Big surprise...I fail at blogging

Well hello there anyone who still tries to read this. Sorry I'm a fail at blogging. I've been without reliable internet for about a month now so I'm putting it down to that.

Quick catch up:

Life is still awesome. I leave my family here in Italy tomorrow. Sad day. I'm excited for the next step in my journey though. And on the way to Germany I'll get to see some of my good friends from World Youth Day and last year, so I'm psyched for that too.

I'm gonna head out now, but hopefully I'll be able to keep up with this better while I'm in Germany. So hi to everyone back home, I've been praying for you and I love you all!

Long overdue update

So much for keeping up with the blog. I guess it’s really only been two weeks. Life just gets crazy and I want to write legitimate entries because I hate short ones. They can’t accurately describe anything. Not that I’m great with words anyway but still.

Italy has been amazing. We went to Argentario last week (an island just off the coast in Tuscany) to the Mom’s parent’s summer house. It was incredibly beautiful there. I’d forgotten the charm of Tuscany. And the island we were on made it even better. Even if you were in the middle of the city in traffic the air and the sea and the grass were as fresh and beautiful as the day God made them. Also I was with the grandparents who hardly speak English and then only when they have to…I came back thinking in Italian. I’m going to completely lose my grip on English. And I’m totally ok with that. Even though I can’t speak it well I love Italian. To me, it’s the most beautiful language. Italy definitely won the fallout of the tower of Babel.

The other day (oh no now I’m using my dad’s phrases even….time matters so little here. I’m at that point I’m sure you all know that you get to on retreat or in similar situations where you ask yourself what time it is and then remember and revel in the fact that it doesn’t matter.) I made a random friend on the train after I told some Italian girls who came on asking that this was the right train even though the number on the sign was wrong. We had a whole conversation in Italian. I now officially pronounce myself proficient.

Two of my American friends are in Rome, and it appears that there is Murphy’s law of trying to hang out with your American friends when they’re in Rome. Or it’s all their fault because they don’t have a phone and it’s hard to communicate. A little of both, I think. It’s just funny all the things I’ve had to figure out. We’re in Anzio right now at the other grandparents’ house so I have no internet (I’ll be posting this when I get home) so I can’t talk to them at all. They can call my cell phone but they don’t. They got into town Wednesday night, I talked to them on Thursday morning and told them to come before we left for Anzio. And they didn’t come. I still don’t know what happened or where they are. My plan is to go back into Rome and see them on Saturday. Hopefully that happens. I’m psyched to see them.

I just realized yesterday that I’ve been gone for 5 weeks now. Relative to life that’s not too long at all, but it surprised me that it’s been 5 weeks already. There have been hard parts where time has gone slowly but looking back it seems to have flown by. And overall it’s been so ridiculously good. Every day I wake up and remind myself that I live in Rome. And then I still can’t believe it. Maybe I’ve already written about this (I don’t have internet right now so I can’t do my usual double-check and see if I have) but I can’t believe how awesome my life is sometimes. The Lord has blessed me so much. Even when I’m having a really hard time and I think everything’s going badly He gives me the grace to get through it. And when things are going well my heart overflows. There’s something indescribably consoling and just good about being where the Lord wants you to be in your life. And I know that for right now, I am.

Things have been going well with my family here. I’m still having a hard time getting and English to ‘stick’ to the kids, but a couple weeks ago something just kind of clicked. It was a little awkward at the beginning because I met the family and then dove right into living with them. Not that anything was bad, it just took some getting used to for all of us. But the other day they asked me to stay longer in Italy with the mom’s brother and his family. I don’t know if I will or not, but if they like me enough to ask me to stay longer that’s huge for me. The kids and I are really close too now so that’s been really good.

Sorry if this post jumps around, I wrote it in bits but I figure it's better than nothing. Love and miss you all!

Legitimate post! Yay!

Ok, now I really do have time to write a legitimate entry. Sardegna with my sisters was awesome. We had so much fun! I had a lot of adventures, especially with traveling, but everything worked out. Actually let me tell you a story about how the trip started out for me. I took the train to the center and then got on the metro, which I had to take literally to the end of the line. Then I took a city bus (I later learned I definitely should have taken an airport shuttle bus). The bus dropped me off at the closest stop to the airport, which according to google maps is about a mile. Meh, I can walk a mile no problem. And I’m about 4 hours early at this point. So I’m walking along, and I just keep going. And going and going. I should have reached the airport. So I asked this random super nice old man where the airport is. He was very surprised that I would be walking because it’s so far away. He told me that I was on the wrong side of the airport and would have to walk around to the other side to actually get in. So I started walking, just following his directions and the signs for the airport. You know how there are signs for the airport starting from like 5 miles out? I started from BEFORE the signs. I walked along this small road (almost flagged down a tour bus but decided against it) for a long time, and eventually the airport came into view. The complete wrong side of it. I laughed so hard at myself. I was actually having the time of my life this whole time. I wasn’t late, I had my music, it was a beautiful day, there were flowers and the Lord loves me, so I was good. Any normal person probably would have been crying, but I was definitely being that person who rocks out to their music with drum solos even though they look like an idiot. So anyway I’m on this road, which puts me on the freeway (an actual freeway in Italy, gasp). Walking along the wrong side of the freeway for a couple miles was interesting too. I got yelled and honked at so much it was a little ridiculous. And I wondered why they didn’t offer me a ride too, I mean I’m walking ON THE FREEWAY and they’re telling me how beautiful I am but not helping me. Hilarious. I made it to the airport in plenty of time (thank you dad for teaching me to leave with way too much time to spare) and even got a good seat on the plane.
Sardegna was amazing right from the get go. I had missed the last bus to the hotel so the guy at the desk literally brought my sisters to come and get me. He was basically our adopted grandpa for the trip. He reminded us a lot of Grandpa M too. (trying to avoid name use in cyberspace. It’s interesting.) He asked if I was hungry (even if you aren’t you should basically never turn down an offer of food since it’s going to be amazing) and when I said yes he took us to his friend’s restaurant. They were closing up but they shared their food with me and we just hung out for a couple hours. We made some good friends that night, and we came back to the restaurant for a real dinner later which was so good….I’m never going to be satisfied with food again after I leave here. My sisters were shocked by the amount of food they gave us. Italians are a little ridiculous with how much they eat for dinner. But I told them you had to eat it all or else it’s a big insult. So we did. We had snails too, which are actually delicious. A bit weird when you actually look at what you’re putting in your mouth, but they’re good. Oh, and also he gave us a bottle of wine that opened up the world of wine for me. I had never had really good wine before so I never really understood it, but this stuff was a little bit life changing. We sat out on the balcony and watched the ocean while we drank it (paying a bit of attention to the soccer game too, since Italy was playing). Such a good night. We spent Monday on the beach, nice and chill. Tuesday was rainy so we went into town and went shopping and just saw the sights. We went to this gelato place and one of my sisters (again, name use. Haha) asked for nutella gelato and ended up getting a straight up scoop of nutella. We laughed so hard. But it was totally delicious. We went into this random asian shop and I got a CAT 5 cable, so now I can actually get online from my computer and skype people. Yay! I’m really happy about that.
I hope everything at home is going well for everyone who’s reading this. You’re all in my prayers. I love you!

Sardegna!

Today I'm leaving for Sardegna (Sardinia). My wonderful sisters and I are going on a beach trip. Because we can. An awesome life motto, though not for everything. I'm so excited! I love my sisters and this is going to be some great QT. This is going to be a super short post so I can leave in plenty of time to get to the airport (one of many things I get from my dad haha). Rome is still awesome, everything is going well and I'm safe. Hopefully I'll be able to write a legit entry soon!

Piedi nudi

Alright, naptime for the little boy so I can write. He has chicken pox (We think. I hope that’s what it is because I already had chicken pox. We’ll see).

Last weekend we went to the grandparent’s house in Anzio. It was beautiful. Their house was nice and big and they had a huge backyard perfect for playing in. And they were really close to the beach, not really walking distance but close. The water was ridiculously warm, guess that made up for the utter lack of waves. The ocean is like a giant lake here. The little girl and I had tons of fun building stuff out of sand. We’ve overcome the lauguage barrier enough to communicate well but I still speak in English and tell her what things are all the time. She does the same right back to me. It’s like we’re in a friendly war over who can get the other to learn their language. She wants to win and never have to hear English again. Her parents keep telling her that’s the sole reason I’m here. It’s only been a week though, we can go far in 2+ months.

I went to Mass on Sunday and was baffled out of my mind trying to keep up with the Mass and understand /learn Italian at the same time. My brain really doesn’t like to do a million things at once. I am a master mumbler though, and I at least know the basic phrases. And pace means peace, and that’s the only time anyone’s really paying any attention to what you’re saying anyway. When I got home from Mass we went out on the grandparents’ boat, which was amazing. The water was cold farther out so the kids didn’t really want to swim but we had a good time just chilling in the boat. There were a ton of sailboats out since it was a nice windy day, and there was a group of those tiny little beginner sailboats having a race. I totally wanted to be one of those kids. Sitting in the equivalent of a bucket with a garbage bag on a stick, almost dipping your bum in the water because you have to sit on one side to steer and avoid the boom, but having the time of your life. I totally want to try that someday, but I think I’m too big for the baby boats.

Yesterday I went into the city center again, went to Adoration in San Pietro (and spent like 2 hours in the church, I don’t know that I’ll ever get tired of that place. The sheer number of people there is annoying, but the church itself is really something else) and then just wandered. I didn’t try to see any main tourist sights, I just wanted to soak up the essence of Rome. It’s a beautiful thing. And I had gelato for lunch again, at Old Bridge, which was recommended to me by some UD Romers. Or whatever they call themselves. It was quite delicious.

I’m so happy to have some followers on my blog! And even a comment, yay! I love you all and miss you. Hope life is as awesome at home as it is here.

Oh PS, I learned an Italian phrase that's my favorite at the moment: piedi nudi. It means barefoot but literally translated it means naked feet. Hahahaha I love it. The housekeeper here asked me today if all Americans go around barefoot (because I'm always barefoot when I'm in the house) and I told her it's just me because I'm crazy. The Grandma told me she has a bike she'd let me use so maybe I'll get to do some barefoot bike riding here. How great would that be?

Roma

First off let me mention that the title of my blog means 'life is awesome'. I forgot to say that in the original post, at least in the version that actually made it onto the blog.

I have a suspicion that I'm going to be saying and feeling this a lot, but today was one of the best days ever. I woke up, helped the kids get off to school and then went into the city. It was a little scary at first since I'm all alone and a fairly obvious tourista, but I got the hang of things pretty quickly and ended up living the dream of wandering around Rome letting things find me as they would. I had a map but stopped looking at it after a couple times because it was basically useless and it was far more fun to just go where my feet took me. I took the tram into the city because it goes literally from my door to San Pietro. I was going to go in but the line literally wrapped around the piazza so I left it til later in the afternoon. There's a level of peace that I forgot about that pervades such holy places. My soul found rest just standing in the piazza. It’s like I knew I was home, in a sense.

Next I walked across the river and down Via Vittorio Emanuele for a while. I stopped in Nuova Chiesa, which I had never seen. It turned out to be the final resting place of St. Philip Neri, one of my favorite saints. I don’t know if you know about him, but this guy loved the Lord so much that his heart literally burst out of his chest. Ok, it only broke two ribs (and didn’t kill him) but still. That’s intense. He’s totally awesome. I had some really good time with the Lord there, it was nice and peaceful.

I went to Piazza Navona and another church that’s close by, I think it’s called Santa Maria Anima or something. I forget. I decided to head back and had gelato for lunch on the way, which is one of my favorite things to do. I stopped by Castel Sant’Angelo to see what I could see and ended up discovering what I believe to be one of the few peaceful outside spots in the city center. There’s a park that kind of wraps around the back of the Castel. It has tons of benches and shade and I took a bit of a napnic on a whim. It was a perfect day, not too hot and not too cold, sunny but with big puffy clouds. My favorite weather. I think I found a spot that will become a favorite.

Last but not least I went to San Pietro and the Vatican grottoes. San Pietro is astounding. Like most of the older churches here, it is absolutely decked out in statues and decorations and sheer beauty, but there’s something different about it. An aura indescribable to those who haven’t been there so I’ll leave it at that. There is an adoration chapel inside, and it was especially great to spend some time with the Lord in and on the Rock of San Pietro.

Watching the kids was relatively uneventful. The now housekeeper showed me about 50 billion things, so I’m assuming that at some point she’s leaving and I’m to take over. Fine with me, but the kids better be prepared for some relatively lamesauce cooking. I’m no Italian mamma.
Alright, I think that’s about it. Hooray for my first real post! Hope it wasn’t too boring.

The first day of the rest of my life

I intended to write this yesterday but was unable to. And I just wrote a very long post only to have it stolen from me by the computer. So I'm half posting this just to see if it will work.

And it did! Hooray! I'm sad that I lost my big post now...darn it.

Well here's the brief story since I don't want to write it all again.

I arrived safely in Rome, met and fell in love with the family I'm staying with, remembered just how much I love Italian, and ate awesome food. That about does it.

I don't know how often I'll be updating this, I'll try to stay on top of it but I make no guarantees. Ciao tutti!