I'm back... in just a shade under 2 months

So, I realize that I haven't written anything for a while but, I mean, I'm in England, things have been happenin!  I just took my first trip out of England, and thought this would be a good time to take back the blog...  So without further ado, I present the last 6 weeks!

Took a little road/ferry/road trip to France this past weekend to see my buddy Jeff, who was on his way to Kenya for the August IDP session.  A few months back he was like, "I'm flyin through Paris in August and will have a 10 hour layover, would you want to come down and chill for the day?"  WOULD I?!?  So yeah, my friend Anca and I totally took a less than 2 day road trip to Paris because, you can do things like that if you live in England.  On the way down I conceived the idea of doing a list of sorts, so here we go:

THINGS I LIKE ABOUT FRANCE

1.  The speed limit on French motorways.  That's right 130km/h, or approximately 81 mph.  Suffice to say, it was a quick trip from Calais to Paris, the slow lane moved right along at about 85mph, and cars were flying by me when I was going 90, good times...  In addition, it was nice to drive on the right side of the road again, in an English car, wrap your brain around that one :-D.

2.  The countryside

3.  The Seine: as much as I may hate to admit this, the Seine is much more picturesque than the Thames.  Plus, there was this sweet Ducati just sittin there.  But really, the river boats, the paths right by the water, tree lined parkways, it's brilliant.

4.  Sweet Metro art (taken on my iPhone 4 at the Cluny La Sorbonne stop)

5.  The Eiffel Tower.  I've seen it on multiple occasions, but it still is quite amazing.  Who knew a cell phone tower would be the top tourist attraction in the world...

6.  Walking in Paris with good friends (and almost breaking Anca's camera if it weren't for my le chat noir reflexes)

7.  Notre Dame/Crepes (they came within minutes of each other so I'm combining them, the list is getting longer than I originally anticipated).  Let me just say, when it hits your lips!

8.  Basilique du Sacre Coeur, first time in 4 trips to Paris!  How did I get such an amazing picture at 5PM, only you can answer that question..

9.  Anca's friends from Martinique: NO PICTURE, WHAT?!

10.  REAL French people, because they all talk and dress like this ---->

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5hrUGFhsXo

Join me tomorrow evening for, "Things I DON'T Like about France"

Matchy Match

This is my boy Gio, from Georgia, not the state of my birth, but the country.  On Thursday morning, I walked into breakfast and sat down by him and some of the other volunteers from the Villa.  I looked over to say good morning and Andrew (another volunteer who, coincidently, is from Tennessee, the Volunteer state) was like, hey you guys match.  If any of you saw the crazy Lost finale, I kind of had a flashback moment (although it was a great deal less thrilling and suspenseful than, say, Sawyer remembering that he let Juliette fall to her death) to the days at Union when Taryn and/or Lyndsi would walk past the window in the hall and we would randomly be wearing purple, or red, or blue and then we would point and gasp and oooh and ahhh but definitely never have a good laugh for a minute or 2 in my office.... Anyways, they affectionately called this, "Matchy Match!"

So, after I caught my breath, I was like dude we're takin a pic at supper. I feel that matchy match is a sacred term that will have to be left in the good 'ol US of A, and for two hardcore white dudes like Gio and myself, something like that gettin out might hurt our street cred in the hoods of Florence.  Anyways, its not like I would orchestrate a mass everyone-wear-the-same-color-for-my-goodbye-party-at-Blue-Orchid or anything...

Or maybe I would...  Anyways, it's been 2 weeks since I said goodbye to Union, and yesterday I was reminded of the GREAT times I have had with all y'all and that some crazy little traditions aren't as far away as they seem.  The adventure is just beginning here in Europe, but I feel privileged to have shared so many memories with my peeps from the 402 :-)  And someone please tell Jen that she is featured on my blog...

Why Italy?!

A few days ago a friend who is thinking about starting the IDP program asked me to give some reasons why she should take classes in Italy rather than at Andrews. I messaged her and said that, first of all, the tuition is reduced, and secondly...YOU ARE IN ITALY!!! I also promised to expand on the second statement and today offered so many reasons that I was compelled to devote today's blog post to answering her question. My Patriots sandals are on and that can mean only one thing, it's Bloggin time, ahhhhhhhhh yeah...

First of all, we live in a 14th century villa.  In the 14th century there was nothing in Berrien.  Now...there is still basically nothing (I keed, I keed).  But seriously, after breakfast we all walk through the medieva courtyard complete with giant earthen pots bursting with flowers down the hill to class, it's about a 5 minute walk. During this short stroll we go by palm trees, honeysuckle, lavender plants, a cherry tree, an olive grove, a fig tree, apple and plum trees, and when I reach the bottom I look over my shoulder at the bottom see the monastery in the picturesque village of Fiesole (Fee-AY-so-lay) overlooking the Florentine Valley.

Happy Gilmore went to his happy place before taking big shots, well this is my happy place (without a midget running around) and it's, how do I put this...REAL! So saying my mind is in a great place every morning would be an understatement. The only thing that could make our classes better would be if we all laid around in togas with Italian women feeding us grapes periodically. And I wouldn't even be surprised if one of our professors said, "oh by the way Monday is Toga Day, everyone meet by the pool at 8:45am, pick up your sheets before supper tonight...

And that's just the start... There are about 30 students in this session and, as an American I am once again in the beautiful minority. The 6 inhabited continents are all represented in our group and our professor this week, the illustrious Frank Brenda (Head of Emergency Response for ADRA Germany) is a German with vast Development experience throughout Europe and Africa. So we have an intercultural group to say the least.

Then there's the food :-D. Tonight I rolled down to supper and saw what looked like unshelled hard-boiled eggs the size of tennis balls. Are you thinking what I'm thinking? If you are like, "wow that would be crazy if that was fresh mozzarella..." then yes. AND IT WAS!!!. So I sat down with a few pieces of sliced Italian bread and made my own homemade bruschetta with some halved cherry tomatoes and olive oil.

After dinner a group of about 20 of us took a gelato walk down to a little gelateria about 15 minutes from the Villa (can't do that in Berrien). Not only do little jaunts into Florence build camaraderie among our group, but we also had the privilege of listening to Professor Brenda share stories about how he was the first theology student at the German seminary with a beard (an apparently GINORMOUS one to boot). So we really get to know our professors, both professionally and facial-hairedly, I mean personally. Everything about our program is intense and I truly treasure the experiences we are sharing.  On the way back, we passed another gelateria, which posed a philosophical dilemma for me. If I just finished a gelato 10 minutes before arriving at a second gelateria, is it too soon to get another? 

The answer, of course, is 2 gelatos are ALWAYS better than one. Plus, I'm a man of honor, and when multiple people ask me to eat lots of gelato for them while I'm in Italy I don't want to let them down. So this one's for you sis, and Aunt Sarita, and Shimke. I'll get to everyone else later...

So there it is, a window into my day. Oh yeah, I just remembered the cherry on top of the sundae. On the bus ride back from Florence Tuesday night, we all started singing hymns on the bus. By the time we got to our stop 10 minutes after we started singing we realized that we were the only ones on the bus and that we had been getting louder and louder (not that our singing drove people off the bus, of course). Not only was it great to see the expressions on peoples faces, but it struck me on a few different levels. First, I'm in Italy with fellow believers singing hymns in one of the most beautiful cities in the world. Secondly, how many of the Italians know the songs and/or are devout Catholics? And lastly, but def not leastly, what a great way to be a casual witness in a predominantly non-protestant nation...  The opportunities for learning, relationship building, cultural experiences, and reflection are endless. 

And on that note, the sandalias are off, grazie.

The first day...

I've been promising to start this blog for a little over a week now, but today the perfect storm (in a good way) created the perfect conditions for starting. So, to partially steal a phrase from my 2 favorite New Zealanders... It's Bloggin' Time!

Conditions were perfect:

1. I got more than 4 hours of sleep for the first time in a week. By more than 4 hours I mean 13, yes 13 HOURS OF GLORIOUS SLEEP!!! Perhaps the last, say 6 months got to me a little bit and now that I'm finally able to relax and unwind, (and beat jetlag after a week) my body is telling me something.

2. It's Tuesday, and Tuesday is ALWAYS our day off. Saturday we go to Fiesole to go to evensong with the monks, but then they aren't there. Sunday is stay-up-all-night-to-finish-my-needs-assessment-project day, Monday is laundry day, but Tuesday I got nothin' to do but sleep 13 hours so it's bloggin time, ahhhhhhhhh yeah....

3. Yesterday we finished our first class and, with 7 hours of sleep combined the 2 previous nights, I was still wide awake for our trip into Florence where our IDP group did a GIS walk, got to be completely carefree for a few hours, had the best gelato in Florence (Grom) which made everyone agree the last 2 days of project madness were worthwhile and, to top it all off, I learned that iPhone 4 is going to be released in the UK June 24...

So there you have it, about 15 conditions neatly organized in a checklist of 3, what? It is my blog...