la bella vita.

A Typical Day At The Pool...

2010-08-14T14:46:00.000-07:00

A typical week day at the pool consists of swim lessons from 8-11. Then we get a lunch break from 11-12:15. From 12:15-1 those of us not teaching a 30-minute class (Advanced Preschool/Water Aerobics/Adult Lessons) get in the guard rotation. Pretty much, that just means that for 30 min you have a break but for 15 you will be on stand. At 1:15 we open for open swim and then we finish the day at 7. Also, one might have to work the morning or night shift. During the week the morning shift is from 5:45-7:45am, and you are alone for this time guarding lap swim for the swim team. The evening shift is from 8-10:30pm and covers pool parties and kayaking rolling sessions which alternate depending on the day. On the weekend, things are a lot different. Morning shift is from 10-11:45 to guard lap swim but usually only 1-3 patrons come to the pool the entire time, making it an easy shift. Open swim is then from 12:15-7 and pool parties are always 8-10:30 like during the week.

Each swim lesson "session" last 2 weeks- next week will mark the beginning of Session 5. There are 4 time slots for each session (8-9, 9-10, 10-11, and 12:30-1) and you teach up to 3 lessons but sometimes less depending on scheduling. At the beginning of each lesson we have all the kids sit down and we perform 2 Camp A songs to get them excited about swimming and energized for lessons. One of the moms recorded our Pirate Song- you can watch it by clicking here. On the final day of each session, we have a themed event called Family Fun Day. Alternating lifeguards are in charge of picking out a theme and organizing decorations, music, and songs accordingly. Our Fun Day themes so far have been jungle, hawaiian, disney, and superhero!

Me teaching my Preschool class!

Nina, Me, and Kari with Katie (on the left) from my class and some girls from Kari's class

Taylor, Nina, Kari and I with our tie-dye shirts (Thanks for the kit, Nicole!!)


All 7 of us lifeguards went down the slide at once, proving that the "1 person on the slide at a time" rule is crucial to ensure safety

All of us during the synchronized swim event of Mandatory Fun

Because we are so close to the Dolomite mountains, we often have crazy storms and flash floods. This photo is from 4th of July

View from the top of the slide

View from the top to the right

Munich/Dachau Concentration Camp/Adrenaline Park/Canyoning in Slovenia

2010-08-10T14:35:00.000-07:00

So much to catch up on, I have no clue where to start. I’m thinking that this post will be pretty photo-heavy, so take precaution..

On July 31^st, Kari, Taylor, and I took a trip with ITT which is a program on base that offers discounted trips and event tickets to everyone living here. For $80 we got on a bus that drove through from Aviano, Italy to Munich, Germany only to stop somewhere at a fancy truck stop in Austria on the way there and back. We left at the (butt) crack of dawn at 3am and arrived in Munich around 10. We were given about 4 hours of “free time” to do what we wanted before we had to be back at the bus to go to our next destination.

Our first sightseeing experience was at Marienplatz (St. Mary’s Square) in the heart of Munich. The “New Town Hall” was our first taste of German architecture, and it was GORGEOUS! At 11, 12 and 17 o'clock each day, everyone gathers to watch the famous Glockenspiel, a mechanical scene that rotates at the top of the tower. The figures perform the Schäfferltanz (Cooper's dance), which was originally performed in 1517 at the Marienplatz to commemorate the end of the plague. Another interesting thing we learned about German architecture form Mrs. Lewis (of the Lewis family that has “adopted” us lifeguards) after getting back is that there is a law prohibiting public places to look ugly. Each province has their own way of carrying this out, but in Munich this means that any and all construction is completely covered up by a huge tapestry that shows what the finished building is going to look like. After wandering around a bit and passing 4 H&M clothing stores, we came across a Starbucks!! I really wanted to stop and get a drink but we had limited time so the group decided we’d have to go without. We were told by our ITT guide that Hofbräuhaus (a brewery owned by the state government) was a tourist must-see, so we scouted it out and ate there for lunch.. It is one of the oldest breweries in Germany and the Nazi party even held meetings there. It took us a while to find it, but once we went in, we were amazed at how huge the place was. Inside there were hundreds of long, wooden tables filled with people enjoying both food and drink. There was even a Bavarian brass band playing music! We were really lucky with weather and since it was such a nice day we decided to eat out in the “beer garden” which is a little courtyard in the middle of the place. For lunch we had a knuckle of roast pork with gravy and a dumpling, complete with pretzel and of course, the Hofbräu original beer. Lunch was AMAZING! After lunch we took off in search of Munich souvenirs and before long it was time to hike back to our bus.

Taylor, Myself, and Kari in Austria on our way to Munich


A beautiful photo Kari took of Taylor and I on the bus ride-- there I am, catching flies!

New Town Hall

The building on the left in this photo doesn't actually exist- it's just a huge covering over the construction site

Hofbräuhaus


Figuring out the German menu (look at that guy in the back, hahah)

Munich Starbucks

A drive of 45 minutes took us to Dachau concentration camp, the first Nazi concentration camp opened in Germany. We were given 2 hours to roam Dachau on our own before getting back on the bus to return home. Unfortunately I have to admit that my experience with Dachau was really disappointing. I was really looking forward to this unique look at history, but it definitely fell short of expectations. The museum part (where you would read about the history of the camp) was presented poorly and it was overall just really hard to follow. Maybe if there had been a group tour going on or something I would have gotten more out of it, but I did get to walk through and see some of the things that stood alone, like the crematorium and a few of the barracks.

"Work Will Make You Free"

"Bathhouse" which was actually a fumigation chamber

Sadly I don't think this one needs any explanation

After Dachau, we got back on our bus and arrived back in Aviano around 11pm. The following day, August 1, Taylor and I took a trip through Outdoor Rec to Adrenaline Park, a ropes course in the Dolomite Mountains. My only prior experience with ropes courses and zip lines was at Camp Collins, where everything is really spread out and separated. At camp, each rope “element” requires a different set up and harness gear. At Adrenaline Park, however, everything was packed together into a series of obstacle courses high above the ground. The zip lines at camp require you to have someone hook up your harness, and then you climb up the tree. When you reach the platform, you jump off and then zip line until eventually you lose momentum and stop going. Then they get a ladder and help you out of the harness and you climb down. At Adrenaline Park, you were given 2 carabineers and one zip line clip thing. When you saw yellow duct tape, you would clip and unclip your carabineers, when you saw blue, you would clip your zip line thing and zip line across. Also, you had to make sure that after hitting the end of your zip line, you grabbed the rope with your hand so you wouldn’t bounce backwards and get stuck in the middle of the zip line. I understand this is probably confusing, but it is unbelievably difficult to describe. Hopefully the photos will help. There were, I think, around 6 courses, each known by a different color. They started easy with mini green and increased in difficulty as well as height to black. I was scared of getting stuck in the middle of a zip line, so I stuck with mini green and green. J I still managed to have an awesome time taking pictures after finishing my routes. On our way home, we stopped at a pass in the mountains and it was GORGEOUS. By far the most beautiful mountain scenery I’ve ever seen!

Alright, we’re 2/3 of the way there… Last weekend my entire group took a trip with Outdoor Rec to Slovenia and we went Canyoning!! Its hard to explain, but I would have to say that canyoning is pretty much a mixture of sliding and jumping off rocks in neoprene wet suits. Like an all-natural water park created by Mother Nature over the years. When we got there, we parked right next to the final waterfall we would repel down. So in order to get to the top of it all, we had to hike up a really steep trail (we had to grab onto ropes and trees to help us!) in our water booties. After we finally started getting to the fun stuff, the challenge was more facing any remote fear of height I might have had. Not usually one to jump off of high things into water, the 15-foot rock jump was definitely something that stretched my comfort zone. The crazy rocks were the ones we slid down backward! I got a disposable waterproof camera and took pictures, but the ones here were taken by our guide on his camera. This was definitely an experience I won’t forget.

Cinque Terre/Swim lessons

2010-07-21T13:51:00.000-07:00

Well, it is certainly time for a new post. In my long work hours I have fallen way behind on blogging as well as the uploading of photos. Here is the link to my facebook which is where I put a large selection of photos to check out:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2050086&id=1438710136&l=f85d308ca9

I am currently sitting in Deja Brew, the coffee shop connected to the bowling alley, enjoying some nice starbucks caffeine as I savor my lunch break before I go back to work with the Advanced Preschool lesson Kari and I teach. Lessons started yesterday and although I continue to be nervous for them I can already tell that I am getting better at planning them out. Up until now, our job consisted of only guarding, so now that we are doing lessons, hours are much longer. Today I woke up at 5:30 to guard lap swim with Karen, and had lessons until 11. At 12 I go back for the Preschool lesson, and then from 1-7 we all guard open swim together. The other group that is now done with lessons have said that although the work is harder, there is a much bigger payoff with lessons.

Last weekend was a 3 day weekend that I spent with Kari pretty much just hanging around near Aviano and going on short day trips. The reason for this is that I was completely wiped out from traveling to Cinque Terre (5 lands) the weekend before. Cinque Terre is a series of 5 towns nestled on the Italian Coast bordered by the Mediterranean Sea.

With the purchase of a day pass, you can either take the hike that connects all town, or take the train that does the same. In order to get there, we left Aviano and took the bus to Pordenone (the nearest significant train station) around 10. Originally, we had intended on taking 3 trains to get to where we wanted to be. However, after one of the people in our group purchased the last ticket, we realized that the rest of us would have to make 2 extra transfers. We met another American on our first train who was on his way to Florence. (You can see him in the window's reflection-Alec from Iowa)

The rest of the ride was a lot less exciting. I believe that we made our first transfer at midnight. The next train had individual "rooms" which we ended up sharing with strangers and didn't make for a very comfortable sleep. After this train, (which was about an hour long) we had a 2-hour layover in Bologna where we tried sleeping on our towels, but that wasn't too comfortable either. Our last few trains were short rides so no one really got a good night's sleep.

The last place where we had a layover Annie tried to escape!

Once we arrived in La Spezia, we took a look around before boarding our FINAL 15-minute train into the first Cinque Terre town.

The hike between the first two Cinque Terre towns is called the "Walk of Love" and to signify the love of a relationship being locked, thousands of locks had been placed anywhere and everywhere along the hike by hikers of all kinds.

Below you can see what the view was from the hike of the next town!

The next town is where Karen, Kari and I decided to take our first Mediterranean swim!

On the next hike...

In the next town... Corniglia!

Prawns for lunch! I have never worked so hard to eat seafood...

After lunch we realized that all of our swimming and shop-browsing was causing us to fall behind schedule so we hopped on the train to the next town...

In this town we met a couplw with a baby from Oregon!

Swimming.. round 2!

After swimming it was only a few hours shy of when we were supposed to meet up with the rest of our group. So we hopped on the train a few more times and browsed the streets some more. After every got together, we took yet ANOTHER train to this town where we went camping.
This is what the tents looked like... all they had room for inside was 2 twin beds! That was also the night of the World Cup game between Espana and ...someone else (it was the semis, I think...) and about 40 people gathered around the tv at our "campsite" to watch..

.....and THAT was my trip to Cinque Terre!! On the way back we took a long train through Milan which was such a huge train station that it felt more like an airport. I definitely plan on traveling this upcoming weekend, but don;t have any concrete plans yet. Whatever I end up doing, I promise to stay more on top of the blog!

Trieste

2010-07-06T10:36:00.000-07:00

So, its almost my weekend once again which means I need to stop putting it off and blog about last weekend before the memory falls into an abyss. It was our first weekend we were allowed to travel overnight, so Kimi, Taylor, Kari and I set out to Trieste on Wednesday morning at 7:30 am. In order to commence any significant travel, we must first take a bus to the train station in the major city nearby, Pordenone. 15 minute bus ride to Pordenone, followed by a 3 hour train ride left us anxious and excited to explore Trieste. Group 1 had come back from their Trieste trip with exciting stories about the beach and the hostel. Our first decision was made at the train station that we would first set out for the beach and then take a cab to our hostel. Halfway down the block I realize that my sunglasses were left on the bathroom towel dispenser. I ran back and unfortunately, they were already gone. It was a pretty awful day to be without sunglasses as it felt like I was melting underneath my large black backpack (obscure stroke 9 reference).
Eventually we navigated ourselves through the large port area and found the beach. Instead of the sandy beach we had experienced in Bibione, it was more of a rocky beach like they have at lakes I remember going to when I was little. To get into the beach we also had to pay 1 euro and the women and children were quickly split from the men. This was kind of a confusing concept to us until we got to our beach and realized that most of the women in Italy have no problem bearing it all for the world to see. It was also very apparent that they have no problem going sans sunscreen and I am still really curious if skin cancer is more prevalent here than in the states. We were at the beach for the heat of the day on a very, very hot day. It was also that morning that I had woken up late which left me throwing poptarts into my backpack instead of packing a lunch. I soon learned that you can only eat so many poptarts before they start making you feel sick instead of making your hunger go away.
A couple scorching hot hours later, we decided to get moving and find our way back to the train station to get a cab. On our way back to the station, we looked into a large store and saw cheap clothes and tons of people milling around, and in we went. Think of the most stressful outrageous loud shopping experience you have ever had, and quadruple it. This is what our experience was like. There were probably around 100 people squished in a small warehouse-like store that looked like it had been set up over the course of an hour. There weren't any price tags or sizes, just chaotic clothing racks packed together in no particular order. Finding clothes was the easy part. The hard part, as Kari and I were to find out, was paying for them and leaving. As we walked toward the register, a loud Italian man grabbed our clothes from us and scribbled numbers onto a pad of paper. We tried handing him money, but he just pointed at the registers and kept yelling at us in a way that wasn't very helpful. We reluctantly left our clothes behind with Angry Italian Man and played the part of ignorant American tourist at the counter. Thankfully, our cashier spoke english and I could explain to him that I was being charged more for the exact same shirt that Kari was buying in a different color. Loud Italian arguing ensued between Helpful Cashier and Angry Italian Man before I was told that after paying the more expensive price and picking up my clothes, I could bring it up to show him. Sure enough, when I showed him they were the same, more Italian arguing ensued. As he reached to give me the difference back, Angry Man approached the counter waving his hands as the Italians are so well-known for doing. Helpful Cashier assured us that Angry Man had just retired and bid us farewell.
Finding a cab and taking it to our hostel was a pretty easy and quick process. The only hard thing about it was shelling out 8 euro for a trip we could have easily taken on the bus (if we had known where we were going). After settling down, the consensus was that we were all starving and would go out in search of somewhere to eat. We didn't want to leave our bags unattended in our unlocked room that we were sharing with a stranger so we walked down the coast in the sun for about 30 min before we were all about to pass out. We crossed the street and found gelato, and the bartender asked for instructions on making traditional American "prom punch". After we tried a few of his concoctions, he told us that there weren't any grocery stores or mildly-priced restaurants within walking distance. The only way to reach one would be to take a bus back toward the train station. Unfortunately we hadn't bought bus tickets at the train station. He quickly assured us that no one bought tickets and it was never an issue. We decided to try our luck at one of the beach shacks as we made our way back toward the hostel. I was completely blown away when I heard "Californication" playing from the cart we finally got our food from. It was a good 3 minutes as I savored both the music and the panini.
When we got back, we met some guys staying in the hostel; one from Australia (Michael) and the other from Germany (Stefan). For the rest of the night we hung out with them, discussing variance in the English language between Australia and the states. Dad- about half the time there they say schedule with the hard c sound, and half the time like "shedule". Interesting fact.. the phrase "No worries" originated in Australia. We also talked a lot about music and how lucky Michael was to be going to see Pearl Jam in Venice sometime soon. The next day Stefan hung out with us as we explored Castle Miremare and visited the beach right outside our hostel. Before taking off we all went to get gelato and then hopped on a bus to the station. It was a busy two days but some very good travel experience since we are soon leaving to Cinque Terre on the night train!

Bibione/Venezia

2010-06-27T10:37:00.000-07:00

Annie has become quite popular in Italy...

Bibione/Venezia (Venice)

2010-06-26T14:42:00.000-07:00

Eventually I need to post up my photos from last "weekend"--Tuesday/Wednesday trips. But in the meantime, here are just a few.

....in ITALY!

2010-06-21T02:41:00.000-07:00

Thursday we spent the day in the Airmen Support Center or something like that which provides a class on getting accustomed to Italian culutre. Among other things we learned some Italian, how to haggle in the markets, how to give gifts, and how to travel safely. Friday we spent the day out and about on the "Benvenuti" (welcome) tour. We had a big tour bus and started with visiting a nearby spring. Next we went to a market in Porcia which was kind of small and we weren't really there long enough to take a good look around either. Then we got back on the bus and drove to Pordenone which felt more like the Italy I was expecting to see this summer. Cobblestone streets and colorful storefronts led us to a chocolatier and eventually the Pordenone church--GORGEOUS. Below you can see a pic of the chocolate dress! Then our guides Sergio and Christina showed us how to use the train and we took it to Sacile. Our bus met us at the Sacile station and we took it to a fancy Italian hotel/restaurant for a 3-course lunch. After lunch we went wine tasting which was pretty interesting. The daughter of the man running the vineyard was 17 and she pretty much explained the whole process to us in fragmented English.

Saturday was our first day of work and I wasn't scheduled to open or close so I went with the majority of the group at 11:45. We completed all of the opening procedures and then everyone showed me the ropes in everything from guard rotations to parallel parking the shelving inside the guard shack. On my 3rd rotation in (pardon the lifeguard jargon) it started rainng pretty hard. If its raining hard enough to not see the bottom of the deep end, we have to close the pool until it dies down. If it thunders, then the pool has to close for 30 min, and for lighting, an hour. So around 16:40 we heard some thunder and closed everything up. We went over to the bowling center for a half hour and on our way back to the pool we saw some lightning. Community center is a little bit further walk from the pool, but we went there to spend the hour we had left to wait. Kari and I broke out Guitar Hero on the Xbox 360 and I definitely see myself spending more time over at the community center. Policy says that if weather is still bad at 6, then we just close the pool early because the chance of someone coming during that one hour is not very high. So we closed everything up, and went back to the dorms. Sunday I was scheduled to open for lap swim so Kimi, Karen, and I went out around 9:30 but it was raining to hard to open when we got there. Sylvia, our pool manager, met up with us at the Deja Brew coffee place and we talked for a while before deciding the pool would be closed for the day due to t-storm advisories by the command post. Mondays the pool is closed to the pubic for guard training so in a few I've got to suit up and get ready for that. Then tonight=mandatory fun hours. If you have photo requests let me know, because I'm thinking about making prints soon!

Day 4: Exploring Aviano

2010-06-17T14:14:00.000-07:00

Day 3: Mandatory Fun Hours

2010-06-16T13:07:00.000-07:00

Sadly, I don't have any pictures for today because I spent it all here on base. We woke up bright (haha) and early and met up at the pool at 7:45. We sat around for a while going over chem testing, the pool manual, the rotation procedures, as well as typical pool duties that just need to get done in general. We ended up not doing our skills scenario bc the people never called, but I don't know if my relief is a good sign or a bad sign. I'm glad we were took the time to prepare for a "scenario" but in general it just makes me really nervous. Then we ate at the bowling alley, which was seriously the best pulled pork sandwich I've had in a while. (Yeah... at a bowling alley). Then we visited the shopette and picked up some random items for our "bbq". Taylor and I's room is looking pretty bleak, so we were getting desperate for decorations and I almost bought a cute little fish pinata. We had a few more briefings thrown in there and then tonight we were surprised with the first of many "Mandatory Fun Nights". Which are pretty much a mix of games, icebreakers, camp a songs, bonding, junk food, and competition. Just as we were getting ready for our bbq, the rain decided to remind me that life is not so different in Italy from how it is in Oregon. Megan cooked hot dogs on the grill (aka the microwave) and we had a potluck of oreos, reduced fat oreos, zebra cakes, chips, salsa, and m&ms. Pretttty classy. Groups 1 and 2 battled it out for the first night of "house points" ...think Harry Potter style... and I'm getting even more excited about this summer and my team. Tomorrow will be one full day of learning about Italian culture and going to the post office and commissary! Hopefully Taylor and I can gather a few things to beautify our room and make it feel more like home. Italia flags are on our shopping list, so I'm crossing my fingers that we'll find some in Pordenone on Friday.

Day 2: P.2

2010-06-15T13:38:00.000-07:00

As can be seen with the photos below, today was quite an adventurous day. It started out with a lot of paperwork in the local cafeteria, where we met Sylvia- our pool manager- and Randy-her boss. After breakfast, the half of group 2 that had arrived (my group) went with our director and turned in some more paperwork to the Red Cross. After that, we checked out the base thrift store ans a few people picked up DVDs and Italian-to-English dictionaries. Then Sylvia took us out to the Aviano market where I picked up an awesome Italia shirt for 5 Euro (!!!) as well as some awesome souvenirs for my roomies back in the states. Then we sat down in a cafe and Sylvia bought us some amazing pastries. Apparently Italians like their pastries soaked in liquor--not something any of us were expecting. After the market, we went back onto base and ate at the cafeteria yet again. Everyone on base so far is really nice, random military people will see our Camp A uniforms and ask where we're from, how we're enjoying Aviano, etc. After lunch the 2nd part of our group had gotten to base so we went together to get checkout sheets for our dorm rooms. As my roommate unpacked, I brushed up on my reading and then we all walked to the other side of the base to the pool. In the pouring rain. Tomorrow we've got some kind of scenario skills test thing so we had to prep. Then we went to the ITT, which is the place on base that facilitates trips to places out and around western Europe for reduced rates. There are a few really awesome things coming up, but working out traveling with our complicated schedules is kind of overwhelming at this point. Most of the people here have 1-3 things that they *HAVE* to do while they are here in Italy, but really I'm down for traveling wherever. This Friday is our Bienvenuti tour and a group on base takes us out and teaches us how to haggle and do other fun Italian things. Then Saturday is our first day of work. For dinner tonight we went to this place called The Western House because they offer a special deal from 5-7 where you can pay for a 8 euro meal with 8 dollars, a 7 euro meal for 7 dollars, and so on. The restaurante was decorated with "vintage" photos of American Indians and John Wayne, as well as random US license plates. While waiting for our food we were served a basket of bread wiht a bowl of mozzarella cheese, and while I never would have eaten bread with dry shredded cheese, it wasn't too bad. For dessert we got gelato, of course, and I'm pretty sure that 1Euro banana gelato trips are going to be the end of me. Tomorrow is more swimming and probably more boreientation.

Day 2: "Boreientation"

2010-06-15T12:22:00.000-07:00

(excuse the awkward self-portrait, but this is the result of me discreetly taking a pic of my wonderful new Italia shirt while I was in a room with 8 other people)

Day 1: Pictures P.2

2010-06-14T22:00:00.000-07:00

Day 1: Arriving in Aviano!

2010-06-14T07:51:00.000-07:00

At last, I'm here in Aviano. Flights went well, with only an hour of delay in Atlanta after our 4-hour layover. When we got to Italy, we were picked up by our director and a couple other girls that we work with. Since we flew into Venice, there was an hour and a half drive out to the base. Once here we got our military "IDs" which are actually just pieces of paper with our names saying that we have "clearance". Then we went to the PX and Commissary which are the equivalent of Walmart and a grocery store. Getting a cell phone was a slightly complicated process. The woman working the little shop would switch between talking to us in Italian and English, and eventually she just handed me a box and a tiny little Alcatel phone. I get free incoming text messages, so let me know if you want the number! Then we came back to the dorms and since we've just been getting settled. Right now its almost 8 am in Portland and I think its around 5 here...? Time is a confusing thing right now. Tonight I think we're planning on going to some pub to watch the Italia World Cup game, which should be pretty fun. Here are the few pictures I've taken so far...