Ischia

This past weekend, Krystina, Zach, Maddie, Alli, and I went to Ischia– this little island off the coast of Naples. Ischia had a ton of beaches and these really cool hot springs. On Saturday, we took the train into Naples, got our ticket for the ferry, and then ate lunch and shopped while waiting for our ferry to get in. Once we got to Ischia, we took a taxi to our hostel. The taxi dropped us off at the entrance to a street so tiny that the van couldn’t get in. The driver told us to just walk down it, and so we thought the hostel would be around the next corner, not very far.

Wrong.

We asked directions 3 times, took 2 wrong turns, and almost got run over by zippy little cars and mopeds about 6 times before we finally found the hostel. By that time, it was after 4, and we just needed to get to the beach. Krystina desperately wanted to find some rocks to jump off of, though, so we began an adventure that led to many injuries

We took this little path that led along the cliff right above the sea, and apparently the path did not go all the way along the coast. We had to climb over a bunch of these giant breakers and onto some rocks, and Alli cut her feet up pretty bad. But we finally found some rocks to jump off of, but they really weren’t very high. We swam around for a bit, then just laid out on the rocks.

That night, Krystina and I tried to go find a club to dance at, but the only one with real dancing was full of high schoolers. The other clubs didn’t have anybody in them really. Apparently, we were in the wrong spot for clubbing.

The next day, we hopped on the bus that would take us to the hot springs, and after a long walk down the hillside to the hot springs, we relaxed in the boiling hot water and put mud on our faces. Then, because we were lazy and didn’t want to walk back up all those stairs, we took a water taxi over to the next town. And, of course, we ended up having to walk up a giant hill anyway. We wanted to get to what our hostel lady called “the hot sand,” where the sand steams. Who knew that she just meant it was really really hot sand? On the beach, when we picked our spot to lay, Krystina and I started playing a spontaneous game of King of the Rock on her towel. I jumped on it cuz my feet were burning and she pushed me off cuz her feet were burning. It was a tough battle

After that, we hopped on a bus back to our ferry. We bought the ferry tickets, and not gonna lie, I literally had the ticket in my hand for no more than ten seconds before I lost it. I’m pretty sure I just left it on the ticket counter and somebody grabbed it. Thankfully, the tickets were only 11 euro, so it wasn’t that bad to buy another one. Then, on the ferry, Krystina and I went exploring, and Krystina got beckoned into the control room with an ever-so-welcoming “Prego!” Then she got chatted up by some old guys who worked on the ship doing who knows what. I went back to the group to tell them not to get off the ferry cuz the first stop was Proscida (another island) not Naples, and then Krystina’s voice came on over the intercom of the entire ferry calling all the Camp A crew to come to the top deck. They let her use the intercom!

Maddie and I went up to talk to all the old guys, and one of them was apparently trying very hard to hook Krystina up with another of the crew members. The old guy, Joseph, kept saying that Luigi is a “good boy” who lives alone and whose family owns wine. Joseph invited us over to Luigi’s house and out on his boat. It was hilarious. We had so much fun.

Birthday and Tuscany

So as you all know, last wednesday was my birthday. It was a lot of fun. My kids sang happy bday to me about 3 times, and then after work, me and Maddie went to watch Green Lantern at the theater on base. (We had just watched transformers 3 the day before). Green Lantern was pretty good. We walked back to the apartments, and Krystina had set up a whole party for me and Kelly, since it was Kelly's bday too. The whole room was decorated and everybody had made food for us. We had fajitas, and Krystina had even made me a mud pie! It was so good!

Saturday morning, we left at 5am, taking taxis to the train station. We got on a 6am slow train to Florence, which was a little annoying because there was a fast train that left later and would have gotten us there faster, but the other girls had already reserved the slow train. We got in Florence (or "Firenze" as the Italians call it) at around 11am, then it took us a little over 2 hours to find our hostel (which was really campsite) and put our bags away. After that, Krystina, Maddie, and I all rented bikes and audioguides and went on a tour of the city. We saw a bunch of pretty piazzas (squares) and churches, and then we went to Academia museum and saw the famous David statue. After that, we had some delicious dinner (I got hot dog pizza yum!), took some pictures on the bridges at sunset, and then we returned the bikes. We went back to the same restaurant we ate at and got a chocolate, nutella, and pear pizza. SO YUMMY.

We got on a bus up to our campsite, which was way up on the hill where there was a gorgeous view of the city, and changed into dancing clothes. Haha it was so funny, cuz the tents we were in were a tad see-through when you had the lights on inside. Do you remember that one part in Austin Powers when they are in the tent and the silhouettes look like they are doing funny things? Well, needless to say, we took some funny videos. After we were done goofing off, we went out and experienced the Florence night life hehehe. At first we couldn't find any of the clubs that were recommended to us, but when we were about to give up, we decided to ask a taxi driver if he knew where the club Twice was. And he did. Lots of fun.

We made it back to our camp at around 3am. The day before, Merek, Maddie, Alli, Krystina, and I had booked a tour of Tuscany (which is just a region in Italy that includes Florence and Siena), so we got up at around 7am so we could catch the bus from our campsite to get on the tour bus. Unfortunately, the bus from our campsite came later than we thought it would, so we couldn't make it to the other hostel to get on the tour bus. But the tour bus also picks people up at the train station. Unfortunately, we couldn't find where the bus picked people up. We were literally on the phone with the ppl from the hostel where we booked the tour for ten minutes, trying to figure out where to go. We were about ten minutes late getting on the bus, but they were nice and waited for us.

First the bus took us to Siena, where there is this famous horse race called the Palio, and it was a really cute little town. We ate at this really cool pastry place that was supposed to be somewhat famous. Then, as the tour guide is trying to get the group together to go, Maddie wanders into a store, and then on the way out, me and Maddie both stopped to buy something. So, again, we were the last ones to get on the bus.

We stopped for lunch at this restaurant surrounded by vineyards. We got cold cuts with cheese and bread, and then we got pasta. It was all yummy. Then we were getting back on the bus, we realized that Maddie and Krystina had disappeared. The tour guide was getting on the bus so we could leave, and I had to run off and find Krystina and Maddie, who were apparently taking a bunch of pictures across the street. Again, the last ones on the bus. Seeing a pattern?

Next, we went to this town called San Gimignano and basically just shopped the whole time. We even got the winner of the best gelato in Italy... and it was soooooo good. After we had our ice cream, Maddie decided that we just had to go back and buy a purse that she'd seen. After that, we were sprinting down the streets, five minutes late to the parking lot. Luckily, the bus wasn't there yet, but the tour guide just shook her head at us. The rest of our group had only gotten there like 2 minutes before, so we were once again the last ones there.

Last, we went to a winery and had a wine tasting. We tasted one white wine, and three red ones, and then we tasted olive oil and this yummy yummy balsamic vinegar. The wine guys was this hilarious Italian guy who taught us the "proper" way to drink wine. This time, we were not the last ones on the bus. Thankfully. Our poor tour guide was probably about ready to throw us off the bus.

There was a fire in one of the train stations on the way back to Rome... which was really unfortunate for us. We were worried we wouldn't even make it back to work. But somehow, we made it on this super nice train and we were able to use our other train reservations so we didn't have to pay more money. The train, though, took forever to get into Rome, though, because there was apparently only one track for all the trains to use. It took FOREVER AND EVER. We didn't get into Naples until 1:30am, then Alex had to pick us up because there were no more trains going to Aversa. UGH. Didn't get to bed until 3.

Work on Monday was not fun.

Sicily Weekend

Since I missed a couple weekends on this blog, I will fill you in on what happened.

My third weekend here in Italy, we went all the way down to Sicily because we had a three day weekend for the fourth of july. I went with Krystina, Alli, Maddie, Zach, Molly L., and Merek. We took an overnight train and we all got these nice compartments with bunk beds where we could sleep the whole train ride. It was so cool. The train went all the way down to the toe of the boot, went onto a ferry, and the ferry took us across to Sicily. We got off in a town called Catania. It was very pretty, and we could see Mt. Edna (biggest active volcano in Europe) from the town. We wandered around a bit on our own and randomly walked into the middle of this supposedly famous fish market, then we hung out at a beach.

Smart person that I am, I decided not to put sunscreen on my paper white stomach because I wanted it to tan... not the smartest thing I've ever done. In my defense, I meant to put sunscreen on after 20 min, but I accidentally fell asleep hehe. Needless to say, I was definitely hurting the rest of the weekend.

We met up with Sicily Camp A people that night on the Siganella naval air force base (which was apparently acting as headquarters for all the US military movements involved with Libya). We hung out at the Fourth of July carnival, then we spent the night in their apartments.

The next morning, we got up early, got in a taxi, and went to a campsite just outside of Catania. The Sicily people had gotten 3 tents and 3 sleeping bags for the 12 of us, and we set it up at the campsite, right on a cliff overlooking the ocean. It was gorgeous! Unfortunately, there wasn't much to do at the campsite. There was a beach, but it was a difficult hike down, and I wasn't feeling all that well (what with a sunburn and a cold). There was a swimming pool too, but you needed a swim cap. So we just hung out, then we met a bunch of random Polish people that night. They were all super drunk and it was kind of funny. 3 of them that I met were named Alexandra.

The next day, we just got on our train to get back to Naples. But first, we just had to find a canoli. We had been searching for it the entire time because Sicily is known for their canolis, but hadn't found any. We got lucky at this little gas station. They had "canolis" (although I didn't think they were legit canolis).

Amalfi Coast

This past weekend I went to the Amalfi Coast with Krystina, Alli, and Alli's friend Kristen.

We took the bus to Aversa train station, took a train to Naples, hopped on the Circumvesuviano and rode that all the way to the end of the line in Sorrento. From there, we got on the bus to Amalfi that took us along the gorgeous coastline. The bus ride lasted about 2 hours. We had left from our apartments at 8:30 and got there around 2:30. It was a lot more travel time than we had expected, but at least the view from the bus was amazing.

On Saturday, we pretty much just ate food, hung out on the beach, and went shopping. I had a sandwich (or a "panini") with hot dogs in it. Yum! We stayed in this cute little hostel in a town right next to Amalfi that was called Atrani. When we wanted to get back over to Amalfi from Atrani, we were going to go back the way we had go. But I had a better idea, the genius that I am. I saw a sign saying that Amalfi was this way, and since it was pointing to some stairs, I figured it would just bring us right back up to the main street... wrong. There were some stairs, then more stairs, then more, then more. By then we figured out that we were way above the streets, but since there were still signs pointing the way to Amalfi, we kept going. Until we ran into a snake, that is. I screamed my bloody head off. It scared me soooooo bad. I had thought it was just a lizard until it hissed at me and slithered into a corner. Yikes.

Overall, it made a five-minute relatively easy walk into a 20 minute hike, but it was worth it just to walk through all those little back alleyways and to randomly get a very nice view of the coast. So far, the Amalfi coast is my favorite place we've visited here in Italy.

On Sunday, Alli and Kristen left Amalfi to hit up Pompei since Kristen hadn't seen it yet and it was on their way back. Me and Krystina, on the other hand, decided to do a hike that was called "The Path of the Gods." Our very nice hostel owner gave us a map and directions, and we took the bus to a town along the coast called Praiano to start our hike. Going up into the town, we asked a hair stylist, a hotel receptionist, and about six other people where the trail starts and if we were going in the right direction. There are honestly no street signs there that are very helpful. And because all the towns along the coast are built going halfway up the cliffs, this whole time we were trying to find the trail we were walking uphill. Then, we finally reach where the trail begins.... and the stairs begin.

Krystina counted, and she said that we climbed about 1700 steps. Ugh. While she was counting, I was focusing on not dying. I told her I didn't want to know how many steps we had climbed. Sheesh. Those stairs were not fun. But then we made it up into this convent, and there was a really gorgeous view of the coast from there. Then we climbed a few more stairs, and we finally made it up to the Path of the Gods. (Apparently, the climb up to the convent didn't quite count). From there, the hike was pretty easy. Mostly flat trail with a few ups and downs and really really pretty views. We were so high up!

It was funny, because there was no one on the trail, and then right when me and Krystina decided we had to pee, we hear voices coming our way and two guys are coming up the trail behind us. Perfect timing.

At least we didn't run into any more snakes!

Towards the end of the hike, we finally made it to a town called Nocelle, and from here, we had been told that we could either walk the rest of the way to Positano (our final destination), or we could take a bus there. Well, I bet you can guess which option I wanted. But I didn't know that Krystina wanted to take the bus too, so we started going down the steps to Positano before we even talked about the bus. By then, there was no way we were climbing back up those steps to get to the bus, so we just kept going down. And down and down and down. Probably 1700 steps back down. Ugh.

It was so funny when we finally made it to the bottom because there was this one spot where Krystina wanted me to get a pic of her, but I had already gone down about five steps. She goes, "Oh, wait, wait, wait... nevermind," because she knew there was no way in Hell I was going to climb back up those 5 steps. I surprised her, though, and took a rele good pic if i don't say so myself. Good times.

Then we went back to the hostel to get our stuff, had a couple milkshakes (Nutella milkshake? Oh yeah.), got back on the bus, got on the slowest and hottest and smelliest train I have ever been on, then made it back to our apartment around 9 at night. Whew. Long trip, but definitely worth it!

More Catch Up

Whew. This was my last day of getting up at the butt crack of dawn. Thank god.

This week has been pretty good, although I have to say that my group definitely were not at their best this Thursday and today (Friday). But it wasn't too bad. Next week is gonna be... interesting. I lose one problem kid, but I get an even worse one back. Ugh.

So, back to what I've been doing on the weekends, the second weekend after we arrived in Naples, we went to Sorrento and Capri. Sorrento is a very tourist-oriented city that sits right on the water. Capri is a very tourist-oriented island. Both are very gorgeous, and all we basically did was lay on the beach and take lots of pictures. We took the train there, and when we got to Sorrento, we went to check into our hostel only to find out that Alli had accidentally booked it for Sunday night instead of Saturday. She was really bummed, but everyone else didn't really care because that hostel found us another hostel to stay that was actually cheaper and probably a little nicer. The only difference was that it was pretty far from the center of the city- like a 30 minute walk up this winding little one lane street.

So, after we took a free shuttle to our new hostel and dropped our stuff off, we walked to the beach. The beach in Sorrento was interesting because the whole shoreline is made up of sheer cliff, so you have to take the stairs down to the tiny beach. Then after that, we walked through town a bit and did some shopping, then we tried to find this restaurant that Molly G.'s friend "Rick" recommended. (Rick as in Rick Steves). It was way off, through this sketch tunnel and down by this remote pier, but the food was delicious and we got free limoncello shots for showing them the Rick Steves guidebook. We hung out and walked around a little after that. And just saying, in Italy, there is no law against walking around on the street with an open container of alcohol... in case you were wondering.

The next day, we got on the bus that would take us to the docks at around 8am, and then we got on the boat that would take us around Capri. We had bought a tour the day before for about 50 euro (i think). The boat took us halfway around the island and dropped us off for four hours, then took us the rest of the way around and back. When we got dropped off, we took buses up to the top so we could go on the chair lift, then we ate lunch, and then we chilled at the beach. This is the beach where something mysterious bit my butt while I was in the water, but we don't really need to go into that or the rash that is now mostly gone....

Anyway, it was really gorgeous there. Definitely worth seeing. I wish we could have seen the Blue Grotto (this cave that is almost entirely blue), but it was closed because the tide was too high. =(

A little more about camp: The first week we got here, they kept us pretty busy, doing the typical orientation things and going over the rules of the center. We finished all the posters for the entire summer that first week (only to find out a few weeks later that we had done the wrong themes because apparently our POCs had already picked the themes for us and somehow forgot to inform us of this). Then that weekend was Pompei, and Monday was the first day of camp.

That first week of camp was interesting, as they always are. The kids here remind me a lot of my Yokosuka kids: a little wild, a little crazy, a little rude, and more than a little defiant. Sometimes I can't believe how mean these kids are to each other, calling each other names and arguing all the time. But the girls in my group are really great, and the boys have their moments. At least we have really nice facilities here, and at least I only have at the most 20 kids rather than the 50 from last summer.

The SAC (school age care) is really nice. It has four rooms (Boogie, Build a Dream, Preteen, and Creation), a gym, a playground, and a grass field. It's been nice to have a gym in the building, because I've never had that before.

My first day at work here, though, was the first time that I ever had to restrain a kid. I just see this boy- call him Joe- walking super angrily toward another boy- call him Bob. Joe all of a sudden just starts wailing on this poor kid (who I learned later may have actually deserved some of it) and would not stop no matter how much I yelled. I did the whole bear hug thing from behind Joe and pulled him off of Bob. So not okay. Luckily, Krystina (my PC) was right there to help me out. Joe went to talk to Miss Staci (the head of the center), but then like an hour later, she lets him come out onto the playground and he heads straight for Bob and starts beating him up all over again. Miss Staci's turn to do the bear hug.

So that was my first day. I was pretty much thinking I was back at Yokosuka. But, luckily, it's been getting a little bit better, now that I'm more used to the kids and they're more used to me. I am still working on figuring out how to deal with a few of my problem kids, but luckily I have an awesome MFLAC to help me. MFLAC stands for Military Family Life Advice Counselor (or something along those lines). I have never really worked with one before, so it's been really nice to have Miss Kim in my group. She has a lot of good insight on the kids, and I feel like we get along really well.

There's another MWR staff member that I don't quite get along with so well, though. Drives me nuts, actually. Every time he talks, he is lecturing me about something or other, and since he is super hard to understand, I usually have no idea what he is telling me. I guess he is kinda the same age as us, and he has been pushing us every week to invite him on a trip with us. The first week, we pretty much said he could go, but he never really gave us an answer. And now he is guilt tripping us non stop for going without him. Not gonna lie, it's really annoying. And the other week, he told me that the system I was using to discipline my kids wasn't working. I asked him if he had a better idea (in a nice way of course) and he said no. Kinda ticked me off. Just a little.

But I like all the Camp A staff I work with, which is really good. So far, no drama. But I don't want to jynx it. This weekend, almost everyone is going to Venice, but me and Krystina and Alli and her friend are going to the Amalfi Coast. Krystina and I are planning on doing the Path of the Gods, which is this hiking trail that is supposed to be really pretty. Unfortunately, my foot has been hurting me pretty bad this week, which is really bad timing, but I will go hiking anyway. When in Rome, right?

Better Late than Never

Alright, fine. I give in to the two people that have been nagging me to blog- you know who you are and you better actually read this.

I am in my fifth week here in Naples, but this is the fourth week of camp. We have five more weeks of camp before I come home... not that I'm counting down or anything.

I work with the 8 year olds this year, which is one year older than I've worked with in the past, and believe it or not, that one year makes a big difference. Of course, I somehow managed to get the craziest group again, which seems to be a common theme for me. (And if you don't believe me, just ask the rest of the staff here. They all agree that my group is the... most difficult). So far, though, this week has been going really good because two of the more troublesome campers have been absent. I can't wait for our movie day tomorrow! We're seeing Kung Fu Panda 2, and it's amazing how absorbed kids get when you put them in front of a giant movie screen.

Every weekend we have traveled some place new. The first weekend, we were going to go to Pompei on Saturday, but we ended up not being able to go off base because we didn't have bus tickets to get us to the train station. (We realize now that because they never check the tickets, you don't really need them hehe). So on that Saturday, we went to the on base pool and just hung out, which was nice since we were all super tired from our crazy crazy week of in-service training and poster making. Then on Sunday, we took taxis to Aversa train station, took the train to Napoli Centrale, then caught the Circumvesuviana train to Pompei. We took buses up to Vesuvius (the bus ride reminded me of the way Tater drives + offroad) but we couldn't see anything because the fog was so thick. It was still pretty cool tho. Then we had some pizza (yum) and walked thru Pompei. I really wished we would have gotten a tour, because I honestly had no idea what I was looking at most of the time. It was still awesome, though, and I would definitely go back.

The next weekend we went to Sorrento and Capri, the next Sicily, and this past weekend, we went to Rome. I will talk about those trips later since I am running out of time- the library closes at 7pm.

Anyway, so this summer, I am living in apartments right off base. When I say right off base, I mean the fence is literally right across the base. I can see the base from my balcony (yes, I have a balcony). Unfortunately, the gate to get on base happens to be on the complete other side of base, so it takes us a good 20 minutes or more to get on base. But at least it's better than staying at Carney Park, which is way out in the middle of nowhere. The apartments are brand new, and they are pretty nice. The appliances here in Italy are not quite the same quality as the ones we have in the States, and we have had some minor malfunctions with the washer, air conditioning, and the electricity in general. But other than that, the apartments are super nice. I have my own room, and I share a balcony with the living room. I live with two other girls, Maddie and Kelly, and they each have their own room and share a balcony. There are two bathrooms, each with a toilet and a sink, and one with a bath and one with a shower and a washer. The kitchen is pretty big, and it has a balcony where we can hang our clothes out to dry since we don't have a dryer.

We can sometimes get internet at the steps to our apartment (we live on the fourth floor btw) but the mosquitos pretty much eat us alive out there.

There is a Commissary and a NEX on base that we can use, and also a bowling alley, library, food court, gym, and movie theater. The movies are super cheap!

Anyways, I should go. The librarian is starting to close up. I guess I will write more later.

Ciao!