We have been in Salerno, Italy for four days. The scenery is mixed: by day we work at a nunnery, and by night we play in a sorority.

Neither are literal terms, to be fair. We are working at a Catholic school that is inhabited and partially run by nuns, and we are doing it as part of the nonreligious ACLE organization. As it turns out, the kids don’t attend Mass every morning, grace is not said before meals and we didn’t have to take the butt-shaking out of any of our camp songs. (“Hip hop English rocks, let me see your bottom drop” remains on the docket…don’t fret.)

The nuns are kind and quiet. They don’t speak English, although one of them summoned up a “’Bye” at the end of Day Two. They are a presence on the premises but they don’t participate in ACLE activities. From my limited observations, they spend the day reading and keep the bathroom impeccably clean. I know now that if I leave a pack of tic-tacs in the bathroom, those mints will be removed bomb-squad style by the time I return two minutes later. Lesson: Do not litter a nun’s bathroom.

As for the sorority life, there was no hazing process, but we have been initiated into a disheveled house of young adult beer drinkers, including 10 tutors, a “friend of the family,“ and a cameraman. Our cabinet features canned goods and our bathroom features Southern Italian mud and clogged drains. It is a direct departure from our last week at the B&B-style cottage in Lanuvio.

Sarah, Bogden and I are loving it. We would not trade our new drinking buddies and the freedom of apartment life for a real bed (read: not a cot) or a piece of steak. Well…I’ll have to think about the steak. Depends what kind of steak.

We are surviving just fine.