English student Molly has recently returned from working as
a Mountain Camp Counselor in Italy, as part of TTPL’s global programmes. Here’s
Molly’s story on her time in the mountains of Bardonecchia:
We had the best time in
Bardonecchia, it's been an amazing experience. The internship was completely
different to what I expected us as camp counselors were involved with
everything. We went horseback riding, mountain biking, hiking and those were
just the main activities.
Every day was different and we
bonded more and more with the children as the days went by. Being there for the
children was very rewarding, we had to help them through missing their parents
to cuts and scrapes. It was quite stressful at times, trying to organise
children that were excited and hyper and get them participating in activities but
luckily all the camp counselors worked well together.
We each had our strengths. Mine was
definitely getting the children's attention, I didn't know I could shout that
loud! The camp itself was in a perfect location, stunning landscape and lots of
nearby walks and activity centres.
The Olympic village where we stayed was very
well organised and the rooms were much better than I expected, we had a balcony
with views of the mountains. There was a bar downstairs which is where we went
for our coffee pick me ups and to use wifi as we didn't have it in our rooms.
That didn't matter as much as I thought though because you didn't really have
time to browse through social media we were too busy entertaining the children.
The food provided was great although
pasta got a bit repetitive, luckily it's a thing in Italy apparently to have
pasta as first course and then a second course of some sort of meat and veg
which allowed us to try other things. Over all the experience was fantastic
although slightly exhausting. I would definitely consider doing it again but
maybe at a different camp.
TTPL offer a range of teaching
programmes in Italy, click here for more information 