While I was quaffing a rather nice glass of red wine at the local bar, I spotted a leaflet advertising an English Summer Camp, the experience of losing their kids for one week cost the parents the princely sum of €550.
I will be honest, the summer camp leaflet and time table didn’t inspire me. As the smooth red wine stimulated my brain cells, I suddenly had a cunning plan.
Maybe I could run an English Summer Camp
Obviously I can’t guarantee the traditional English weather.
I have an American friend who was an English teacher and more importantly she owns a vineyard, who better to team up with?
Over a cappuccino (I know it should have been a glass of wine) I told her about my cunning plan, I explained that I teach seven classes of kids ranging from six to eleven years of age. And if we talk to the parent we should have enough kids to fill the camp. I also mentioned the kids we could veto, for example the class clown in year 3 and little Marco who always has his finger buried up his nose to his first knuckle.
My American friend disagreed, she said these are precisely the kids we should invite…In the interest of research I sent a message to Linda Von Grady at Expat Eye on Germany to ask her opinion and she replied “Ha, why do you do these things to your self?”
My only excuse is the wine motivated me.
So in a little over three and a half months, twenty two Italian nose picking kids will descend on a vineyard for 6 days and 6 nights in a hope to improve their English and have a great and spiffing time.
And if we survive the encounter, another twenty two kids will arrive the following week.
I think I need a grappa.
Wonderful fun! Good luck and hope to hear more stories.
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I have too admit, I am a little worried, only a little. Mrs S on the other hand is….
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Err..good luck, is all I can think of. It will be exhausting but hopefully rewarding. You’ll need plenty of wine at the end of it all and probably a holiday. 🙂 I’ve some experience in these things but I won’t share any of them with you right now…don’t want to put you off or give you nightmares. 🙂
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I helped at a kids camp last year and I think I aged 20 years in 4 days
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If you don’t go off your nut, you’ll have great fodder for this blog. In bocca al lupo!
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Mrs S is hinting she may fly to Sicily during my summer camp 🙄
I have been practising camp fire songs… ging gang goolie goolie goolie goolie ging gang goo ging gang goo
I know the songs even if I never went on a scouts camping holiday
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Hmmm, I think maybe “English” camp is different than our camps in America. Will you teach the poor little buggers Oxfordian English or something useful? Koombiyah and Little Rabbit Foo Foo were the popular songs at my youth camp.
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Koombiyah and other songs… Everything will be geared around play and fun, just like the lessons I give in the schools
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I have a sneaky feeling that the kids will look after you well, and you will become an award-winning nose-picker 🙂 I’d almost tempted to come along for the ride with Mrs Playmo, but we’ve got a Very Important Plan at the end of June so nose-picking in the vineyards will have to wait. Great project, well done!
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am curious what is the important plan?
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We have a race to run.
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See, your wine drinking is paying off. You’d never have seen that leaflet otherwise. We can barely wait to hear about the fun and games!
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You can bet madness will rule, I am working on a treasure hunt for the kids and a risk assessment for the camp… I know which I prefer to work on
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It’s going to be fun reading all about this venture.
Risk management? What risks? What management? What First Aid?
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I was just putting my latest post from Venice on Google+ and there we were …..side by side. Who would have imagined?
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We could have shared a bottle of wine
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You would have had to drink it all. Alcohol does not pass my lips. From what I’ve read here that would not have been a problem 😁
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I can’t wait to follow this adventure on your blog!
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I lord I hope it won’t be an adventure, hopefully everything will go as planned. Please
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i think this is great and an adventure that is right up my alley
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Cool, do you need your own tent or will you share with the kids?
And do you want a red or blue STAFF T shirt 😂😂😂😂
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yes to all
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It’s going to take more than a glass or two of wine or grappa to make it through that!
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Or a bottle or two
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Good luck. You will need it. Why not just stay 2-3 sheets in the wind and that’ll take care of all the problems. 🙂
y
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That’s a thought, but I will have to be a responsible adult 😜
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Wow, that’s a pretty big group of kids! Good luck on your new endeavor! 🙂 Out of curiosity, where is this vineyard? I used to follow your blog quite a bit (before taking a hiatus from the blogging world), but I think I remember you were in Piemonte?
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It is in Vignale Monferrato, and welcome back
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Thanks 🙂 We were in the Langhe and Casale Monferrato a couple of weeks ago. Lovely place!
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Rachel we are 20 mins from Casale, why not message me next time and we can say Hi properly rather than a virtual hi 😜
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Would love to! I’ll let you know the next time we’re in the area 🙂
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if you send me an email using my contact box i can send you some details
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Get the kids crushing the grapes with their little feet!!! Good luck, it will be insane fun!! 🙂
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I never thought of that, what a brilliant idea, unfortunately the grapes are harvested in September …. but watch this space
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Huzzah to another brilliant business idea! Make sure you get things back in return. Maybe they could make a statue of you in the backyard?
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A statue, what a great idea. At the moment I am writing risk assessments for the camp!!!!
Also practising my camp fire songs 😜
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Lol Too funny
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