being cultured in Rome.

So… before I say anything else, here’s an update on coffee and Tiffany in Rome. This morning, I liked the taste of my cappuccino. Mom and Jess, you may now be smug. My current theory is that I keep having straight espresso with a packet of sugar in it, so now cappuccino tastes better.

Anyways. I had such a fun weekend! We ended up not being able to do the biking thing, but I did get to go to an Edward Hopper exhibit with some new Italian friends. (If you've ever seen the cafe at night that's parodied all the time you've seen Hopper) It was such a blast! We had met one of the guys, Pietro, on campus during the week and he invited Scott, Kristen, Taylor, and I to go see the exhibit with him and his friends. First of all, how cool is it that a bunch of friends just decided to go see an art exhibit for fun on a Saturday? We went out to lunch with them and I finally got to get to meet some Italian girls. I sat across from Licia, Francesca, and Antonella over lunch and got to talk to them a lot about what they study and things like where they like to go to eat in Rome. They told us about a place near our hostel that serves pasta, bread, and water for three euro! We’re for sure going to have to find that place.

After lunch we went to see Hopper and that was just awesome since it’s been forever since I went to an art exhibit. On that note, it's only slightly ironic that I had to come to Rome to go see a famous American artist. One of the guys on the trip, Taylor, is a really cultured person, so it was fun to talk to him about all the paintings. One of the really interesting things about the exhibit was seeing American culture from a different perspective. At the beginning of the exhibit was a timeline of Hopper's life overlaid on After the exhibit, our new friends took us to one of the best places in Rome for gelato, Giolitti, near the Pantheon. As Licia told me, this place was better than gelato. It was crazy busy and the only way I can think to describe it was the Bagel and Deli of gelato. In most places in Rome you buy your food first at the cash register by the door and then show your receipt to the server at the counter to get your food, but at Giolitti you had to fight your way to the counter to get your gelato. Loved it. I got fragola e frutti di bosco (strawberry and mixed small fruit like raspberries). The whole day was just so fun and made me want to hang out with Italians everyday.

On Sunday we got up at seven in the morning to go to the Vatican. It was a free day, so the line was out of this world. The museum was beautiful and very interesting, but I think I was a little touristed out. I did love the School of Athens by Raphael. I had forgotten it was there so it was a little surreal to see it in person. I also liked the tapestries by Raphael’s school. They were so detailed and all of the people in them had so much expression, it just blew my mind. When we were leaving St. Peters, we saw the pope talking out of a window. That was exciting, but the amount of people there was insane. After all that waiting in line in the sun and then being crushed in a crowd of so many people, I was exhausted and spent most of the afternoon laying around in my room. Haha… but it was a great weekend, and now I’m excited to get back on campus on Tuesday!

patos party!

Okay so the last time I posted, I had like ten minutes to write the entire post before I had to go to action groups (bible studies). As you can probably tell, I got a little rushed at the end… but both of the things I mentioned at the end are interesting and important so I thought I’d go into them a little further, especially in explaining how Agape does ministry in Rome.

One major difference between Italian university students and American university students is that they do not normally leave home to go to college. University is considered more like a job than a new social environment like in the US. Most students going to school in Rome grew up in Rome, still live with their parents, and their closest friends are still their friends from high school or earlier. Even students that have moved to Rome to go to school usually come and live with a friend from high school. So the way we do ministry here is get connected with a whole group of friends rather than trying to have some sort of weekly meeting that just wouldn’t happen.

Italian students also have their finals over a period of two or three months rather than in one week at the end of the semester like in the US. Whenever we tell students how our finals system works, they are horrified! But we get three months of summer and they get one sooo… good trade off in my mind.

Anyways, we met a few physics students who had exams on Friday and Monday, but we had a good time with them anyways playing cards. We taught them Egyptian Rat Screw (try explaining that name to an Italian) and kicked their butts twice. :] Then they taught us a game called Merde (which means shit in French) which was basically spoons but you slapped a pile of cards in the middle and yelled “Merde” instead of grabbing a spoon. One of the guys, Giuseppe, did some really awesome card tricks too. He was really good. We ended up running into them the next day and grabbed coffee with them. I got my first caffe (basically a shot of expresso) and our new friend Giovanni paid for it. Italians are so nice! That gave me a lot of energy but I had a KILLER headache later. Way worse than anything Rockstar ever did to me… although when I mentioned energy drinks to Giovanni, he immediately started to try to convince me to never touch them again because they’re unhealthy and coffee is more natural.

Getting coffee with them was definitely the highlight of Thursday though, because other than meeting people we had already talked to, we did not meet anyone who spoke English. We went up to at least eight different, semi-large groups of people and no one spoke a word. That was just a little uncanny, because no one has had any trouble finding English speakers before. It was really frustrating, so I’m glad we have the weekend to regroup before going back on campus. We’re trying to plan some fun things for the weekend to do with the Italians we met. Giovanni invited us to go biking around Rome with some sort of giant biking event called Critical Mass, but the weather isn’t the best right now and we’re not really sure what to do about getting bikes… but hopefully that will work out.

Friday we were supertourists and did the Coliseum and the Roman forum for a total of six hours. Yeah. It took us so long because we made a photo shoot out of everything, so be on the look-out for pictures on facebook. Then at night we finished off the day of being the typical American tourists by going to Hard Rock Café. And oohhhh man, was it good to have American food again. Don’t get me wrong; Italian food is great. I know I might be going out on a limb here, but I don’t think you can get fresh mozzarella on your pizza at a take out place in America, and corn dogs in America aren’t made with freshly made cheese bread like I had for lunch today. But after a week of pizza and pasta and what really seems to be nothing but carbs and veggies and ham, having some real protein meat was incredible. I got ribs. They were wonderful. Also, Hard Rock has free refills, and that doesn’t happen here, even on water, so… score.

To polish off the day, we went to Patos (a café/restaurant next to where we stay) to get on their wi-fi. The people who work there are starting to get to know us pretty well because we all go there en masse around 5 to get online to talk to people and such. We call them Patos parties (and usually yell "Patos Party!" while en route) and they’re always pretty interesting. They have the strangest mixes of music… I have heard classical, Bohemian Rhapsody, and Barbie Girl in one sitting, and they play a lot of Michael Jackson. And my roommate was trying to be friendly with one of the guys serving coffee, and accidentally got a phone number on a napkin. Anyways, unfortunately the wi-fi had already been turned off for the night, but we got introduced to two of the baristas (one of them was the napkin number guy). One of them tried to ask all three of us girls out at once for his friend, and then announced "But I'm gay!" Oh Italians... they're great, but I think we're going to need to bring more guys in with us before they get the wrong idea. haha!

Some things you could be praying for would be that we would be able to make plans this weekend with our Italian friends because we've been having some communication issues, and that if we do hang out with them we would be intentional in our conversations to bring up some of the spiritual things we have already talked about with them. You can also pray for continued unity within our team and a renewing weekend so that we'll be refreshed and ready to go when we're back on campus on Tuesday.

baci baci.

Tuesday was out first normal day on campus and I was real excited to go out and meet some new Italian friends! My group is going to La Sapienza every day, which is the largest campus in Rome. We’re basically going up to people and saying “Ciao! Parli inglese?” (Hi! Do you speak English?) and then introducing ourselves. At some point in there we tell them we’re with Agape (the name Crusade goes by over here… and you pronounce it Agah-pey instead of a-GAHP-ey… that fun fact comes free of charge) and that we’re in Rome for like five weeks to just meet people and have conversations about God and spiritual backgrounds and Jesus.

So I heard from everyone that Italians are very easy to talk to and friendly and all that, but my first conversation was nooott that. Haha. I was in a group with one of the leaders from Miami, Kristen Ebsen, and other girl Ashley, and we were wandering around looking for a group to talk to. Since we were only girls, we wanted to talk to a group with at least one girl, and so we went up to a group of two guys and one girl. We started talking and they weren’t really very responsive even with normal conversation… they were really nice but we had to ask most of the questions and control the conversation which I now know is not really normal here. Anyways, after maybe three minutes the Francesca left and we were left with Roberto and Daniele. They were all raised Catholic but were now agnostic. Daniele said that he was skeptical about the existence of God because he didn’t think that you could experience God. So that was interesting… from there the conversation turned to music and movies and things like that and we ended up sitting with them for a good forty minutes since they invited us to sit down with them. I think they might have just been more quiet people, because they didn’t seem to feel as awkward as we felt. Haha… we met two more of their friends, Andrea and Amelia while we were sitting there, and when we left they baci-ed us (the kiss-kiss thing on the cheeks you see in movies). We also met Virgilio, who seemed like he already knew Jesus, so we gave him some names to get connected with Agape here in Rome. That was awesome.

The way that Apage does ministry in Rome is a little different in Rome than in the US because here there are no student organizations on campus. Because of this they can’t really have weekly meetings or anything. Instead, the strategy is to meet a network of friends and reach all of them through a few people by raising up leaders within those networks. It’s really really relational ministry. :]

Anyways, today (Wednesday) we were able to meet up with some people my friends Melanie and Ben met yesterday. We ended up hanging out with them all afternoon and playing cards with them and talking even though they had exams to study for. Haha! I’m really excited to meet them again, and we’re hoping to plan something fun with them this weekend.

the church next to louis vuitton.

I have gotten off the metro at the Spanish steps so many times already this week. It’s a little funny… it’s just like, oh hey, there’s those really busy steps again, every time we go past them. To be honest, I don’t even know why they’re famous besides being in a lot of movies and going up to the Spanish embassy and being pretty. The metro stop at Spagna is a really touristy, busy area and I can’t say I like it all that much by the steps because it’s just mass chaos. A bunch of gypsies sell stuff around there and they’re kind of merciless. I saw them like following a woman trying to give her roses so she would have to pay for them.

So we went shopping yesterday and had to go through busy Spagna to get to main shopping area we wanted to go to, but today we went to Rome Baptist Church, which happens to be in the same area as the Spanish steps. The weird thing was that at around 10 on a Sunday morning, the Spanish steps area was practically empty! It was weird but I liked it a lot so I might go to church early one week to get a look at the Spanish steps without throngs of people around.

Another thing you might know about the Spanish steps is that all the designer stores are around that area. So we’re walking to church past Burberry, Prada, Louis Vuitton, D&G, ect. ect. When we got to Rome Baptist, there was another Loius Vuitton literally next door. It’s a little depressing because I can’t buy anything, but that’s not why we’re here so it will be just nice to get to see the things in the windows on the way to church every week.

Church itself was a little like going to my grandparents church and singing songs I knew. I was a little thrown off when we got out the hymnals and not everyone in the congregation was singing the harmonies like Mennonites do. But the message was a really Christ and gospel-centered message about loving in a practical way, so that was awesome. It was an English speaking church, so there were people there from all over the world. I noticed that there were African, Filipino, and Chinese services scheduled after the English one. It will be cool to go back and hopefully connect with some people and hear their stories.

In other news, I watched my first soccer game in Italy the other night. We went down to a little restaurant to watch the Champions League Finals. We met up with some full time staff here and it was a lot of fun. We weren’t really sure who to cheer for, because we went in thinking: we’re in Italy! Cheer for Inter Milan. But the staff told us Roma and Milan are sort of rivals, so most Roman Italians might actually be cheering for Bayern Munich. Because I’m living in Rome then, I started out kind of cheering for Munich, but they quickly got disappointing so I switched over to Milan sometime around halftime. They ended up winning, which was apparently a big deal since they tripled and won all three of the major tournaments (or something of that nature… I get all the leagues mixed up). The Italians we were watching with weren’t really cheering all that much because I don’t think they cared about either team. I’m excited for the World Cup to start so that I’ll have a clear cut team to cheer for (and I’m so glad that USA isn’t playing Italy at the beginning, or that would put me in a real awkward spot…)

Today was our free day, but I didn't rest much. I went shopping again but didn't buy anything so I feel like I tired myself out for nothing. I also figured out that the best time to catch me on skype is around 10-12 eastern time (so like 4-6 Rome time). So be there or be square.

fun little facts

So I always like blogs where people tell you the little things about a place or what they're doing... it's always more fun. So, some fun little facts about Italy and our trip.

When you get coffee in Rome, it is at bars. You order at the cash register at the front (I have been getting un cappuccino and un cornetto, which is like a croissant). You put the euro in this little bowl to pay and then they put the change and the receipt in the bowl and you take it. I keep forgetting to put the money in the bowl and just hand it to the barista and it's a little awkward. After that, you take the little receipt up to the bar and put it down on the little bar and say ciao (which is kind of a catch all greeting or goodbye) or buongiorno (good morning) to the barista up there. I think they're starting to recognize us at the cafe by our hostel. It's normal to just knock back the coffee at the bar, but I've been taking mine back to a table with my computer or my bible.

Some things I can say in (badly pronounced) Italian now (not sure if I'm spelling most of it right):
Grazie: thank you. but you have to say the e at the end so it's like grat-zee-eh. I have already accidentally said arigatou (Japanese thank you) to the receptionist at the hostel. haha
Come ti chami: what is your name. You say it like com-ay tee key-ah-mee
Prego: you're welcome
Scuzi: excuse me. important for crowded places
Permisso: another excuse me but more like move out of my way I'm coming through. VERY important for getting off a crowded bus or metro at your stop.

It is against the rules in most American football leagues in Italy to have an American on your team. Without knowing it, one of the full time staff here was playing on a team illegally because his teammates made him a fake id to get him into the league.

My friend Davide jumped off the Wedding cake building (http://tinyurl.com/2wbgqa7) into little pools and swam in the Trevi fountain when Italy won the last world cup. He doesn't think they'll get even to the semi-finals this year.

I have to go back to my hostel now. We're buying lunch at the grocery and eating it on the roof, then going down to the Spanish steps to shop. I put a few pictures up on facebook... check them out!

okay, but for serious... now it begins

So I’m sitting in the airport about an hour and a half before our flight (direct to Italy; thank God for no crazy international connections). I feel cliché even saying it, but it feels so surreal that we’re going to be in Rome in just a few hours. And by a few hours I mean something more like ten. Still...

Our team spent the last few days in Chicago for training and team building. We were all supposed to be in by Monday at 5pm but some of us from Miami drove out from Cinci at 4 in the morning. I slept for most of the trip and we got in to Chicago around 9:30. Thankfully we were able to check in to the hotel early and then rode the L into downtown Chicago. I absolutely loved it in Chicago and I could definitely see myself ending up there after college… but that’s a little while off. Hopefully I’ll have time to post pictures. We took some stock Chicago tourism pictures by the bean.
Once everyone was there and we got started, we did some getting to know you things and hung out the first night after a short meeting. Then yesterday we had three meetings, each about two hours long, hearing each of the staff testimonies, learning about meditating on scripture, and getting familiar with the evangelism tools we’ll be using in Rome (would YOU like to know God personally? ;] ) I also had my last chipotle for six weeks since there was one within walking distance. I’ll miss it, but it’s probably for the best considering I had it four times during finals week. Time to cut back!

So we made it through security and the fact that my bag was 8 lbs under 50 is proof that I can in fact pack light. I’m just so excited to get to Rome and start ministry on the campuses there.




So that post was supposed to be made in the airport until I had finished writing it up and realized that the wi-fi I was supposedly picking up was only for cell phones. Major disappointment. So I guess whenever I post this, it will just be like a blog dump.

Plane ride was long, ridiculously uncomfortable, and generally not fun. We left the US at 6pm and were planning to land in Rome at 10:40 in the morning on Thursday. In other words, sleep on the plane was necessary because when we got to Rome we would have a whole day in front of us. This is my least favorite kind of flight, because I cannot sleep on airplanes (or really in any seated position). I would much rather just stay up ridiculously long hours on a flight and then crash whenever we land. Voila, easily time zone assimilation. Unfortunately, even after drugging myself with sleeping meds of some kind, I only felt super drowsy and was still unable to sleep. So I was running on about an hour of restless sleep from the airplane when we landed. We got through customs easily enough (my bag suffered a small casualty; it no longer has its cute shoe tag with my name on it) and were greeted at the end of the airport by the screaming and waving Ella Menken. Forgive me if I misspelled her name, but I have to say I was very excited to meet the famous Ella Menken after all I’ve heard from upperclassmen… and she does not disappoint! Ella and Brian Mckee welcomed us very warmly and there was a lot of hugging and screaming from the older Miami grads who were reuniting. Awesome. :]

Then came our first encounter with Italian culture. Whereas in America, the men at the end of the airport with the signs that greet their clients rush to get out of the airport, there was really no hurry to leave in Italy. The Italians were very nice, even commenting that they wanted Kristen, our resident pregnant staff member, to sit down because they were worried about her, but I’m not exactly sure they had a system to get us out of the airport. After we gathered dust outside customs for awhile, they finally led us to a huge (air conditioned, thank God!) bus to drive us to the Salvation Army where we are staying. He stopped a few blocks short and we got to brave the traffic with all our bags. Before you think I’m complaining too much, traffic in Rome is my kind of driving. When you cross the street, you just walk with confidence and look straight ahead and drivers don’t exactly stop, but they just keep driving around you. Every walk across the street has the potential to feel like an action movie.

When we finally got to our home away from home for the next six weeks, we dumped our stuff in our rooms and headed out to the courtyard for pizza with the Stint (Short Term INTernation) team here in Rome. I had rosemary and potato pizza; so good! But definitely not your normal pizza. We got to meet the entire stint team then and they taught us a little bit about cultural norms in Italy (ALWAYS kiss right first in the two kisses greeting thing, don’t tip at restaurants, and don’t take anything, even a flower, from a street vendor because he’ll make you pay for it)

By this point we were all exhausted and nearly dropping off to sleep out in the courtyard, but in order to get used to the time change we needed to stay up late. So to stay active we did a scavenger hunt throughout Rome (which turned into an Explore Rome! Day for my group). My group went to the colessium, the Roman forum, the wedding cake, and the Spanish steps, and we got to try our hand at both the metro and the bus system. Metro was much better. This we rounded off with dinner at a pizza place and a stop for gelato. Nutella gelato. Amazing.




I wrote that last night before I nearly fell asleep on my laptop. Now I'm in a cafe near our home... I'm on my second cappuccino today and I actually like it so Mom will be happy. If this continues, I may come home a coffee drinker. We went on campus for the first time today and got a quick tour. My group is going to be at (I may butcher this and go back to fix it...) La Sapenzia in the law/geology section. I didn't get a chance to talk to anyone today, but I had a great conversation with Davide, an Italian who became a Christian last year and was tagging along with us for the afternoon. He really helped us out with understanding Italian culture and how to approach people, things like not jumping straight into spiritual conversation, but just talking about life with people and getting to know them. Italian students are very friendly and willing to talk to us, so I'm excited to start to make friends I can continue to hang out with for the rest of the month.

It took like an hour to get the internet to work at this little cafe by the salvation army, and now my life group (a small group we're getting to know by sharing testimonies over dinner) is heading down to the Spanish steps for dinner soon, so I'm going to go. But my skype address is on my facebook so call me if you see me online! Ciao!

and so it begins.

I'm not really one for writing blogs, but as most of you know, I will be spending the majority of 2010 in Europe. From May 17 to June 24 I will be in Rome and after doing time in Oxford and Columbus, I'll be off to Luxembourg in the fall. Both trips are going to be really exciting, and so I think they will be worth blogging about... that, and I hear that some people would like to know what's going on in my life while I'm out of the country. So here's my blog, cleverly titled Across the Pond because I'll be in Europe. Hopefully by the time January rolls around I'll have dredged the motivation to dust off my old knowledge of HTML and make it look nicer than the default template.

Ridiculous though it may seem, in one week from today I will be in Chicago training for my trip to Rome with Campus Crusade for Christ. To recap, I will be working with three universities in Rome, building relationships with students and sharing with them how to have a personal relationship with God. Rome is one of my favorite cities in the world and the relational type of ministry we will be doing is definitely an area in which I can grow.

So here's where I am now: laying around in my pajamas until my hair appointment. Also, I have about $1500 left to raise this week so that I can go to Rome. You can be praying for support to come in and that God would prepare the hearts of my team and myself to be ready for the ministry in Rome and what he is going to teach us this summer.

I promise this will get more exciting.