Verona!

On Saturday, we all hopped on a bus with Verona on our agenda; after a two hour drive, we finally arrived in the magical city, fondly referred to as "The City In Love".  (See picture below)

Our first stop was the world's largest functional Colosseum, which is indeed quite large and interesting!  They frequently have concerts there and events; Coldplay even performed there a little while ago, so Sam has told us ninety million times.  We lunched there and wandered around to take pictures in the vastness of old stone and archways.

After leaving the Colosseum, we headed to Juliet's house - it wasn't as cool as I thought it was be, which was a bummer.  I think I made it a lot more romantic in my head than it was in reality.  There was, however, one thing that I couldn't leave without doing...

Even if Juliet's was a teensy bit disappointing, there was a plus side - we found this turquoise horse and I posed with it!

Fondly petting the horse goodbye, we set off for the Bell Tower to climb the 368 steps to the top.  I told Ttea that after the practice of those steps, we'd be in shape for the Eiffel Tower ;)  This is what the tower looks like from the ground.

Splitting off from the group, Ttea and I waltzed across the bridge into a different part of Verona and paused on the bridge to snap this lovely picture!

Off in the distance, we saw what looked like a mansion and thought that we should attempt to get there.  It was rather far off, but Sam had taught us the day before that for missions work, we needed a vision and faith.  We had both, so we set off to find a street that would lead upwards towards the enormous house.  We got five sixths of the way there, or three quarters, or whatever you want to call it...and then Ttea and I were distracted by a side path.   By a stone wall.  And then I saw this plant that looked like an oversized pineapple top and it still mystifies me..(any ideas, Dad?)

After seeing such a cool stone wall with a path next to it, we followed it because it seemed country-ish and we agreed that the country was more to our liking than going to explore some house that was probably owned by a bunch of snobby people with dogs that like to eat single young Americans for lunch.  This is what the wall and path looked like:

Tempting, right??

Waltzing down the avenue of green, I couldn't resist clambering up the stone wall to check out the view from above the city.  This is me, on a wall.

And this is the view from said wall:

Farther on, we saw a sign and realized we were in a park and the best thing about this park was that we were the only tourists and every other person was a local!  It was so nice and calm and relaxing.  We climbed into some stone garrison-like things and I climbed a fence or two, just because I could; then we saw a grove of trees and it took me a second to realize that the ground was covered with....

OLIVES!!!!


We were in an olive grove!!!!  It was the coolest thing ever because all I kept thinking was, "JESUS MIGHT HAVE WALKED HERE!", which He probably didn't - but it was still crazy cool.  After running around and basking in the gloriousness of such a sunny day, Ttea and I climbed this wall which doesn't look that daunting, but it was a lot taller than we were!

Once we had accomplished that incredible feat, we ended up in a new olive grove that was probably private but it was wonderful and we just sat there, overlooking the city, and enjoying the rest of the day.

I could show you all of the pictures here, but I'll just attach a link that will take you to my photo album and you can look through the rest of them if you like :)


https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10200309948658812.186691.1456914338&type=1&l=1d88865120

The Wonderful World of Venice (among other things)

Our family here at SBI is becoming closer; Hannah has dubbed our campus, "The Convent" and we generally refer to it as the "Nunnery".  Beth has suddenly become "Mother Superior", and has been ordered to address us all as "Sister".  During our class on Monday, we learned how to deflect men if they approached us and one of our favorite phrases was, "Sono una suora" (so-know oon-ah swoh-ra), which translates as "I am a nun"; I plan on using this at my very first opportunity!!!

Over this past weekend, we were buried in homework and took just enough time to surface for a trip to Venice during the last celebration of Carnevale.  We walked to the train station to catch the 10:30am train and it was quite a tight squeeze!  It takes an hour and a half to get to Venice and there were no seats left, so all of us just stood up in the center aisle and held on to whatever we could to stay upright.  One teenager, who by the way was dressed like a heart from Alice in Wonderland,  spoke to me in Italian and told me she liked my earrings!  (They were the skeleton ones that Wilbermom had given me for Cinco de Mayo)  Once we were out of the train, we were told to split up because the crowds were so thick that we wouldn’t have been able to stay together even if we tried.  So Mattea and I linked arms, determined not to lose each other, and set off to explore the wonderful world of Venice.

Everywhere you looked, there were costumes.  Ball gowns, the cast of the Wizard of Oz, Marie Antoinette, the house of cards, elegantly dressed but obviously olden day whores, Chewbacca, bumblebees, mermaids; you name it, it was there.  I even got my picture taken with Darth Maul!! 

After elbowing through crowds for half of the day, Ttea and I ate on the warf and watched the gondolas go by, full of Europeans, Americans, and Asians.  The Americans tended to drink and be tipsy, the Europeans just tried to act normal, and the Asians had lots of electronics with which to take pictures.  After eating lunch, we decided that the noise was too much and that we wanted to actually see the real Venezia.  We found some bridges and streets and alleyways that led us to the quiet part of the city, farther and farther away from Carnevale.  Our footsteps echoed across the brick as we walked into the heart of the mysterious city; it almost seemed like a crime to break the silence sometimes.  The real beauty of Venezia is not in its many houses or buildings or stores, the real beauty is in the brokenness.  Every building is not perfect; the paint is chipped, pieces of brick aren’t exactly rectangular, and the shutters aren’t perfectly even.  But in the midst of that, there are flowers.  There are flowers on the windowsills, and flowers on the balconies; there are even flowers on some of the doorsteps.  No matter how little the beauty of the surrounding buildings, the Italians try to make every tiny thing look gorgeous and cared for.  Unlike where I live, where the trailers are run down and the yards are covered in useless rusting metal, the Italians care about how their establishments look.  It’s interesting how the ugliest house can suddenly radiate welcoming rays, just by putting out a few potted flowers along the walkway.

We walked and walked and walked.  We saw children playing football (soccer), children riding scooters, young men laughing and talking with girls, lovers holding hands and gazing across the canal, business men strolling along on their way back to work.  But my favorite picture would be this one, of a little boy who was watching his father do construction in the building opposite.  The patience of a child can be completely astounding; this little one did nothing but stand there quietly and interestedly watch his father work.  Children will never cease to amaze me!

During our wanderings, we chased pigeons in honor of Mishala, took the obligatory canal pictures, found an anchor, and tried on masks. 

 After successfully getting lost for hours, Ttea and I finally found our way back to the train station at seven pm.  After getting on the train and actually having seats, four elderly people came in and we all got up so they could have our seats.  They were very surprised but I think they were glad, since they ended up sitting down.  Standing there with nothing to do for the ride back, I started to sing and Kayla, Ttea, and Alexandra joined in.  We sang every hymn we could think of and the nice Italians, to whom we gave our seats, seemed to enjoy it.  When we finished “Amazing Grace”, complete with harmony, we got applause from the next car over.  It was really cool and a very special memory that I will always have.

 As a side note, on Monday it snowed here at SBI!  Here are a few pictures to prove it ;)

If you have been reading my previous posts, you will realize this was once a happy plant until it snowed ;)

Bedtime!  Good night :)

The traveling life for me!

Well, I’m halfway through my first week here at SBI!  I've survived thus far, so hopefully I can finish out the week.  They say that the first two weeks are the most difficult as far as paperwork goes and if you can make it through, you're golden.  So here I am, struggling through my first college essays, and feeling a little bit overwhelmed.  But it’s okay, because my papers are all about God and I get to sit here and discuss God all of the time and I stay up till one in the morning just talking about God.  How amazing is that?!!  And when I write the papers, I spend half my time reading the Bible and writing and the other half of the time with my eyes closed singing hymns with the other girls who are just as distractible as I am when singing starts up.  It’s a great stress reliever and really refreshing!!

Here in Italia, there are some incredible new customs that I think I will adopt, even when I’m back in the U.S. of the A.  Number one is what is called “riposo”, and although it literally means “to retire”, in common English we would call this “nap time”.  Every day from one-thirty pm until three-thirty pm, most of the shops close down and everyone takes a nap.  Or they garden or they get homework done (cough me cough cough).  But the main thing is to recharge your body – a fifteen minute nap can actually change the rest of your day and make it so much better than it would be without the nap!!  It’s amazing how much better you can feel!  It helps you not fall asleep when you need to concentrate in your later classes, too.  ;)  Besides riposo, SBI has adopted the British tradition of teatime.  Every week day at four-twenty pm, we all gather in the lounge and drink tea and eat cookies.  I prefer chamomile tea with milk and a teeny bit of sugar and then I dip a shortbread cookie into it and it tastes absolutely glorious!!  It’s so relaxing and everybody just sits on the couches and talks for twenty minutes and occasionally some British accents are thrown in, mostly by me and my fantastic sense of humor.  (Other people are NOT amused.)

Random fact about Italy: it is considered rude to walk into any shop or restaurant and ask to use the bathroom.  The correct etiquette is to buy something, no matter how small, and then that automatically grants you permission to use the facilities.  It’s interesting, but it makes sense.  I wish we had that rule at the restaurant in Watkins – it would make things so much easier on this poor hostess who has to clean the bathrooms every single day of her life!

Speaking of bathrooms…guess what my daily chore is here at SBI?  Oh yes, cleaning the loo.  Olivia is one of my roommates and she and I clean the bathrooms every day!  I actually don’t mind it at all because as most of you know, I really do enjoy cleaning most of the time.  And we usually throw the window open and gaze upon the Alps in between cleaning things, which definitely boosts morale, even in the early morning.  I’m going to show you what my daily schedule looks like now!

7:30am – Groggily smack phone alarm as it buzzes obnoxiously on my shelf

7:34am – Realize I’d better get up before I fall back asleep again

7:55am – Waiting for the breakfast bell to ring

8:00am – Breakfast bell rings, I make a beeline for the dining hall.  Fact: I’m always first.

8:30am – Leave dining hall and complete bathroom chores

8:45am – Finish chores like a whirlwind and settle down for homework and quiet time by myself

9:30am – Class starts

10:20am – Ten minute break – sleep on desk

10:30am – Class resumes

11:20am – Ten minute break – Find spot of sunshine in which to lie down

11:30am – Resume class – attempt to hide sound of stomach growling

12:20pm – Morning classes end – homework begins

1:00pm – Lunch bell rings – Mik runs

1:30pm – Mik attempts homework outside in a winter coat in the sunshine (see above picture)

2:00pm – Mik thinks about riposo longingly but sticks wisely to homework (be proud!)

2:30pm – Mik goes for a walk to clear her mind

3:00pm – Mik contemplates riposo and occasionally gives in

3:30pm – Evening class starts

…you get the picture.  I could do the evening schedule if y’all like, just let me know and I’ll post it next time!

Today we took a field trip to a town called “Spilimbergo”, which is about a fifteen minute drive from SBI.  We toured for a few hours and also ordered our first gelatos in Italian!  I actually stumbled through mine quite well and the nice lady who waited on me grinned a big grin and she understood what I was trying to say!  It was nice to get the correct tasting gelato as my reward ;).  I got cioccolato (chocolate) and spettacoli (sp-eht-ah-chelly), which is a vanilla ice cream with bits of chocolate and almonds in it and they were both delicious!!  Ttea and I quite enjoyed it and vowed to go once a week for gelato :)

As we toured Spilimbergo, I couldn't resist taking about five thousand pictures and as I was reviewing them tonight, I couldn't help but hear a scenario in my head that went something like this:

Mom: Mik!  Show us a slideshow of your Italy trip!

Me: Okay!!  *click* This is a picture of a window

 *click* This is a picture of a window with a plant

 *click* This is a picture of a spider light

 *click* This is my great Aunt Ruth

 A CHOO MOO MOO A CHOO MOO MOO A CHOO MOO MOO MOO MOO.

Yes, that is how the conversation went in my head as I was flipping through pictures tonight >.<  Anyway, I'm going to include a few (thousand) pictures that I took at we walked today, so enjoy them!

 It's carnivale week and so there is confetti EVERYwhere!

 Profile of one of my favorite people<3

 Ttea, me, Anna, Alexandra, and Kaili

 A clock!!!  (I never know what time it is here...)

 Ttea gazing at the church we toured

 My roommate, Olivia, who I want to call Sophie because she looks exactly like Sophie from Howl's Moving Castle

 A tree with a 'fro.  It knows where it's at!

 Me, in front of a gate at a castle thingy

Alexandra and Olivia :)

 Olivia in front of a crumbling wall!

 Me and Olivia<3

 This is Beth, she's sort of like a momma hen and she gives me hugs when I'm missing my real mommy

I just liked this

The Alps from an overlook view

The lovely Ttea happened to look right at my camera!

A police car...without flash on the camera

 A police car...with flash on the camera

 Thus ends my adventures for today!  It's now after 1am here and I'm exhausted.  I will blog as soon as I can!  Goodnight, all :)