Day 26 6/13/10 Update, sorry for taking so long

I didn’t even get to finish the last entry I posted. We have been crazy busy. Yesterday I actually just read all afternoon so I guess that would have been a good time to update but oh well. So this will be an update of campuses and friends we have made along the way.

STATALE UPDATE:

The first day on Statale Campus Sarah and I got incredibly lost and met a girl named Chiara. We ended up talking to her for over an hour and exchanged contact information and everything. A week later I shot her a message and we decided to get lunch. When we met up with her that afternoon she brought about six friends with her. Sarah and I were in shock but we were so incredibly stoked that we were among that many girls. It was a fantastic lunch we went to a supermarket type store got sandwiches and then went to the park. The water we bought was 21 cents! After the park we walked and got a café then we said goodbye. We didn’t really have any spiritual conversation but we talked about getting together again soon and building friendships is incredibly important. After lunch, Sarah and I went to the mess and prayed for the Holy Spirit to guide us in the rest of the day. We walked out to the courtyard and we saw two girls sitting on the stairs. We approached them and right off the bat could tell communication would be a struggle. The two girl’s names were Marta, and Gemma. They were so sweet and patient with us and our lack of Italian, and eventually we discovered they were believers. As soon as they discovered this commonality they grabbed our hands and led us to a book store on the way we ran into Ryan, Pat and Ross, so they joined us. We went into the bookstore and met some of the people in there and discovered they are all part of a group called the Communion Liberation Movement, which is a Catholic worldwide movement. As we were talking in the bookstore one of the girls we had lunch with walked up to us to say hi, at this point everything clicked. Chiara, Marta, Gemma and all the girls we had lunch with were all part of this group known as ‘CL’ and they are all believers in Jesus Christ. God is good. He put believers in our path that major in language at the university. This past Friday 6/11/10 we went to the CL’s meeting then went to lunch again afterwards. The meeting was interesting, rather than focusing on the bible they read other texts and focused on the meaning behind them. The texts are written by the creator of the CL movement. They seemed to focus more on philosophy rather than theology. [given this is my opinion, and interpretation of the meeting that was translated to me. this was first impression… just a side note don’t get offended] It kind of concerned us a bit because it would be like a youth group at a church focusing entirely on a C.S. Lewis book. So at lunched they asked us what we thought and we explained some of our concerns and wanted to know exactly the intention with the group. They explained how they believe studying the bible is very personal; their meetings consist of over 100 people in three different classrooms at the same time. It makes sense, and there are subtexts that site the bible in their readings. The rest of our concerns were settled as all their answers were connected with Jesus Christ and their purpose was to set a Christ like example. There are 3 main differences between our group and theirs.

1. They are catholic, but we all believe in Jesus Christ which is the main point so it’s ok.

2. They show Christ rather than sharing him. We believe in evangelism and have been going out and sharing our faith with students. They help the community and do more service to show Christ. It’s almost like if we combined the two groups there would be a good balance.

3. They don’t construct their meetings around the bible.

So overall the group is fantastic. We have the majority of the same beliefs and we feel comfortable directing non believing students their way for fellowship and guidance in discovering Jesus as we leave.

I’m getting tired so I’m going to give a quick summary and I can explain more later… Also at statale I met a girl named Beatrice. She is basically like me before I became a Christian and has the same interests as me. It’s really cool and we connect really well. Pray for her and our future discussions because she is such a great girl.

BACCONI

We have a daily bible study and we have met some amazing people on that campus as well. We definitely have some lifelong friends from there and I personally hope to keep in contact with some of the girls I have met there.

Church of Reconciliation

We have been attending this church for two weeks. They speak Italian but some of them can speak English very well. There are also two Americans that live permanently in Italy so their English was very good J obviously. They knew today would be our last Sunday here and it was the most amazing thing I have ever experienced in my life. I have never felt God’s presence more in my life. I’ll sum it up because I cannot even begin to explain what happened. So the service started at 10am…. We got back to our apartment at 3:30pm…. Yeah…… The pastor their explained that he prepares two sermons and lets the Holy Spirit lead him to which sermon he should give. Today, he didn’t give either because he believed he was being lead to continue worship and prayer. We worshipped for 2 hours and at the end of the two hours he called our group up to pray for them. [keep in mind this is a tiny church with a faithful congregation] Our group got into a circle and the congregation surrounded us and many of them, without even knowing us, prayed for us. Marsha, one of the Americans translated on the microphone. They prayed over us for 20 minutes. Thanking the lord for us and giving us safe travels home and blessing the people we have talked to. By the end every one of us was crying. 20 minutes of prayer. We were then rushed with hugs and kisses from all of them. I’ve never felt more welcome from the Body of Christ than at that moment. We then got invited to lunch that they hadn’t even planned on having. So immediately following this they made a whole bunch of pasta and bread and salad and dessert and we had lunch together. It was unbelievable, yet it was believable because it happened, in God’s house.

The Lord is faithful, that’s all I have to say.

Day 18 6/5/10 a little mix of mafia, nutella and God’s Grace

The past couple days have been unbelievable, but it’s believable because it happened—to me. So much has happened and so many memories have been made. I don’t even think Chey’s laugh could make me laugh harder than I’ve been laughing this trip.

The girls have now successfully gone through 5 containers of Nutella and 1 can of Spalmella. What’s Spalmella you ask? We don’t even know. We are trying to save some money because we have been spending like crazy and we bought the knock off version of Nutella, knock off it was. All our Italian friends keep making fun of us for the poor decision. Two nights ago Kari decided she would not eat any nutella/spalmella all day until after dinner dessert. We started eating dinner at 7pm and completed dinner at 7:30pm. At 7:45 Kari was eating our freshly opened Spalmella container for dessert. Then Caleigh, who not wanting to eat it sat down and began to try this poor excuse for the delicious hazelnut spread. I saw them eating and decided to have some as well so I joined them. Whitney and Sarah soon joined us from the other apartment. We had five girls around one table with a jar of Spalmella in the middle. It was all over our fingers, our hands, our clothes, our faces, our clothes and even somehow the floor. [keep in mind this stuff isn’t even that good] We ate more than half of one jar in one sitting. At 8:15pm one of us finally had the self control to put the lid on it and hide the container. We weren’t even hungry, it wasn’t even tasty and 5 girls sat around eating it for 30 minutes. After feeling disgusting for eating so much Kari went into the fridge again to get more food and grabbed a carrot. Sarah appalled that Kari was still eating goes,“ you’re eating a carrot now?” It was another you had to be there I suppose but it still is a funny mental image. We are some big girls. J

Our team has a small passion in playing this game called Mafia. I used to play it at Spring Hill summer camps when I was younger. It’s not a very Christian game, but it’s so much fun. Two people are the mafia, one person is the doctor, and one is the cop. There is also a moderator that announces the whole game. How the game works it the towns people go to sleep then the moderator asks the mafia to wake up. They pick one person to kill then return to sleep. Then the cop wakes up and they are asked to guess who they think it is. The moderator shakes their head yes or no, so only the cop knows this answer, then returns to sleep. Then the doctor wakes up and has the option of saving someone or their self, then they go to sleep. Then the whole town wakes up and finds out if someone died that night or if the nurse saved them. No one knows who the nurse, doctor or Mafia is. The point of the game is to find out who the mafia is and if you are the mafia you are trying to prevent anyone from finding out you are the mafia. Sounds more complicated than it is, it’s easy just to play it. Then while the towns awake they accuse someone of who they think it is and each time the townspeople kill who they suspect is the mafia by the majority vote. The game concludes with either the mafia winning or the towns people killing off all the mafia.

[retraction: robby jacks ohio state and purdue cups too, my dad teaches us great things]

Day 14.5 6/2/10 Things to Know about Milan

I decided there are 10 things you need to know before you come to Italy; Important things that will prepare you for a fantastic time in the moto bella city of Milan.

1. Italians practice saving water for the fishes

2. Coffee= tablespoon in a shot glass

3. Don’t look Italian men in the eyes

4. Gypsies are complete jerks

5. Nutella IS a food group

6. Mi dispiache is your new favorite phrase

7. Gelato. Gelato. Gelato.

8. It’s a miracle there are so few car wrecks

9. Italians don’t understand the concept of waiting in line

10. Never wear flip flops or shorts

Time to explain:

1. It’s probably common knowledge that in Europe water is always served to you in bottles, but unknown to me was that your apartment fridge doesn’t come pre-stocked with water. The first few days we were here I swear I was dehydrated because either I didn’t know how to ask to buy water at a tabbacchi or the only water I had was at dinner. THE WORST part about water at dinner is you are given two bottles that’s it and when you’re out you’re out. I am a water buffalo so I have learned the art of water preservation. Oh the other really cool thing is all the glasses you drink out of at dinner, which hold about 2 cups of water anyway, are crystal so I enjoy playing the water glasses at dinner. Also there are no tips for the servers there is a cover charge that pays for the water. It’s usually about 2 euro. For some reason the servers don’t appreciate my musical stylings. So in summary: water is scarce, it is a precious gift be thankful… oh how I miss ice water in those big cups my dad steals from ohio state football games…

2. When you get coffee you stand at the coffee bar- you’re handed a porcelain thimble with what appears to be coffee- you throw it down your throat- set the thimble down then you leave. Woo you just passed the coffee test. There is no such thing as a to-go cup, there is no starbucks and even more horrific you have to drink what they call coffee without cream or sugar because there isn’t enough room in the shot glass! It’s a conspiracy. I have resorted to caffeine in the form of coca-cola which is delicious because it’s made with real sugar. Sarah makes fun of me because she thinks I’m addicted, I have three a day… oops. In summary of article 2: coffee in Italy is not coffee at all, it’s really just coffee beans liquefied.—strong stuff

3. This one’s short and to the point but interesting. Italian men are… what’s the word I’m looking for without being mean and judgmental…. I’ll go with promiscuous. They will whistle at you and cat call you and if you make eye contact they will stalk you. You must always look at the ground because if you make eye contact the men take that as you saying you’re offering yourself.

4. I hate gypsies. It’s really that simple. They’re smelly, greasy, mean, and liars. They walk around with puppies and say give me euro! Okay I’ll buy the puppy but I don’t want to give them money they’ll just use for more hair grease or little gadgets. They ‘help’ you buy tickets at the metro by pressing all the buttons for you then when your change comes out they just grab it. It’s frustrating, but Jesus loves them too. I might have a nice talk with Jesus one day about how he deals with their icky hair, it creeps me out.

5. The 6 girls in my apartment have successfully gone through 2 large and 2 small containers of Nutella in the 6 days we have been in Milan. Oh yeah it really is a feat. It goes on bread, crackers, apples, carrots, yogurt, I think I even put it on pasta, I don’t know but the options are endless and it’s so delicious. They definitely lace it with something.

6. Mi dispiache means I’m sorry. Learn it, love it, use it. Whenever you can’t understand them, mi dispiache. Whenever someone runs into you, mi dispiache. Whenever an Italian creeper man hits on you, mi dispiache. Gypsies creepin? Just say mi dispiache. Some vendor trying to sell you sunglasses even though you have some on---- you guessed it mi dispiache. It’s a beautiful phrase.

7. Gelato will be the death of me, or simply why I will be over 500lbs when I get home. Today I think was the first day we didn’t have gelato, but I did have two cokes.

8. Italian drivers are nuts. Trains are all over the place and those little smart cars zip around every corner. It’s honestly like a bunch of third graders driving go karts around a track that has a turn every 5 yards. Also, you can’t go longer than 10 minutes without hearing an obnoxious siren of some sort. – It’s common to hear a Dukes of Hazard car horn.

9. I literally waited for 10 minutes at McDonalds because people just stand in a mob. Be aggressive and go get our food.

10. If you wear flip flops or shorts you get lots of stares and it immediately labels you as a tourist/American. It’s similar to feeling like the ultimate freshman.

I think those are all my words of wisdom. I love Milan. It’s such a great city and the people are so friendly, maybe too friendly at times but still friendly nevertheless. A vendor tried to sell me something and found out we were American. I spoke French to him and he gave me a free bracelet because he was French. I was proud of me. If you look like a complete fool speaking Italian they’ll just smile and stay stick to English. They’re very encouraging. I know this doesn’t describe much of the ministry going on here there’s just so much going on I don’t feel I would give justice in explaining just how much God is working on the people here. Two days at Statale and Bacconne and we have already met so many people and we have met other Christian organizations on each campus. There are thousands of students and God connected us with the small 12 person group that is trying to spread the word of Christ too, what are the odds? It’s been a magical time here so far. Tomorrow is Italy’s ‘4^th of July’ so we are going to the lake with Davide, Elisa and Salla. We’re pretty excited.

--funny story of the night……… I was really hungry……. 10 minutes ago-ish.. and it’s entirely possible I just made pesto pasta at 12:30 at night Italian time. My stomach probably should get on an Italian schedule…. Eventually. Ciao

-britt

Day 10 5/29/10 Milano

Sorry for the lack of update, since we arrived in Milan we have been busy every moment. I am trying to remember when we first arrived and can’t even remember. It’s all a blur. Everything moves so fast here. I guess to start the gypsies here are more obnoxious than Florence. Also Milan looks a lot more like a modern Italian city versus Florence that was the epitome of Italy. We have an apartment floor in Milan. In my room are Kari and Caleigh. I think we complement each other really well. I am a neat freak, Caleigh likes to cook and Kari just keeps us in check. So Caleigh cooks, I clean the dishes then Kari is in charge of music, cleans and cooks a little. So it’s the perfect balance.

So the day after we moved in we went to Statale, Milan University. A friend of the Milan team, Davide gave us a tour of the campus and showed us some cool sights. He was very patient with our group, we have the tendency to be late to everything and take forever looking at things. After our little tour he and Ryan went to go buy a guitar and the rest of us began our first day sharing the gospel with Italian students. Let me tell you, it was an experience. I was partnered with Sarah. We have a tendency to, screw around when we partner up so it was probably a bad decision but it was well worth it. We talked to a few people but didn’t see any results. Then we got incredibly lost and that’s when we met Chiara. She explained to us what she did for a living and what she does for fun as we continued a great conversation after she showed us where we should go. She was trying to explain to us that she taught 5^th graders creative writing using her hands with interesting hand motions. As she did this Sarah tried to guess what she was trying to say and goes, “Oh you teach sign language.” Chiara gave her a really weird look as I guessed correctly that it was creative writing. The rest of the day Sarah and I laughed hysterically that those hand motions could have possibly had an ounce of a chance at meaning sign language. [Maybe it’s another you had to be there or something I need to explain, but it really is funny and not just to me.] So we ended the conversation because she had to go work and I got her contact information. So we had another conversation with an Atheist that didn’t speak English very well. We couldn’t figure out why she kept answering the questions we asked her the exact same way, then later Sarah and I ended up laughing about how we realized we had asked her the exact same question 5 different ways… oops. We finished the day and met up with the rest of the group. We said we got lost and Davide said some of his friends saw “two American girls who looked lost.” We laughed at that too because where they saw us was in the court yard when we weren’t lost. We were just laughing about the dumb things we had done during the day.

The next day we didn’t have a tour guide and we went to Bacconne, the very prestigious private business school in Milan. I was partnered with Kat today. We decided to do a survey on the university to initiate conversation. We had two conversations the first wasn’t very productive but the second we talked to a girl named Giulia (Julia). She explained how she had no friends at the university and didn’t agree with the church because she thought they were hypocrites. She didn’t like how they would not practice what they preach. We ended up exchanging contact information as well. I hope to speak to her in the future. Back at the apartment that night Davide came over with his two friends, Elise and Salla. [two girls] They were so sweet and we played a game called snaps then sang to the beautiful stylings of Ryan on guitar. It was a new thing for me, worshipping with three non-Christians. It opened my eyes sort of that why should we act differently in front of people who don’t believe the same way? They ended up staying until 2am.. well I talked to them until 2am some of the others went to bed.. who knew I was such a talker? But the girls and I really hit it off and they decided they would meet up with us the next day to go shopping. Elise wanted boots. We surfed facebook for a while too and I joked with Davide that his profile picture looked sharp because he was wearing a suit. He goes, “Oh , you like men in suits?” I said I did and he goes, “Okay I wear suit tomorrow.” I thought it was funny.

SO finally it’s today. [Saturday 5/29/10] We met Davide at the Duomo in Milan and he gave us a tour. Sure enough when we walked up to him he was wearing a suit. “I Promised.” He said. Sarah could not stop giggling, apparently it was the funniest thing in the world that he actually wore a suit hah. So we saw the Milanese Duomo. It was breath taking once again. It took 400 years to build and was incredible. We took some great pictures in and on top of it. After that some of the group went back to the apartment and the rest of us went shopping. Elisa and Salla met up with us as we went to the shopping area. We quickly grew tired of shopping because it was so hot and everything was a little over our budgets. Elisa ended up finding boots she liked and then we decided to head back to the apartment. So the three of them and Cenia went to the bar [coffee bar, not bar bar] and Whitney, Pat, Kari, Caleigh, Sarah and I came back. Kari and I passed out as soon as we got back. When we woke up we ate dinner and received some sad news that Kat’s husbands best man had passed away that morning. We all tried to band together to help her but there’s always little we can do. I then got on skype and got to talk to Anna [my roommate for next year and one of my best friends] and my parents [shar shar and poopsie]. I miss them all so much and it was great to talk to them. I felt there was so much I wanted to say! Sarah talked to my parents with me for a bit, she thinks I look a lot like my mom J . Then two guys Kari and Whitney met came over, they’re actually still over but I needed to write some of this down. Ryan actually just came in to tell us tomorrows plans were changing. Elise said she wanted to go to church with us tomorrow, but…. As Ryan just told us we can’t find where the church we are supposed to go to tomorrow is……. So we are going to have our own worship service tomorrow. Caleigh and I laughed so hard. Ryan seemed so bummed that he couldn’t figure out where the church we were supposed to go is. I hope Elise still comes and hangs out in the morning. I think I covered the majority of some things. OH and I got to see my kitty on skype.. I got so excited and may have teared up a bit. Love my kitty. Sorry these thoughts are so unorganized I hope you get the gist. Night and continue the prayers!

-love always,

Britt

Day 6 5/25/10 “I’ve seen those nips before.”

The last day in Florence consisted of more preparations and lots of sightseeing.

Session 1

A speaker from Pisa named Scott came and spoke to us in the morning and afternoon. He started by explaining the Agape Italia in Pisa and that Pisa is famous for two things, the tower of Pisa and a prestigious university there. He then said, “It’s kind of like the Indiana University of Europe.” I immediately raised my hand and told him I was a boiler. He was shocked. I later found out he lived in Ft. Wayne, Indiana. We had a bible study with him and much to my bias already he was one of the best speakers yet. We discussed Exodus 34:29-35. [Moses, his shiny face, and the veil.] The veil can only be removed by believing in Christ. It was very interesting and definitely something to think about as well as true. He was very encouraging about our future endeavors in Milan.

Session 2

Scott continued talking about Italian culture and a little about their social networks. Italians have low outer walls and high inner walls in regards to their emotions and opinions. The other interesting thing about Italians is their group of friends. Their group of friends is their network. When you are friends with one of them you are friends with the whole group. The main difficulty here is, though you may talk to them for hours upon end and think you are friends, you are not friends with them until you are introduced to the group. There are common misconceptions regarding Italian students. They do not live life on campus. They come on campus for class then they leave. So much of our ministry to students will have to be off campus. The key to success is getting inside networks and bringing in the gospel as soon and as sensitively as possible.

After the sessions we went to lunch at another amazing restaurant. I had some fantastic pasta, again… I later talked to Scott and found out where he was from. I said how Italy really intrigued me and we would see where God leads me in the future. He said, “There’s a lot of staff from Purdue in Rome. A degree from Purdue would help you a lot there, who knows if it would help you in life, but definitely Rome.” Much to my dismay he turned on his heel and left, so no retort for me.

The rest of the day we spent walking around Florence, taking lots of pictures and visiting some sights. There are countless hilarious quotes from the day. Of course, we are in the city of art and culture so there are statues everywhere. We went to an area by the fake statue of David with many statues of the Greek Gods. There was a lot of nudity, mainly male nudity. So we finely came across the Greek Goddess Aphrodite and I made the racy comment of, “Finally some girl nips.” And Sarah replies, “I’ve seen those nips before.” She is such a quiet soft hearted girl so to hear that from her was ten times as funny as you can imagine. She of course meant that she’d seen Aphrodite before.

After going to see the bridge, dealing with loud street vendors, and more gypsies we had to meet at the bus station to go to Gary’s house for dinner. [The Florence Agape Italia Director.] We had split up earlier in the day because some wanted to sight see and some wanted to sleep. The plan was to meet at 6:00 at the bus station. Some of us got there a little early so we sat in the park and had a group prayer. It was pretty cool and we definitely got some people’s attention. At 6:00 the rest of the group showed up, except Cenia. She was nowhere to be found. We looked everywhere, but nothing. The girls stayed in the center of the bus station as the guys walked around looking for her. It’s amazing how difficult things are without cell phones. Finally at 6:30ish we decided to pray for her then get on the bus to head to Gary’s house. He took us to the top of the hill overlooking Florence, just if not more beautiful than the Duomo. We went to his Italian Villa where wife, two kids is and taffy awaited our arrival. His two kids Courtney, 15 and Davis, 12 had been to Italian schools for three years now and were not fluent. It was incredibly impressive. Taffy, their hilarious and sweet Golden Retriever helped me eat the Bruchetta that I dropped on the ground. No worries, the ground was stone. So we ate an amazing Pesto dinner and had excellent conversation with the Runn family. Cenia called eventually, she had gone to the train station instead of the bus station, miscommunication but thank God she was safe.

After a long evening we went back and crashed. We had to rest to go to Milan the next day! Andiamo! Arrivederci.

Britt

Day 5 5/24/10 Beware of Gypsies.

As of today the free will counter stands at 4. I have been keeping track of how many times someone in Sunday school would yell free will, Carson would love it.

So jetlag isn’t a joke. Everyone in my room crashed at 12:00am, or 6pm Indiana time and I was still somewhat awake. I tried to go to sleep and eventually fell asleep. I woke up at 4am wide awake and could not go back to sleep so I starting reading with the help of the light from my iPod touch. I had the headphones unplugged because I use it as my alarm clock. The speaker was on and the sound was on loud. With the girls sound asleep in my room I accidently clicked on a song. So at 4:30am Italy time some random country song blared at full blast from my iPod causing all the girls to immediately jolt awake. Sorry… I eventually fell back asleep at 6 then had to wake up at 7, woo.

Session 1:

We walked to the Agape Italia (Campus Crusade) building a few blocks away for our first session in Italy. We were once again welcomed by Gary Runn, the director we had met the previous day. He began explaining Florence and gave us some interesting things to think about. Florence was known for the renaissance, as everyone knows renaissance means rebirth. There’s a more important rebirth to take place in Florence that should be better known, the rebirth of its people. I enjoyed this irony.

[side note, just looked out the window in our hotel room and there’s a cat that looks identical to my cat on the window across the street, approx 5 yards away, I yelled kitty.]

We had a bible study during the first session and Gary continued to encourage us saying we can’t mess up God’s plan for salvation; we are given the privilege to step into God’s plan. All he’s asking for us is faith. We began talking about 1John and the two errors that many had been taught. I can’t remember if I talked about John 17:26, but it was again brought up into the session… The main thing Gary talked about was that Italy/Milan’s greatest need was equal to our greatest need; they needed to experience the real Jesus. We are not self-righteous people, we are in the same place as the people we are trying to share with. We all need the same thing. We need to experience Jesus as much as they do. “Your need is as great as their need.” WE ARE IN NEED OF THE SAME THING WE ARE SHARING.

Session 2: Culture

After sitting in the briefing room, a briefing room in Italy is not the same as America I promise, we had a quick break and went to the café. I had a freshly squeezed half blood orange, half orange juice. It was fantastic. Quick fun fact, in Italy when you get a coffee you stand at the bar and drink it quickly then pay and leave, usually espresso shots. There is a fee if you sit down. Upon return we began talking about Italian culture. Which is easier said than done. Each region of Italy has different culture. We were told we were not longer permitted to say Italians are like…. But Milanese are like… Milan is our mission field and we need to focus in on that area. Milan is known as the melting pot of Italy and there are all sorts of different rules and customs. Two most important things to know is that Milan is predominantly catholic and politically predominantly right. 53% Right, 17% Extreme right 30% left (communist) Milanese love sharing their opinions and love talking about politics. This helps us as we try to reach them because it means they are more willing to talk than say a Purdue student with headphones in, cell phone out and a huge ‘talk to me and die’ sign tattooed on their forehead. They preached use your home and food for the gospel, the best way to reach people is through fellowship. Fellowship=food. Two of my favorite fun facts were colored people and squillo. The girl explaining culture to the team was Nicole. She was black and explained how people in Italy called her colored. She was hilarious and spunky and said, “I’m sorry but you do not walk into Harlem and say look at all the colored people…. You will die.” The other thing is called squillo. Squillo is a way Italians save money on their cell phone bills. If Italians just want to say hi, want to say they are headed over, or want to say they are at your house they will let the phone ring once then hang up. I think that’s so cool. If someone just calls because they are thinking of you, they call once then hang up. I might start doing that. Sorry if I squillo.

After culture we had an hour long English lesson then we went to lunch. I had something nasty for lunch, that’s all I know. After lunch we had the rest of the evening for sight seeing. First and foremost we went to the Duomo! [ The huge cathedral in Florence ] I probably could not explain this sight if I wanted to. Yeah I took pictures, yeah I took video, but there’s no way you can understand the feeling of seeing this giant structure. The idea that someone created this building without modern machinery was one thing, but then add the detailed interior and exterior architecture, art, stained glass windows, paintings, ect, no words can describe. The ceiling of the Duomo was another sight in it’s self. It took the painter 7 years to paint it. As Ross put it, that’s devoting your entire high school and college career to a painting. Given it’s the sickest thing I’ve ever seen, but that’s a long time. After we went in, it was time to go up. We each paid 8 euro [ sorry dad ] to climb to the top of this monster. 700 steps up, 700 steps down, totally worth it, simply breath taking. I could see all of Florence and what someone told me was the entire Tuscany Area. Incredible…

Went back down after an hour and we milled about for a bit around the Duomo. Someone ran into my right side where I was holding my wallet-purse thing, I don’t know what you call it. My first reaction was to throw my elbow directly to the temple of whoever was trying to touch me. I didn’t I just swept my billfold to the opposite side. Sure enough, a gypsi had tried to push it out from my hand.. What an idiot. I’m sure Jesus loves her too, but a thief without an ounce of brains is almost as dumb as an Italian man wearing Bermuda shorts with a polo, scarf and aviators. [Tool]

After this we went back rested, I got internet for the first time in what seemed like forever. Then we went to dinner at a pizza place. It was definitely better than ordinary pizza. Then we had gelato again and came back to the hotel room where I could see the kitty across the window! I am quite pleased if you can’t tell. All we see are big fat dogs that smell like cigarettes on the streets, though we did see a puppy today. Tomorrow is our last day in Florence before we head to our final destination of Milan. I have learned so much in these few days and I have a stronger spiritual connection than ever. Thank you Lord. The other thing I have learned about this… I’ll call it a place… I have almost died more here than I ever have in my entire life. Everyone knows I do some pretty stupid things, but I’ve never actually thought I was going to die. All you have to do in Florence is walk on the sidewalk and your life is in danger. Hard to explain without lots of hand motions, loud noises and jumping from side to side. Hope you get the idea though. I thank you all once again for all your support. I know God is going to reveal himself in Milan and I cannot wait to get started. Ciao.

Brittany

Day 4 5/23/10 Florence

This afternoon at 1:00pm Italy time we made it into Florence. I was asleep so I missed it on the flight from Munich to Florence, but Caleigh took a gorgeous picture of the Alps as we flew over them, I hope to add that soon. [Credit goes to Caleigh Trottier] So we landed in Florence and I immediately saw some sort of mountains. They were gorgeous. We stepped off the plane and had to ride a bus to the terminal. Once we were there the Florence CCC director was there to help us get to the Hotel. We missed the 1:30 bus, imagine that? We seem to be late to a lot of things, I love this group! So we went to the ATM got money out then by the time the majority of us got Euro we were ready to get on the bus. We keep joking that Euro is play money because it is so pretty. Ryan continues to express how it’s easier to spend because it feels like monopoly money. So I’ve been very careful already [you’re welcome daddy].

We switched buses and had to walk about a block and a half to the next bus. After we got off that bus we had to walk 10 blocks to our hotel. I insisted upon taking my Nike duffle bag which has a one strap so I had to carry a 32 pound bag 10 blocks, and according to the director Gary was the hottest day yet. I am still glad I did because everyone else struggled with their rolling suitcases on the narrow brick sidewalks. We finally got to the Hotel Arizona. [Yeah, odd huh?] Then we went to our rooms to shower and relax. In my room is Caleigh, Kim and Kari. The other girl room is Whitney, Sarah, Cenia and Kat. Then the guys are all in one room Ryan, Pat and Ross. Yes my room is guilty we all fell asleep for a nap. The beds are so comfortable. When we woke up we went to dinner.

We met the Florence Stint team who work alongside the permanent team in Florence. They were extremely encouraging because a few years ago they were in the same place as we were. They explained how international projects have 4 phases.

Phase 1: Summer Project [realizing the spiritual need and beginning to plant seeds]

Phase 2: Stint team [ a temporary team to work in the country to continue networking over a greater period of time]

Phase 3: Permanent Team [a team moves to the destination and develops the organization in hopes of finding locals to take over]

Phase 4: International team [a local team, in this case Italian, join staff and begin crusade such as we now have a Purdue]

Milan is in stage 1, and according to the stint team [one of the girls was in one of the original trips back in 2006] they are in stage 4! They are so proud of all the work God has done in Florence and is continuing to do. They have an Italian couple taking over when they leave here in a couple months. Stint teams still exist even during phase 3 & 4; at least that’s what I got out of it. The restaurant was fantastic. I had penne ala pesto. Definitely no olive garden and so much better than I could have imagined! Everyone is so curious so we shared a lot of our foods together. I took a picture of Ross’s Alfredo; I can’t remember what it was called. We left and got gelato. The stories are true, I have a crazy sugar rush right now! I got a 2 ‘scoop’ [more of a 2 spoonful but it seemed like a lot more]. I had hazelnut and berry. The hazelnut was basically nutella flavored ice cream but so much richer and the berry was indescribable the texture even had the berries real seeds in them. [Kind of a pain] Now we are back for the evening and going to bed. Exhaustion is beginning to overwhelm us all. Tomorrow we are going to the Florence office; we got to see the outside of it today one of the pictures is at the bottom.

Arrivederci! - Britt

---- i'm going to post pictures on facebook, its a lot quicker than this. atleast for now while we're in florence.