Its Weekend Time!
Weekends come, and weekends go, but my love for weekends never flickers. This weekend was a perfect example of why this is so. With new students coming in everyday, we are excitedly moving towards the school year! However, as every student in the world will tell you when asked "I'm just not ready for school to start". So this weekend, we took advantage of our time in some pretty fun ways!
We started our weekend Friday morning by doing a little resting. Megan and I enjoyed a few naps until we were awoken to a banging on our door. (Back story: Cicely had gone for a run and we told her to make sure and let us know as soon as she got back, and boy, did she let us know). Cicely came bursting into our room at around 9:30 to tell us about her 5 mile plan that turned into a 12 mile run. This girl... she shouldn't be allowed out. ever. I mean she got hit by a BUS in Amsterdam. So Cicely went for a run anyways, got hopelessly lost, got sketchy directions including things like: you need to take a taxi because its too far, you go up up up then down down down then turn, and my personal favorite, kfsihflnksd (Mumbling in italian) kfjdsifhoal.... so i turn left and then go straight? okay.
After this great event, Cicely and Stephanie came and hung out in our room until it was time for lunch. When we arrived we found that even MORE people had come in. After meeting and greeting, we decided to take everyone who wanted to into historic downtown. Megs wanted to go to Piazzae Michelangelo, the most amazing overlook of Florence available. So we loaded about 10 or 15 of us onto bus 8 and headed across the river. Megan taught us to ask for our bus tickets in Italian, but after one person asked, we just had to say yes. Although, I forgot to add in my last post that I ordered my Pizza and my Gelato in Italian! Yay!
The Overlook was stunning. You can see every part of Florence from there and the total picture is a little overwhelming. We spent some time hanging out there, talking on the steps and jamming to the street music. After getting some of our first group shots, we decided to head on down into the city. We once again visited Ponte Vecchio and Il Duomo with some fresh eyes. It was fun for me to go with new people, because i actually knew where I was going to an extent. We window shopped and took in the sights until we realized we had about half an hour till supper. We power walked back to Santa Maria Novella and made it back in time for supper with a few minutes to spare. At Villa, you have to let the cook know 4 hours ahead of time if you are going to miss a meal since they make only enough food for who is going to be there.
After supper we ran and quickly got ready for vespers. Vespers is held in the school Chapel, which is on the bottom floor of the girls dorm. We did some singing in both English and Italian and the entire lesson was translated. This vespers is like the one at home in the fact that both students and the community alike are encouraged to participate. Hopefully I will be able to get involved with it since I'm hoping to dedicated this year to going where God wants me to be. There is an awesome guy named Michael who is a Vocal Performance Major at Oakwood who will be getting drafted into the vespers program at any day now. We wait unafraid.
Sabbath morning we awoke, late again since we have no consistent alarm clock and made it in time to walk to church. Sabbath school was in English for us this week since we haven't started learning anything yet, they say that will change in the future. However, the entire church service was in Italian. Its incredibly interesting trying to pick out words and focus on intonation to understand an entire sermon. I sat next to proactive Joey who whipped out his pocket dictionary every time we heard a word said multiple times. We now know that the word "questo" means this.Go team, Go.
Leaving church, we decided to explore since lunch wasn't for another hour and a half. So we went on a walk that ended up being much longer than expected. We hiked around the back way to the school, in our church dresses no less, and came home right in time for lunch. After lunch, we explored the campus grounds a bit more, munching on persimmons and taking in the views. Then a group of the Italian seminary students came out and asked us to sing with them. So a big group of us hung out and shook shakers and beat drums and shared culture through music. I think that's my favorite kind. Also, Joey's favorite kind, since he found out on of the guys had a cajon!
After our musical adventure, we headed on our second hike of the day to Villa Petraia. Villa Petraia was an original Medici Palace. This palace sits on a hill overlooking all of Florence. When Florence was the capitol of Italy, this was the equivalent of the White House in Washington. The hike was about 5 miles to the castle with another glorious hill to the top. Once we were there, it was a beautiful view from the house of the city and the Palace gardens and greenhouses. We got to enjoy a tour of the home translated to us by the fantastic Joe and Andrew (who was visiting with his wife). The rooms were huge and beautiful. Amazing wallpaper and a billiard table made for a giant. Afterwards, we enjoyed the gardens for a bit and then headed quickly home for supper.
After supper, the school took us out for Gelato as a group! We headed down to our favorite Gelateria in Dalmatzia for some yummy chocolate mousse and peach gelato! We all hung out there and talked for a while before heading back to the dorm to do... something. As a newly formed group of people, were incredibley indecisive. However, after we collected money, bus tickets, and a few more people we headed out to explore. Unfortunately, it was like 2 hours later since no one could make up their minds. We hopped on the 14 towards downtown and got there about 11 pm. Unfortunately the buses quit running at midnight, so Joey and I ran across the street to check bus times. AAAAAANNNNDDD our bus was leaving in 19 minutes. Awesome. So we explored the church and piazza near the bus station and caught the last bus home with 50 seconds to spare.
Today, was a relaxing day. I slept through breakfast just because I could. I asked Megan kindly to bring me back bread and she did. I was satisfied. I awoke around 10 am and started working on this monster of a blog, as well as making a few more lists for school and such. After lunch we sat in the cafeteria with a group and just talked for a good 2 hours until we were kicked out by Filippo the cook. He offered to allow us to sleep there, but we said no thank you and went on our way. Then we headed on an "informational tour", which just meant Joe and Megan walked us around the local town to see the grocery store, bank and post office. Then it was off to downtown once again!
We stopped in Piazza San Marco for a look at the church. Then walked down past the Academia to Il Duomo. I can't wait to go there and see the David. :) We all walked as a group to oooh and aaah until we suddenly realized that joe, and the other half of our group, was gone. It was then that Megan walked us to Gli Uffizi and declared our tour over. Me and Manny then declared out tour of the H&M begun. After doing some shopping we headed over to walk around the Uffizi and grab some gelato. The delicious Pesca Mango Gelato was by far the best we've had yet. Although we did it get yelled at for going too near the statues with it. Then we just explored, taking this road, and that one. Manny bought a disappointing plum. I stared in the shoe stores for a socially unacceptable amount of time, it was overall an incredibly fun afternoon. Then we saw our bus driving and decided it was our fate to be on that bus. So we ran to our bus stop and felt like winners. As me and Ashton would say, we were the world champ champions of the world champions of the world.
After dinner, we took an hour or so to relax, then headed down to the Salottino to do a little pre-school studying. We used someone's phrase book and made a huge stack of cue cards and learned some new phrases, including, but not limited to, things like: hello! when is the next bus? whats showing at the cinema tonight? can i see the menu please? I would like a cappuchino. Our personal favorite section was the one entitled Romance. Here we only wrote down necessary phrases like: I'm here with my boyfriend. Excuse me, I have to go now. I'm NOT interested. LEAVE ME ALONE! So overall, the evening was a great success. Tomorrow officially starts our school year. We have a few orientations and personal meetings with Antoinetta. Then Tuesday were off on our first official school trip to Cinque Terre! Then Wednesday starts our first day of classes! Keep us in your prayers as we start this awesome adventure! As for now, I will say Sogni D'oro! Have Golden dreams all, its time for lights out!
Ps, here are a few more pictures from the days. Notice how they are just sporadically placed all throughout this blog as if i put no thought into them. FALSE. took 45 minutes trying to move them and they still end up oddly spaced. i have given in. it is done.
We started our weekend Friday morning by doing a little resting. Megan and I enjoyed a few naps until we were awoken to a banging on our door. (Back story: Cicely had gone for a run and we told her to make sure and let us know as soon as she got back, and boy, did she let us know). Cicely came bursting into our room at around 9:30 to tell us about her 5 mile plan that turned into a 12 mile run. This girl... she shouldn't be allowed out. ever. I mean she got hit by a BUS in Amsterdam. So Cicely went for a run anyways, got hopelessly lost, got sketchy directions including things like: you need to take a taxi because its too far, you go up up up then down down down then turn, and my personal favorite, kfsihflnksd (Mumbling in italian) kfjdsifhoal.... so i turn left and then go straight? okay.
After this great event, Cicely and Stephanie came and hung out in our room until it was time for lunch. When we arrived we found that even MORE people had come in. After meeting and greeting, we decided to take everyone who wanted to into historic downtown. Megs wanted to go to Piazzae Michelangelo, the most amazing overlook of Florence available. So we loaded about 10 or 15 of us onto bus 8 and headed across the river. Megan taught us to ask for our bus tickets in Italian, but after one person asked, we just had to say yes. Although, I forgot to add in my last post that I ordered my Pizza and my Gelato in Italian! Yay!
The Overlook was stunning. You can see every part of Florence from there and the total picture is a little overwhelming. We spent some time hanging out there, talking on the steps and jamming to the street music. After getting some of our first group shots, we decided to head on down into the city. We once again visited Ponte Vecchio and Il Duomo with some fresh eyes. It was fun for me to go with new people, because i actually knew where I was going to an extent. We window shopped and took in the sights until we realized we had about half an hour till supper. We power walked back to Santa Maria Novella and made it back in time for supper with a few minutes to spare. At Villa, you have to let the cook know 4 hours ahead of time if you are going to miss a meal since they make only enough food for who is going to be there.After supper we ran and quickly got ready for vespers. Vespers is held in the school Chapel, which is on the bottom floor of the girls dorm. We did some singing in both English and Italian and the entire lesson was translated. This vespers is like the one at home in the fact that both students and the community alike are encouraged to participate. Hopefully I will be able to get involved with it since I'm hoping to dedicated this year to going where God wants me to be. There is an awesome guy named Michael who is a Vocal Performance Major at Oakwood who will be getting drafted into the vespers program at any day now. We wait unafraid.
Sabbath morning we awoke, late again since we have no consistent alarm clock and made it in time to walk to church. Sabbath school was in English for us this week since we haven't started learning anything yet, they say that will change in the future. However, the entire church service was in Italian. Its incredibly interesting trying to pick out words and focus on intonation to understand an entire sermon. I sat next to proactive Joey who whipped out his pocket dictionary every time we heard a word said multiple times. We now know that the word "questo" means this.Go team, Go.
Leaving church, we decided to explore since lunch wasn't for another hour and a half. So we went on a walk that ended up being much longer than expected. We hiked around the back way to the school, in our church dresses no less, and came home right in time for lunch. After lunch, we explored the campus grounds a bit more, munching on persimmons and taking in the views. Then a group of the Italian seminary students came out and asked us to sing with them. So a big group of us hung out and shook shakers and beat drums and shared culture through music. I think that's my favorite kind. Also, Joey's favorite kind, since he found out on of the guys had a cajon!
After our musical adventure, we headed on our second hike of the day to Villa Petraia. Villa Petraia was an original Medici Palace. This palace sits on a hill overlooking all of Florence. When Florence was the capitol of Italy, this was the equivalent of the White House in Washington. The hike was about 5 miles to the castle with another glorious hill to the top. Once we were there, it was a beautiful view from the house of the city and the Palace gardens and greenhouses. We got to enjoy a tour of the home translated to us by the fantastic Joe and Andrew (who was visiting with his wife). The rooms were huge and beautiful. Amazing wallpaper and a billiard table made for a giant. Afterwards, we enjoyed the gardens for a bit and then headed quickly home for supper.
After supper, the school took us out for Gelato as a group! We headed down to our favorite Gelateria in Dalmatzia for some yummy chocolate mousse and peach gelato! We all hung out there and talked for a while before heading back to the dorm to do... something. As a newly formed group of people, were incredibley indecisive. However, after we collected money, bus tickets, and a few more people we headed out to explore. Unfortunately, it was like 2 hours later since no one could make up their minds. We hopped on the 14 towards downtown and got there about 11 pm. Unfortunately the buses quit running at midnight, so Joey and I ran across the street to check bus times. AAAAAANNNNDDD our bus was leaving in 19 minutes. Awesome. So we explored the church and piazza near the bus station and caught the last bus home with 50 seconds to spare.Today, was a relaxing day. I slept through breakfast just because I could. I asked Megan kindly to bring me back bread and she did. I was satisfied. I awoke around 10 am and started working on this monster of a blog, as well as making a few more lists for school and such. After lunch we sat in the cafeteria with a group and just talked for a good 2 hours until we were kicked out by Filippo the cook. He offered to allow us to sleep there, but we said no thank you and went on our way. Then we headed on an "informational tour", which just meant Joe and Megan walked us around the local town to see the grocery store, bank and post office. Then it was off to downtown once again!
We stopped in Piazza San Marco for a look at the church. Then walked down past the Academia to Il Duomo. I can't wait to go there and see the David. :) We all walked as a group to oooh and aaah until we suddenly realized that joe, and the other half of our group, was gone. It was then that Megan walked us to Gli Uffizi and declared our tour over. Me and Manny then declared out tour of the H&M begun. After doing some shopping we headed over to walk around the Uffizi and grab some gelato. The delicious Pesca Mango Gelato was by far the best we've had yet. Although we did it get yelled at for going too near the statues with it. Then we just explored, taking this road, and that one. Manny bought a disappointing plum. I stared in the shoe stores for a socially unacceptable amount of time, it was overall an incredibly fun afternoon. Then we saw our bus driving and decided it was our fate to be on that bus. So we ran to our bus stop and felt like winners. As me and Ashton would say, we were the world champ champions of the world champions of the world.
After dinner, we took an hour or so to relax, then headed down to the Salottino to do a little pre-school studying. We used someone's phrase book and made a huge stack of cue cards and learned some new phrases, including, but not limited to, things like: hello! when is the next bus? whats showing at the cinema tonight? can i see the menu please? I would like a cappuchino. Our personal favorite section was the one entitled Romance. Here we only wrote down necessary phrases like: I'm here with my boyfriend. Excuse me, I have to go now. I'm NOT interested. LEAVE ME ALONE! So overall, the evening was a great success. Tomorrow officially starts our school year. We have a few orientations and personal meetings with Antoinetta. Then Tuesday were off on our first official school trip to Cinque Terre! Then Wednesday starts our first day of classes! Keep us in your prayers as we start this awesome adventure! As for now, I will say Sogni D'oro! Have Golden dreams all, its time for lights out!
Ps, here are a few more pictures from the days. Notice how they are just sporadically placed all throughout this blog as if i put no thought into them. FALSE. took 45 minutes trying to move them and they still end up oddly spaced. i have given in. it is done.
Looks like you're having fun :) What are all the locks for in the one picture?
ReplyDeleteYou're in our thoughts & prayers for a great start to your school year!
The locks are hooked onto a gate on Ponte Vecchio. The tradition is that you come to this place with your lover and place your lock on the gate and throw your key into the river and you will have eternal love. :)
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