Week 12 (Lonato): work hard, play hard!

And so continues our first week teaching at Summer Camp in Italy.

Summer Camp starts at 9am every morning, and we start the day singing lots of songs with actions in a big circle in the courtyard. Paola di Rosa school is huge, it has 4 different schools within it, for ages 6 to 16. In the mornings we do group activities and games, like dodgeball, crafting pirates and races. After lunch we go up to the classrooms and have a couple of hours of teaching before finishing for the day at 4pm. We usually have worksheets to give the children, which might involve colouring in a picture by following English instructions, labelling pictures of pirates in English, English word searches, writing a message in a bottle etc, however, there are often periods where the worksheets have been completed and we have to think of ways to keep the children busy! We have found that hangman can work well but can also descend into chaos, with some children playing very intensely (standing up, shouting out, etc) and some children not interested at all. It is really hot here (around 30 degrees) and the kids want to be outside playing not in the classroom, which is why they have a 3 month summer holiday. As the school is a Catholic school the tutors all have to wear long trousers and tops that cover our shoulders- no vests! We didn't know this when we packed in March so we have been teaching all week in 30 degree heat wearing jeans. It's thirsty work. The other English tutors are really nice, and we have a lot of fun chatting with them when we aren't in the classrooms.



The English varies among the children, along with the enthusiasm, so the results of each activity are always very varied! When asking my children to pretend they are a pirate stranded on an island and to write a message in a bottle the results varied from "Help me!" to "Help me! I am the Captain of the Black Pearl and I am stuck all alone on an island near Brazil.". They also seem to struggle to understand "Be quiet" and "Sit down", funnily enough! But I shouldn't paint them all with the same brush, some of them are very quiet and well behaved, regardless of their level of understanding English. And all of their English is much better than our Italian! The Italian I have learnt consists of:
- Basta (stop/enough)
- Seiditi (sit down)
- Avete capito? (you have understood?)
- Io non ho capito (I do not understand)
- Ascolta (listen)
- Silenzio (silence)

All the essential teacher vocab.

Craig's evenings have consisted of being spoilt with food; having carbonara, tomato pasta, pizza, loads of fresh fruit and even all-you-can-eat sushi at an amazing Sushi restaurant. 
My evenings have consisted of sunbathing by the pool and eating nice fresh dinners with my host family- fish, proscuitto, salads, cheese and bread etc. Everything in Italy comes with a good glug of olive oil.

I spent most of the weekend with Craig's host family. On Sunday we went to Gardaland, a theme park by lake Garda, with Damiano and Niccolo. It was so much fun! And there were no queues so we got straight on all the rides! In the evening we went to their Aunt's pizza restaurant and I had my first taste of Italian Pizza. I went for the calzone with mushrooms, ham and artichokes (a recommendation from my Dad) and it was amazing!



On Sunday we went sailing on Lake Garda with Craig's host family. We sailed for a couple of hours, then we stopped near the shore and had a swim. We had a picnic lunch on the boat consisting of lots of lovely breads and mini foccacias, prosciutto, pancetta, and fresh fruit. After lunch we docked at a town called Malcesine and hopped off the boat and had an ice cream (me and Craig shared a Chocolate Sundae) and a walk through the narrow streets. For the sail back the boat was at a 45 degree angle most of the way and we sat on the edge dangling our legs over to counter balance.

Monday was the start of Monster week at Summer Camp. My team are called Super Monster School and Craig's are the Multicolour Monsters. Let the fun begin!



On the whole we are really enjoying Italy when we aren't surrounded by screaming children! The scenery and the food have been amazing so far. I'm sure we will be returning to Italy many times in the future!

Total amount spent between two: €891

Week 11: farewell Grassau... hello Italy!

In our last few days in Grassau we carried on working on the stable. We put up another wall with planks of wood and laid some old stone tiles for the floor. The tiles were a bit of a mixture so the floor was a bit like crazy paving, but I think we did a good job!  I am very proud of our achievement.



Unfortunately the horses at the stable got sick so Jessica preferred to clean them out herself, so we didn't see the horses at the stable this week. Sanador is the only horse at home, so we will had him to clean out. Jessica and Sanador are practising for a horse show they are in next week, where Sanador will dance to Spanish music. It's fascinating to watch! I grabbed my camera and got a picture of him rearing up, which is something he has just learnt to do this week.

Friday night was our last night in Grassau, so in the evening Holger took us to Chiemsee lake with the kayaks. Holger kayaked with us a little way up the shore, and we shared some beers with him in the boat. He then left us and me and Craig kayaked up to a secluded beach and sat out and chilled. We met Holger, Jessica, and Joshua back at the beach bar and watched the sun go down sat around a fire pit. It was an awesome last night!

 

Holger and Jessica have been awesome hosts-super chilled and loads of fun. Craig is hoping to go back in the future with his motorbike and do the bike trip he didn't get to do this time, so hopefully we will see them again!

On Saturday got the train from Rosenheim, Germany to Verona, Italy. We are working at a summer camp for two weeks to teach Italian children aged 7-11 English. Me and Craig are being hosted by different families, so we will both experience Italy in a different way! The train to Italy was beautiful, surrounded by mountains the whole way. Unfortunately we didn't book seats and the train was busy so we were sat in the corridor on our bags for about 3 hours, before finally getting seats for the last 1.5 hours. We were met by Craig's host family at the train station (Chiara, Claudio, Niccolo, and Damiano) and they drove us to Lonato del Garda and dropped me off with my family.

Anna's first weekend in Italy:

I am staying with Annamaria, Oscar, Mariasole (13 years old) and Marta (9 years old) and they have an amazing house, complete with swimming pool.

On my first evening in Italy I was told we were going out for dinner with some of their friends, we arrived at dinner a little late and 10 people were already sat around the table- men at one end and women at the other (apparently this is quite normal in Italy). Food was already on the table and as soon as I sat down I was handed food left right and centre. There were tiny little fried fish, polenta, salami, prosciutto, a kind of beef in fish sauce, torta fritta (a kind of puffed up bread thing), bread, gorgonzola, vegetables. It was amazing! I had assumed this was the meal, but next thing I know I am being asked if I want tortellini with pumpkin or with meat for the next plate. Next plate?! I went for tortellini with meat; this was my first taste of Italian pasta and I won't forget it. It was delicious. After pasta we had another course of rabbit and polenta, then a huuuuuge bowl of fresh cherries in ice was put on the table for everyone to help themselves, then some kind of Italian cake to finish. There was also plenty of sparkling white wine, and my glass kept being topped up, I couldn't say no! I was well and truly stuffed after this- I think I had a pretty good introduction to Italian food!

On Sunday we went to Oscar's Nephew's Baptism. Being neither religious or Italian I had absolutely no idea what was going on during the ceremony, but it is interesting to be a part of these moments! After the ceremony we drove to this private house/resturaunt in the hills for a reception with about 20 members of Oscar's family. The venue was really beautiful. Once again this revolved around a big dinner of antipasto, risotto, tortellini, beef and polenta and cake. The food was amazing! The family didn't speak much English but I chatted with Marta, Mariasole and Annamaria and just observed all the goings on.

Baptism reception venue

Craig's first weekend in Italy:

I've had the archetypal experience of Italy from day one! My host mother, Chiara, met us off the train at Verona, and although she doesn't speak a great deal of English was very warm and welcoming. I'd later find out she's just as hospitable when it comes to food! We were introduced to her husband and two sons, and got to know them a bit in the half hour car ride to their home in Lonato. The boys are extremely polite and very well-raised, they're constantly making sure I have everything I need during my stay. Their level of English is impressive too, putting the British effort when it comes to linguistics to shame (seems to be a common theme wherever we go!)

That first night we went to a sagra, a sort of community party with local food and drink, and met family and friends. Little English was spoken but I was made to feel really welcome in true Italian style; we drank wine together and ate polenta and many types of pork, beef and even horse meat. It turns out that Claudio is a competitive sailor with his own race boat, the 'Spirito Libera', and on Sunday I was treated to a day on the Garda Lake and even got to 'captain' (steer) the boat. It was really impressive watching Claudio with the help of Dami and Nico adjust the many ropes and sails according to the wind direction. I can't help but think this is an opportunity I wouldn't get without travelling through something like Workaway, or paying a fortune.

Our first day at English Summer Camp:

We arrived at the school on Monday morning and met the three other English tutors, Lisa, Sandhra and Alice, and the Summer Camp organiser, Antonella. Alice and Sandhra are both studying in Edinburgh, and Alice is actually studying Infectious Diseases like I did, so we have plenty in common!

Around 100 kids were taking part in Summer Camp and after about 30 minutes of singing songs to warm everybody up we were split into classes and went up to our separate classrooms. Me and Craig each have a class of older kids around 10-12 years old, and Craig also had the biggest class (around 20 kids). Hectic is probably the most fitting word for our teaching at the school! There are some organised activities and songs, but also periods (including the first day) where you are put in front of a class of restless children who don't speak English and told to think of something to teach on the spot. Certainly a baptism of fire, but I'm sure we'll look back on it as character building! Thankfully we each have a couple of teenage Italian helpers in the classroom to help with translations. Week 1 at Summer Camp is pirate themed so after spending the morning in the classroom in the afternoon we went to the local park, we came up with team names (mine was Super Pirates and Craig's was Music Pirates), a team song, and did a scavenger hunt. Lunch at the school is almost as impressive as what we both experienced at the weekend, a first course (Monday was pasta with ham) followed by salads, meats, cheeses, and plenty of fresh fruit! Not bad for a school lunch. 

Total amount spent between two: €884

Week 10 (Grassau): visitors from home

Our work this week has been quite DIY focussed. Our main project has been helping Holger build an extension on the stable at home. Jessica needs a small area for storing the saddles and equipment that won't get wet in the winter. We secured the roof panels to the side of the stable and to some posts drilled into the ground and made a wall from panels of wood. Craig used his maths skills to work out how high the posts needed to be and the angle of the roof. We both really enjoyed working on the stable, it's awesome to see something you've helped build come together. It was a really sunny day while we were working, we had music on, and we cracked open some beers in the afternoon- a fun day! There is another wall to put up, and the flooring to do, but they will be next weeks jobs.

This week we also cut a pane of glass to size and sealed it into the frame in the greenhouse (this was more difficult than it sounds and took a few attempts), weeded a big seating area in the garden, and took Linda for a nice long walk around the swamp area nearby. Part of our job is cooking and eating lunch with Amina when she gets home from school at 1.30 (school starts really early here!). Kartoffelpuffer are one of the favourites and always go down well- these are potato cakes that you fry and eat with Apfelmusse, similar to apple sauce. 

On Thursday the whole family went to Tütensee lake in the evening. Craig was straight back on the rope swing we found last time. I was a little nervous to try but Amina showed me how it was done, so I figured if a 12 year old girl was brave enough then so was I! So I faced my fears and climbed the tree to the rope swing. This was the bit I was most scared of- not the jumping off! The swing was a lot of fun actually, but i need to work on my arm strength as I couldn't hold on long enough to get the full swing! After heading home we sat out in the outdoor BBQ area and lit a fire in the fireplace and craig played guitar for us while we chilled.

The main event this week was our friends arriving from home! Liam, Michael and George rode their motorbikes to Germany all the way from Newcastle and arrived on Saturday evening. Our hosts were kind enough to let them put their tents up in the garden, and we spent the evening having drinks in the BBQ hut. The weather on Sunday wasn't great, but us Brits didn't let that put us off. We all walked down to Reifinger See and sat by the lake. The clouds put off the locals so we had the entire lake to ourselves. Since we were last there a giant inflatable has appeared on the lake. This was so much fun! We sat out by the lake all afternoon, it was still around 16 degrees and it only rained for one short spell. We sat and watched the sunset before heading back.

On Monday we went to Chiemsee and grabbed some food by the lake before waving the boys off on their trip back. Holger jumped on his motorbike and rode with them to the border of Austria, showing them all the good roads. Craig was just a tiny bit jealous of them all. It was really nice that the boys came out to see us and we had the best weekend!

Veggie meals this week: gnocchi with spinach and broccoli, veggie chilli with potato wedges, roasted vegetable lasagne, stir fry, chunky vegetable soup, and vegetable curry.

Total amount spent between two (including travel to next hosts): €838

Week 9 (Grassau): day tripping to Munich

Our third week in Grassau started with a day trip to Munich. Holger works there so he drove us in on Wednesday. We set off at 6.15am to beat the traffic and were in Munich city centre by 7.30am. Given the early hour we started our day with a walk through the English Garden (yes we've come all the way to Germany to see an English Garden). We grabbed a cup of tea and a hot chocolate and sat on a bench by the river with a chocolate swirl. I don't know what it is about the water here but it's really light blue everywhere we've been! On our walk we discovered the Munich surfers who turn up and surf on the river Eisbach- even at 8am! The English Garden is huge- apparently one of the largest urban parks in the world. We walked through the Garden for 2 hours, and only got to about halfway through it. And Craig had met his daily step goal before 9am, a new record!

 

Our tactic for visiting cities has been to walk, walk and walk some more. This gives us a good feel for a place, and with a little bit of prior googling we find some standard tourist spots as well as leaving opportunity for discovering the unexpected (like surfers in the middle of Munich or the views over the mountains in Salzburg). So we set off in the direction of the city centre to see what we could find. We arrived in Marienplatz, Munich's central square, just in time for the daily glockenspiel show at the Rathaus (Town Hall). The glockenspiel chimes and figurines on the Rathaus rotate and dance around. Marienplatz was packed with tourists watching (and filming) this and although it's nice to see it wasn't exactly a highlight of the day. From here we found Peterskirche (St Peters Church) where we paid €3 to climb ~300 stairs to the top for some views over Munich.



For lunch we headed to the Viktualienmarkt: a big open air food market. We wandered around the vegetable stalls, butchers, delicatessens, soup stands, and the many hot food stalls before deciding on a selection of german food from Schlemmermeyer's: bratwurst (german sausage) in a bun, krustenbraten (roast pork with crackling in a bun- yummy!), kartoffelpuffer (potato cakes), and krautsalat (cabbage salad- like coleslaw). In the afternoon we wandered to the palaeontology museum (chosen because it was free and had animal skeletons) and found ourselves passing through Königsplatz on the way. Königsplatz was used during the Third Reich as a place where Hitler gave speeches at rallies.

We factored in plenty of time for beer into our trip to Munich, so mid afternoon we headed to another Augustiner Brau beer hall (the same as in Salzburg) slightly out of the city centre. We chose this one as we had read the beer was cheap and it's not as filled with tourists as the ones in the centre. We had a couple of steins and a pretzel before walking back to meet Holger at 6pm and heading home.

 

In total we walked about 24km around Munich- I wore holes in both my socks!!

We spent the weekend visiting lakes again. On Friday we spent the morning getting our jobs done: cleaning the horses, walking the dog etc. It almost doesn't feel like work when the sun is shining, and the view from the stables is pretty nice! After we finished we cycled to Übersee and shared a banana split at the ice cream shop, and then grabbed some beers and sat by Chiemsee lake.



On Saturday we worked with Holger on part of the horse stable at home, and in the evening we sat out in the sun and had a (mostly) vegetarian BBQ. We prepared veggie sausages, veggie burgers, grilled halloumi slices, veggie skewers, corn on the cob, millet salad, green salad, coleslaw and potato salad and some beef burgers and chicken skewers for us. The neighbours also brought lamb and whole trout. I BBQ'ed the food after Craig got the coals going. This was my first time BBQing and I was so pleased with how it turned out!

On Sunday we cycled to another lake in Grassau, Reifinger see. This one is smaller than Chiemsee and Tütensee but closer cycle to. It was beautiful! We sat and read our books, had a swim, had more ice cream, and then cycled home and had another BBQ in the evening. That's the life!



Vegetarian food we cooked this week included a veggie curry (cooked from scratch), asparagus and pea risotto, the BBQ, and some others I can't remember.

And happily no medical mishaps to report this week!

Total money spent between 2 (including travel to next host): €738