Lingua senza frontiere - looking back

So, I'm finally making myself sit down to write down some thoughts on my Italy trip back in June. In brief, following the tips of very helpful people here on Chalkboard (thank you!) I ended up applying to work at Lingua senza frontiere camps in the hope I could get some experience, training and teaching action beyond the online qualification. Plus, some travel and a change of scenery was much needed...

I was accepted (to my surprise) and was told to arrive at their base in Sanremo, Northern Italy. Deciding to visit Milan to soak up the sights, immerse myself in cultural experiences and have the solo mini-adventure I've been promising myself since starting university I then turned up at the ultimate destination to the training.

Altogether, I had an ace time. After really enjoying Milan and a night in Sanremo it was great to suddenly find myself surrounded by enthusiastic and bright people having started to get a bit bored of my own company. Everyone at the camp - staff and soon-to-be-staff - was lovely and it was great to get to know so many people from so many different backgrounds. Canadians made up most of the camp population, then probably Americans, with a fair few of us Brits (you can tell us a mile off from the clouds that hang over our heads) and some Australians, Kiwis and a French-Jamaican guy in there for diversity. With over 150 of us there it's a shame you couldn't get to know everyone.

People-wise then, perfect. The Blue Beach resort wasn't so sparkling, however. Some people had rooms with crumbling ceilings and doors that didn't lock though I was lucky to be in one of the nicer dorm rooms (Our bathroom, apparently, was "a palace"). A lot of people also were very unimpressed with the food and seeing it as so meagre and unappetising ended up eating out and bringing back shopping from the town of Arma di Taggia .

In terms of other irritations, the sense that the supervising staff are observing you to try and spot chemistry and work out how best to use you (in terms of age groups to teach at the summer camps, who to put you with, etc.) was a bit unnerving but necessary I guess. The sense of 'organised chaos' also tested some people as it was left late in the week as to when people knew where abouts in Italy they were being sent to. To a certain degree it can't be helped and to be fair to LSF it takes a huge amount of organisation, but it's also hard on the staff members not knowing what's coming in a couple of days and what it means for their future plans.

That's about it in terms of 'negatives'. The rest is all fun learning, effective teaching and guidance and loads of enthusiasm and inspiration. I left feeling incredibly psyched up to travel to the camps, ready to put all the things I'd learned and picked up over 4 days of training into classrooms with kids between the ages of 5 and 12.

Sadly, I had to return home - I knew this already and had arranged that if training went well I'd back for the later set of camps in August-September. Leaving I felt sorry that I was missing out but resolved that I can do this kind of stuff - it was an inspiring experience. Unfortunately, personal circumstances have conspired against me and it looks like getting back to Sanremo to finally get to teach isn't going to happen this year. This is tremendously disappointing.

Nevertheless, I met a lot of people and made some good friends, got a feel for TEFL overseas, immersed myself in new experiences and reignited the travel bug. I would definitely recommend Lingua senza frontiere (from what I've seen of the organisation so far!) and just hope they'll have me back next year (I'd like to go through it again and actually achieve what I set out to achieve). Aside from that, the disappointment fuels my desire to travel on, get out of this country and have TEFL adventures!

Here's to making that happen... :)

• Italy
• Summer camps
• TEFL
• teaching English abroad