3 weeks left?

I have 3 and 1/2 weeks left. Its hard to realize this since a few weeks ago I didn't think the summer was ever going to end. Now it's nearing the end and I'm not even sure what to think. I have grown attached to 2 different groups of kids and in 3 weeks it will all be over. Weird.

One of my kids said the one of the most adorable things the other day. "He just said the "SH" word and I don't mean shutup" I was trying so hard to take him seriously but it was so hard. I think I started to laugh towards the end of the conversation and I really hope my 7 year old didn't notice.

Verona and Venice Part 2

So we left Verona about 12pm and hopped a train to Venice. This only took about an hour and I slept most of the way there. Upon arrival to Venice we immediately got back in line to get tickets back to Napoli. It was a little tedious when all I wanted to do was go out and see the city but it had to be done. Well upon purchasing return tickets I walked out of the train station and saw this!

You can see the water with boats going up and down it. It was amazing!! We walked out of the train station and just to the right was the vaporetto that we needed to take to the Rialto exit to get to our hostel. Let me just say that I think it is way to expensive to ride a vaporetto. It cost me 12 euro for only 2 tickets and that just covered getting there and back. We walked on and sat in the waiting dock and this was the view.
The vaporetto finally came and we took it to the Rialto exit no problem. We saw some interesting things on our trip down the Grand Canal though. Here is a look at what we saw.

An ambulance just cruising down the canal off to something important I would guess.

The first look at the Rialto bridge as we neared our stop was amazing. You never expect something so historic to be just around the corner but thats the way it seemed with everthing in Venice. Upon arriving at our stop we went over the Rialto bridge and followed the directions exactly to our stop. We had been a little leary of the directions that the hostel had online since others had commented that they were not very good but we had no problem with them and went straight to our hostel no problems. We weren't quite sure what to expect from our hostel. There had been mixed reviews about it online so we were a little skeptical but our worries were for not because upon getting there we discovered we had one of the coolest set ups ever.
We had reserved a 6 bed mixed dorm. This means that there are 6 beds in a room and it doesn't matter what gender sleeps there. Well that's technically what we got but it was way better. We walked up these stairs to our room and you open the door and there is only 3 beds and 2 of them are already taken. This made us a little worried until the lady showing us our room opened a door on the other side of the first room which was another room with 3 beds. It turned out that our room only had 3 beds in it and that we could lock it and to top it off they even provided a towel which many hostels do not do. After that we just wondered around the city. We had no plan and no agenda which made it spectacularly relaxing. Here are a few photos of the city.

The wall at the Disney store!
Something beautiful!
San Marco
A beautiful little canal
My favorite!

And so ends my trip to Verona and Venice. It was an amazing experience that I shall never forget. I have come to the realization that when you travel you learn new things about yourself and I have been finding them at ever corner. Dream sweet dreams and live happily!

Verona and Venice Part 1

A lovely weekend away to the beautiful cities of Verona and Venice was just what I needed for a refreshing view on life. I began my journey Friday night with an over night train to Verona. It was definitely an experience I will never forget. Upon finally arriving in Verona we walked to the Arena, which was pretty spectacular. We also saw some interesting things along the way. (One might think we were in Vegas)
We finally reached the Arena and they were setting up for an opera with an asian theme. We had planned on going inside since I thought it was only going to be 3 euro but it turned out to be 8 euro so we decided not to go in. However I did get some amazing pictures of the outside. Here's one of me in all of my traveling gloriousness.
After we finished viewing the Arena and having lunch we walked the short distance to Juliet's house and balcony. I must say I was expecting more but it was still a pretty amazing experience. Just to see all of the writing on the wall and to see the balcony that they say was the place of the such a momentus ocassion was pretty mind blowing. To also know that so many people come there each and every year just to see it.

"But soft! What light through yonder window breaks?
It is the East, and Juliet is the sun!
Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon
Who is already sick and pale with grief" - Romeo

"O Romeo, Romeo! Wherefore art thou Romeo?
Deny thy father and refuse thy name;
Or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love,
And I'll no longer be a Capulet." - Juliet

That is the end of Juliet's House but we still had about an hour to walk back to the train station to catch our train to Venice so we just wondered back and along the way found some of these delitful treats.

These humorous items were for sale at one of the vendor stands and we found them very amusing. My favorite part of the entire trip of the entire trip happend not in Venice but in a vendor's market in Verona. Here is why!
Do you see why this was one of my favorite parts? No then why don't we take a look at what happened next shall we.
The raspberries were quickly devoured and highly enjoyed! I was afraid that I was going to have to wait until I got home in order to get myself some raspberries but now I know all I have to do is just hop on a train to Verona to get them. So ended my trip to Verona and began my trip to Venice which will be coming later!

Mail How I love Thy

I love my mom! The last few weeks I have gotten 2 cards and 1 small package from her. I got the small package today. I came back from clubs to find this on the table:

This made me super excited!!! Especially when I opened it to find this:

But that's not all! You flip this drawstring bag over and you get....

Isn't this one of the most adorable things you have ever seen? I absolutely love it!!

Change Thy Name is 7 year olds

As the title may imply there have been some changes here in Italy. I was moved from the 10 year old group to the 7 year old group on Tuesday. It was definitely a change that I was not expecting this late in the summer but one of the counselors was moved to the CDC so it was a necessary change. First off I must say that my 7 year olds are totally different from my 10 year olds. They are opposite in maturity and behavior. They are not opposite in what they like though. This greatly surprised me since there is 2 to 3 years between them. It seems everyone no matter the age is reading Percy Jackson. I may need to read this. I have enjoyed the 7 year old group the last few days but I really miss my 10 year olds. I had bonded with them and they had learned what to expect. Now everything has changed. On the positive side though it should help make the summer go faster especially seeing as of yesterday I have exactly a month before I am home!

Capri Round Two

I went to Capri again today with my friend Katie and her boy. It was one of the most amazing days ever. We caught the bus this morning about 7:20 and then rode it all the way down to the port where we caught the 8:10 ferry out. Upon getting there we had breakfast/lunch. It was delicious. I had a caprese pannini which was mozzarella cheese and tomato with an espresso. My other meal was risotto with a lemon flavor. I was one of the most amazing things that I have ever eaten. It was so good. I must learn how to make risotto when I get home because it might just become one of my favorite foods. It was an amazing day and I am so glad that I was able to go back to such a lovely island. Here are a few of my favorite pictures:

This was the view from the tram that took you to the top of the island.

This is one of the streets with very high end shops (which I went into)
The tram that took us up and down the hill

So friday night Katie and I went and got pizza for dinner at the one place that was open on base. I had one of the most interesting pizzas that I've ever seen and it was delicious.

It had hot dog chunks and french fries on it with cheese and tomato sauce.

Week Four

It's been awhile but I'm still having fun! I went to Florence last weekend and this weekend I'm going to Capri again this weekend and Venice next weekend. I've definitely been busy and looks like it will continue that way until way after I get home. At the moment I am enjoying watching American TV in my new apartment on base and attempting to do the hw for the classes that I have to take through camp. They are papers on program evaluation using different qualifications and personal evaluations and stuff like that. None of it looks very difficult but it does look fairly time consuming. I need to get going on this since I don't want to do all of it in September once I go home. Its been a long hard week but I it has still been enjoyable.