap between the inner and outer walls to kiss the stone that lies on the opposite wall.  Now, however, there is a man there who helps you lean over, and there are bars on the outer wall that you grab to support yourself as well.  It was so much fun!!  We were even allowed to take pictures because no one else was there (usually you have to buy the pictures that they take themselves).  Unfortunately, because we got such a later start that we had hoped, we didn’t get to Blarney until about an hour and a half before the castle grounds closed, so we only had about 45 minutes left to explore.  We headed over to the “Poison Garden”, which is home to dozens of weeds and plants that are either poisonous or detrimental to your health.  It was so interesting!  They had everything from poison ivy, to wolfsbane, to marijuana.  While we were walking around, we met an older couple from New Zealand who told us all about the holiday they were taking.  They were nearing the end of it and had been to nearly ten countries already!!  It was so great to talk to them…they were SO sweet!  I had mentioned that I couldn’t wait to go to New Zealand and Australia, and they gave me their e-mail address so I could let them know when I finally make it out there so I can stay with them!!  They host travelers all the time and live in an absolutely beautiful area, so it is a great connection to have.  We still had so much more that we wanted to see, but there was no way we could spare any more of our following day.

 

We bid adieu to the castle and made our way back into town for dinner at a pub we passed.  It was another gluten-free friendly establishment!  I was able to have pot roast with vegetables, mashed potatoes, AND gravy (with a side of STRONG Irish coffee!).  It was AMAZING.  After dinner, we headed back out on the road.

 

I had a contact in Ireland who offered to let us stay with him for the night.  He told us to meet him at a pub called An Spailpin Fanac.  The inside of the pub was what you would imagine if you were told to think of a typical Irish pub.  It was a bunch of locals drinking beer and listening to trad music.  We found Peter and joined him and his two friends.  They had a front row seat to the sessiun going on, and it was one of the most fun nights I’ve ever had out.  The Bulmers was cheap and the music was amazing.  There was one guy in particular who was like a real life Gerard Butler from P.S. I Love You.  He was GORGEOUS and had an absolutely beautiful voice.  He sang one song I fell in love with, although I haven’t had any time on the Internet to look it up.  Once I get home, I need to spend time and download every Irish trad song ever made- I absolutely love it all!  We were there until the bartender had to physically kick us out…no one was even drinking anymore, they just wanted to listen to the band play.  When she wouldn’t let them play any more songs, they continued it out on the streets.  We wanted to go so badly (especially since some of the band members had actually talked to us and wanted to get to know us), but Peter and his friends were ready to go to bed.

 

The next morning, we woke up to coffee and breakfast that Peter made and we all ate together before we went our separate ways.  He lived on the outskirts of downtown, so we had about a twenty-minute walk to get where we wanted to go.  We spent the remainder of the morning and the beginning of the afternoon exploring a few of the sights within Cork that we wanted to see.  We wanted to make sure we got back to Dublin in time to go on a pub-crawl that night, so we took a fairly early bus back.  We were so exhausted, though, that by the time we got back, I decided to take a nap instead of heading out early.  We did end up going out, but it didn’t live up to my expectations at all.  Between my last time in Dublin and the night we had the previous night, I expected to have an amazing time.  ESPECIALLY since Dublin won the big hurling match that afternoon.  Because it was such a big night of celebration, however, most bars weren’t letting people under 21 in.   We finally found a place that everyone could get into, and it seemed like it would be okay.  The drinks were exorbitantly priced, though (especially in comparison to what we were paying last night), and there weren’t a lot of people our age there.  On the bright side, I don’t think I would have had energy to have a crazy night out, so it ended up being okay.

 

The last day I spent showing Dani around Dublin.  We were going to go on the tour, but I had already done it and we didn’t have time to do that AND get internet before we had to make Eddie time.  Instead, I brought her to all my favorite spots from the tour.  We also got to do things I didn’t have time to do my last time there, such as going inside St. Patrick’s Cathedral, going to a service in Christ Church Cathedral, and have a mini picnic lunch in St. Stephen’s Green.  It was great seeing Dublin again, especially since it was so warm (my last time there was FREEZING!).

 

I couldn’t have asked for a better time in Ireland.  Our night out in Dublin wasn’t ideal, but few things will compare to my first time there.  Hiking Howth was amazing and Cork was such a crazy adventure.  My love for Ireland just continues to grow, and I’m even more determined than ever to make sure I spend some time living there.