ciao!

this is what we do in this apartment. a whole lot of nothing :)

so i had full intentions of updating this sucker last night, but our internet decided to go out. BOOO!

last night ashley and i booked our trip to Harrogate, UK next weekend for the Jesus Culture concert. we ended up getting roundtrip airfare, three nights in a hotel, train tickets and into the concert all for about 180 euro. not the cheapest of trips, but a spontaneous, thrilling, God seeking journey to say the least :)

not too much new going on here. i have been on this american food kick lately-all i want is some zaxby's. can anyone send that to me? haha. i have been eating at mc donalds, and when our host mom found out, i thought she was going to kill me! so tomorrow her and i are eating lunch at an authentic italian place. :) yay!

this weekend a lot of people are going to prague. i think our apartment is going to stick around florence-maybe do a little museum stuff-but most importantly i need to shop for some clothes. pretty excited about that!

hum...anything else? not really. its getting pretty cold here in the mornings-i thought i was finally going to be able to wear my leather jacket this morning, but then i saw that it was going to get up to 80 today. its such weird weather-cold in the morning, hot all day and night! ahhh.

i was just looking at my calendar, this next month is crazy! october 9 we are making a day trip to orvieto. october 10-13 ash and i are going to harrogate. october 16 we are going to the eurochocolate festival. october 24 we leave for a ten day trip to london and paris. november 4 ash and i leave for a four day trip to rome with my mom and terri. OH MY GOSH.

ok, well im going to actually get going to do some homework. i havent done any since i have been in italy. thats pretty sad. hahahahhaa. oh well. we have two soccer games tonight. pretty excited, especially since our team is awesome. more to come later :)

ciao!

JESUS CULTURE!!!!

so, tonight ashley and i decided we are packing our bags for a two day-expensive as can be (but who cares)-trip to liverpool next week for a jesus culture concert. how awesome! i am so excited!

these past few days have been a whole lot of:

-eating mc donalds

-doing no homework

-playing a lot of soccer

-traveling

-going to an awesome italian church

-seeking god

-loving italy

-growing like never before

-finding me

-shopping

-cooking (believe it or not, in class though...does it still count?)

speaking of class-i have a 20 min presentation to give in the morning and i just couldnt pull myself together to do it tonight. so many distractions with gelato, soccer, planning trips, hanging out with the awesome people in my group, talking to friends back home, etc...haha. so here it is, 1 AM and im still project-less. oh well. :)

is it bad that i have no desire to do it right now? i HATE procrastinating, that is so NOT me. maybe this once it will be ok though!

my soccer team won both of our tournament games tonight. as a matter of fact, we DESTROYED. it was pretty awesome.

tomorrow is my least favorite day of the week. i have the worst classes in the world. AHHHH. europe since 1945 is quite the drag and the holocaust makes me depressed like no other. well, not really, but its pretty sad. today in my cooking class, we cooked fish (blah) and drank champagne. haha. thats the way these crazy italians do it, everyone drinks where ever they go it seems. its probably a good thing alcohol isnt a close friend of mine...

ok, well i guess im gonna go sleep. im kinda tired. i guess i slept kinda bad last night-so many misquitos its disgusting. my legs have scars all over them from scratching these things! oh well-such is life, right?

go listen to this song: your love never fails by jesus culture. then tell me what you think :)

so.

blah.

im still confused. i keep playing these past three weeks over and over in my head. im getting no where. how do you date someone for three years and just drop them? how do you tell them how much you love them, but treat them like nothing when its over? my heart is torn. i want to know what happened to change hearts so much? is it because im so far away? is it because everything is so new? so many thoughts in my head...i could keep going but i wont.

despite the fun that i am having, he is a constant thought. i just want to talk-tell him what i have been doing, hear what he has been up to. i miss him. a lot.

we went to milan on friday night for fashion week! it was pretty awesome! the city was so so so huge...we ended up getting lost for a good 2 hours yesterday. we stayed in a hotel in the sketchiest (word?) part of town ever. haha. but it was an experience! i had the best pizza i have ever had, in the world, EVER. it was awwwweeeeesssssssooooooommmmmeeeee! so good that i went for dinner two nights in a row. :)

we went shopping, and i found nothing. i need new jeans...its been kinda nice walking everywhere! i have lost so much weight i cant wear my clothes anymore, they fall off. too bad all the jeans here in europe are skinny leg, tight as can be to your calfs, ugly jeans. haha. im having no luck. we did some intense window shopping at vuitton, prada, cavalli, versace, ralph lauren, etc...we were too embarassed to actually go in the stores-it was incredible!

we walked to the fashion "building?" of course we couldnt get in because you had to be invited by a designer, but we could see the catwalk through the windows. kind of. it was so cool though :)

on our train ride home, we met this really nice lady who is a lawyer in florence but is originally from london. she had some really good information for us for fall break! we are going to london for 3 nights and paris for 6 nights. she gave us her number so we can grab coffee in florence before we head to london.

we have met some really cool people so far. i met a girl that goes to western carolina, her name is amanda. we have been hanging out, going running, and playing soccer...she has been a lot of fun to get to know. our soccer tournament starts tomorrow night through school. im so excited!

better get going! i have a project due on tuesday that i havent started and ashley and i are going to church tonight! we found a non denominational church outside of florence, its in italian, but we are so excited to get to church :)

this feeling!

i wish i could describe last night to everyone, but i cant. it was an uncontrollable feeling. a craving. my heart was beating fast. i was soooo hungry for god. it was truly incredible. i wanted to run the streets of florence telling everyone. it was the most amazing feeling i have had in awhile.

you should listen to this song: don't worry by rebecca st. james. its awesome.

Then I see the birds
I watch them fly
They've got everything they need
They show me why I can be free
Knowing You will care for me

Finally at the grocery store
My mind is filled with many thoughts
As I bump into a girl I knew from high school
She said "What's different about you girl?"
And I smiled and said this is what I know is true
And I'll pass it right along to you

broken.

i am failing miserably at this blog, but for good reason. this past week has been nothing but heartbreak-i guess thats not too much to write about.

i lost the first person i loved. it hurts more than i ever imagined possible. i lost him, and i lost four other people who i loved like my own family. my heart continues to break and he consumes my every thought.

i am sweetly broken for sure.

it hurts that two weekends ago we had such an awesome time. totally wrapped up in each other and now this is the end. i have so many questions...if i wasnt so far away would it be this way?

i will always have a spot in my heart for him. that will never change.

praying that god takes my heart this semester and that things can start fresh in december again. a little time away makes the heart grow fonder. i love him...

You said, Ask and you will receive
Whatever you need
You said, Pray and I'll hear from heaven
And I'll heal your land

You said Your glory will fill the earth
Oh, Like water the seas
You said, Lift up your eyes
The harvest is here, the kingdom is near

You said, Ask and I'll give the nations to you
O Lord, that's the cry of my heart
Distant shores and the islands will see
Your light, as it rises on us

a day in san gimignano!

today was quite the busy and fast paced day. we woke up early this morning-i especially tired after only about 5 hours of sleep-and traveled to san gimignano! it is called the "mideval manhattan" because of two buildings in the middle of the square that resemble the twin towers. i took a picture, but its too late to try to put them up now. it was a pretty cool, but small town.

first we visited the main church which was beautiful. on the right side of the church were paintings of the old testament covering the wall, and on the left side of the church were paintings of the new testament covering the wall. i mean, from the floor to the ceiling. it was pretty cool to walk around and try to name the scenes depicted! right outside of the church was a HUGE tower that overlooked the city-it was part of the government building from hundreds of years ago.

in italy, there was a great seperation of power years ago between the church and the government...so often when we explore older towns, the church and the government building will be side by side. however, in san gimignano, the height of the buildings also depicted power. the reason for the tower attached to the government building was to show that the government had more power than the church (the tower itself was taller than the church building). throughout the city, there were 72 towers at one point-only 17 remain today. the other towers were homes that families built-rather than building a house wider rather than taller, the families built tall houses (i mean 7-8 stories tall) to show their wealth. it was pretty cool.

anyways, enough with the history lesson-so we climbed to the top of the tower and saw the most beautiful view of the tuscan countryside that i have ever seen. it was incredible. rows and rows of grape vineyards followed by mountain after mountain. it was great.

we enjoyed a 4 course lunch at a authentic italian restaurant after. i honestly didnt mind this food too much. the only thing i wont even try still is the patte-liver-that they serve EVERYWHERE as an appetizer. it just looks so nasty. we had-bruchetta, patte, bread as an app. rice with squash, ziti as the first course. salad and chicken as the second course. and apricot cake as the dessert. it was a great meal-so filling that i didnt even eat dinner :)

after lunch we went to the most random place ever-a torture museum. it was DISGUSTING walking around looking at torture devices. haha. we spent about 20 mins in there and got the heck out!

we finished up the day with a wine tasting-i actually liked one of the wines. haha. the rest were YUCK! i thought i would aquire a taste, but alcohol is disgusting. haha. after a busy and crazy day we started our journey home-i was so tired i slept the whole way.

since we have been home, we have frantically been planning our fall break trip to barcelona and paris. prices keep going up, but its so hard to plan a 10 day trip like that. i am so excited for this next month to really take off. i hope september flies by and october comes so fast. october is a busy month with a trip to Orvieto and then fall break. The week after fall break-im skipping my classes and going to Rome with Mom, Terri, and Ash. after that busy week, i will have 2 weeks of classes in november and the last week of november our entire NCSU clan is going to Dublin :) busy busy next few months before i settle back in the states.

it has been such an eye opening experience so far. i have truly enjoyed getting to know people on our trip-people who i would have never met at home. i have had major ups and major downs, but am definitely learning how to deal with them on my own rather than calling mom every day. sometimes are hard, but its been such a growing oppritunity!

thanks for all of your comments! i enjoy reading them! bye for now!

just another day

today was just a normal day-well i guess as normal as you can get for being in a historical and amazing culture.

i went to class this morning-the holocaust-and it was pretty good...we didnt talk about many new things, but i still had a good time learning a new perspective on things. after class i met up with a few girls in our ncsu group-jenny and marissa...we headed off to do a little shopping. there are so many markets around here, but the main market in town (with all the clothes and leather) is a tourist market, and unless you have awesome host parents who tell you that, they will take you for a ride in that market. unfortunately we have to walk through it everyday to get to class, and since it is so huge, its very easy to find things you want to buy, but so hard to resist. we met up with ashley and laura, a few others from our program, after doing a little shopping on our own.

we went to zaras and h&m, but were not too impressed with their selection. honestly, italian jeans are HORRIBLE and most of the things people wear over here you wouldnt catch me dead in. none of the women wear bras either, which is sort of weird. after much shopping and not a lot of finding, i finally settled on buying my one major purchase/italian splurge of the semester.

so through our school, we get 50% off leather jackets and purses at this shop in town. after a lot of though, i gave in and bought a brown "bomber?" jacket...it is sooooo cute. the same jacket in the usa would run for about $700, but i got it for 130 euros from a cute old man who owned the shop. then i took it to another leather shop to make sure i got a good deal :)

after shopping, our entire ncsu clan met up to go to the academia to see david-supposedly through the month of september, the museum is hosting a risque exhibit that most italians are speaking out against-they think it is too much exposure to have in the museum. so of course, we all went to check it out tonight. it wasnt too bad, a few naked body pictures, but nothing drastic and something that a girl hasnt seen before. it was pretty cool art-all in black and white. we later found out through the night that the photographer of the images was best friends with patti smith-an older rock singer-who happened to be having a concert in the square tonight. we are pretty sure the exhibit and her concert were planned together.

after the museum, we all grabbed a pretty late dinner. i guess it was late to us, but right on time for the italians...they dont eat until 9:30-10 pm. the place we ate gave us a private room that happened to be where they stored their wine. mom, when you get here, we are going. after eating a delicious pizza, the owner of the restaurant, who happened to be a 30 or so year old guy and his old father who bought the place in 1977, gave us a tour of their wine cellar. it happened to be the oldest building in florence and home to the last remains of the florence colliseum about 2,000 years ago. it was so beautiful!

so here i am, finally home and getting ready for bed. we have a super long day tomorrow with milva and luca-going to san gimigano. i just went on a clean streak and moped the kitchen floors and washed the dishes. now that i am feeling accomplished, i guess i will head to bed for tonight!

love love love

These past few days

so apparently people actually read this thing because it was brought to my attention that i have not written on here in days! sorry to all my avid readers (kate) for the delay in updating!

not much has gone on these past few days-quite honestly, i have seen better days. it stinks to miss someone so much and feel like they dont really feel the same...but i hope that is just a passing feeling i am having and that i am just looking into it too much. its just been kinda rough. its tough to have 10 minute convos for day and just hang up all cheery like everything is ok when i still want to talk! if i could stay on the phone forever, i would. well maybe not forever :) but i guess that is something that i have to adjust to right? i know its just an adjusting phase that will get much better with time...and i will be home so soon!

besides my feelings though, these past few days have been awesome. we had our first day of class yesterday and to my surprise, it seems like it is going to be actually pretty hard! every class has a few 8-10 page papers due which kinda stinks. and we have to read 3 novels in a few of them (i tried to find them on sparknotes...no luck) i will actually have to read these :( haha. they dont seem too bad though. my holocaust class seems really cool and interesting-although my teacher warned us that it will be our depressing class for the day. it seems like we are going to read about some very neat things-mary you would be loving it for sure! i was signed up for italian wine and culture-went to it yesterday thinking i would be sampling little bits of wine-but when i got up to leave, i could tell it was not just a little bit of wine...so today i switched out of it and into an italian cooking class with ashley-but our "host mom", milva, teaches it. i am so excited for it!

our entire NCSU group is taking a required italian culture class together and we found out today that in the second week of october, our teacher is taking us on a field trip to go to a chocolate festival. supposedly people from all over the world come to it and bring their chocolate for you to eat all day! woooo hoooo! im in heaven!

on my way home from class today a friend and i stopped by the academia to see a good ol' friend named david! it was pretty cool walking into a museum that you have only heard about and seeing something so wonderful that was sculpted 500 years ago. it was quite the site to see...and how many people can say that they just dropped in on their way back from class? haha. with our school, us students get a card that lets us into any state museum for free as many times as we want over the course of the semester and we bypass the 1.5 hour line...so we took advantage of that today and walked in for 5 mins and right back out.

the rest of the day was just chilling around here-doing some of the massive amounts of reading that i have to do for the semester. it is so hard to believe that there are only a few months over here. it is truly going to fly by...it already has.

this weekend, we are taking several trips...on friday we are going with luca and milva to san gimignano for the day...there is talk about going to a wine festival on saturday (i might go to walk around, but not in it for the wine!) and on sunday we are going to hike to chinco terra to go swimming on the mediterranian! its going to be a fun weekend before class again on monday...

:)

hiking to the top of the city-and sienna-and one crazy night

so yesterday we left pretty early and hiked to the top of the city with Luca, our host dad. the view was incredible from up there-i have never seen anything like it. it was a pretty long hike though. after our hike, we went to get some really really good gelatto-and went for lunch with Luca. i dont know why, but i just dont like all this real italian food. YUCK! every place serves pate'-this nasty liver on bruchetta bread as an appetizer. these italians think i am crazy when they clear my plate and all the food is still on it! all of us girls ventured to IKEA after lunch-and spent 4 hours there. there is a free shuttle that runs to it, but it only picks up from IKEA once every hour-we didnt know that, and missed it by 10 mins and waited an hour for the next one. i got some new sheets, a douve cover, and a blanket for my bed here. that way i can stop using the scummy ones that were on the bed when i got here. on our way home from IKEA, we saw a lady who was hit by a car on her moped. it was the most disgusting site i have ever seen. she was laying face down in the street, not moving, and there was a pool of blood all around her body and people wiping her off with paper towels. i dont know if she survived or not, but riding or driving in these streets is SO dangerous. no one follows the traffic laws and there really isnt any enforcement of them either.

last night was pretty interesting...we all ventured to the fish pub where half of the group had been drinking before we even left-the rest of us just went along for the ride and to play mom. haha. we left there and went to this club called twice and we just danced-it was fun, but a good portion of our group was really trashed-and the rest of us really annoyed. when i see that, i remember why i dont like alcohol. it was still a fun night to say the least.

after we got back though, i had quite the rough night. its so hard being here and not really being able to talk to people back home. and it stinks when you do share a conversation with someone back home and it turns out sour. it was my fault, but really sad and upsetting. i got myself so worked up that i didnt even go to bed until 4:30 am...i was so tired when i woke up at 8:30...

we went to sienna for the day today. it was such a quaint little town and quite beautiful. nothing like florence. it was quiet, and not very much traffic on the streets. it was so nice. we spent a good amount of time in the piazza di campo-which is one of the most famous city squares in europe-but i loved the view of the countryside the most. today was also the first time i have had pizza since i have been over here-it was AMAZING. the peperoni is not like usa meat-its legit, real, pepperoni! after a day of walking around with no plans (which was great), we decided to come on home. we are all pretty exhausted tonight-and classes start tomorrow. i dont have class on mondays though, so i think i will venture to the academia to see the real david tomorrow morning!

another new day

last night was magical. seriously. we went to dinner right on the arno river with an incredible view of the ponte vecchi. to get to where we were eating we had to ring a doorbell and be let in to walk downstairs, through the italian national rowing club/league, and out on the river. there is literally no place along the river like that that people can eat at, other than us studying at this university. it was great. after dinner, we went to our first bar. after about 20 minutes, i was done. hahaha. not my scene and alcohol is gross and expensive. there was 6 of us that left our group at the bar for the most amazing gelatto in the world. i tried the tiramsu but plan on trying every flavor before we head home. we met the owner of the gelatto place, and talked to him and his friends for 2 or so hours. they were incredibly nice, and let us refill and serve our own gelatto! i couldnt really sleep last night-went to bed at 4am. this morning it seemed like everyone in our group slept in...i woke up at 12. half of our group was pretty much still drunk from the night before...

when we woke up, my apartment (me, ashley, melissa, christine) went to the fresh market to buy veggies. interestingly enough, veggies are super cheap while chocolate and junk food is incredibly expensive. i guess that is why europeans are much thinner. haha. anyways, i got four huge tomatoes for 85cents and a bundle of bananas for 1euro. there are definitely ways to eat cheap, its just not my most desirable food. haha. oh well. after the market we went to the supermarket to get noodles, sauces, potato chips, cookies, etc...in all, i spent 13 euro for a week of groceries by spending my money wisely. thats what i need to do the rest of the trip.

oh, and thank the lord that i found soda for really cheap. coke is 1 euro-still kinda expensive for the amount you get.

tonight our group is cooking dinner together and kinda relaxing for another busy day tomorrow the milva and luca (our "mom and dad" and our lifesavers over here). sunday, we are all taking a train to the Mediterranean for the day on the beach before classes start on monday.

still in the adjusting phase for sure...im positive that by the time we are fully adjusted, we will be coming home. its a lot different. im thankful for everyone who has kept me in their prayers...i need it!

bye, until tomorrow!

finally here!

so i have finally arrived and am getting settled here in italy. it is a totally different culture, but an adventure for sure. the city itself is really dirty, but still so pretty. we are in a valley with mountains on both sides, what a site to see! people drive on the wrong side of the road, and there are pretty much no rules like there are at home...taking some getting used to! our apartment is pretty gross and old...but we figured that is just more of an excuse to get out and explore! we do have a really pretty terrace that looks out over the rooftops. its been fun sitting out there at night. last night was the first night in our apartment...no A-C so it was like 95 degrees. we sweated through the night and invested in a huge fan today. not having internet has left us somewhat disconnected, so that is also on the adgenda today for our apartment. thanks to all of those who have read and commented on this. its great to know that people are keeping up with me in the states. and sorry about any spelling errors, their keyboards are so weird! i cant wait to share pictures...ill put some up later when i have my own computer to work with. tonight we are going to dinner on the arno river with a beautiful view of the ponte vechie! so excited for that.

please keep our group in your prayers. everyone here is so homesick and showing it in different ways. i know i cried quite a bit last night and some people called home...we know we just have to adjust, but that is a process. we all had a counselor meet with us from school today to talk about the adjustment, it was very encouraging.

i have only been here for a few days, and i can say that italy has been crazy. im sad im not at home, excited for the semester to start rolling, and estatic to get back to the USA and culture soon!

love love love

The night before

so tomorrow is the big day...the day i feel like i have been planning for months now. and now that it has finally arrived, there are so many feelings going through my head. of course i am so EXCITED for this experience. and so so grateful for such an opportunity! but then are the feelings of being nervous and scared. i am soooo nervous. i mean, i have never, ever, been away from family and friends for so long in my life. did i mention that i have never been out of the country either!? but despite my feelings, i know that this semester God is going to do some pretty spectacular things in my life and use me in so many ways. so i guess you could say, im chomping at the bit to see what he has for me too. so there you have it. im excited, nervous, scared, and chomping at the bit. :)

ok, well, i better head to bed. it is going to be my only sleep until i arrive in italy at 1 pm (their time) on wednesday!

please keep me, and the group i am going with, in your prayers this fall for a smooth, incredible semester!

ciao!