Hi Everyone! Thanks for checking up on me. As I may have told you I am in Europe this summer working at an international boarding school, TASIS, as a counselor (more to come on what that entails). I am writing to you from Lugano, Switzerland right now, where TASIS is located. (see map below)

Allow me to get you caught up to speed. I had a few days off between the end of my school year in Santa Rosa and the start of the summer program in TASIS. Since I was headed to Europe anyways, I decided to see what Rome was all about. I went and saw all the main tourists things you're "suppose" to see when going to Rome, which was great.

Colosseum- our guide really explained how the Romans truly were an incredible civilization: architecture, government, military, art, religion, etc.

It was cool to see some of the origins of the things that I teach about in school - Euclid, Pythagoras, Plato, etc....they were actually Greek, but close enough.

I also check out (the Catholic) HQ.

St. Peter's Basilica was probably my favorite thing about Rome. The Rick Steve's guidebook says it well, "Calling St. Peter's Basilica massive is like calling Einstein smart."

I did a lot of walking in Rome, including the 500+ steps up to the top of St. Peter's Dome.

On the last day, I enjoyed some of the smaller, more human parts of Rome, which I enjoyed.

After 3 and 1/2 days in Roma, it was time to get up to Switzerland to start my summer work.

home sweet home

I was warmly greeted, in true Swiss fashion (note the chocolate bars). My good friend Michael Brew, who introduced me to TASIS, is here for his second summer. We are roommates.

Myself and the other two dozen or so counselors and teachers spent the majority of the first of eight weeks learning the ropes of how the program works. We also got some time to explore Lugano and the beautiful nearby sites.

Here is Lugano, which is situated right on Lake Lugano....I know it is tough, but someone has to do it :-)

Michael, two other counselors (PJ and Dane) and me.

After a lot of preparing, the students arrived in (my) week 2. The are from all over the world. Here are countries which my small advisory group comes from just to give you a taste: USA, Dominican Republic, Russia, Kazakhstan, Brazil, Saudi Arabia, Libya, Italy, and Japan. On the first full day they were here, we went hiking on a nearby mountain, Mt. Tamaro.

Half way up it started pouring rain and thundering, but when I asked my group if we should turn around, they said "Onward!" They are awesome and I'm looking forward to getting to know them in the coming weeks.