Not your traditional school day...

Florence can really wear you out if you are there ALL day long.
When we left at 8 am yesterday, as we were walking down the hill we had the chance to see this.

One of the classes that about 2/3 of the students here are in had to do a pictorial scavenger hunt in Florence yesterday. Those of us that were not in the class were to go along and visit places that looked of interest to us and to kind of help be navigators for those that had not been into the city as much.

I spent the morning with my group and then around 10:30 Libby, Tyler, Nathan and I broke off and kind of did our own thing. We went to Zara which is this 4 floor clothing store which was FANTASTIC and tried on clothes for a while and then...we went across the street to the other half of it :]
We met our group on top of la Rinascente for cappucinos and hot chocolate as part of our assignment. Can you believe that I'm getting graded for sitting on a balcony to look out over the city? This is my hot chocolate.

It was more like chocolate soup.
I had to eat it with a spoon.

After that we crossed the Ponte Vecchio and went to a place called Trattoria Quattro Leoni (paid for!) to eat lunch...again...I'm getting graded to eat at fancy restaurants and try to order in Italian. This was my meal --- it was two or three crepes filled with spinach and mozzarella and then baked and covered in melted cheese...mmm!

I ate most of it -- I'm trying to be adventuresome.

We continued down and met our entire group + Robbie, Dr. Garner, Mona Lee, Dr. Hopper, etc and put on our whisperers (headphones that allow us to hear whomever is talking on the lead one) and took a tour of the religious center of Florence. We went to the baptistry, Santa Maria del Fiore (il Duomo) and the Museum of the works of the Duomo. At one point Carla our tour guide for the day led us down a side street to the workshop where they do all the restoration of the marble exterior and any other statue/exterior decoration. You could see inside where they were making replicas and doing repairs. As we turned back to the dome I was able to get this awesome shot -

I mean, I'll have hundreds of shots of the Duomo before it's all said and done with, but I thought this one was particularly neat.

By about 6 we were done with the group stuff so Leigh, Libby and I roamed the stores and went to a Caffe/Panini place and had awesome croissants and fantastic....gelato!
We went to the Odeon Cinema where they show English movies with Italian Sub-titles and we saw The Bucket List...the movie was okay but the best part was...

the theater! This photo doesn't nearly do it justice. I have many more pictures of it. It was very very grand. And there was even an intermission! It was neat.

After chasing some buses we made it back to the villa. I know we walked tons yesterday. Last time we were in Florence for 6 or 8 hours and we walked 15 miles... (a pedometer was worn)...so no telling yesterday!

Ciao!

chasing buses is tiresome.

I left for Florence at 8 am this morning and didn't return to the villa until almost 11:30 pm.
I am exhausted.
Lots of neat neat things happened today.

Look for a nice update when you get up tomorrow!
ciao!

an artsy day.

How many times in your life do you have the opportunity to be surrounded by people like the ones I'm currently surrounded by?
Let me give you a little big of an explanation.

Robbie Shackelford and his wife Mona are directors of the HUF program. Robbie lived in Scandicci from age 8-15 and then went to Searcy to graduate high school and attend college - Mona is from LR, ARK. Robbie's dad started the HUF program through Harding in 1985 (I think).
Anyhow, Robbie is a brilliant painter. The school just recently had 2 galas (one in LR and one in Dallas) to raise money for international programs and some of Robbie's painting were selling for several thousands of dollars.

Also here at the villa til Friday (and then returning other times in the semester) is Dr. Jeff Hopper...an awesome pianist. He's played all over the world...Europe, Asia, USA...you name it.

Well, Robbie knows a man named Ricky who is a FOR REAL hip-hop dancer and he used to live in Florence but now he lives in Helsinki where he teaches dance at a big school of dance; His girlfriend Essie is from Helsinki and she's a European champion Irish dancer.

Then, Robbie also knows a painter from San Gimigniano (can't spell that!) and invited all these people to lunch today.
We had a dance demonstration!!!

After lunch, Dr. Hopper sat down to play the piano...and we were surrounded by all these fantastic artists and nationalities!!

And, tonight Marc Brown who is an Opera Tenor is coming to sing at the villa. He sings leads in big operas all over Europe. It's going to be so impressive...

What a blessing.

santo, santo, santo.

We caught the bus into Florence this morning around 9:30 and met for church there.
We came in and Robbie announced about us and we sang songs for a while in English and in Italian. Robbie would lead the 1 and 3 in English and then the 2 and 4 in Italian...it was a neat way to 'learn' the language. Don't worry, they use Songs of Faith and Praise even in Firenze ;]

We got a surprise during communion - well, not a surprise per se, but it was pretty gross. The 'fruit of the vine' was for sure fruit of the vine and man it was some nasty wine. Oh well.

Today was the last Sunday for the directors of Avanti! Italia (a missionary program/Bible school here in Florence) who had been there for 5 years. Their 'contract' of sorts is up and the Woodroof's (she was my ASL teacher) are in language school right now and are officially taking up their position tomorrow when the Williams leave - as new directors.
Anyhow, the church very obviously loved Gary. He got up to begin preaching and he told us that he would be preaching in Italian only because it was his last Sunday to preach to the Florentine church. So, I obviously couldn't understand - but I did know he was talking about Hebrews 11-13 (only because he told us). But, towards the end I was able to pick out words -- esp. when he had visual aids!
He brought his suitcase up front and put three pieces of paper inside; "la fedes, la esperanza, la amore" (faith hope and love!) those were the only 3 I caught. As we sang the last few songs the whole church (there were probably 70 people there total) gathered around the Williams and all the Italians were singing their hearts out and just weeping because they were losing their dear friends. I didn't even know these people and I was ready to cry!

We met a little girl at the church today named Mikayla who is 7 or 8 I think. She is mentally retarded. However, she made all of us feel so small today when she told us how much she loved Ariel...in English and then turned and spoke to her father...in Italian. It's amazing how brilliant this little girl is in such an unconventional way.

oh, here's our church! it's beautiful!


Leigh and I tricked Libby tonight and told her we were going into Scandicci to explore and we ended up taking her to Gallo's (an awesome pizzeria) and the 4 boys were friends with showed up as well and we celebrated her birthday which is tomorrow. We went big - which we haven't done since being here...and all got a pizza and tiramisu and a nutella calzone; we just split all this food and it was fantastic.
The pizzas are realllllly really thin and have fresh tomato sauce and lots of cheese and are very crispy.


until next time, ciao!

benvenuto!

Classes started today. They're going to be great.
We began at 8 this morning in the classroom with "Good Morning Baltimore" from HairSpray and Dr. Garner dancing all over the room as he handed out papers. What a fantastic study of Paul we are going to do -- more than anything we're going to study how the letters he wrote and the things he said have had an affect on the modern world.
Italian was great - Mona has a beautiful Italian voice even though she's not a native speaker.

After lunch we put on real clothes and Leigh, Libby and I made the trek down the hill and then to the outskirts of Scandicci and caught bus #16 and rode into Florence. We went to the San Lorenzo market -- our first adventure just us girls.
Leigh and I met a younger (mid-thirties) Italian man and his father who owned a leather shop and they taught us all about the qualities of leather and for which kind you have to actually enter the store to get.
We bought scarves and practiced our Italian on the vendors. One vendor asked Leigh how she was in Italian and she replied "bueno." And he looked at her and just said - "Umm, that's spanish!" and chuckled. He then taught us the right way to say "fine thank you and you?", "nice to meet you" and several other phrases.
We used the poco (little) we learned today to tell him our names and explained that we were American students.

The vendors - the Italian ones at least - are nice and are happy to have you practice the language on them. They are eager to share their products with you, especially if it is a family business.

We went and got cappucinoes and cacao latte caldo (Hot chocolate milk) and caught the bus to get back to the villa. We made it up the hill in record time - only 12 or 13 minutes just to find a wonderful supper waiting for us. After dinner, we had a "Benvenuto" party which means welcome. We played TONS of icebreaker games and silly games and sang silly songs and had an "indoor scavenger hunt" and just enjoyed fellowshipping with one another.

At the end we sang "What a Wonderful World" by Louis Armstrong - what a beautiful world it really is!

OH! The group has an optional ski trip in a couple of weeks. It costs 160 Euros and a group of about 7of us just don't want to pay that to go sit and learn how to ski so we're going to use those 2 and a half or three days to do a day trip to Venice, then onto Milan and then Genoa and back to Florence. It's going to be our first real "European Adventure" and I'm sure it will be great.

Ciao!!

the journey continues...

and never uneventfully!
This morning we walked down the hill and caught bus #16 and rode into Florence. Now, the only way I can describe riding the bus in Italy is that it feels much like what I imagine the Knight Bus from Harry Potter would feel like. Often I feel as though we are squeezing through tiny alleys, hopping over mopeds, screeching to a halt and taking curves on two wheels. However, we always get to our destination safely and timely - so I suppose that's all that matters.
But, these buses do tend to make people a littttle motion sick. Apparently one of our girls (who was already kind of sick anyhow with a sinus infection) threw up into a bag today right before we stopped in Florence. So, Robbie called and someone came by car and picked her up. Then, as we got off the bus we crossed the street and at the tail end of our group were 2 older men. One of them faceplanted right at the end of the crosswalk and into the sidewalk. He banged his face up really badly and there was lots of blood. Needless to say, he was not sober. But, Robbie came to his aid, made some phone calls and got it taken care of.
As soon as he sent those men on their way, we turned around to find one of our own lying on his back having sympathy fainted (that may not be it, but that's what we're calling it.)
So yes, everyone is well now - but it was an eventful morning.

I'll talk a little bit abut what we did today - besides walking over 14 miles. (One of the girls in the group decided to wear a pedometer - brilliant).
We visited several big landmarks -- to get ourselves oriented to the city. We visited all the main piazzas and then climbed what seemed to be about 1000 stairs and different steep hills to get up to a place called "Piazza del Michelangelo". There, you can see the entire city.

It feels more real now.
I know that you can find pictures and paintings of that famous view almost anywhere you want to, but seeing it in real life was much better than any piece of art I've ever seen. We stared the whole time we ate lunch, while Robbie was talking...etc.

Following that we walked up some more really steep steps (I'm telling you, I'm going to have killer thighs) to a church called San Miniato.
This church has something very unique about it. Beneath the entire church are crypts. And in the little 'room' behind the altar is San Miniato's tomb. But, every evening the monks that live in the monastery come to this room and sing Gregorian Chants.
Robbie got permission from the head priest there and our whole group went and sat in this 'room' and we had a mini-devotional.the singing there was absolutely amazing. Moving to the point of tears actually.

This is me and two of my girlfriends - Leigh and Libby.


If you want more pictures check out..
http://harding.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2062274&l=c7aaf&id=71001105

I feel like I have been here for a couple of weeks rather than less than 48 hours.
Waking up this morning and looking out the window made everything much more real.

It is beautiful here - hills, cypress trees and umbrella pines are everywhere. Rooftops and buildings are all orange/red/brown colors - it makes for some very nice photos.

We had orientation this morning and we learned our first bit of Italian...we sang this song.
"Ti amo con l'amor di Gesu, io vede in te la gloria del mio Re, e Ti amo con l'amor di Gesu."
Can you guess it?!

We then took the long walk down the hill to the bus stop for bus #27 and went in to Scandicci. There we went to Caffe Mario and told Mario "Vorrei un cappucino." (I would like a cappucino) Unfortunately, I still do not like coffee.
We found the Scandicci public library, an Italian cinema (showing American movies) and a big Wal-Mart type store that was impossible to exit from.

But, we did learn one thing from Mona Lee (Dr. Garner's wife) today... don't just assume that if it is silver, you can swipe your card, and it has numbers on it that it means it dispenses money...

About 8 of us decided to go on into Florence tonight after Robbie left us in Scandicci. I'm so glad we did! We had to chase down 2 buses, ask about 23984 people where the bus was (the stop was moved) and finally arrived in Florence - and eventually the Duomo.

As my mom likes to say, "Orient the map to the ground!" so we did - and we weren't lost.

Tomorrow, Robbie our fearless leader will give us a walking tour of Florence.
Pictures to come soon.

So, I'm pretty sure it's Wednesday...

Finally, after almost 24 hours of travel we arrived at the Villa.
It seemed as though we would never get here!

Overall, the plane travel was fantastic. I was lucky enough to sit with my friends Tyler and Libby on the 8 hour flight and then on the flight from Amsterdam to Rome I sat next to a nice Dutch man who was on his way to Rome for a conference for Roman History/Classics professors. I got a nice view of American Politics from the outside and I learned plenty about Dutch politics as well.

When we arrived in Rome we were greeted with this face...(I Hope it shows up)


That's Kyle the Assistant Director of HUF.

Unfortunately, we did not make it to Scandicci before dark...so, our first walk up the hill (which is quite a trek!) was in the dark. But, we made the most of it and that means it will be that much more impressive tomorrow.
The house is beautiful. I'm in a room with 4 other girls and we have a bathroom right outside the room which is very convenient.
We had dinner and filled out a bunch of forms tonight; in the morning we rise early for breakfast and off on our first trip into town together.

Dr Weaver - Don't worry, I hugged Mona and Robbie immediately.

Sidenote: On the way to Florence as we were driving through Tuscany I heard someone ask, "Which mountains are these?" And I (almost just out of habit) said, "The Apennines." I think Latin did me some good.

it's that time.

I will depart from Nashville tomorrow around 1:15. I should arrive in Rome around 5:00 AM (CST) on Wednesday.

We've been waiting for this day for a long time - and, now that it is here it seems unreal.
If you have the urge to send me some snail mail, send me an email (mellis2@harding.edu) and i'll give the address to you.

until then, Ciao!

2 weeks from now!

In two weeks I will be in Scandicci (Florence), Toscana, Italia.

The name of this blog is "Mi chiamo Molly" (pronounced 'me key-ah-mo molly' or dr. weaver, in IPA 'mi kiamoʊ maɫli') which literally means "I call myself Molly."