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!