Wonderful Wednesday!

I don't even know where to begin for this entry. The past four days have been a whirlwind of emotions. Sunday and Monday a giant wave of sadness and missing home came over me and I was crying at every little message from someone at home. Monday night I decided I needed to get off Facebook for the week because it was getting too difficult to see everyone who was getting to go home for the week and thinking about how I wouldn't get to see all of my friends and family. I didn't want to be moping around all week so I signed off of my Facebook and told myself to have a positive approach to the rest of the week and to keep my head up. Then, Tuesday morning I woke up with a migraine, and it was the first day the sun had actually come out in the past two weeks or so. It would be my luck :-) So Tuesday I stayed in bed pretty much all day sleeping and studying a little. Then Wednesday came...

I woke up Wednesday morning to yet another sunny morning, and while my head was still dizzy and hurting a lot, I took some medicine and got ready for school because I didn't want to miss more class time and I wanted to try and enjoy this sunshine in case it didn't last for much longer! So my first couple classes were hard because everyone was talking very loudly and then I had to sit at a desk in the sun which didn't help much, BUT it was good to be with my friends because even if I did have a headache, they were still making me feel better and not be so sad about this whole holiday and whatnot. Then, Italian class came, and my day was completely turned around. 

Since I wasn't in class on Tuesday, I had no idea that we were going to be cooking in our Italian class Wednesday. So that was a very nice surprise! We went down to the kitchen on our campus and we started out our class all gathered around a big table. Our professor, Isabella, asked us to get out a piece of paper to write down the grocery list so half of us pulled out paper and started writing the items down as she told us the recipe. Then, at the end, she had us recite it back to her and then she handed us some money and told us to go. We all looked at her and then realized that we had to actually go to the store and buy it! So, with much laughter as we got up, we started our way to the store!

On our walk I was thinking about how in high school, and really any other place besides the native country, that when you are learning a language and get to the food section, you don't do much hands on learning like we can do here. We went to a market the first few weeks of class when we were learning about the foods and that was an experience in itself, but this was just another Italian class for us and going to the store wasn't that big of a deal. For all of us, we have to go to the grocery store anyways for any food that we want not out of a restaurant or bar so we're used to going to the store. We were mainly just worried about getting the right things that Isabella told us to get and pleasing her! :-)

Here's a picture of some of the girls in my class and myself pretending to look confused. We weren't actually confused :-) Just bored while waiting in line!

Skipping ahead, we got back to the kitchen and started on the cooking activities. I won't go into details. I think the story is better told through pictures and some captions :-)

The Tiramisu Team

The pesto I helped cut up!

Allison and I working on the pesto

Tiramisu Team working again

Yay! Spaghetti con pesto!
(This is Chris and I. Chris is another freshman in the Discovery Florence Program!)

My first Tiramisu!

Tiramisu with Chocolate Mouse! So amazing! And all homemade!
...Or schoolmade I guess since we were at school :)

Can you tell we liked the tiramisu?

My Italian Class! Professoressa Isabella is in the center

Alex (another DF gal!), Professoressa Isabella, myself, and Allison (from Franklin and Marshall)

I think I can speak for the whole class when I say that we all had a such a blast Wednesday- shopping, cooking, and eating! I'm very blessed to have such fun kids in my class! We each have somewhat of a humurous and silly personality so we usually have quite a bit of fun and laughs when we're both in class and doing things out of the classroom!

This was just the start to my day turning around and turning into one of the most memorable days of my time here in Florence.

"Faith is not faith without believing"

A quick update:
I apologize (again) for not updating recently. I've been swamped with school, work, and just trying to answer emails and messages from individuals in the US keeping in touch with me. We're hitting the final stretch and my professors are definitely making all of us feel it. I've had at least one major (at least 750 words) essay a week for the past two weeks and this next week I have two that are due. Along with all the essay writing, we're assigned readings and in the past week and a half I've read about 300 pages of texts ranging from the philosophies during Protestant Reformation to a modern art critic talking about "Sexual Personae" in the Renaissance. And to top off the "exciting" workload, it has been raining for at least the past two weeks every day (we had two days where the sun shone for a few hours but it ended up raining again).

To overcome this "dreariness" I've been listening to 104.7 The Fish a lot more every day and really getting into a couple of books that I'm reading: "Captivating" by: John and Stasi Eldridge, "Blue Like Jazz" by: Donald Miller, and "Radical" by: David Plath. They're all "religious" books, but they each touch on VERY different subjects. I really like reading all three of them simultaneously though. It's provided me with an interesting "balance" in a way, as I read each of these author's points of view.

I've also been reading these more heavily because I've been doing a lot of readings for my political science class and I've wanted to make sure that I don't become drawn into ideas that aren't Christian and could pull me off of God's path of truth. Ironically though, as I've been compiling excerpts from the texts I've read for polisci, I've found some pretty eloquently stated beliefs that I've found consistent with things that I've read in the Bible and not contradictory to my beliefs but actually enforcing them and enlightening them in a way. So I want to share some of the quotes that I've gathered thus far and leave you with these for today:

“Prophecy is not an art, nor, when it is taken for prediction, a constant vocation, but an extraordinary and temporary employment from God, most often of good men, but sometimes also of the wicked.”
– Leviathan by: Thomas Hobbes

“All the life and power of true religion consist in the inward and full persuasion of the mind; and faith is not faith without believing.”
–A Letter Concerning Toleration by: John Locke

“Can it, may some say, be properly said that God hath voice and language, when it cannot be properly said He hath a tongue or other organs as a man? …For to see and hear are honourable attributes, and may be given to God to declare as far as capacity can conceive His almighty power. But if it were to be taken in the strict and proper sense, one might argue from his making of all other parts of man's body that he had also the same use of them which we have; which would be many of them so uncomely as it would be the greatest contumely in the world to ascribe them to Him.”
–Leviathan by: Thomas Hobbes

“So that the controversy between these churches about the truth of their doctrines and the purity of their worship is on both sides equal; nor is there any judge, either at Constantinople or elsewhere upon earth, by whose sentence it can be determined. The decision of that question belongs only to the Supreme judge of all men, to whom also alone belongs the punishment of the erroneous.”
–A Letter Concerning Toleration by: John Locke

“I cannot be saved by a religion that I distrust and by a worship that I abhor. It is in vain for an unbeliever to take up the outward show of another man’s profession. Faith only and inward sincerity are the things that procure acceptance with God.”
–A Letter Concerning Toleration by: John Locke

Be strong in the Lord

"Be strong in the Lord and,

Never give up hope,

You're going to do great things,

I already know,

God's got His hand on you so,

Don't live life in fear,

Forgive and forget,

But don't forget why you're here,

Take your time and pray,

Thank God for each day,

His love will find a way,

These are the words I would say "

- "These Are the Words I Would Say" by: Sidewalk Prophets

These lyrics from this song reverberate how I'm feeling as I reflect on my Friday afternoon. I've already somewhat expressed how grateful I am for the many ways God has worked in my life while I've been here, but I'd like to elaborate on a specific way that God has truly been watching out for me.

The week before Fall Break, I had to write a journal entry for my Freshman Forum class where I was allowed to "vent" about anything I wanted to. Feeling alone as a Christian was really affecting me so, I spent the majority of my entry writing about that, and I emailed it in on Tuesday evening. The next evening, I went to my Freshman Forum class and as soon as I entered the door, Amy (my professor) asked me to come over to talk to her for a second. She told me that she had found another girl here who was also struggling as a Christian and was also a "fellow southerner". Amy gave me this girl's email address and said this girl knew I would be contacting her.

We got in contact with one another and set up a date to have coffee and visit. Even in the conversation of trying to find a date, I could tell this was going to be someone I could easily communicate and feel comfortable with- don't ask me why, I just had this feeling. So, after my last midterm exam the following Wednesday, this girl and I met at the school and made our way to a cafe to get something to drink. I don't remember exactly what we first started talking about, but I felt an immediate sense of comfort, and I know I just went all out and was completely open with her about pretty much everything I was feeling and thinking. I had my Freshman Forum class at 4:40 so we had to cut our talk short, but that hour and a half that we spent talking was such a blessing that I had needed for so long.

I have emailed and on a couple of occasions Skyped with my Christian brothers and sisters back at home when I've been in a hard place and needed some guidance or just plain fellowship, but it just wasn't quite the same as physically being around another Christian. Don't get me wrong, I am so thankful for my Christian brothers and sisters who have been there for me and taken out their time to pray for me and respond to my messages when I am across the world from them, and I don't know how strong I would be right now if it weren't for all of their help, but it's hard to understand how different it is unless you've been through physically being alone as a Christian. Needless to say, this girl was definitely a God sent at a time where I needed her most.

We met again last Wednesday and did the coffee thing again, which by no surprise was extremely wonderful and exactly what we needed, and then we met up again on Friday to have lunch together and talk for the afternoon. We were originally going to go to the Boboli gardens but I was being lazy and we ended up just walking a bit to Piazza Donatello where we sat on a bench, ate our Chinese food, and talked for about five and a half hours.

Those five and a half hours flew by so quickly and if it hadn't had been for the fact that I had to be home for dinner, we probably would have remained talking for even longer. God could not have sent me anyone better to help guide me and interact with than this girl. She is so strong and radiating beauty from the inside, that I hope and pray I can one day be like that. She has such a compassionate heart, and sometimes I feel guilty for how long I end up talking and venting while she just sits there and listens and puts in guidance when she's led to. We also have such similar personalities that I can so easily open up to her and know that she understands what I'm trying to say if I can't word it just right, how I felt about something, and why I think or feel certain things. I also am humbled when I'm able to give her guidance when she's going/gone through something very similar to what I've gone through. 

God's timing in bringing this girl into my life couldn't have come at a more perfect time. We were both starting to feel the weight of feeling alone as a Christian, so each other's pressence was a gift in itself. Not only was our pressence a gift, but the guidance and friendship that we can provide each other with was exactly what each of us needed at a time where we're both going through personal things. I wouldn't necessarily say that I was giving up hope, but I definitely hadn't been as strong as I really could be as a Christian, and God used this opportunity to show me He always has a plan and a way about doing something and that I just needed to trust in Him and remain strong.

And going along with God's amazing timing, I recently started listening to 104.7 The Fish online, and the song "These Are the Words I Would Say" came on Friday after I returned home and I was honestly brought to tears. I've always been so humbled by Christian music and how beautiful it is and what it can do in a person's life. No one could say that all these events happened out of chance. Clearly someone was watching out for me and had a plan behind all of this, because like I said, the timing could not have been more perfect.

Thank you to all of you back at home who have been praying for me! I'm so appreciative and can definitely feel that I am not alone. The power of prayer is real and I am so humbled by it and grateful for it. Every day that I've been here has been such a blessing, but I can't wait to return home to share all my stories and be with my Christian family again!

Venice Continued....

Now, back to where we left off in the Gardens of the Biennale Exhibition.

My favorite "piece" in this section of the Biennale was this installation titled "House Behaviourology" by Atelier Bow-Wow. There were 11 models of different homes, each unique in their own individual way. This installation really captured the whole theme of the Biennale this year, with connecting architecture with people and people with architecture. A couple of my friends and I decided to go through this part of the exhibit and pick out our favorite house and say why we chose that particular house. (We decided this before we read that the point behind this installation was showing how the lifestyle of the "user" really influences the architecture of the home.) I chose this house because I liked all the different levels and openness, but most importantly, the hammock hanging in the middle of the house! =D

The other part that I got all giddy over was this giant layout of a miniature town, or really county I guess you could say. I'm not sure of the title of the display but I do know the artist/architect behind the model was Aldo Cibic. (I referenced my map we were given that showed the layout of the exhibits by room but only listed the architects and/or their firms. Probably because there were so many pieces in each room.) Like I said earlier, I absolutely love "mini" things so I was getting very excited at all the "mini" things in this display like the tiny sheep, people, gardens, houses, buildings and cars. It was also just my luck that my camera battery was minutes away from dying so after I had taken my pictures, I didn't really have much more of an excuse to stay in the room so my friends pulled me out of the room, heels dragging in the ground and all. (Not really, but that was how I felt internally)

Day One in Venice was coming to a close and we headed back out towards the Grand Canal to walk along the water back to our hotel. Much to our surprise, we emerged from the gardens to see one of the most beautiful sunsets I have seen! I of course took a couple of pictures! :-)

Day Two in Venice:
We started out the morning by visiting the Doge's Palace (Doge = Duke). This whole palace was so extravegant  and I could go on for days about all the beautiful things we saw! However, I will just point out my favorite part of it, which was the Staircase of the Giants. This elegant and enormous staircase was the entrance to be used for all the "special" guests and important people. We didn't get to walk up it (because it's blocked off) but we did get to view it from the base of the stairs and also from the very top so we got somewhat of a sense of what it might have felt like enterring and leaving the palace. Either way, whether you were leaving or entering, you could feel the sense of being aware of the wealth, power, and prestige of the Doge because of the amazing architecture of the staircase itself as well as the buildings surrounding it.  

After Palazzo Ducale we made our way to the Peggy Guggenheim Museum of Modern Art. Much to my grandparen'ts displeasure, I'm not always keen to some modern art, however the majority of the pieces in this museum were quite interesting and I did actually enjoy them. They weren't too "ecentric" for me :)

One of my favorite pieces here was actually a tree that was planted with a box of little pieces of papers left underneath it for people to write their wishes on and then stick them onto the tree. It was called "The Wishing Tree". It was really neat to see the different wishes each person had and also to be a part of this piece of art and leave our own mark behind.

After the Guggenheim we went to our last stop, Ca' Rezzonico, which used to be an old home I think in the 18th century and is now a museum. There were a lot of beautiful rooms here and we weren't allowed to take pictures but I snapped a couple of quick shots while the guards weren't looking. One of my favorites was this large, open hall that had two huge, beautiful chandeliers.

Overall, I enjoyed Venice a lot and hope to go back another day to explore different things and take more of a relaxing trip there. It was a great time for our Freshman group to take a trip together and I think a lot of us really bonded over this weekend.

Prayer Request

I haven't forgotten about continuing to update my blog about the trips I've been on. That will be finished by the beginning of next week.

Right now, I have a prayer request for my Christian family out there.

It's 3 am here and I was supposed to be working on a paper for my writing class, yet I find myself in tears because my heart aches at seeing one of my friends walk away from their relationship with God and having to step back and watch them go down this destructive path.

It breaks my heart how this world can shake and break apart a person trying to find themself, and especially from a Christian perspective. One of my biggest fears in coming to Italy was what would happen to my faith. God has blessed me with such a strong relationship fairly early on in my life and the fear of losing that and what would happen to that haunted my heart quite a bit before I left. The Monday before I left, I broke down in tears sobbing at my bible study group and told them how terribly afraid I was of what would happen to my faith here in Italy. Even in making my college decision I kept at the forefront of my mind "Would the deep relationship I have with God right now be safe in this environment?" I researched thoroughly at each school that I got into the Christian organizations and activities available and I made an effort in contacting at least one person from each group at each school via email to ask them about their program and what it was like being a Christian on their college campus. Over the past few years, I had witnessed quite a few of my friends falling astray and getting sucked into this world and satisfying only the desires of their flesh once they entered college. I also heard so many stories and could see the actions of these young, vulnerable kids just trying to find themself and often getting distracted by the wrong ways to find yourself. I saw this, heard this, and was impacted by this, and I knew I did not want that for my Freshman year experience.

When I got here to Italy, the first few weeks were absolutely some of the hardest weeks I have been through in my life. I was so excited to be in a new environment, with new people, and a fresh blank slate to start from. I jumped right in and started making so many friends, but unfortunately I jumped in the main stream and got completely swept away by giving into my human nature. So of course, after a couple of weeks of trying to put God on the backburner (because really there was nothing I could do about it in Italy... or so I thought) my Spiritual nature started making a fuss and I knew I couldn't do this tug of war with satisfying my flesh or satisfying my heart and what I was truly made for. As it should be, God won, and I started to get back on track.

I have been continually amazed and unbelievably grateful for how much God has worked in my life already while being here in Italy. I was so afraid that being away from a Christian family and praying and reading on my own and occasionally talking to people back at home wouldn't be enough to stregthen and grow in my relationship with God. I guess this would've been one of those times when God would laugh at my ignorance.... :)  I could go on for hours and hours about everything that has happened to me here in Italy and how certain things have changed and strengthened my relationship with God and I am undoubtably a personal testament to God's Almighty power and ability to do what He wants where I am willing. I always knew I had to keep my heart open to God throughout this experience and as we sang in choir, "he never failed me yet!"

Bringing this entry full circle, I am so grateful and humbled by the many ways God has blessed me in protecting and strengthening my relationship with Him during this period of transition and trying to find myself. My experience here in Italy very easily could have completely destroyed my relationship with God and I could have very easily just chosen to follow the desires of my flesh and human nature.

This friend that I'm asking you to pray for is having almost the complete opposite happen to them and it breaks my heart and makes me angry that this world can do this to such good people. This friend has been going down a crazy path, really with only the intention of trying to find themself, and they've ended up truly "crashing" along the way. There were times where they accepted God's help in getting back on the right path and started to head down it again, but because of the previous "crashes", they received deep wounds and scars and are now not only trying to find themself but also figure out how to heal those pains. And all the while, not having a firm foundation of a strong relationship with God to work from.

As this person's Christian sister, I am saddened and frustrated as I would be if any one of my close and dear Christian brothers or sisters started to fall astray and then just give up. This one in particular has left my in tears though tonight.

I fully believe in the power of prayer and I know that God has a plan and a reason behind everything. Please pray for this friend tonight, but also for the thousands and thousands of college students out there trying to find themself and getting dragged down by this world and kept away from the amazing plan God has for them. These are my brothers and sisters, and for some of you, your sons and daughters. Regardless of how you may feel personally about a person, we are all God's children and He loves us all so very much, and because God lives in us and we are to be His light unto the world, we have to break down those personal grievances and pour out that love to the lost, broken, and weary. Even if it is just through prayer.

In His name,
Lizzie

Venice- The sinking city :(

For the weekend of October 15th to 16th, my Art History class took a trip to Venice. We visited many sights and even took a gondola ride across the canal. And yes, I literally mean across so it took about 5 minutes and cost us ,50 euros each. It did say on our itinerary that we would be taking a gondola ride across the canal, but most of us failed to look at the detail of the word “across” so there were a couple of not so happy campers as they realized that was all we were getting. Luckily, I was in the second group to go so my classmates and I got to see that we were indeed only going across the canal. So having that in mind we made the most of it and acted like it was the best gondola ride of our lives, even if it was just for 5 minutes!

Since Venice was a trip for my Art History class we visited specific places for my class and learned quite a few things. We were told our midterm would be on this trip so I was taking lots of notes and pictures. I won’t bore you with every single picture I took but I’ll highlight each place that we went to.



The first place we visited was Cà d’ Oro (house of gold). On the exterior and from the view on the canal, Cà d’ Oro is one of the most beautiful houses in Venice with its intricate Byzantine influences in its windows and on its façade. There was a nice little balcony that we all got to look out over and I got a nice little picture there.

After visiting Cà d’ Oro we walked to our hotel, dropped off our baggage, then headed to Campo Sta Maria Formosa for a picnic lunch. Needless to say this was no picnic lunch. It was simply a few loaves of bread, some cheese, and sliced ham (extremely raw I might add). We didn’t even get a nice little cup of wine for our picnic and we’re in Italy for goodness sakes! :)



After our “picnic” lunch we ran through the Basilica of San Marco. Yes, we seriously did run through it. Maybe not at as fast of a pace as you’re thinking but we definitely power-walked through this beautiful church and I was very upset. Our professor had his mind set on seeing this Biennale exhibit (that I will talk more about) and I was so upset we didn’t spend more time in such a beautiful church as San Marco. I mean, San Marco is pretty much the poster child of Venice, besides the gondolas and masks.

After our race through San Marco we did get a nice picture of our entire freshman group. We’re actually using this picture in the school newspaper. :)

Following San Marco, we quickly made our way over to the Arsenal to see La Biennale di Venezia, an exhibit that is done every two years in Venice and rotates every other time between art and architecture. Much to my professor’s pleasure (he’s an architecture major) it was architecture this year, but nonetheless I really enjoyed exploring and taking pictures of all the little teeny tiny models because I already am obsessed with “miniature” things! :)



The Biennale expanded over two different venues: the Arsenal and the Gardens. At the Arsenal, a few pieces that really stuck out to me were “Cloudscape” and “The Sound Cave”. “Cloudscape” was done by Transsolar & Tetsuo Kondo Architects and this is what one write-up about the piece said, "Transsolar and Tetsuo Kondo Architects (Germany) create Cloudscape, a place to experience a real cloud from below, within and above floating in the centre of the Arsenale. The path winds through the cloud. The structure consists of a 4.3 meter high ramp that allows visitirs to sit above the cloud. Simply, the structure leans on the existing Arsenale columns. The cloud is based on the physical phenomenon of saturated air, condensation droplets floating in the space and condensation seeds. The atmospheres above and below the cloud have different qualities of light , temperature and humidity." - domus.it This was so much fun to explore through and “be on top of the clouds”. “The Sound Cave” was done by Toyo Ito & Associates and was done as a model for the Taichung Metropolitan Opera House Competition. I really liked this piece because of what the architect behind it had to say about its unique shape and structure: “Architecture has to follow the diversity of society, and has to reflect that a simple square or cube can’t contain that diversity.”

The Gardens part of the exhibit we visited last on Friday so we were quite exhausted at this point and getting a little bit goofy. After looking at so much “modern art” or really architecture, we decided to “make art” of our own and we started posing in silly positions making silly faces and saying we were “making art”.

Nonetheless there were still quite a few pieces that did stick out to me that I really loved. When we first walked into the Gardens there was this great big “pile” of wooden chairs. I forgot to write down the name of the piece and the artist behind it but I really enjoyed it because it was something that I would love to have back at home- a bunch of chairs all staggering upwards sitting beneath a tree. It would be a nice little hangout to visit with friends and/or do homework and read a book. :)

(To be continued.... It's nearing 11pm here -on November 1st, 2010- and I'm exhausted after an eventful Fall Break in Rome so I'm going to start to fall asleep now...)

Cinque Terre

Before I came to Florence, one of the trips that I desperately wanted to take was to Chinque Terre. I had originally planned to go the second weekend that we were here that way the weather would still be warm and it'd be a fun way to start off my adventures here in Italy, but when that weekend came around, I was too busy and couldn't find anyone else who wanted to join, so I ended up not going. Then, at the last minute at the very beginning of October, one of my dear friends Bri decided she was going to Chinque Terre and put it out there for anyone to join her if they wanted!

Of course I immediately jumped on board and on Friday morning, October 8th, I woke up around 5 am and made my way to the Piazza to meet up with my friends where we then headed off to the train station. Time was a ticking and our train was to leave at 6:30am so we practically ran to the station. It was about 6:10 when we walked up to the station and we had to race to the machines, buy our tickets, then race to find the platform. Finding the platform was a major issue. On the board it said we were departing from platform 1A in 7 minutes... Well we followed the signs to 1A, which took some asking around to find out where exactly it was (hidden around the corner), but the sign at 1A said the train was departing for another destination. At this point, about 6 or 7  of us girls had accumulated and we were running up and down the station looking like poor lost Americans. Seeing that the train was supposed to be departing at any minute, we jumped on it, just praying that was the right train to Chinque Terre. Needless to say it was :D

Fast forward a few hours and we were walking down Via dell' Amore (Street of love). This was probably one of the most beautiful hikes I have ever been on. I was truly taken aback by the amazing eye God has for beauty and in creating this world and the scenes that were in front of me. Here are some pictures to see for yourself:

I'm not really sure of the story behind "Via dell' Amore" but I do know that the locks found all through the path are to symbolize the eternal bond between two lovers. It was so interesting to see all the different types of locks and all the different messages that people left on the walls in the "Tunnel of Love". I even left a message of my own :)

 After Via dell'Amore we hopped on a train to Monterosso (the hiking trails were closed that day because of flodding from heavy rains the week before) and then had an amazing relaxing day on the beach! We couldn't have asked for better weather! It was probably 80 degrees and a nice breeze was felt throughout the whole afternoon! There was enough sun to get a little color but not too much to make you miserably hot. And we were just so surprised because it was already October so we weren't expecting it to be warm at all!

It was a really fun day and a great experience for all of us freshman (and a couple of awesome upperclassmen!) to bond and have a good time together outside of school and classes and the nightscene in Florence.