Alright, I'm sure you all noticed it's been....awhile since I've written. Well, life has just been crazy and then I got lazy. Well, today I've been doing nothing and realized my laziness and how I should just go out with a bang and write one last blog. It may be really long or really short, depending on how I feel. So let's get started!
To be honest, I'm not sure where I left off, so if I repeat, I'm sorry. I'll start from now and go backwards. Right now, I'm sitting in my apartment connected to the internet via ethernet. It's what came before wifi. It's rather odd and I'm sure many people haven't heard of it, but that's what's going down right now. Our internet is just awful right now. Went a whole week without internet and now it's working, but with no wifi. It's a pain for sure. We've been just singing all day and even had fajita's for lunch/dinner. Very delicious! This is how the past few days have been, just hanging in the living room singing obnoxiously to music.
Last night was a little different. Some of us roomies decided to have a card night, so we did. First we played crazy 8, then we decided to play ring of fire, but instead of drinking, we would have to do dares. It was insane! I shall go through how the dares progressed throughout the night. First dare, ding dong ditch our dentist neighbor. They aren't there, so it was ok. Second dare, sing happy birthday into the fan. Really lame, but very exciting! Third dare, throw an egg out the window into the courtyard.... Fourth dare, put our roommates underwear onto the christmas tree. Fifth dare, Anna had to write a secret love note to her professor. Sixth, draw a mustache on face. Seven, take a triple shot of a mixture of soy sauce and fanta. I had to do this one. It was super nasty! Ok, I'm not sure of the order any more, but some other dares were to put bra into the freezer, draw in face with eye liner, prank call Isaac Schmidt, who was a very good sport about it. He talked to us for 20 minutes, all while having no idea who we were. It was the best prank call ever. Thanks man. Next was put ice cube in bra, then another roommate ate said ice cube. I had to also crawl on the floor and act like a dog with another roommate. It was just overall a good night, and we learned a lot about each other which was fun. Good bonding time.
Lets see, the past couple of weeks have been quite interesting. There was one point where I was just in a lot of pain and feeling just really low about it, thinking who would understand, and I just heard God tell me "I understand". It was just really comforting hearing that, knowing that He get's it and was there with me. That was a really wonderful moment for me.
Alright. moving on. Well, God is for sure teaching me that I can do without certain luxuries in my life, such as taking showers daily and shaving... A few weekends ago, some of us went to this beautiful villa out in the country and got to stay there for free. It had a wonderful fireplace and was just all around amazing, except we had no hot water because the propane tank went empty...so I went a full 3 days without showering. Oh, I know I looked attractive! As for shaving, our apartment doesn't have a lot of hot water, so we have to take short showers in order to save enough for the next person, so I've forgone shaving. I don't think I've shaved my legs in over a month now. It's been real great. Really doesn't bother me at all. But I will be shaving as soon as I get home.
Oh, we've met a lot of really great girls at our church and actually have gotten to hang out with them quite a bit. Some of them come to connection group with us, and the others we go out to eat with or something. We've gotten gelato and one night, went out for Indian food with our friend Jess! It was so stinking delicious! Much better than my Indian cooking.... I'm trying, it's just really difficult to do.
PAUSE
Ok, if you saw this post before it was finished, sorry, I ended up taking a break and having another movie night with some of the roomies! We quite enjoyed ourselves immensely. Today we went to church for the last time which was sad, but afterwords there was a huge feast for lunch, so it was like a going away party for us tehe. We met up with our church friends and all of us are going out for dinner tomorrow night which is exciting! It's been such a huge blessing to meet these amazing girls this semester and be able to form such amazing friendships with them. A few of them live in Minneapolis, so guess who we're going to visit when we get back?!?!? WOOO.
So yes, to continue going backwards in life... Well, none of us are perfect, and as much as we all love each other, there have been times that we've struggled with unity and being able to be around each other haha. Of course we've gotten through it, but I would be lying if I said that never happened.
I did finally get to go to the Vatican and see all the stuffers in there. Dang, pictures just don't compare, just saying. I went by myself so I got to just go at my own pace and it was rather enjoyable.
Well, I did also get to go to Pisa last weekend which was fun. It's quite a small city, and dang, the tower is so puny! I was shocked it was that small, but it was still cool to see. Went with some graphic girls which was fun. Time to mix it up a little bit.
Ok, let's talk about Valencia time for Thanksgiving. It was such a blast! Everything went quite smoothly as far as planes go, they were just delayed both times which was a pain. The city was just beautiful. It's much quieter and relaxing. We got massages and ate so much food! I have the pictures all posted on facebook, so you will see there were a few times we ate too much food. But it was so good. We actually met this Australian guy David at our hostel and he ended up hanging out with us a few times. I met him in the morning once and that night, we had a movie night in the joint community room and he joined us for that all 3 times we did that. Actually, the third night we did it, he was just so adorable in his flannel pajamas. This old english guy came in and was actually being rather obnoxious and you could just tell that David was getting quite irritated (we all were). His foot was just bouncing all over the place. It was hilarious. One night, The second night we were there, a friend of ours suggested this really nice dance club so we decided to go. David thankfully came with us and was just like a big brother the whole night. We ended up leaving our hostel at about 12:30, thinking that was late enough to get there, and so we get there at about 1, and the guy at the door said it's not open until 2! Man, these Italians are insane, but they do take a nap in the middle of the day (we did also, just to prepare), just so that they can go out super late. We ended up just walking around and even got to witness a Ferrari exhibition go up. These were some majorly nice Ferrari's, right out of the factory. Then we found this indoor/outdoor mall that we were able to walk through. It was a really pretty mall. Too bad the shops were all closed. After goofing off for awhile, we finally went back at 2:30 and finally the club was hopping. It was really expensive to get in, but we got a free drink and just danced for the next 2 hours. The club was just really nice and clean. No guys were hitting on us and I didn't see anyone grinding up on each other which was a nice change compared to the States. Americans, you have the party scene all wrong fyi. Europeans know what's up. We finally got home and went to bed at about 5 in the morning. It was a long day, but so worth it. Other than that, we just strolled around the city and even rented a big bike thing for half an hour. It was a very much needed vacation and I'm glad we went.
I'm really glad that I got to come here to Italy and get to know so many people, including the Lord. He's taught me more about who He is, but I know that I still have a long way to go, and also that I'll never fully understand who He is. It's been a very well rounded semester, but I'm quite ready to be home and see all of my friends and family! Only one more week everyone!
I will call people once I get back and settled in and I hope to see you all very soon!
Much love!
Ciao
Anna
