Milan

In the past five days I've been to Milan, Lodi, Torino, Pisa, and Siena, Italy. I've also been to Lugano, Switzerland. All in all, the trip was great. Picking a favorite place is just not possible, so I'm not going to try. I got to go shopping in Milan, and I was ecstatic to find H&M :) I was on the roof of the Duomo looking around and saw H&M. I knew they had one in Rome, but I didn't know they had one in Milan. I found out later there are 2 in Milan. The one I went to had 4 floors! In Lugano, we walked around Lake Como and stopped at a bar for coffee. They gave us <3chocolate<3 with our coffee too :) In Torino, we walked around the town and visited the Egyptian Museum, which is the largest or 2nd largest Egyptian museum outside Cairo. In Pisa, we looked at the Leaning Tower of course. We didn't go up because it costs too much. In Siena, we walked around the town and saw the major tourist spots. The people there gave us horrible directions, so we ended up walking around the town more than expected. I wasn't upset because we got to see more of Siena that way. On Sunday night we were still in Milan, and Mr B, Paul, Adriano (a friend of the Bloyds who let Mrs B and I stay at his house), and I went to a soccer game. Incredible experience. I'm going to play with the video footage and then I'll post it.

On Sunday morning we went to Adriano and Suzana's church (Suzana is his wife). Being in a room full of Christians singing praises to God... I love it, and it's even better when I'm in another country. I knew the English words to some of the songs they sang, which made the whole experience even better.

These boots are made for walking

These boots are made for walking... Yesterday I walked about 4.5 miles in less than 2 hours, and yes, I walked in high heeled boots. Why? Because my jeans are too long and when I wear tennis shoes I walk on my jeans.

Tonight I had my language class, and I got to talk to my Hindu friend again. I found out he works in a bakery where they make bread. He said it's 5 km outside Terni. If I ever figure out where it is maybe I'll walk over lol jk. I'll take the scooter :)

Tonight or tomorrow morning I need to pack for Milan. Hopefully, I'll have an internet connection.

Io molto stanco, ma io non capisco perque. Io non lavoro o non estudio. Per que stanco???

Prove all things; hold fast that which is good

I could have sworn I updated my blog since Thursday, but I guess I didn't because not much happened. On Friday I went with Mr and Mrs Bloyd to Alessandra and Tamara's house where we did a Bible study. I'm really glad I went because some of the things discussed have prompted me to study the subject for myself. This school year I have been proving all things, so I may hold fast that which is good. I remember being told by various pastors not to take what they say and just believe it. Doctrinal and theological issues are compelling me to delve into the Word, and it's incredible. I guess I'm experiencing it more this semester because I'm across the Atlantic, but then I'm reminded it didn't just start this semester. It started last semester. As a kid I was always told not to question authority, but in reality God tells us in 1 John 4:1 to question the accuracy of the speaker. Lately it seems like many people are telling me "Thus saith the Lord," but my Bible doesn't say God said that. I even used the KJV to study the matters out, so I can't be wrong. Just kidding! About the KJV being infallible that is.

Today Gustavo was supposed to come over, but he got sick or something during the service. Tamara came over instead, and I'm really glad she did! We all played Aggravation, and then she and I hung out for a bit.

Random thought: I think it's easier to eat noodles with chopsticks than with a fork, or maybe it's just being able to shove them in your mouth w/o worrying about not being messy...

Happy Valentine's Day

On Tuesday night I went to language class as usual. I had so much fun! We were laughing and having a good time. After class one of the guys asked if I wanted to check out another language school. He couldn't tell me anything about it... which was weird. Vicky asked me if I wanted to go too. He said the class was from 4-7pm on Friday. He asked where I lived, and I told him the street. He didn't know where the street was, so I gave him a tract that had the name of the church with a phone number. (I already had it in my pocket because I was going to give it to him anyway... smooth, very smooth.) I told him I lived near the church. He was going to give it back, but I told him he could keep it. He asked if I had others, and I said yes. Pray he'll read it!!! It's in Italian so I'm hoping he'll be curious to learn what all the words mean.

On Wednesday I went grocery shopping with Mrs Bloyd, and in the afternoon Paul and I took the scooters downtown. I bought a small Italian-English dictionary, and he checked to see if someone could fix his soccer bag. Some kids (when I say kids I mean teens) were sitting on our scooters... so annoying, but it was fun telling them to move. Oh yeah... after we got back from shopping, I found a bouquet of red and pink roses on my bed with a card attached :) Peter asked Mr Bloyd to get them for me :) Giovanna gave me a sweater when we were over at her house for dinner. Early that afternoon, Mrs. Bloyd gave me a black skirt that was too small for her. So basically, I got a new outfit!

Today is a holiday in Terni because St Valentine is the patron saint of the city. They have a flea market every year, so Mr & Mrs Bloyd and I went down to it and passed out tracts while looking around. By noon there were a ton of people there! I saw this procession of a bunch of priests and it looked like there were some Jews added in the mix. Weird, I know. I'll try to attach the video I got of it. Mrs. Bloyd and I visited an older couple from church this afternoon. They are so sweet. We stayed about an hour just talking about random stuff like the war (I think they meant WWII...), the election in the States, David, and some other stuff that I might get killed for if I mention it... :D It's dark outside now... I guess I should close my blinds.

I'm not sure what I'm doing tonight. I'm checking on hotels for da boys to stay in while we're in Milan next week. Oh yeah, I'm going to Milan next week! It's going to be amazing! Hopefully I'll be able to stay connected to the cyberworld, but I can't promise anything. I'll make sure my journal entries for those days will be able to be copied and pasted...

Happy Valentine's Day!

Roma

Monday 2.11.2008

Today I walked around Rome. Paul and I walked at least 10 miles! Needless to say, my legs hurt! We started out walking towards the Church of the Bones, but google was definitely wrong when they told me where it was. I saw an Information booth and asked directions. They gave me a sweet map too. I took a turn too early and then from there on I let Paul navigate. We went to the Capuchin Church (Church of the Bones), and they said no pics or video. Of course I tried to get pics anyway, but I forgot that when my camera is on the museum setting I have to be still… so next time (if there is a next time b/c it was really small. If you go to their website, I think you can see all the exhibits anyway!) I’ll have to stop and ponder the exhibits lol.

After that we went and saw the Quirinale, which is where the President lives. I think it was after we left the Quirinale that we heard an accident… We turned around and it turned out some chick ran into the back of a police car. It was rather hilarious. There were at least 5 other police officers around too because we were so close to the Quirinale. Sad thing is. There was a lot of traffic so they were all going really slow… Paul and I were like how could anyone do that???

Then we continued on our journey and walked up Via Sistina toward the Spanish Steps. Unfortunately, they were working on the Oblisk that is in front of the church. Actually, I think they were working on the church too… after that we walked some more… we ended up crossing the river and heading towards the Castle of S Angelo. We just looked at it from the outside… I didn’t feel like spending money on something I was pretty sure I’d be bored with after 30 mins or less.

St Peter’s Basilica was our next stop. We sat and ate our sandwiches we brought with us before we headed into the plaza. The Basilica was closed until 4, so we just took pics of the outside. I think it was around the time we were at St. Peter’s when my battery started saying it was low… I had to conserve my battery power for the rest of the day, so I didn’t take as many pics as I wanted (I took 177 pics in total). There was this guy in the plaza of St Peter’s who was wearing a white robe… I took his picture… :) and later Paul said buongiorno and I said ciao. He responded to me… Paul was like he said ciao to you but he didn’t say anything when I said buongiorno lol.

After that we head back across the river towards the Piazza Navona where these guys were making bracelets. They would tie one end of the string to a tourist’s finger and then make the bracelet and say it was a gift. They’d then demand an offering after. We weren’t stupid enough to let them, but we watched other ppl who were. My battery finally died :( and I changed it. The other battery I had was half dead already, so I still had to conserve battery power. We then headed to the Pantheon. There were a ton of people there. Since Paul and I had both already been inside we just walked by it. I didn’t even take a picture because I already have so many… After that we walked across the bridge again, walked along the river for a bit near Isola Tiberina, and then walked back across on another bridge. From there we walked Circus Maximus… We walked towards the Coliseum from the backside. We checked out a couple arches… One was for Titus and the other was for Augustus. After Paul took a couple pics of me in front of the Coliseum we headed towards the Monument for Vittorio Emanuele II. They were working on it so I didn’t bother with a picture. I already have so many.

After that we chilled by a fountain. We then started looking for a bar and ended up by the “area sacra argentina” for the 2^nd time that day. Last Friday, I told Mr Bloyd that he could tell a guy from BJU (he is staying with other missionaries in Aprilia) that he could meet up with us if he wanted to, so we ended up meeting him by the Monument for Emanuele. Then we decided to go to St Peter’s and see if we could get in the church before it closed. It was around 5 and the church closed at 6. We hopped on a bus, and it wasn’t the one that went directly there… Paul even asked which bus went to St Peters… oh well… We ended up riding the bus for a good while, and a nice lady sitting by John (the BJU guy) said we should get off at Cornella because there is a metro stop there, so we did. We rode the metro back to the station. John went back to Aprilia and we went back to Terni after buying some Pringles and Pocket Coffee (Holy Cow… Pocket Coffee is SO amazing. It has chocolate on the outside and it has a liquid center that is coffee flavored… I think I’m addicted!). When we finally got back to Paul’s house around 8, we ate dinner and told his parents of the days events. After dinner, I calculated how far we walked… 10.39 miles which is 16.72 km. I’m sure I forgot some detours we took, so we probably walked more than that!

Sunday

Sunday 2.10.2008

Today after church we went over to Tamara’s house. Tamara asked if I wanted to hang out with her downtown later, so after waiting at the fountain for about an hour she finally came. We walked down via Roma, and she put her arm thru mine and we walked down. It was SO crowded down there. But I didn’t mind. They had a band playing and a fog machine going. Pretty sweet atmosphere. She bought me ice cream, and then her friend Sophia met up with us. They were exhausting their English, and I exhausted my Italian by the end of the night. We walked to the end of via Roma and then turned right towards a park. Then we left the park area and walked down a side street where ppl were selling junk. They had their stuff displayed on tables. Ok so it wasn’t all necessarily junk, but it seemed like it. Tamara and I got on a bus and Sophia went home. Tamara and I walked around Terni for awhile. She pulled out her headphones and we listened to some music. I told her I’d let her listen to my mp3 player sometime. After we walked around, we went to her house. Her mom bought us pizza, and we ate it while a movie. Today was a freaking good day!

Neglect

(the pic is of the children "dancing" to Onward Christian Soldiers being played by an Accordian. I started singing the song, and then I realized what I was singing... The kids dress up in costumes for Carnivale. I saw Spiderman, Ninja Turtles, and Princesses...)

I've definitely been neglecting my blog this week.

On Tuesday I was hoping to check out Carnivale (aka their version of Mardi Gras). I went down for my language class early and check out the party, but then it occurred to me that if I was going to get hit by an egg, I would rather deal with that after class, so I went inside a Catholic church instead. The priest was outside and was like yeah go on in (except he spoke in Italian). So I checked that out and then went to class. Not many people were there because it was Fat Tuesday. My Indian friend was there, but he left really quick after class was over. I walked down towards the bus stop for bus #3 thinking I'd be walking through the party, but the party was further down the road. I was going to go down and check the party out if the bus wasn't coming soon, but then I reasoned my way out of it, which is probably a good thing. A girl going down to Carnivale by herself not really knowing much Italian... probably not a good decision, so I just waited forever for my bus and went back home.

On Wednesday I went grocery shopping with Mrs Bloyd, Marcella, and Lorella. I absolutely love Lorella. She is so sweet. Lorella and I walked around the store together. She would point at things and say it in Italian and then she'd ask what it was in English. Latte-Milk... boy did she have trouble saying "milk!" I said "potato" in English, and she was like close... "patato." I laughed and said "potato" e Inglese.

Wednesday night we had church, and afterwards we went to Giampaolo and Giovanna's house like normal. I had some more "Pocket Coffee." Holy Shnykies Batman is it good! I'm addicted already!

Today, I felt horrible in the morning so I went back to bed for a couple hours. I felt a ton
better after I woke up thankfully! I studied Italian for a bit, and I piddled around (ok so I watched a movie :) ) I went to language class tonight. I got to talk to the Indian guy, Vicky. Language barriers make things difficult. He barely speaks English, and he speaks more Italian than English, but my Italian vocabulary is limited so... I need to learn more! He's really nice. I found out he's 24. He didn't believe me when I said I was 19. But hey, I'll be 20 in 31 more days! Yeah buddy! Where am I going to party this year?!?!? Last year I partied in Chicago with 7 other people (which I'll never do again with the same people... I'd bring 2 maybe three of the people from that group again... otherwise... yeah no thanks). My birthday is during Natha's spring break, so if anyone wants to come over and visit... :) jk jk Where shall I go???

So there's a guy from BJU staying with another missionary family who are about 1.5 hours away. I told Mr. Bloyd he could tell Mr. Pieri that the BJU guy could meet up in Rome on Monday if he wants to. Rome on Monday... yeah buddy! woohoo!!! :D I will take lots and lots of pictures, and I'll actually upload them to Google. I'll probably have to get another gmail account because I have a ton of pictures on there already (you have to pay to have more gigs). Anywho... I'm going to finish talking with the love of my life and then I'm going to go to bed.

Buona Notte

Update

On Sunday we went to church as usual, and then afterwards we went to Lorella and Umbro's house. She made me homemade pasta, which was really good. We stayed all afternoon and played games. We played an Italian card game, Uno, and then another card game. I played chess with Umbro and won. It was all luck tho! I rode one of the Bloyds' scooters, and I didn't fall so that's good. I'm still getting the feel for it tho. For dinner at Lorella's we ate some Arabic food that she bought at Lidl.

On Monday it was rainy and windy, so I stayed inside, messed around on the computer, and studied Italian a bit (which I should probably be doing now because I have class in a couple hours). I'm going to go to Rome next Monday :) I'm hoping Paul will go with me, but I have a feeling that if I wait around for him, I'll never go. So on Monday I'm going to Rome w/ or w/o him.

Bastardo

On Saturday, Paul had a soccer game in the town of Bastardo, and yes, it means exactly what you think it does. What's even funnier: the townspeople call themselves "Bastardi." (An "I" at the end of a word usually indicates it's plural... you get the picture)

Paul got to play about 30 minutes, which is about 29.5 minutes more than last time. His teammates were calling him "gladiator." The game was 0-0, and the highlight was when almost everyone on Paul's team was getting mad at the ref for a bad call.

Saturday night, some friends came over. I played an Italian card game with Lorella. Paul and Alessro (Lorella's son) joined us later. When we were eating Marcella said I looked like someone famous. It turned out the person was infamous for killing an English girl last October. Topics at the dinner table ranged from water to politics. No seriously, they were actually talking about water, and they talked about it for awhile.

I don't think I'm going to go to Rome tomorrow. Paul has soccer practice because tuesday is Fat Tuesday, and I do not want to go to Rome by myself the first time. I'm curious to know how crazy Rome gets on Fat Tuesday. I'm wondering if we could go for the morning/afternoon and come back in the evening before the partying begins... We'll see.

Buona Notte

Missionary Meeting

Yesterday, we had the missionary meeting. I got to meet some other missionaries that serve in Italy, so that was awesome. We're going to go to visit some of them soon too. One of the families lives near the coast on the east side of Italy, and they were talking about visiting them around February 14th. There were six kids all under 5 years old, and they were all good for the most part. I think it is a really good idea to have meetings like the one we had yesterday. I'm sure all the missionaries appreciated being able to converse in English with someone outside their family.

The day's events included singing, a message, fellowship, lunch (of course if we're going to be good Baptists lol), another message, some more fellowship, taking the kids to the park, some more fellowship, and then cleaning after everyone went home.

Last night I got to watch LOST :) I'm pretty sure I'll be addicted to it again this season.

Blue skies

Last night I had my Italian class. It went pretty well. One of the women from Brazil knows English really really well because she lives in London. I was paired off with her for an exercise, which really helped.

My my Indian friend's name is Vicky. Someone was asking the teacher to define Santa Biblica, and the teacher said it was a holy book that Christians read. Vicky asked if I knew the Bible; I said yes. He then asked if I was a Christian; I said yes. I asked him what he believed, and he said Hindu. Unfortunately, class began right after that. Hopefully, next time I can talk to him more.

Mrs Bloyd and I went downtown in the afternoon yesterday, so I just stayed downtown until my class started. I took a few pictures. I felt like tourist. It's not like people don't stare anyway. You know what's really weird tho??? I've had people ask if I was Italian. Do I look Italian? I don't think so. Hello, just look at the freckles, and my pants are definitely not European. I've been tempted to wear my boots over my jeans like the Europeans, but I just can't bring myself to do it yet.

I heard Wtown was -30F yesterday with the wind chill... Praise God I'm not there! The weather is absolutely gorgeous here. It feels like a Wisconsin spring here in Italy. :) Granted there are some cold days here. The high for today is 8 (degrees in Celsius) and the low is 3. So that's a high of 46.4 F and a low of 37.4 F. Not too shabby :)

Today, a few missionaries in Italy are coming to Terni to meet together. It's pretty much an all day event, and it should be interesting.

A few prayer requests before I go:

• Salvation: Vicky, the Women from Brazil, Lorella, the Albanian man with the potato on his forehead, Marcella, and all the other lost Italians

• Pray I'll learn Italian as best as possible

• Pray I'll get a chance to talk to Vicky about God on Tuesday

• Pray for the exchange rate

“Poiche’ Iddio ha tanto amato il mondo, che ha dato il suo unigenito Figliuolo, affinche’ chiunque crede in lui non perisca, ma abbia vita eterna.” John 3:16