heading back to san diego

Due to the unfortunate astronomically high prices of flights, i was unable to make it to Italia to work for ACLE this summer. I'm quite depressed about it but figure it is a luxury that I need to work for and I'm making myself a promise now that I'll be back there next year. It also helps a little bit that my friend Alessandra from Roseto may be coming to visit in September. It will be her first trip to the states and I am so excited for her to be here!! I have my fingers, toes, pretty much everything crossed that she makes it here.

A bright spot in this all is that I am going to LA for a week to visit Jerry and attend comic-con. I'll be landing around midnight on the 21st and then we'll leave for San Diego that afternoon. After 4 and a half days of the con we will head back to lala land on the 25th. I CAN'T WAIT!! The first day's schedule will come out tomorrow so we can start are planning....

keep posted to tvg-lauren.blogspot.com for updates on awesome panels and things we've done!

and hopefully I'll be posting on you soon with some travel updates. HOPEFULLY.

love, lauren

the land of the swiss

Right now i'm in the zurich airport. (ps swiss keyboards have the z and the y in opposite spots on the keyboard...i am not a fan)

I left the airport for a bit and went into the city. The last train back here was at 12:17 so i only had a couple of hours. I got a map, walked around, snapped and had some pizza since no restaurants were really serving food anymore. The bar scene in town looked pretty good but as i'm alone in a city i don't know i figured i should probably skip the drinks. Now that i'm thinking of it, i probably should have had one. Oh well.

I finished my second book of the trip and took a little nap with all the other overnighters on the floor of this section of the airport. The stupid cleaning people were riding around on their machine around 3 this morning and scared the ish out of me. Since then ive been semi napping, listening to music, and just walking aroudn. Only a few more hours then i'll be able to check in. After that maybe i'll do some duty free shopping. I will definitelz be buying some chocolate :)

Well ok my money is about to run out on this public computer....and i'm starving. Here's hoping starbucks opens soon

see you in the states

love, lauren

arrivederci italia....buon giorno san diego

so i'm done that's it....i'm about to leave italia and start my whirlwind 31 hour trek through 3 countries and 4 airports to get to san diego for comic con!!

Firenze was absolutely beautiful. i loved it here...it's a small city but there is so much in it. I think you could probably stay here like 10 days and still not see everything. I visited a lot of churches and the duomo and saw the david of course. I also saw the ponte vecchio, shopped in san lorenzo market and watched the sunset from up in piazzale michaelangelo. I don't really know what my favorite part of the city has been...it's all pretty amazing. I did stare at the david in awe for a good 20 minutes to a half hour today though. I can't believe he was built out of one piece of stone...it's just overwhelming and awe inspiring thinking about it as you look at him.

It's funny to me to think that people actually live in these cities and just pass by these great, historical, breath taking monuments. I mean imagine you're taking the bus to work and you're just like 'oh yup there's the duomo again' ... it's crazy. I guess Boston has a lot of history to it and everyone takes their town and cities' histories and beauties for granted but America is just so young. These structures and churches in Italy have been here for thousands and thousands of years. It's miraculous how well they've stayed standing through the adversity and traveling they've taken.

Well alright it looks like I'm going to head to the aiport now. A 15 minute walk to the train station first with a backpack as big as my nephew. I think i may need a chiropracter or at the very least a really excellent masseuse when i get back home.

So it's florence-zurich-philly and then finally san diego. I can't wait!!! Comic con is going to be exhausting but pretty much one of the coolest things ever!! And i'm hoping I can persuade Jerry to take me to the apple store when we land (lol i mean i need the iphone to work for the con!).

Talk to you guys in America! Or maybe in Switzerland tonight if I can find internet at the airport :)

love, lauren

the last stop in italia...

that's right i made it. I am in firenze and ok so its been almost a week since i've last updated. i'm sorry about that. next time i talk myself out of bringing my laptop on these abroad adventures smack me.

the end of camp was alright. my kids were crazy bananas the last week and put on a show called the "what can you do?" game show. they weren't very good and needed to use scripts to remember their lines unfortunately. That thursday all the tutors and directors went out for dinner...and actually all drink together on a normal social basis. It was nice to be able to hang with the other tutors at night outside of the occassional beach trip after camp.

Saturday i headed to ROSETO degli ABBRUZZI. On the way there was a turn off the highway for sulmona and i wished for one more day so i could get there and get to where my dad was born. I stayed with alessandra who is amazinggggg. Seriously, i love that girl. We went to the beach both days and when she was working saturday night she made sure that i was out with her friends. Them teaching me to speak proper italian and making them practice english was hilarious. We all had a wonderful time. Sun night we had arrosticini (it's sheep on a stick...i know sounds funny right?)....it was amazing. Apparently you can only get it in abbruzzo and i will miss it cuz it was phenomenal.

Roma was the next spot on my adventure. I stayed at the yellow which was a great hostel minus the fact i didnt see my roomates at all (except there sleeping bodies when i strolled in early tuesday morning). I was supposed to meet up with Eric (fellow tutor in the scau) for the la luna fest (celebrating 40 years since apollo 11) but it didnt end up happening unfortunately. Moby was performing for free and it was pretty sick. We both ended up going but didnt see each other with the 10000 or so other people there. I also saw Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince in English which was wicked great minus the end (i wanted dumbledore's funeral with the big white tomb). In addition to walking through and by some famous piazzas and things i've seen before, I hit up the Pantheon (which was magnificient) and St. Peter's Basilica and Dome in the Vatican. Climbing the steps of that dome was interesting. It got so tiny and hot and claustrophobic. The view was absolutely breathtaking when you got to the top. You could pretty much see all of Roma. I can't wait to do it again tommorow at the Duomo here in Firenze.

Well alright seeing as it's 1:14 in the morning here and i have a full day of sightseeing to do tommorow, i should be off. We'll see what happens with updating tommorow or thursday. But if not i'll talk to ya in Zurich (this 13 hour layover is gonna be a bitch).

Can't wait to see you all!!

amore,

lauren

scusa per no updates recently

Alright so much has happened since we last spoke. Well i guess not that much actually. Like i said Pompeii was completely fascinating. I couldn't believe i was actually standing there in the ruins. It was amazing.

We hung around Napoli the next day and went to the Castello d'uovo (castle of the egg). It was again breathtaking. Everything here in Italy is just so much more beautiful than anywhere else. It's so historical and rich and just awe inspiring. The guy who ran our hostel was so funny about us heading back to scauri. He says its rubbish and that all the trash from Napoli go there. The look of disgust on his face was hilarious.

Camp this week has been pretty good. I have 6 new kids and 3 from last week. There are about 3 of them who really know english well and the others just look at me like I have a thousand heads. For our show friday we are going to do a game show with "can you.." questions. Should be fun if i can get the kids to actually give me some input.

Other than that and my iphone not charging, everything has been going well. Iam eating amazingly, getting along with all the tutors, spending hours in the sun (although sometimes i feel like i could fry an egg on my head...we prob could legit do it on the concrete) and having a great time with my amazing host family.

Tommorow night the camp directors and tutors are all going to have dinner and hopefully go out and then come saturday morn it will be peace out scauri and hello roseto. I'm going to stay with alessandra for two days in roseto, head to rome for a day and a half or so and then florence on tuesday and wednesday night then off to san diego it is (by way of zurich and philly)!! comic con sched is up and looks fantastic (minus heroes and fringe at the same time)!! i can't wait!!

love and miss you all!!

lauren

ps mosquitos are rampant here
pss miss you andy and papa and lesley/rich, mom, and matt!!!

pompeii...

was amazing. seriously, breathtaking. i can't believe i was actually there. i took many pictures before my camera battery decided to pass out. luckily, i had the iphone too so i got some of that.

other that that. last show went good. currently in napoli with my fellow tutors minus emily. good times. right now, in the hostel getting ready to go out. woot!! i don't want to hog eric's mac so i just wanted to say hi and tell you all this weekend was amazing!!

love,

lauren

volcanic pools, sun, and fun

Camp has been going well so far!! I have 10 kids in my group, ages 10-11. It's definitely a lot different than last year as I feel some of these kids know very minimal english. I am def speaking a lot more italian at camp and at home that I am used to!! Conjugating verbs and that damn trilled 'r' is still hard for me but i am kind of getting the hang of it!! Class has been alright and mini olympics are awesome even though my team (american tigers) is in last place! The other tutors are all pretty cool too!!

My host family is pretty amazing...all the other tutors are very jealous!! I am the only tutor in the actual town of scauri, 30 seconds from the beach and i have my own flat above their apartment. It's pretty sick.

Today we took a field trip to these 5 volcanic pools. Each pool has different minerals and temperatures, etc. It was very cool but when we got there, it reeked of sulfur. So bad i almost thought I was going to throw up!! We got used to it though, thank god. The pools were pretty and I got thrown in twice (which reminded me of camp p) and it was a pretty great experience. Right now i should be working on my show but ah well we will wing it! My class is going to be three nba basketball players and cheerleaders. In italia, they all love kobe and the lakers!! None of them would be KG or Ray for me, lol.

It looks like I may not be going to Roseto but I am going to try to figure something out to visit after this camp is over. This weekend, the other tutors and I are going to go to Naples and Pompeii (and hopefully hike vesuvius). We may try to hit up sorrento, the amalfi coast or capri too but I don't know yet. I can't wait though.

Alright, sono stacissima.

Buona Notte!

Lauren :)