Beatles

Ciao!

this week has flown by even faster than the week before- but it was another good week. Monday was our first day of classes. I have 4 students. The first is Monica who is in her late thirties and speaks a little bit of English. Her daughter Clizia is also one of my students. She is 18 and read, speaks, and comprehends English very well. Actually she just returned from the states this year after completely a study abroad/foreign exchange student in Oregon for a whole year! it is very interesting talking with her and listening to her thoughts on American, as well as Italian cultures. She is also an artist which gives us alot to talk about! My third student is Valentina. She is in the process of getting her masters in Pharmacy. She loves Biology and her englis is fantastic. The last student is Renata. She also is in her late 30s and lives here in Scandicci. She is a teacher and is so much fun! My classe are on Mon, Tues, and Wed. Each student comes once a week for 1 hr.

So what else are we doing?? Besides teaching English during the alloted times, our schedule changes from day to day. Right now we are all in our italian school m-f, 9- 12:40. On MWF we meet right after class to enjoy lunch that Rosa prepares for us. This week my favorite was her stuffed Zucchini. It is impossible to explain how wonderful it was. YUM. Speaking of, today we had two of our classmates over for lunch, Anne MArie and Solomon. Afterwards we help clean up the kitchen and then we have our meetings to discuss our agenda for the week. On Monday nights the women and men have seperate Bible Studies together. We are studying 1 John. Thursdays we have a English converational class at the church. Our first one was this last Thurs. It lasts an hour long and then we cook dinner and hold a Bible Study afterwards. In between times we do different service projects as they come and whenever we get a spare minute we are studying our Italiano!! =)

Here is Laura our first weekend cleaning the toliet and the bidet...

This was on Sunday before church. The cream filled sugar donaughts are my favorite.

I havent tried these fruitcroissants yet but they are beautiful!

This is The Florence Church of Christ we attend.

This is Marian. He has attended church here for years. His hands and feet are severly contracted, so that he can barely move or walk. However, he was such a joy to me. He was so happy just to be present. He kept a smile on his face the entire time we spoke. On top of all of this, I learned that he is an artist as well! His work is hung all throughout the church building- Benissimo!

Here is Marian's work.

Sunday evening we walked up to visit the new HUFF kids that will  be staying with Robbie and Mona at the Villa. This was a view along the way up the hill. 

Here is Mario and his puppy Nancy. Nancy is always with Mario....she even attends Sunday service! 

GOing down to the basement of the Villa. Each group that comes to stay makes a mural to represent their experience at HUFF. It was really neat to see all of this. 

After dinner together we had a live performance! Apparenty the Italians also enjoy the Beatles! 

This was so much fun ; the room was packed! 

New HUFF friends we met at the Villa.

Andrea, Mallory, Scotti Beth, Me, and Hannah.

The Boboli Gardens and Meeting our Future Students

                      

Ciao tutti! I cannot believe it has already been a week since my last post! Our days are packed here at the Bible school and there is always something to be doing! The picture above is of the Italian language class we attend in Florence at the Lorenzo Di Medici Scuola. Our teachers are Michela (the red head) and the man on the very left in white, Enzo. Michela teaches grammer from 9am to 10:40ish am. Then we get a 20 min break for a caffe or snack and we meet back at 11am for conversational class with Enzo. Other than our 6 from the Bible Scuola, there are 4 other students in our class. Two, Anne Marie and Soloman, are from The Ivory Coast in Africa and speak French. I very much enjoy talking with Marie and practing my ever present French. This is terrible, but for some reason, when I am trying to speak Italian, especially in times when I have no idea what to say, or how to respond, all that comes to mind is Francaise!!! I cannot tell you how many times I have actually said the french word instead of the italian. Just the other day I ment to ask what is this?? in italian, but i asked instead in Francaise!! the scary part: I didnt even realize it! ha. When confronted with Italian, I'm begining to think my brain simply transfers and responds in the only foreign language it does know, French. ANyways, there are many times when it is useful. In class when Anne Marie needs something explained, new vocab or new verbs, aux Francaise, I am happy to help. The other two students are Vietnamese: Haun and Tien. 

Funny story about Haun. We were learning how to ask one's preference. We were discussing music at the time and we asked Huan what type he prefered. He first answered American Country Music. After this we were intrigued and asked who his favorite American Country Music singer was. Alan Jackson, Randy Travis, Rascal Flatts??? He answered loud and clear....Britney Spears! ha. Of course, American Country Britney Spears! =) We had our first test this past Friday the 17th, and I think it went well. Speaking of Friday the 17th, here is an interesting tidbit,- this is equivalent to our Friday the 13th.

We also had a "field trip" this week with our Italian School. We had to sign up last week and we were excitingly awaiting Wednesday to come! The trip was to visit the Boboli Gardens behind the Pitti Palace. The Pitti Palace dates back to the 1450's and was originally owned by Luca Pitti, a wealthy Florentine banker. Later in 1540's it was bought by the Medici family and became a great tresure house for paintings, jewlery, and possessions. 

The Garden is very large and took us a couple of hrs to walk/wonder through and see. It was beautiful.

What else? Thursday night, we had a registration night at the Bible Scuola for our English lessons! We had some 40+ in attendance! Debbie cooked some wonderful deserts (including an original peach/pear cake that is to die for!) and we also made coffee, tea, and lemonaide for the guests to enjoy! This was a blast. The night began around 8:30p and lasted until 11 or 11:30ish! It was truly refreshing to see the excitement in the Italians! They were so positive and happy to be present. Already we are making so many new friends! You may be wondering, and right fully so, where are the photos?? Neither I, nor Ryan (the other "photographer of the group"), took a single picture! We both realized it after the fact and couldnt believe it. We were just so busy talking to and getting to know our future students that photographing the event wasn't even in mind!

This weekend.....

This weekend Avanti hosted a weekend retreat for italain teens.

Eric, Marco, Andrea, Luca, Lindsey, and Daniela.

Ermenita, Marta, Sarah, and Vitoria.

We began our activities on friday. Debbie and David prepared a grande americano cena (dinner). they fixed all sorts of meat on the grill and accompanied this with home made mashed potatoes, salad, bread and chick peas.

Laura, Angella, and Andrea.

Back Row: Daniela, Debbie, Marta, Sarah, Lindsey, Vittoria, and Angela.

Front Row: me, Andrea, Emily, and Laura.

kyle, ryan, Luca, Allen, Eric, Marco, David, and Robbie is in front. 

The group arrived around 7ish.Two of the girls were sisters: Marta and Vitoria. Both are in college, are in their early twenties, speak very good italian,and live in Napoli. The youngest was bella Daniela. She is originally from  Romania but she and her family moved to Italy about 6 years go. She is only 15 and speaks: Russian, Romanian, Italian, and a little bit of English. wow is right. She was very intelligent (as well as all of the italians that came.) two boys also attended: Marco and Luca. Luca is 26 and Marco, only 18. Both have very very good english. Along with Daniela, Marco is a new christian! He was baptized last summer at camp. Daniela became a chirstian only one month ago! their enthusiasm was contagious! Just last night Daniela was showing me her favorite Bible verse mark 16:16- "Whoever believes and is baptised will be saved, and whoever is not will be condemed." It was so encouraging when she was speaking. So bright eyed. The verse is a simple one and it was obvious that her faith was set. It was almost as if she was telling me the good news! benessimo!!

Eric, Daniela, and Andrea.

The first night after our cookout, we played charades. Boys versus girls. it was a blast. after this we had a short devo and broke for the night around 11:30p. after this some of us played the card game nerts. i had never heard of it but it was so much fun! it was similar to the concept of the card game spoons. Other practiced singing and playing the guitare. Eric and Ryan both play and brought their guitares from the states and there is also a guitare here at the Scuola, so we had three to work with. Daniela is also a very talented singer. So she and Andrea learned new songs that Eric and Ryan were playing on the guitare. Eric taught Marco some lessons on the guitare as well. we ended the night around 1 am...the night went well =)

On the autobus!

Enjoying Gelato!

In front of the Duomo!

The next day we, the AI workers got up early to help make an American breakfast for the italianos- bacon and pancakes! Im not too sure they really knew how to eat and enjoy this! ha. I saw Luca eating his pancake rolled up with peach jam in the middle. ha. we also had caffe americano. the italians explained to us that our coffee is like for babies! we were asking if it was strange to them for us to order cafe latte as opposed to their espresso...and tthey explained that it would mean that we could not hold our coffee strong like they could! we all had a good laugh. the espresso is a big deal in italy. with almost every meal- and also in between- you are asked...espresso?? what we call coffee shops, they call the "bar." it is much smaller and is literally a bar where you order your espresso, stand for a couple of min maybe and down the espress in only a few drinks. and it is strong! i myself am still dumping in the zuccharo (sugar) and dropping in some latte (milk) when no one is looking. this reminds me of the other day when we stopped for espresso after buying our insurance and getting established in scandicci. Eric wanted to order caffe latte, but mistakingly only order il latte. Allora (so) he was brought a cup of steamed milk! he tried to drink it but then david figured out what had happened and the man at the bar happily brought eric a caffe latte!

Eric and Marco.

Daniela and me!

Daniela and Marta.

Allora, after breakfast we had a short devo about how one;s life is forever changed after one meets God. Then we traveled into firenze to enjoy the city. we walked around for some time, seeing he Duomo and getting gelato. Then made our way from the center of Firenze, across the arno, and up the hill to the Piazza di Michelangelo! This is one of the most beauiftul spots in Firenze. Debbie had packed us a panini pranza (a sandwich lunch) to enjoy! after this we had espresso, and headed back to the Scuola. That evening we split into groups and translated In Christ alone from English to Italiano. We then enjoyed a wonderful dinner prepared by Rosa...Lasagne! Not only did she obvioulsy make the sauce and the bechamela- but also she made the noodles by hand!!! wow. wow. wow. it was fabulous! I had three servings! and even ate my plate!! (on accident- a was trying to cut the lasagne on the plastic plate- ha! )  We finished and had desert and then sang our new italiano song that we had just translated. Bene Bene! hopefully i wil get it recorded for you to hear soon. The evening ended with some games and fellowship.

Laura and Debbie.

Ermenita, Emily, and Lindsey.

View from the Piazza di Michelangelo.

On another note, i have been fighting a cold since we arrived and it worsened this weekend. By this morning i could not function. i unfortunatley had to stay home and after drinking some italian thera flu i slept until eric called at 1p. The medicine certainy helped, but i am still under the weather. but i am thinkinking healthy! ha. Anyways, from what Eric told me, after church the group went and enjoyed lunch together and then visited Firenze some more and of course got another gelato!

Today is the group's last day and we will miss them! They have been so sweet and encouraging to all of us-especially the new christians. Their desire and joy was refreshing to say the least. It was so fun getting to know them and building freindships, even in such a short time together. We hope to visit Marta dn Vittoria in Napoli soon and Daniela has invited Eric and I to her ballet recital next june!

Andiamo!

o-kaye. (this is how they say it here)

finally after one short flight to atlanta from columbus, a long (over 8 hrs) flight to paris, and a final 2 hr one to italy...WE ARE HERE!

The flights went surprisingly smooth. Everything went as planned and it was....almost enjoyable. I very much enjoyed being surrounded with French natives on the flight over seas (we flew Air France). So sophisticated and interessant ! As President of the French club in High School, I very much enjoyed hearing their language flutter throughout the plane.The air port in Paris was huge. Ive never seen anything like it. Eric and I had to walk what seemed like miles from our landing gate to customs.From there we followed signs pointing to G2 (our gate to Firenze) that led us up, down, around, and all of the sudden outside! Here we had to catch a cshuttle bus to take us on a highway and around a way to our gate!
I was getting mixed up with my languages already. Once we got to the G2- we had to go through security again( i guess bc we were flying out of the country). the man who was checking me started to speak to me in French. I tried to answer him back in French ( I took 4 yrs in High school, and a semester in college), but could only think in italian. so i said something between the two languages and muttered...oh no italiano! and then he thought i meant that i was italiano! I said oh no! parle italiano et francaise! .......but I am American! anyways it was funny then, but i suppose you have to picture me scatterbrained, struggling terribly with two large carry ons, and sweating. ha.
anyways. Emliy and David met us at the airoport and took us to the Bible School. It was roughly one oclock Italian time (we are 6 hrs ahead of the US) and Eric and I only caught a few zs on the plane. However when we arrived at the casa, we immediately met Rosa (the italiano cook here- she cooks lunch for us every MWF) and were presented with a wonderful first meal! She had made real hot pockets! Three types- tuna, ham, and sausage. Each had cheese and tomatoes. Yum.

After this we went to the local grocery store-Coop- and got our necessities and a cell phone.

Eric and I tried our best to stay up for the whole day....but of course....we feel asleep! We woke up not too long after and stayed up unpacking. The next morning (thursday aka "Giovidi") we decided to sleep in. We had set our alarm for 9a but didnt wake up until 11:30a! ha. it was much needed =)

Last night we had a chance to go and see Firenze (Florence). It was wonderful.... my camera almost couldnt keep up with all the shots i wanted to take! we also found a new pizza place- to the right of the Duomo and down the back street. I got a ham and cheese panini. The crust was like pie crust and they melted it fresh befire we could eat it. again yum. it was almost as if your taste buds were confused but satisfied- dessert crust and dinner meat.

okaye.

The Scuola.

All of the team lives on the third floor. the layout is likeEric and I along with the other married couple (Laura and Ryan) and the boys are all on the left wing of the U. Mine and Eric's room is at the very end of the hall, right before the Bagno (bathroom). Emily, Erminita, Angella, and Andrea are all on the third floor on the right side of the U.The second floor is the director's apt on the left side and the the right side has the library/classroom. The first floor is the kitchen, living/dining room, and more classrooms.

Flying over Italy!

This is the airoport in Paris that led us outside.

Our first sighting of the Duomo!

The Coop.

Buying our cell phones at the Coop. We met a new friend =)

La Scuola.

Our first Gelato!!

Homade Gelato!

Eric got melone and fragola! (melon and strawberry! )

Me and Andrea.

This was the pizza place.....Eric was tired of pictures. ha.

Rosa cooking for us!!

Espresso.

The new Tram in the center of Firenze.

Grapes out of the Avanti garden.

I got to paint today!

Our language school- i will blog more about this later.

Practicing our italiano!

Our Bagno!

Here is our room!

We have a sink in our room!

Again coming into our room....can you find Marie??