azzurri love.

The World Cup is kinda a big deal in Italy. Last time when Italy won, apparently our friend Davide swam in the Trevi fountain and people were running around naked and policemen were driving around waving flags out their windows instead of doing anything. All true stories. So you can imagine that they all got pretty excited for the first game Italy played this year, and we got to see it firsthand. I mentioned earlier that there is a huge screen playing the games at a park called Villa Borghese and that’s where we watched the game with probably about 20,000 other people. We got there about an hour and a half early so we got some pretty good seats on the ground in front of the stage. What was really great was that everything except the food there was free! We got free paper clapper/fans/Go Italia signs and there were places to play soccer or shoot on a goal. Since we were there before it was too crazy we got to wander around for a little bit and have fun. They were blasting music from the stage, and when it got closer to the match they played a game of Fifa on the big screen to simulate the game (Italy won 2-0 in that scenario). Some of our friends from La Sapienza all came to watch with us, and so by the time the game started we were packed in like sardines. It was absolutely incredible; I wish so badly that soccer games in America were like this because it was a blast. It's a little hard to explain in words, so here are some pictures and I'll just narrate along the way. :]

This was off to our right just after they played the national anthem. Yeah, those are flares. Now imagine this off to the left also and in front of us with about twenty giant flags waving around. Then behind us looked a little something like this:


But there was something a little different than sporting events in America; they sat down the entire time! It was a little strange for me, and since we were so packed in I would have rather stood up the entire time. But what can you do... Anyways, like I mentioned before, we had some awesome Italian friends with us to show us the ropes when it comes to cheering for Italian soccer. I learned two new Roman slang phrases from my friend Pietro to be used in cheering for soccer: daje (pronounce something like dai-yeh! I apparently couldn't say it correctly because I didn't sound mean enough) which means something like Come on! So... if anyone watched the Italia Paraguay game, you can imagine that Pietro was yelling Daje! a lot. The other word was li mortacci tua which in the context of cheering means something a little like Screw you. You yell it when someone messes up, but I never got the hang of yelling it during the game. He has since told me that I probably should never say it to other people. So I guess I sort of know how to cuss in Roman Italian? Super. Anyways, everyone stood up at half time, and then when Italia scored their goal. When they scored it was incredible. The entire place just blew up. More flares, lots of hugging and lots of screaming and jumping up and down. Also, apparently the beat to Seven Nation Army was the song of Italy for the last world cup, so we sang that when they scored too.



This was the craziest guy I saw there. Hilarious.



And here are my friends! We got to hang out with them after the game, dancing with the rest of the crowd for awhile and then going to get food at Piazza Bologna. It was suuuch a blast and I'm so glad we got the opportunity to go! I might go back and add a little more detail to this post, but for now I have to go to Bible study. :] Ciaoo.

bella, ciao! bella, ciao! bella, ciao ciao ciao.

So I missed the USA vs. England game in the World Cup… but instead I had the most fun night of the entire trip! My friend Ben and I went to see our friend Giovanni play in a brass band at a culture festival, and it was so good! At first we got lost because our only directions were go to Piazza dei Longobardi and when we got off at the Garbatella stop (which was the right stop, but I was second-guessing myself at the time) several people told us Piazza dei Longobardi didn’t exist. So that was exciting. A nice lady at a pharmacy finally knew where it was and once we got close, we just followed the sound of music until we found the festival. We really had no idea what to expect, but the best way I can describe it is a very intense block party or a parade without the parade. It was in a residential area, but there were bands playing all sorts of music all over the place. A lot of it was sort of folksy music, but there was one drum group that I loved – they were playing loud strong beats that made you feel like you had to go dance around a fire or something. There were tons of stands set up along the sides of the road with food or games for kids or for organizations like Amnesty International or Greenpeace, and women in costumes were walking and dancing around on stilts. However even after we walked around all the main areas we could not find Giovanni. We knew from talking to him before that his band was pretty big – 50 people when everyone was there – so we just kept wandering listening for saxophones and that sort of thing. Finally, we heard music from behind a wall and wandered into what looked like someone’s backyard to discover Titubando playing underneath a bunch of what I’m assuming was a grid of wire to hang laundry out to dry. So that was a little funny, but they were so so good! I took a video from when they played again later and I’ll post it on facebook because I can’t really think of how to describe the type of music. It was just very fun and free sounding. (Besides the videos though, I sort of failed at taking pictures all night, and I’m kicking myself over it now…) When he saw us, Giovanni eventually ran over and we got to learn like two lines of a song that goes “ciao bella, ciao bella, ciao ciao ciao” that was really catchy. Also Giovanni tried to teach me how to play a saxophone – and by play a saxophone, I mean at least make some semblance of a noise with a saxophone. I did make it work once or twice, but it was very hard and I think I’ll stick with piano.

Something I forgot to mention: I bought my first two energy drinks in Italy for this night. I bought two because Redbull is the only thing they sell and it does nothing for me, but Giovanni was concerned for me. It was very sweet. After they finished playing, we hung out at a restaurant for awhile and then went back and listened to more music. It was such a fun festival; I wish all of my friends who love dancing could have transported to Italy for the night because all night I just wanted to dance so badly and most of the songs could have been sort of cha-cha or waltz or whatever. After the festival was over, we walked back with Giovanni to his neighborhood and got to see his apartment for a few seconds before we got pizza and he drove us home to San Lorenzo… where we got gelato. So all in all, a really amazing night filled with great music and good conversation.

God has really blessed me with some awesome friends here in Italy. Giovanni, for example, is just a really fun, down to earth guy who we’ve all decided is kind of a hippy. :] He reminds me a little of my brother because Luke stopped cutting his hair for awhile and it went into an afro and that’s how Giovanni looks. He likes talking about politics and told me it would be okay for someone to kill the Italian president because he has destroyed their economy and is so passionate about music and the power of music and the power of the individual. When we told him we had gotten lost, he said that was great because being lost can sometimes be the best way to enjoy a place. In all seriousness though, God has been challenging me through Giovanni because he has this huge heart for people in the world who are suffering. When we’re talking about politics, his questions, which are almost always something to the effect of “but how does that affect such and such group of people,” have made me think more deeply about how I can love people even in my political beliefs. God has been teaching me sooo much about loving people through the power of the Holy Spirit on this trip because on my own loving people is not something I’m good at. Naturally I tend to be apathetic rather than caring for people. So hopefully God is moving me to have a heart for people more like Giovanni (although ultimately more like Jesus) and even more hopefully Giovanni will be able to meet Jesus, because I think he’d really like him. I feel like he would connect with what Jesus talked about in so many ways because Jesus was essentially a radical revolutionary humanitarian.

Now we only have about a week left in Rome, and I am not ready to leave. This is such a beautiful city with a beautiful culture and I can’t wait to come back. I have loved all the people on project with me, but I’m not going to lie: the highlight of this trip has been Italy, meeting Italians, and talking about Jesus.

lack of title.

I’m about to drop some knowledge: Facebook stalking + no knowledge of Italian + Google translator = really funny things. For example, we were looking at our friend Giovanni’s profile and someone else we had met briefly posted something on his wall about Americans. Naturally we were curious and sent it off through an online translator. It came back as “The Americans have been large” which could mean any number of things, but the most likely interpretation was that he was calling us fat. :[

Chances are that wasn’t really what he meant but man, we have been eating a lot of carbs! We discussed and decided that our project food groups were pizza, pasta, cheese, gelato, and nutella. I love the quality of Italian food, but I’m starting to miss America’s variety. I’m planning on eating some form of steak as soon as I get back into the States, preferably from Chipotle or like… Ruths Chris. Go big or go home. But seriously, despite having a lot of the same stuff, the food really is amazing. We have a lot of great restaurants around San Lorenzo where we’re staying and most of them have homemade noodles which is so excellent. Everything here is so much more fresh than in America. Oh, and coffee update: I’m down to one sugar in my espresso. Still gross, but my goal is to have it black before the end of the trip. The only downside to food right now is that I haven’t been feeling so good lately… my stomach has been hurting a lot, to the point that it’s been waking me up at night. So hopefully that stops soon (Pray for me! Grazie). Also, I think I’m getting addicted to coffee because I have it twice a day or I get tired.

Even though I wasn’t feeling awesome this week, it’s been such a great time connecting with Italians we’ve already met. We had a talent show on Tuesday night that our friend Pietro and two others came to, and it was so much fun. Half of the acts were really good, talented people, but the other half was just a bunch of Americans messing around. We got to hang out with them afterwards and it was so encouraging because Pietro loved it and said there was something different about us. Pietro is really involved in a Catholic fellowship type thing and it has been great talking with him a lot about what he believes. And his group of friends is sooo fun! They’re very funny and sarcastic and it’s a lot like my group of friends at home when we hang out with them. :] We’re trying to organize an America vs. Italy basketball game because Pietro loves basketball, so there may or may not be a lot of trash talk going around right now.

Speaking of sports, I am psyched for the World Cup to start! I want to watch America play on Saturday, but I don’t know where yet… But we already have plans to go watch Italy play Paraguay on the jumbotron screen in Villa Borghese (it's a park like central park). We visited it today and it was huge! They weren't playing a game at the time though so we didn't stick around very long. Apparently they cap the audience at 20,000 so we’re going to show up early so we can get in. From what we’ve heard, it’s going to be crazy. Can’t wait!

euro-fourth of July.

I haven’t had a whole lot of motivation to write any blog posts lately even though we’ve done some cool things this week… I dunno, I’m just forcing myself to do it now before I get too much stuff and it just gets overwhelming. Haha

Campus time was interesting this week because Wednesday was Republic Day, an Italian holiday celebrating the birth of the republic and fall of fascism in Italy. So essentially we celebrated Euro-Fourth of July. Anyways, everything was closed, including the universities, which was kind of a bummer for us because we wanted to meet up with friends. None of the students on summer project have cell phones, so we’ve been doing a lot of communication with Italian friends over facebook. Unfortunately, all the places we get internet near our hostel were also closed for the holiday so we missed out on an invitation to hang out at a park with some friends we met on campus. That was a real bummer, but otherwise it was a really relaxed day. A lot of our friends left Rome for the weekend though because of the holiday, so it was a little sad we didn’t get to hang out with them at all.

We did have some great conversations this week though. My friends Melanie, Ben, and I have been hanging out with a few of the same people almost every day we go on campus, and I got to have a really awesome conversation with my friend Giovanni about everything from the existence of God to relative morality to the role of the individual in world change. It’s so great to be in a culture where people are willing to talk about deep topics without feeling awkward or getting offended. Plus its so challenging for me to really think through what I believe and be encouraged when it really does all fit together. Even though we did not agree, they still want to hang out with us. It’s so different than in America. I really can’t stress how friendly and relational Italian culture is… I absolutely love it.

Two really fun things we did this week was go to Tivoli and the beach. Tivoli is this beautiful beautiful little city in the countryside of Italy. It took about an hour by train to get there, and we spent the day there as a project. I forgot my camera and I am soooo mad because it was absolutely gorgeous. Tivoli is specifically famous for some of its beautiful gardens at Villa d’Este, and we spent most of the day there. I also went shopping there, and when I tried on a summer pantsuit as a joke, I ended up buying it! It actually looks very cute and its definitely really Euro. Hopefully they’ll catch on in the US so I won’t look too funny wearing it there.

Rome is only about an hour from the beach by train, and we went to a paaacked public beach. It was supposed to be a fun thing to invite new Italian friends to, but our friends were either off traveling France or at home in the country for the weekend or sick. :[ It was a blast anyways though! It was beautiful out! There were all these ridiculous claims going around that the sun was somehow stronger there and we were all going to get burnt so I put on 8 spf… which is way more than I ever put on. I didn’t burn at all, so if I go again, I will be trying to find at least some 6 spf… haha. I spent most of my time laying out but the sea was warm enough to get in too. Davide, a student at Roma Tre that became a Christian last year, was hanging out with us for the day and he threw me in, so I didn’t really have a choice. We hit a few people with Frisbees and footballs and soccer balls and volley balls in the water throughout the day. We’re definitely your quintessential loud Americans, especially when we travel in a big group. Random fact about the beach: soliciting is definitely allowed. Every five minutes in the very least some gypsy guys would come up and offer everything from henna tattoos to towels to sunglasses to necklaces to bathing suits. The last one really puzzled some of us… call me crazy, but most people show up to the beach with bathing suit already acquired.

So even though we did not get to do a whole lot with Italians this week because of the holiday, God has been teaching me so much about communication and friendships and walking in the power of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit was our theme this week, and I wish I could just post pages from my journal without making this blog too super personal to show everyone some of the cool little situations God has been using to make me live through his power instead of my power. One little nugget that I really liked from one of the teaching times we’ve had this week is thinking of the fruit of the spirit not as multiple, separate attributes, but as one fruit. So if maybe I’m doing awesome at loving people, being patient with people, so on and so forth, and I’m not having self-control, I’m not walking in the power of the Holy Spirit. But at the same time it’s so encouraging that all those things are not things that I have to do by gritting my teeth and trying harder to be good, but because God can do all those things through me.

Anyways, that’s just a little snippet of what we’ve been talking about a lot this week. I’m currently experiencing a miracle in our hostel, which has not had wi-fi this entire trip until magically right now. So I’m going to stop writing now and take advantage of it while it lasts.

I’m leaving that ending only because I find it so ironic that I pressed “post” like three seconds after writing that and the internet stopped working.