Home Sweet Home

We have officially made it home! This past month has been great! I have had so many great experiences that I won't soon forget. While it is wonderful to be home I know I will miss my European adventures. But for now, I will enjoy those things that I have missed from America...FREE water, ice, free public restrooms, target, food under $10, mexican food, and a lot of other things :)
God bless America! <3

California, here we come!

We are on our way home! Prayers for safe travels are appreciated :) see you all soon!

Paris

This new city has found its way into my heart. It is so full of character, joy, romance, and new adventures. There is no way you can be satisfied with only one week here. There are so many off the map treasures just waiting to be found! I have throughly enjoyed my time here and I would love to come back here one day. However, the world is huge and I have so many other locations I want to explore. God has blessed me so much with the experiences I have had this past month. I can only pray that he will continue to bless me with these incredible opportunities in the future.

Living

Throughout this trip I have learned the art of living with those you may not like. There have been several people this trip who have brushed me the wrong way, but I have learned to be civil with them. I believe there is a lesson through all areas of life, even when we are not looking to learn. God puts us in annoying even hectic situations in order to help shape us into the people he wants us to be. It is up to us on how we respond. We can welcome the molding and face the challenge or we can reject it and stay placid. I would prefer to follow through the difficult times because as we all know, you can't have a rainbow without a little rain. :)

Bastille Day

I saw the most amazing fireworks I have ever seen in my entire life. They lit up the night sky right behind the effiel tower in such a way that lit the tower. It was absolutely beautiful. We had spectacular seats and we weren't even in the "prime" location. But it was just beautiful. I wish I could express it better or show you better but nothing could capture the beauty or the ambiance. It was an amazing night.  

To start the day there was a parade of purely military. It was very cool. What a great way to honor those who serve! It was great! It was really neat to see how the French celebrate their national day. 🇫🇷

Endings with new beginnings

Our school part of the trip is over which means that half our group is going home :( and the rest are heading to new adventures. I am in a group that is headed to Paris! 

Although it will be great, I can see myself feeling holes from those missing. It had been great making new friends but all my close ones are leaving. I'm sure that God is using this to broaden my friend horizon, he has a funny way of doing things like that. 

Anyhow, off to Paris!

Northern Italy

So far the best thing about northern Italy has been bed time. We have been lugging our luggage around all over the city and throughout several train stations. It has not been fun at all :(

I have had the pleasure of having one wheel stripped of treading and now my suitcase is even harder to pull. 

Traveling is insane. Note to future travelers, don't bring anything that you don't desperately need. 

Happy Fourth of July!

Just a few more days!

We are coming up on our last nights in Rome :( It is amazing how quickly the time has gone by! I have learned and seen so much in these three short weeks. I cannot wait to head up to northern Italy where we will be meeting my mom and continuing class for six more days :)

Sunset "Hike"

LAst night my professor showed a few of us one of his special places. I am so grateful he was willing to share it with us. It was absolutely beautiful! My pictures in no way captivate the beauty we were able to see. Rome has been so good to me. It is amazing that I can see the landscape and be able to point out so many of the buildings. This view would not have been this enjoyable if I had gone any sooner. It was perfect! 

Mac Donald's...

I had "American" food today! Tasted like home. I don't really remember how an American Big Mac tastes because I haven't had one in forever but it tasted delicious. It was a change from pizza at least :) 

I wouldn't go there all the time...but it was nice to eat a burger. 

Professor Winston singing Then Sings My Soul

Street Vendors

One thing I have noticed about Italy, where ever you go there will be some sort of street vendor who will consistently try to sell you something.
While in the water at the beach this man was trying to sell us beach cover-ups and he would not go away, even after us making it clear we weren't going to buy anything. He kept calling us Julia too...like that would flatter us into buying one. I don't want one, go away.
They do this kind of thing every where. In Venice we were siting on the steps of a church eating dinner and a man comes up with roses and tries to "give" us one (you are never given anything here, you always have to pay in some way). I say no several times so then he moves down the line where we all say no thank you multiple times. Then he gets to my sister where he says they are friends and he just wants to give her a rose and he even tried putting it in her hand! These people are relentless.
So, warning for you, if you ever find yourself in Italy, just say no :)

Ostia

It was a beautiful day at the beach today. It was a little chilly but then the clouds parted and made way for a beautiful warm day. 

Amazing Grace

Zenna, my classmate, sang for us in a 2,000 year old amphitheater. She sang so beautifully :)
What a blessing it is to be with people who can just sing and encourage one another to achieve dreams! I love this group!

Prayer Request

Tonight Laura was taken to the emergency room for what is believed to be an allergic reaction. Everything is fine and she is being well cared for, so no need to panic :) however prayer for continued quick recovery is appreciated!

June 25th Plan

9 am Church of St. Agnes & Costanza (daughter of Constantine the Great) Via Nomentana 349

10:30 am Catacombe of St. Priscilla, Via Salaria 430

11:30 to 12:15 grab lunch locally

12:15 to 1:40 travel from N. Rome to Appian Way (S. Rome) to Chiesa Domine Quo Vadis

2-2:20 travel from Via Appia Antica 51 (Quo Vadis) to Via Appia Antica 126 San Callistus

2:30 S. Callistus tour

3:15-3:25 walk to S. Sebastiano

3:30 tour of S. Sebastiano Via Appia Antica 136

4:20-5:13 Travel back to St. Johns

WC

Three times while we have been out in public my sister has desperately needed to use the facilities. Each of these we found a "WC" sign which is a sign for the restroom and this lead to a turnstile that required 1.50 to get through. I am NOT paying to use something that is a basic human need. Maybe .25 but 1.50??? That's around 2 American dollars just to use the bathroom! They better be golden thrones or something. I won't even pay that to see the worlds largest horse at the fair! Ridiculous. This country has some absurd features to it.

Our Group

Coliseum

The coliseum was huge!!! It is so hard to believe that people from thousands of years ago stood where I stood. In fact not just any people but those in the upper class. The aristocratic class would have been towards the front and the lower classes and women would have been towards the front. Basically, how our seating arrangement is in arenas except you couldn't buy a better seat. Your class determined where you were allowed to sit. Another fun fact, it took about ten years to build it and it is made with cement but not like the cement we know. It took much longer to make and much longer to dry but because of this patient process it also is expected to last much much longer than our cement structures today (their average life expectancy is about 150). One last fact, Gladiators were not killed like you might expect. They took a long time to train them so instead of killing them off in one battle they fought for about ten years. And whenever one would get wounded they would pour vinegar into it to act as an antibacterial. The Romans were genius in many ways. :)

Restrooms

The bathrooms here in the dorms are unlabeled so no one has any idea where to go. We all admitted to using both and no one knows which they are supposed to use. European bathrooms are above us all.
It's no big deal really considering the stalks are more like separate rooms in themselves. The only time it's a little weird is when showering. If feel a little weird if a guy walked in the bathroom when I was showering even though I'm behind a locked door. It's still weird.
The point of this was to let you all know the confusing nature of our dorms and Italian restrooms in general.

Roman Forum

Holy Mass

We saw the Pope!!!! Mass was great! It was all in Latin and Italian so I could hardly understand it but it was still really cool. The songs were all just like you would expect from an older church. They were hymn-like and in Latin...it was wonderful! We were so close to the front for the service it was incredible. :)

Lunch

We went to this restaurant for lunch. It was the type of restaurant you would expect to see in Italy. There was what seemed to be an Italian couple who runned the place and the woman was constantly nagging the man. The man was very kind and hospitable. When we sat down the woman came over and asked us what we wanted then she told us what we were getting. It was very weird but funny. Less than five minutes later we had all of our food out on the table. It was all extremely delicious. We had salad, ravioli, and spaghetti. They did not speak english very well so speaking to them was rather difficult and we could only get bits and pieces of words through. This really only became a problem when our bill came. The total was 92Euros for five people. That's 18.40 per person which is over $22 in USD. That's outrageous for a single serving of pasta and salad! So what stared out being great turned into a horrible tourist trap. Moral of the story, never go to a place near a huge tourist location where you aren't really sure what you are ordering. 

First full day!

Today was our first full day in Rome. We slept a lot today because of jetlag, but it's good because then later on we will be better off. Krista and I woke up at ten then at eleven we went out to explore with two other girls. We went to Castel S.Angelo. It was a real castle! I've never seen a real castle. It was amazing! It was so large but not extravagant. All throughout it there were plaques explaining what everything was which was very helpful and it helped me see the castle beyond face value. It was a great experience. 

Just a short walk away and in sight was the Vatican!!! So of course since we were so close I had to stop by even if just for a minute. We only saw the outside for now but we are going there with class this week so I know I will fully see it eventually. (well as fully as I can in a month considering it's its own city). It was incredible!

Rome is a beautiful city to just stroll through. The people are very pleasant so long as you are pleasant to them. The weirdest thing that I am still adjusting to is walking the streets. When crossing you just walk. I was told to look the drivers in the eye angrily as you walk. I can't do that. I feel bad if I look angrily at someone. 

Another thing to note is the food. It is so good! Last night was had an authentic Roman dinner. There was soooo much food and it was all very good. The Carbonara (egg and bacon pasta) was the best to me. Then for lunch today we went to Vero (an organic deli) where I got essentially a sandwhich, with Spramutta (freshly squeezed orange juice) I\it was soooo good. It tasted exactly like an orange nothing more nothing less. Straight up orange...so good! 

So far, I love Italy. 

4 hours!

1 day

In less than 24 hours I will be on a plane probably over the Atlantic!!!! I've got a few loose ends to tie then I'm good to go! It's crazy how fast time flies, I can't believe this trip is almost here!

Almost Packed

There's two days until I leave and I'm already almost packed!! What do I do now?? :)

It's Almost Time!