Toto Che Visse Due Volte

I ended my days teaching tired and sore footed. On occasion, in the afternoons, I would often wander around central Rome but mostly I came back to my flat, ate some dinner, and de-stress. Teaching 12 and 13 years olds is hard work and anyone who does so has my full respect. You are energy personified.

What brought me to Italy began with me wanting to get some traveling in at the least possible cost to me. I applied for some jobs teaching English overseas. What I looked for mostly were jobs that would pay for my plane ticket as well as room and board. I found a job in China and this one in Italy that met these requisites.

After talking to many people and weighing the prose and cons I decided Italy. I hadn’t been to Europe since New Years 2000 and the idea of facing some personal demons, getting paid to be in another country, and eating Italian food on home soil appealed to me.

So I left June 6th for Nice, France which was the closest location to where my job training would be held in Sanremo, Italy. Took the train in to the beach side hotel I’d be staying at for the week where 180 other English teachers and I learned songs, games, and dances to teach the children at Italian English camp.

To be completely honest, the training was hell. At 31 I was one of the oldest people there and could immediately feel the difference between myself and everyone else. I also had to spend the week living in a room with 3 other girls. They were nice enough but I am at an age and temperament where I need my personal space and downtime and that was hard to find in such conditions.

The camp, Lingue Senza Frontiere, is designed for Italian students in elementary and middle school to learn English in an immersion setting. Performance games and activities are used over chalkboard teaching as a means to encourage students in speaking the language. As a result, at the end of the camp students put on a performance for the public that forces them to utilize spoken English.

At the end of the training in Sanremo we were broken up into small groups of 1 to 7 teachers and assigned to individual camps throughout Italy. Camps were held mainly north of Rome and teachers were hosted in families or flats provided by the school.

I was assigned to work in a suburb of Rome called Pablo Neruda just north of Vatican City along with three other Canadian teachers—Libby, Hazel, and Jason. Libby, Hazel, and I shared a flat together provided by an Italian woman named Emma who was more than generous with taking us out, providing us with mealsand directions, or any other things we might need.

The flat was a gorgeous two bedrooms, 1 bathroom apartment with a living room, kitchen, and enormous balcony that overlooked a busy city street. I would often cook a meal and sit outside to catch the cool night air and listen to World Cup fans cheer on their favorite team.