Teaching English in Italy

Lapedona - Florence - Venice

Mats and I have been staying at Lapedona for the past two weeks where I have been teaching English to Italian children. It was an extraordinary experience where regardless of the communication problem, the children and I were able to bond. It was beautiful. There were 4 other teachers who were teaching as well, they were from the US. From the two weeks of spending time with the teachers, I have found my sisters from the US, Carrie (an absolutely gorgeous, beautiful hearted, fun and crazy girl) and Alex (a beautiful hearted, lovely, hillarious and gorgeous girl) who I had so much fun with during teaching.

Mats and I stayed at Gina and Tim's place with their beautiful triplets, Hamish, George and Stedely. They were absolutely wonderful.

From left to right : Me teaching my beautiful kiddies (they are absolutely gorgeous children); Winning the sandman making with Hamish and the kids. Hamish, one of the triplets, is my helper; Making sandcastle; Me and the kids having lunch together; Building the great barrier reef sand with the kids; Alex, me and Carrie; Another picture of us infront of our rhino sandman; Playing with the sand.
The pictures were taken by Gina Wills.

From left to right : Alex and George at the sunflower field; Dom and Tom; Me and kids singing the Kookaburra song for our performance; Me and Tim doing the Wombat Stew for the performance (Tim's the dingo by the way); Me and all the kids singing Kookaburra; Me at the sunflower field; Me and one of the kids, Beatrice doing the Miss Universe play for the performance; Treated at one of the local restaurants after our hard work performing, it's a battered pasta, it's super delicious; Me and Carrie playing red rover with the kids on the beach.
The pictures were taken by Gina Wills.

We left Lapedona yesterday (Sunday) and stopped by Florence to see Richard and Sandra again which was really nice. We left for Venice in the afternoon having gone through a slight problem with the bus not leaving from the bus station, instead it was leaving from the highway, which is absolutely ridiculous. So we ended up missing our bus but then we get to go on the fast train which I've always wanted to do, so that's good. Basically though, I am now SOOOOO over Italy!!!! Time to move on!!!!!

Poco Loco Italiano

Italy: Naples - Rome - Florence - Lapedona

The past two weeks has been a crazy, overwhelming and exciting days. After our trip through old town Bari, we went through the beautiful Amalfi Coast and settled ourselves down for a couple of days in Naples, where we enjoyed the ruins in Pompeii and the amazing vast Vesuvius.

We had a magical experience in Pompeii, where we entered an area that was somehow blocked, and parked infront of the Order of Malta building. We were able to park there for free and was welcomed to have our lunch at their dining area where we were given water and also asked to sign in their guest book where we also saw the Pope sign in their book previous days. After lunch, one of the guards gave us a little tour to the top of the tower where we could see beautiful view of Pompeii and Vesuvius. We were definitely overwhelmed by the generousity. It was a pretty amazing experience.

As we hit Rome, we parked at the public parking area to do some errands and came back with the car window broken in to and all of our bags missing. It was rather devastating having the feeling of losing our one and only home, but immediately the night the incident happened, we experienced one of the most magical nights of our lives. The universe was kind and generous enough to give us the luxury of having the perfect camp fire, eating fantastic food, spectacular view, nice calm night, amazing stones and entertained by the dance of fire flies. We were absolutely blessed.

After fixing what needed to be fixed, we headed towards Florence and met the wonderful Richard and Sandra. It's always been great to see them especially after what had happened, it was really comforting to see them.

After Florence, we headed to Lapedona, where we are now. We're volunteering at a house for 3 weeks, where I am also teaching English at a children's camp which so far has been fun and interesting.

Pompeii (the first picture was with one of the guards of Order of the Malta who gave us a little tour to the tope of the bell tower to see Pompeii view.

Vesuvius and a little bit of Florence (unfortunately I couldn't take plenty of pictures of Florence because my camera charger was one of the stolen items. So I can't take lots of pictures yet. :-(

This photo was taken by Richard and Sandra in Florence. Thank you guys. Love you both so much.

Lapedona (view of the place we are staying at the moment)

Road Trippin Italy

Amsterdam - London - Sicily - Reggio Calabria - Heel of Italy - Amalfi Coast - Naples

From left to right: Barbecue at Sil's place; On the moped with Sil and Bodi; Flight from London to Sicily; Mats under water in Mascali, north of Catania; Me and Mats on Santa Ana beach, Sicily; On the way to Mascali train station; Valley of Temples, Agrigento; One of the ruins at the Valley of Temples; Me, posing away; Mats on one of the ruins; Mats in front of the temples; Falling Angel; Ruins of temples; temple ruins, Agrigento; Leaving Sicily towards main land

From left to right: Mats posing away in Pizzo; Pizzo beach where we stayed for 2 nights; Pizzo, where it's famous for its gelato; Pizzo; I found a huge blow plant thing that I don't know the name of which I tried to blow the first time as seen on picture and failed; We rented a car in Lamezea Terme and started our road trip and this is our first home for the night; Watchin the sunset on our first night road trip; Then we headed to the end of the heel of the boot and this is far south; Italy town; Coast drive on the east coast Italy; This is the end of the heel; One of a villa on the east coast of Italy; Drive on the east coast of Italy; Our next home on one of the cliffs on the east coast; Our home for the night; Our beautiful view; Watchin the sunrise from home

From left to right: Us in our home driving away in Italy; The church at Alberobello; Trulli style building in Alberobello; Beautiful Trulli style houses in Alberobello; Our next home for the night on the beach on the east coast; Amazing super old looking olive trees on the east coast; One of the olive tree growing in to the retaining wall; Church in old town Bari where the old houses are still occupied by the locals, it's really a nice walk there with clothes hanging and smell of tomato paste in every part of town that makes your stomach rumble; San Nicola church in Bari; Same; Mats and I infront of one of the houses in old town Bari; Me posing away infront of the Roman ruins; Ghost town Candela where we tried to find food but everything was shut and no one was there to ask; Old town Bari; Almafi coast drive