This is the beginning of my third week of school here in Italy. I feel like I’ve done so much, but when I try to sit down and think about it, my mind just wants to chill out and not think about anything. Weird, huh? Well I have done a lot of things, living in Orvieto has definitely been fun. I feel like I’m getting used to really being here and living in this town. I definitely noticed today when there were more tourists than usual. Its pretty cool to be a resident here, even if it is only for a few months.

I’m going to try to give a few little snapshots of parts of my life here.

My apartment is on a really small street. When we first got here I didn’t think that cars were allowed to drive on it, but a few seconds later that thought was thrown out the window. All sorts of traffic constantly comes flying down our little street. Our front door is fairly thin, so it doesn’t really insulate from the sound on the street. This also means that when Italians walk past our door, it sounds like they’re hanging out in our living room. (the apartment is all tile, so sound carries really well).

In the mornings, I usually step outside into our courtyard to see what the temperature feels like for the day. A few days ago, a lady who lives in one of the windows up above our courtyard stuck her head out and said hi to me. She doesn’t speak any English, so I spoke some Italian to her, but she still didn’t understand me! I thought that was weird, so I just left. But she seems nice.

Our landlord bakes us something new every week. She comes and cleans on Wendesday afternoons and always leaves us a fresh new dessert. It is amazing. She doesn’t speak English either, so I am the one she talks to. I can usually understand what she’s saying. She is so incredibly nice. She is the Italian version of Aunt Ramona. For sure.

At an internet café last night, two women sat down at my table. After a few minutes I noticed them speaking Russian. As those of you who know me can imagine, I got pretty excited. I thought,“Russian! Dude that’s so sweet!” So I preceded to ask them in Russian if they spoke Russian (which seems kinda dumb when you think about it). They got excited and said yes, yes, they speak Russian. I have lost some of my Russian language skills I guess, because I couldn’t really understand them. They spoke Italian very well, so we continued our conversation in Italian, with some Russian mixed in there. As you can imagine, that was really fun for me.

So, we went to Florence last weekend. That was ok, here are some pictures.

The interior of the dome of the Duomo (cathedral) of Florence

The campanile (bell tower) of the Duomo. This should look familiar to my old Europe travel buddies.

This small church is associated with Dante, the famous Florentine writer, who wrote the Divine Comedy. This is where he met that girl who inspired him to write the story, Beatrice

For all you literary buffs, this is Dante's house, just a block or so away from that church.

Shannon, I thought you would like this; this is the tomb of Galileo Galilei, in the church of Santa Croce.

On Saturday, I had all-day cooking fest with a world-famous chef here in Orvieto. It was amazing. I ate so much food all day long. I also got to work in the kitchen. I made some delicious dessert pastry ball things. It was a good day.

This is the best cup of cappucino that I have EVER had in my life, EVER. period.

Tommy's excited about cooking. (he's my room mate. literally)

Some of us cooking, with the master Chef in the center.

This is what we looked like after a 6 course lunch. I was so incredibly full. But I feel like my family has prepared me well for times such as this. I was able to eat pretty much all day and didn't feel too bad. Thanks family!



Here are those delicious dessert pastry sugar ball things. OHH MAN.

In other news, I have a guitar now! The pastor of the church asked me if I would like to borrow it. As you can imagine, I said yes! I’m going to play a worship song there soon, now I just have to choose which one I want to play. It is so amazing to be going that church. God is amazing. He is so present here. And he speaks Italian.