Parlo Italiano Poco

Yesterday I met a man that the Bloyds know. I will forever know him as the Albanian with the potato on his forehead. No lie! He had a piece of a potato on his forehead trying to heal a wound! He bought Mrs Bloyd and I cappuccinos :)

My language class was interesting to say the least. There were about 30-40 people packed into a tiny room. I met a nice man from India and three girls from Brazil. I talked with the man from India on my way to the bus stop. We were conversating in English and Italian. Fun stuff :)

Today I bought a headset, so I can talk to my boy more often :) Yay! Not being with him for three months was the only con to this trip.

After church, we went to GiamPaolo's house (I have no idea if I spelled that right). I tried this incredibly good candy... Chocolate with a coffee flavored liquid inside. After dinner we watched soccer. I was told I have a week to choose a favorite team.

(The pic above is the view by the bus stop)

AWKWARD

Do you ever have a feeling that something might be going on, but you're just not sure? And you're most definitely sure you don't really want to know for sure? Yes, I know. I'm being extremely vague, but I kinda have to. If you really want to know... email me and I'd be happy to tell you. Unless you're not one of the parties involved, I can tell you.

Yesterday I went to a lady named Lorella's house. She was really sweet. She introduced me to her son and his friend and told them to speak English to me. When we were leaving she gave me a big hug. She called me cute a bunch of times too. I was like hmmm I think I like this lady.

I met Lorella's mother, husband, and sister (Patricia). Her other sister, Marcilla, lives in the apartment downstairs. Well, when Lorella's husband, Umbro, came in he was talking away in Italian then he left. A few minutes later he brings back his laptop and pulls up a picture of me. I'm like AWKWARD. I just laughed it off, but I never thought some Italian I don't even know would ever have my picture. (Obviously, he got it from the Bloyds).

The concert on Sunday night was really good. He played four songs, and one of them had never been played before in concert. The composer was there to hear it (ooo la la lol). After the concert we went and talked to the violinist. He was smoking (which he wasn't supposed to be) and when he saw the Bloyd's had a guest he put it out. Wasn't that nice of him. The piano player and two ladies came in while we were talking to the violinist. One was an older lady from Ireland, and the other was an Iranian who has lived in Rome for 10 years. We spoke to them some too. The Irish lady was asking about the elections, and she was talking about Obama and Clinton asking who we wanted. Mrs Bloyd said she was a Republican so she wouldn't vote for either of them. The Irish lady asked for names of the Republican candidates, and I said Huckabee. When we were going our separate ways she was like "whenever I think of Huckabee I'll think of you." She was too cute. She thought the name Huckabee was... oh how did she put it... I can't remember exactly, but something along the lines of being cute or sweet.

Tonight, I am going to an Italian course. All by myself. Should be interesting. I need to get a notebook of some sort so I can take notes.

Ciao

Ah where to begin? There's so much to write. This morning we went to church, and I met some more people. We played a card game called Mille Bournes. I used to play it when I was a kid. I won too! I've been on somewhat of a winning streak lately. Last night we went to a couple's house and ate dinner. Afterwards Paul, Alessandro, and I played chess. I lost a couple times, but I beat Paul the 2nd time I played him. After we played chess, Alessandro taught me an Italian game. He spoke a little English, so that helped. Paul could've taught me, but I think he was having too much fun watching his friend struggle to come up with the English words =) I ended up winning two times. It's similar to Hearts and Euchre, so it was easy to pick up. The Italian cards are pretty sweet too.

Saturday afternoon we went and watched Paul's soccer team win. Paul played about 30 seconds at the end. Hopefully, he'll be able to play more in the next game!

Tonight, we are going to see/hear David's former violin teacher in a concert.

I changed my history class to the same time as my other classes. Now I have Civ 1, Prob and Stats, and Accounting 2 from March 17th - May 9th. Hopefully I can get the classes pretty much finished before the 9th because it overlaps with summer school. If not, oh well. It's not like I haven't dealt with a crazy busy schedule before now.

Speaking of schedules, my schedule for this week doesn't permit me to go to Rome :( I want the whole day to go. I'm guessing I'm going to have to say no to something so I can go, but I'll wait till the week after this. I'm trying to pick somewhere a bit closer. I've learned that Rome is about an hour away, so maybe I can find something 30 mins away. Shouldn't be too hard!

The pic I added is the view from my window.

Ciao for now

Withdrawal Symptoms Subsiding

I feel like I've been cut off from the internet forever! My internet connection has been having issues. I was just going to post what I wrote in my journal, but the entry is incredibly long. TMI!

So I'll write about my experiences as briefly as possible :)

My flight to London was really really really good. I had the whole row to myself, so I stretched out after take off and started perusing the 20+ movies plus tv shows. I ended up watching part of Ratitouille and then fell asleep. London to Rome was ok... Word of advice: Don't bother with Ryanair if you are flying from America. It's not worth it. Added hassle because you have to change airports just isn't worth it. Granted nothing went wrong in the transfer to the other airport, but it took forever! (Almost as long as it's taking me to write this! lol jk jk)

I got into Terni around 11:30pm on Wednesday.

On Thursday I went downtown with the Bloyds to get info on a free Italian course, and then we walked to where the course would be held (Casa di colori). Later, Mrs. Bloyd and I went downtown and passed out tracts. So, now I won't get lost when going downtown. One of these days I want to walk around Terni just to take in the sights and take pics. I feel like such a tourist taking pictures. I'll stop caring soon :) Thursday and Friday where absolutely gorgeous to take pictures.

I've already met a lot of the Bloyds friends, which is awesome. I can't understand what most of them say, but that's to be expected. I met Mr. Bloyd's boss, Claudia. She speaks incredibly good English (yay!). The Bloyd's neighbors across the hall are some of the cutest old people I've ever seen. They're just chatting away in Italian and I'm just smiling, nodding, and adding the occasionally "ciao" when appropriate. Friday evening we had Teen Club. We played LIFE, and I won. I had the "advantage" because it was in English ;)

Today went by really fast :( It's going to be April 19th before I know it! Which that is bad and good all at the same time.

It's getting late, but before I go I'll share a few prayer requests.

Pray:

• I learn the language as best as possible
• For the Italian Teen Club to grow
• For the Italians to accept Christ
• For the Bloyds

I'm leavin' on a jet plane

I'm leavin' on a jet plane... I'll be back again on April 22nd.

I feel like I'm standing in line waiting to ride the world's best roller coaster, and it's almost my turn to ride.

It's beginning to sink in that I am actually doing this. Up until this morning it still didn't seem real. I'll be pinching myself on the plane.

Last night Mrs. Morris spoke in devos. She talked about God's guidance through out some situations, and wow, it was exactly what I needed to hear right before I fly to Italy!

I don't know how I'm going to sleep tonight.

It's just not normal

"You know what 'fine' stands for don't you?" "Freaked out, insecure, neurotic, and emotional" - The Italian Job

I'm doing more than fine :) I feel like I'm in line for the world's best roller coaster, and yes, I love roller coasters =)

Tonight while watching the news, I learned that a plane crashed at the Heathrow airport. No deaths. 8 injuries. I didn't catch which airline it is, but thankfully, my God controls the airplanes, so my plane won't crash unless He wants it too.

About a year ago when I was having a check up after my wisdom teeth where extracted, the oral surgeon mentioned an abnormal spot on my x-ray, and he told me he wanted me to come back in to get another x-ray to see if it had changed any. Well, that appointment was today, and thankfully, nothing had changed. The doctor's favorite words to explain it was "It's just not normal." Gee, thanks Doc! lol It just shows that God is in control and everything cannot be explained by modern science. My jaw bone has probably been like that since I was six when my brother kicked me in the face. Yeah, that felt good.

I'm taking a quick road trip this weekend, and I am quite excited about it! I've only told two people that I'll be visiting them, so hopefully everyone else will be surprised. Then on Tuesday, I'm going to fly to Italy. I still can't comprehend it, but I'm not comprehending this weekend either. God amazes me. This weekend is completely of Him. There is no other way to explain it.

More exciting news: I finally fixed my computer! The "My Pictures" folder on my computer would freeze, and I couldn't open the folder or upload pictures. Praise God; I found a website that showed me exactly what to do! Now, I will be able to upload pictures of my travels without any complications... hopefully!

Butterflies

I'm not gonna lie. I'm totally freaking out right now. I just bought my ticket from London to Rome, and I have less than two weeks until I fly out. 11 days until the 22nd. WOW, so much to do in so little time. I've been planning this trip in my mind since 2nd semester of my freshman year. The itinerary of the trip has changed countless times. Originally, I wanted to go to France. Then somehow the idea of traveling all over Europe formulated itself in my head, and I did not dispel the idea until my friend told me she would not be able to go with me to Europe. I then concluded that traveling all by myself all over Europe would not be wise.

A) My mother would never allow it
B) I'm only 19
C) Traveling by myself for that long would just get old.

So I "settled" for Italy. In reality, I wasn't really settling at all. I am just following God. Honestly, understanding and following God's will is a process that takes lots and lots of prayer. One day last week I started thinking "I didn't pray enough about this." Thankfully as soon as the thought crossed my mind God reminded me that I did pray. I prayed a ton about this trip, and thankfully I have black and white proof [well to be honest, I have been known to write in different colors but you get the picture ;) ]. I'm overwhelmed by the greatness of my God. He has given me peace about going. On days like these, He reminds me how great He is and how I am nothing.

"Thou art my God, and I will praise thee: thou art my God, I will exalt thee." Psalm 118:28 KJV

Falling into place

Liberty called yesterday, and they (along with Ivy Tech) are waiting on my college transcripts to be sent. All my little duckies are falling into place.

I called Ryanair today. It turns out they do not have any student discounts... They did two years ago. Maybe things changed, but I'm going to call my former volleyball coach and see if she knows anything about it. She was the one who told me about it when my senior class was getting ready for Italy back in 2006 for our Senior trip.

I'm still debating when I should fly back to London. I want to spend some time touring the city before I head back to the states, but I can't decide how long. If I leave Saturday morning at 6:35 the cost is cheaper. I think I might just have to get over it and take the early morning flight. We shall see. I'm going to talk to Peter about it first and get his input. I already asked Mr. Bloyd, and he basically told me to do what I want.

If I leave on Saturday morning I'll have 2.5 days to tour London, and I can attend services in London. Note to self: find missionaries in London.

Overall, I believe the puzzle seems to be almost complete. A few more pieces to insert into the puzzle, and I'll be all set to go.

Preparing for the Journey Ahead

In two weeks I will be on my way to Terni, Italy to spend three amazing months helping missionary friends Kieth and Linda Bloyd.

Preparing for this trip would be so much easier if I weren't taking classes next semester, but classes are a must unless I want to spend an extra semester in school.

Things I still have to do:

• Register for classes with Ivy Tech and Liberty University - still waiting for transcripts to be sent to both colleges
• Buy my plane ticket from London to Rome - I'm calling them this afternoon
• Check on my insurance - Another activity for this afternoon
• Clean and sell my car
  
• Find someone with a standard to teach me to drive stick shift
• Obtain an international drivers license - Another activity for this afternoon
• Check on Financial Aid for Ivy Tech and Liberty
• Budget my money

I have this massive checklist in my phone, but I have no motivation at the moment. Due dates are looming over my head, so the fear of failure should kick in right about... now. Just kidding, I know I have plenty of time to get it all done. Goodness, I have two whole weeks with out classes or work, but the entertainment industry is somewhat distracting.

Needless to say, it takes a lot of work to plan a trip and adding classes into the mix complicates life even more. Praise God for His constant support and encouragement. I would never be able to do all this with out Him.