i just can't stop with 10

after i posted yesterday about 10 memories that i love, more and more kept coming to my head, so here's round 2 of my first session happiness:

1) helping team russia show their national pride at culture night...and quietly
singing their anthem with them

2) being t-bone's wingman as he flirted it up with the girl at the lido
3) watching the kids hang over the sides of the boat on lake como
4) the car accident caused at the swiss mini park freeway because 2 italian boys thought you were allowed to play with the cars
5) chasing the boys to the park with the wiffle bat...and then cramming all the kids in tiny space while we waited for the rain to stop
6) katie and i deciding that "sweat" is our official song for the summer
7) 4 giddy turkish girls telling me about their crush on a counselor
8) koshiro, who speaks not a word of english, playing his violin perfectly at the talent show
9) ivan, the hooligan, playing his guitar and singing angelically...our jaws were all scraping the floor...who knew?

10) the horn not working in the van, so when we needed to honk at someone, brigitte yelling out the window, "BEEP BEEP!!!"
11) face paint and water fight with ahmed at the carnival

by the way, i was assiged to his team last night just to make sure the dirty cheater didn't cheat.

out with the old

and in with the new. our new group of kids arrived yesterday and it was not a moment too soon. as great as the first batch was, boy, do they get on your nerves. the new group is still sweet and innocent and we all still like each other. three weeks however, is plenty of time to change that.

between sessions we had about 2 days off and a group and i headed to zermatt to see the matterhorn because how can you go to switzerland and not see the matterhorn right? ugh. it was the worst trip i've ever been on. i was sick, we left 2 hours late, we didn't bring enough tents, there were too many people (15) note to self: never travel with 14 people. by the time we got to zermatt it was 4:00 and it was too late to go paragliding so i was in an awful mood. i thought, at least i'll be able to see the matterhorn. i walked to the lookout bridge, looked up and there it was: BEHIND A CLOUD!! the entire thing. i nearly cried.

 and i did not smile for hours. and my throat hurt so bad. then it started to rain. worst. day. ever. i slept in some stranger's spare room (long story) and he just happened to have a balcony and in the morning at 6:00, the sky was clear. and guess what i saw in all its majesty? the matterhorn. and it's beautiful. worth that awful day? probably not. but it made me appreciate coming back to school and look forward to the new kids. and so, in honor of the new and old, here are 10 (+1) memories i love of first session and 10 things i look forward to in second session (i love lists):

1) dasha sobbing, "why you do me so unhappy?"
2) making it my goal to make sure that ahmed the dirty cheater did not win
3) going to italy several times a week
4) finding my groove thing at the semi-formal dance

5) 12 gelati
6) beating marco at mini golf and thereby earning myself 5 francs
7) ilya giving me chocolate to say thanks and good bye
8) watching our version of the starship enterprise sink immediately to the bottom of lake lugano (and watching with satisfaction as ross' boat did the same)
9) being yelled at by the crazy italian in the golf cart for parking in his camperworld
10) ivan, who on the last day of camp, asked me why the music teacher was so black (i know you don't see too many black people in russia, but come on.)
11) secretly giving more fake money to my favorite kids during casino night


1) tennis with brett twice a week and laughing the whole time
2) russians
3) no cliques of turkish girls
4) going to verona and seeing where romeo and juliet lived
5) exploring movieland tomorrow
6) 12 more gelati
7) won the egg drop contest tonight. go team!
8) another talentless talent show
9) swiss national day on the lake with fireworks...and 120 middle schoolers...does it GET any better than that?

10) doing it all over again

can i don't go to swimming?

that's what ivan said to me when i told him to go put on his bathing suit. i love the way these kids translate from their language into english, using their own grammar. other phrases that make me very, very happy:

"can i hev?"
"i don't want"
"where i must go?"
"what we do?"
"can i put waterwear?"
"can i get photo machine?" (this was actually from a turk who is fluent in english, so we felt it was ok to make fun of her for this)
"i go horse" (from a russian who wanted to go horseback riding)
"when we shop?"
"where miguel is?"
"if i show you, promise you willn't tell?" (ivan wanted to show me his contraband goods...i don't know why this kid thinks i'm in cahoots with him.)
"sank you werry much."

i love this job.

ps. today rintaro sang "video killed the ladio stal"

von trapping in the alps

is a great way to spend your day. i spent the last 2 days in st. moritz that fancy pants ski resort town. i am not fancy pants, but i did wear pants because unlike my part of switzerland, it was not 150 degrees there. our first day there we took a funicular very high up a mountain and then hiked for about 10 minutes. we decided to stop hiking because one can only handle so much whining from 17 spoiled children. so we got on the trail that was only slightly uphill (they still whined) and i realized that I WAS VON TRAPPING!!! in my head, we were escaping the nazis. in my head, we were wearing matching clothes made from curtains (we actually were wearing matching t-shirts). in my head, we were singing harmoniously about hills coming alive. we were up so high that we could see 5 lakes, one behind the other. it was a lovely, beautiful time...until marco found dried cow dung in perfect frisbee shapes. so what did marco do? started playing frisbee, of course. and then, when that wasn't fun anymore, he started throwing it at the rest of us. i warned him that if the dung hit me, he would get it rubbed in his face. let's just say that marco has since learned that i am a girl of my word.

i am so tired

all the time. these pubescent foreign children really knock me out. but they are so funny, too. rintaro is from japan. he enjoys singing various abba songs during art. and because he has a very stereotypical accent it usually sounds like this: "mamma mia! now i rearry know...why, why, i could never ret you go." and his english teacher, anna, played a killers song "human" and rintaro walked around all day singing, "are we human...or are we dancers?" i never stop raughing when he's around. then there's ivan from russia who, for some reason, has become my special friend. we have a rule that the kids can't keep food or drinks in their dorms and when we find it, we confiscate it. ivan was cheerfully skipping along after ross (not the jane austen fan, different ross), who was fuming. i asked ivan if he was in trouble and he whispered to me, as if i were his accomplice, "yes, they have found my coca cola." and he was pleased as punch. it is good fun. i won't tell you about the spanish kids who curse at us in espanol...or the turkish girls who bully the other girls. this is a happy place.

actual conversation

between me and my friend, ross. ross is all guy, so i was mocking him for paying real money to rent the notebook:

me: what other girl movies do you watch?

ross: i'm not telling.

me: do you like jane austen movies? those are pretty girly.

ross: who's jane austen?

me: you know, she wrote pride and prejudice.

ross: i don't watch those cop shows. i hate them all: csi, law and order, pride and prejudice.



all i can say for ross is this: it's a good thing he's pretty.