La Reggia di Caserta
When I returned home from Caserta after participating in a two week English summer camp, Rome greeted me in the usual way: hot, hot, hot and then waiting for my bus in that heat for 20 minutes. But I didn't mind at all because I was so happy to be back in beautiful Rome. My Fulbright friend, Natalie, and I stayed with an Italian family for two weeks while we were working as camp counselors in the southern Campania region. It was no easy task. The ideas we tried to implement that usually work in American summer camps weren't exactly successful. The age range was 6-12, although there wasn't much distinction in the maturity level among the ages. I've never worked with a group of kids who have such difficulty listening and following direction. And forget about trying to get them to form any type of line or circle. Even when I physically placed the students into the places I wanted, I would turn my head for a second and they were off doing whatever it was they weren't supposed to be doing. One of the things that striked me the most was the lack of team work. Team members were constantly fighting, yelling at each other for being too slow or not getting enough points. Some kids would sneakily try and switch to the winning team instead of working with, helping, an encouraging their own team members. They also didn't understand the concept of the 'honors system' in playing games. For example, if a kid got tagged while playing a certain game, instead of going out they would continue to play. What made it worse is even when the counselors would call the kids out for being tagged (because we saw it with our own eyes) they would yell, non è vero! It's not true! This battle of trying to get the kid to sit out would go on for quite some time while they continued to rebuke our call. Another phrase that would also haunt my dreams was non vale! It doesn't count or it's not fair. The activities would come to numerous halts because the kids would claim that their opponents weren't playing correctly or fairly. It didn't matter to them that there were five camp counselors monitoring the games and keeping track. They still felt the need to argue or rebuttal anything and everything. On a brighter note, there were seven of the thirty five kids who were fantastic, and apart from the camp, it was nice living with another Italian family. It's true what they say about Italian southern hospitality. The mother was so accommodating and so generous; a really sweet woman. Natalie and I still wouldn't take back this experience because looking back on it we crack up laughing over certain things.
Cultural Notes: 1. The Reggia di Caserta was built in the 1700s as a summer home for the King of Naples. It is now an UNESCO World Heritage Site and both Mission Impossible and Star Wars had clips that were filmed there.
2. For lunch most Italian moms prepare a sandwich with two slices of some type of cold-cut. No condiment, usually no cheese, no lettuce, no tomato; it's basically a bread sandwich. The bread in Italy is pretty bland. You have to find good bread, which was definitely surprising to me throughout my year here.
3. The fruit tastes like what fruit should taste like. The fruit in America has no flavor. It's apricot season right now and I've never tasted such juicy and sweet apricots in my life.
Highlights: 1. Indulging in pizza napoletana while in Campania...it's so good!
2. Watching the Disney film Anastasia with Natalie on my iPad. It was so hot, that we were dripping sweat just sitting on the couch. But we couldn't stop laughing because the whole situation was so funny. The weather was is the high 90s and there was no air conditioning. It didn't bother me though.
3. Sunday lunch at the mother-in-law's house of the woman we were living with. Needless to say, her cooking was fantastic. I feel so lucky to have eaten in so many Italian homes over this past year. Food prepared by an Italian nonna can't be beat.
4. Going with the family to their beach house our last weekend in Caserta. Again, they treated us like members of their family and took such good care of us.
5. Meeting up with one of my sister's best friends while he was vacationing in Rome. It was one of the best nights I've spent in Rome this entire year. At around 3:00 AM, when Piazza Navona was completely empty, we jumped into one of the fountains...living la dolce vita...minus the black gown and blond hair.
Impara con me!- staffetta- relay race
