The Best Summer Ever | Cremona and Camp Tutoring

That time I was in charge of a group of Italian kids for a week....

Warning: I get a little bit enthusiastic and excited in parts of this. Read at your own risk.

This part of my journey brings me to Cremona, where I will be spending one week teaching in a summer camp, as well as living with an Italian family for the duration of my stay.

So, my last post recalled the last few moments on the train before we met our host families in Cremona. My host mum Giovanna was waiting on the platform for me and straight away I was received with a huge hug, before I even knew who she was! We hopped in the car and off we went, to their lovely house in the countryside of Cremona. It is a beautiful place in the north of Italy, near (ish) to Milan, and the 'Pini' family took me in for the week and provided me with lovely Italian food, culture and experiences. 

First meeting with Giovanna at the station

My host family had requested a sociable girl to stay with them. I thought this was brilliant that I had been chosen to fill these shoes.. However, the reason the family specified this is because they had Church Club activities scheduled for every night that I would be with them. Now, I'm not a religious person. However, I am well up for trying most things, and going to church and singing along to all the Italian choral tunes on the (specially reserved for me) front row seat is quite something. I didn't have a clue what was going on and my host family and everyone around me started shaking my hand during one part of the mass which was quite bizarre, but fun all the same! 

Welcome banners!

Every morning, Giovanna made me an espresso, packed lunch and then took me to school bright and early. It was really strange being mothered so much after being at uni for a year without my wonderful Mama doing those things for me. After an exhausting day at camp, G would come and pick me up at 4.30pm and I'd go home ready for a smashing night at church club. Orrrrr feel really bad when I told the family I wanted a night off to sleep! Mostly I made the most of these opportunities to try something new though, however tired I was.

Bike ride along the River Po with the family

These new experiences even led me to going on a mammoth bike ride in the midday Sunday sun- aren't Sundays for resting?! But it was lovely. We went on a tour of the area all through the countryside and even stopped off at their Nonna's house for a chat. On the way back, coming along a busy main road, my flipflop came off and I threw myself off the bike to save it. In hindsight, this was not a good idea as it meant I was shouting "OIIIIII, OIII!!" to Bea, my beautiful host sister who is pictured above, as I clambered about looking for my flipflop as well as my dignity, whilst a lorry came towards me. This is why I don't ride a bike on the regular...

Host family dinner selfie!

As well as my beloved Church Club outings, my host family also treated me to dinner and late night ice cream which was brilliant. It seems heading out of the house at 11pm to go sit in the main piazza and eat gelato is absolutely normal in Italy . I loved it anyway, and really appreciated my host family trying to show me the Italian way of life all the time.

Awkward, tired family photo

Let's talk about CAMP!

There were around 60 children at our camp based at a school in Cremona, between the ages of around 5 and 12. There were five of us tutors, and after living together for up to two weeks we were great pals so we had a whale of a time. I had a class of 13 ten/eleven-year-olds and they were a dream to work with! They knew just enough English to communicate with me so I could actually teach them and be effective. Whereas some of the younger kids would simply respond with a shoulder shrug and a "che?" and then run away, slice of focaccia in hand.  

Cremona camp tutors

Each morning, as soon as the kids arrived we gathered them all together to do a SONG CIRCLE (best part of the day) and leapt around in front of them looking like fools. The first time we ever did this, the kids just looked at us like we were aliens. Like, seriously. They were waaaayy too cool to do the frog song. So I looked each one of them in the eye as I put my HEART AND SOUL into that damn frog song and broke down those barriers! Soon they were loving it, and by day two they performed so well that their parents who looked on from the other side of the school gates even wanted to join in. That, my friends, is the power of the song circle.

Someone was excited for the fashion show...

So then we each split off into our classes. This is when my class realised that I was really a sweaty, panting mess (maybe a little too enthusiastic in song circle) and I didn't really have a clue how to teach English to these Italian dudes. So I blagged it. And it was incredible. Through being an utter weirdo, the kids were fascinated and really paid attention to the strange person who would randomly sing the camp songs or excessively high-5 them. And although  we were not supposed to speak any Italian to the kids, I may have cracked the odd phrase out which would have them in hysterics because I apparently didn't have a clue what I was saying!

Fun and games!! (They survived)

During break times and daily camp competitions we would all come together and have a laugh playing various games, receiving about 5 loom bands a day, and even home made food items from their nonni (grandparents). The children were so lovely and the idea that 'Italian children are naughty' completely diminished almost immediately.

Post- camp drinks and 'meeting'

We put on a fashion show one day which was soooo fun! I think I enjoyed it more than the kids did, judging by the pictures, Some of the children really embraced it, by bringing in their special clothes that they wanted to show off, or even by making clothes in class. Us camp tutors strutted down the catwalk before the kids did to show them not to be afraid and just to have fun. This meant borrowing various 'fashion' items off the kids. See pictures below!

Tom and I strutting our stuff

Fashion show antics

Throughout the week we were working towards creating a 'spettacolo'- a final show. I wanted the kids to write it themselves so then they could really enjoy performing it in front of their families. So my class ended up with an 'explorers' theme, in which the actors would travel to various different countries and do something that the country is famous for. Therefore, we had one guy acting as Adam Richman from Man vs Food (that was Leonardo's choice), another acting the role of footballer Neymar, and the girls were Brazillian festival dancers,.. just with clothes on. So somehow, these ten- year- old Italian children wrote, learned and acted the whole of an English script that I helped them create, just in one week. Proud moment. However, how rubbish is it that we are not taught such a high level of language in schools in the UK?

MY AWESOME CLASS!!

 The spettacolo marked the end of our time at camp. It was incredible to see how well the kids had done and progressed. Some parents even came up to me and thanked me in very broken English for helping their children, and that they had seen a big improvement. During the last few speeches and thank-yous of the show whilst us tutors were on stage, my class were chanting my name. It was such a good feeling to be the cool teacher that the children liked. I can definitely see how teachers get so much satisfaction out of their jobs. However, I am unsure about my future in a teaching career.....

Thank you to LSF for providing such a unique opportunity and also to my awesome host family for putting up with me all week! I would definitely recommend that anybody steps out of their comfort zone and does something like this. You don't need to know any foreign languages for most of these types of jobs, and you may meet some brill people and create life long memories like I did. ;)

Enough of the soppy bullsh. We're going to Florence next!!

A presto!

Olivia xx

DIY Scented Soy Candle

A thoughtful Christmas gift

As the winter months are now upon us, it is cold, wet and miserable so I thought it would be a nice idea to express my crafty side and attempt to make my own candles that help create that much-loved snuggly atmosphere when its dreadful outside.

My friend told me about 'Handmade Christmas' which is where you make all or as many presents as possible that you intend to give to people. I think this is a lovely idea for many reasons; firstly I have always preferred thoughtful gifts that perhaps have no monetary value. In my opinion, there's just something lovely about receiving a gift that a person simply really wanted to give you, with lots of feeling and thought. Second, it can be really enjoyable to get stuck into a project or a task of making something for someone, knowing how much they will appreciate it! And finally, I personally don't enjoy dragging myself around the shops  looking for and spending unnecessary amounts on a present that the person in mind doesn't need, or want, for that matter.

So, my first idea for Handmade Christmas was to make my own candles. I had been inspired to do this by a friend who showed me her attempt at this, and I loved it! I think it's a great gift idea because you can tailor the candles to particular people's wants, for example by changing the scent, colour and the container that the candle is in (e.g glass jar, ceramic pot, teacup etc).

With the whole 'keeping the costs down' thing in mind, I sourced my materials online and from charity shops. Ebay is a brilliant site to find competitive prices for the wax, and I found my soy wax and suitable wicks for about £7. That was 1kg of wax with 20 free wicks included. I got my scent from a little hippy shop in town for about £1.50 but these are also online for very good prices and with a huge range of scents! The rest of my materials were found in the local charity shop and were all very cheap. So far so good!

I have read many ways you can make candles at home and I pretty much used this knowledge as well as a little bit of fluke to make mine, so I'll tell you how I managed it!

Materials

·         Wax (I used soy but paraffin is also cheap and easy to use)

·         Saucepan

·         Glass bowl

·         Stirrer (of some sort)

·         Scent (optional)

·         Wick

·         Sellotape

·         Jar/pot for candle

·         Hair grips (or anything else you have to hold the wick upright)

Step 1

·         Create your double boiler by putting boiling water in the saucepan with the glass bowl on top of it

Step 2

·         Measure out your wax. Do this by pouring the wax into your desired container for the candle, and then repeat. So double the amount of hard wax will be just right once it is melted in the container. Put the wax into the glass bowl and gently heat.

Step 3

·         Position your wick in the container. It needs to be sturdy so when you pour the wax in it doesn't dislodge and bend. I used sellotape to stick mine to the bottom and it worked pretty well!

Step 4

·         Stir the wax occasionally until it is totally clear and really hot- some people recommend you measure the temperature but realistically, who has a thermometer hanging around for this purpose? I certainly don't... So just keep on heating it for a while after its gone clear.

Step 5

·         Take off the heat and then put in your scent. I'm still tampering with the amount of scent I need to add- and I think the measurements differ depending on the scent and its strength. So just throw it in until it is quite strong because some of the scent will evaporate. Give it a stir.

Step 6

·         Pour the melted wax into the container up until about 1.5cm from the top. It should be just the right amount of wax because of your previous professional hard wax measuring.

Step 7

·         You might need to secure the wick  so that it stands up straight whilst the wax cools. I panicked and used hair grips because it was all I had in the moment that I realised I wasn't prepared for the wax to move/bend so much!

Step 8

Let the wax cool. It only takes a few hours so be patient and keep your fingers out of there!

You can decorate the candle as you wish, perhaps with ribbon and gift tags if it isn't for you! I hope you enjoyed this post and found it useful, and perhaps go and make your own candles as a thoughtful gift this Christmas J

A presto!

Olivia x