I have some catching up to do...

Ok, so I have been a horrible blogger and I know that I have a lot of catching up to do since I last blogged.  Like a lot.  So…I’m gonna try to put this in a small nutshell for you what I have been up to these past few weeks.  (Even though I’m totally horrible with nutshells and will probably go into way too much detail, but I’m going to try!)

 *Hume is long over. I left Hume and went home to Corona for the first time because this is where my family now resides.  It was definitely weird going home to a place I had never been before.  It’s a great house with a pool and poozie, which is amazing because it was like a million degrees there and without a pool I think we would all pass out.  My mom and dad even got in, which means it was super hot.  I got to hang out with my bro, I saw my sister a little bit cause she drove up from AG (where she is still living to finish out her senior year of high school) for a family bar-b-que at our new house.  So it was good to see my family before I left for Italy.

* Ok I am now in Italy.  Big change from Hume Lake.  We flew into London, had a ten hour stop over, then flew out of London to Rome.  We stayed in Rome for three days, visiting museums and getting to know the city by bus, subways and a whole lot of walking. 

*Now we have gone from Rome to Florence, which is where I am at the present moment.  We arrived here late Tuesday afternoon, and tomorrow (Thursday) is our last full day here.  On Friday we leave for Cortona, which is where we will be living for the rest of the semester.  Cortona is a small town in Tuscany on a hill with the population of about 1200 people.  Our school is on the top of a hill overlooking the largest lake in Italy and the rest of the town.  Anyone seen the movie “Under the Tuscan Sun”?  That movie was filmed in Cortona.  I can’t wait to get there, be able to settle in, unpack and get to know the town and the culture.  I will be taking four classes as I’m in Cortona; Painting, photography, art history and Italian language.  I’m stoked. 

            Wow that was a pretty good nutshell for me.  I guess that means I have room to go back and explain more of what we have been doing. 

I will start with Rome.  Rome was totally overwhelming for me.  My first time in Europe was full of riding buses, speeding cars who are not afraid to get close to pedestrians hot, sticky subways and tons of amazing art history.  We started each of our days with breakfast at the hotel.  Full of bread, ham. Bread. Eggs, cereal, sausages, bread, pastries, oh and bread.  Let me tell you they sure do like their carbs here!  Me and my friend Dustin (who goes with me to Biola) decided to make ourselves lunch everyday with the bread and ham that we got at breakfast so we didn’t have to spend money on lunch everyday.   We toured tons of museums, but I will just tell you my highlights.   The Coliseum was amazing to see.  I kept picturing the gladiators having amazing battles in the center.  My absolute favorite was the Vatican.  We saw the Sistine Chapel and it was amazing.  The entire Vatican contained enough to take your breath away multiple times.  I could have spent months in there looking at everything the place contained.  It amazes me how much talent God can give a human, and it shows me just how amazing God Himself is in creating these humans. 

After spending all day walking everywhere, as well as riding the buses and the Metro, we would come back to the hotel and get ready for dinner that was served at the hotel which consists of three courses.  The first course is a pasta dish, the next a meat, and the third is a dessert.  We were also served wine with dinner as well as sparkling water.  These are just as common here as regular water in the states.  Wine is extremely cheap here, sometimes even cheaper than soda or water!  I have grown to love the sparkling water, where as when I first got here I couldn’t understand how anyone could ever drink it!  After dinner we were usually extremely tired from being on the go all day, so we had a meeting with our professors and got to bed around 11 ish.  That was our approximate schedule while we were in Rome. 

Our schedule here in Florence isn’t extremely different, all except for the fact that we eat dinner at a restaurant every night where the food is amazing, but the service isn’t as friendly as it was at the hotel in Rome.  Yesterday we were able to see Botechelli’s Birth of Venus painting, which I spent about 20 minutes looking at.  It is one of my favorite paintings and it was amazing to see it in person.  Today we went to a photography museum, which was a wonderful change from the many sculptures and paintings we have been seeing everywhere.  I also had to buy art supplies today, which was so much fun until I had to pay.  I have been doing a good job at not spending too much money here, so when I have to drop a large amount of money it doesn’t feel too good.  But it is definitely worth it.

I am excited because tomorrow we get to see Michelangelo’s statue of David, and we leave for Cortona!  I’m so excited to get there and get settled into a non-touristy Italian town. 

So that is what I have been up to lately!  Now that I am in Italy I will hopefully be better at this blogging thing, don’t give up on me!  I love and miss you all.  I really miss California, the hills here look just like the Central Coast, which makes me home sick.  But I am loving being here.  I wish I could have packed everyone up in my suitcase and be able to spend this amazing experience with you!  In the meantime, remember to embrace every moment of everyday you are alive, we don’t know what is going to happen to us.  Which reminds me, if you think of it, please pray for my Grandpa Steve, he had a sudden heart attack and is still recovering.  I would totally appreciate that. 

Thanks guys!  I love and miss you all so much!!