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.