Foood...Glorious Food!! :)

Mar 2nd

Ok, so I am utterly in love with Italy! I feel like singing at the top of my lungs just like Oliver…foooood…glorious fooood! Ha :) Not just the food, but the sights, the people, everything has been amazing and it is just the beginning. Today was a lot to take in but overall amazing so I’m just gonna give you the details. This morning I learned a little bit about the Italian bureaucracy by filling out our permits to sojourn, which allows us to travel around Italy and be “residents” while we are here. The forms were all in Italian so that was some good Italian practice. Class was really good today and we normally have a 12 minute break during the middle of class and that is the time that Dr. Skillen says it takes to walk down the street to the Bar San Paolo and down a cappuccino and come back, but today we only had a 10 minute break, but a few of us decided to book it down to the bar for a really quick cappuccino. (you just stand at the bar and down it really quickly so that you don’t have to pay extra to sit…it’s the norm just to drink it very quickly) Yeah, I will be extremely addicted to coffee by the end of this semester. Lol. After class and the chapter meeting was over we went for Pranzo(lunch) which was delicious today. Ok, so we started out with a smaller ziti with mushrooms in a creamy sauce that was full of herbs and a maze ing…I think I might have had three bowls of it. Ok, not gonna lie I don’t think. I know. Ha. Then we had these amazing meatballs that were in some white sauce and some really fresh and flavorful green beans. Probably my favorite lunch so far… After lunch I went downstairs to the chapel in the monastery that is empty and echoes quite a bit…just a sweet place of solitude. Anyway, that was some good God time. Then at 3 we all went to the Biblioteca(library). They have free wifi and it was very trendy and modern inside, I will definitely be going there quite a bit. Not for the wifi, but just because it was warm and quiet and just a neat atmosphere because it is like an old Franciscan monastery that has been renovated and is decorated with art deco stuff and just seems like a cool place to hang out. They have a sweet balcony that overlooks the valley that I will definitely be frequenting when it warms up as well. Ok, sorry, we went to the library because there is a really sweet cinema in there that has the special sound proofing and it is supposedly like one of the best viewing places for movies…audio engineers designed it to be perfect or something. It is really fancy and high-tech…never seen anything quite like it in the states. Anyway, Prof. Doll knows the head of the library(we have had student art exhibits in the library in the past…etc.) and so we are able to go in there and see films whenever we want for free. :) Today we saw The Bicycle Thief. I would highly recommend it. It is not a feel good, light, happy film although it has it’s very humorous parts. I will not give it away, but it is an older Italian film that makes you think. Very thought provoking. We came back from the movie and then we had a few optional things of which I did all of the above so here goes. First we went to Vespers at Buon Gesu. This was a unique but very awesome experience. Interjection – I have a decent head knowledge of how Catholicism differs from Protestantism, but I feel like I have a lot to learn and am eager to understand more the hearts of the Catholics and just the way they think and reason through their faith. Alright, so Buon Gesu is this convent / public chapel across town. Beautiful inside. We sit down in the wooden pews right as the nuns are starting to come out of the side door. First off they have their own section in front that is completely (almost caged in) fenced off from the public seating in the back. They do Vespers every night supposedly. So like 15-20 nuns come out looking like they were straight from Sister Act and do the whole father, son, holy ghost thing kneeling in front before they take their seats. The service was a mix of repeat after me with all the nuns following the head nun and also singing. Some of the singing was Gregorian chant style and some was like absolutely beautiful to the point that it almost brought me to tears a few times a cappella harmonizing stuff that was amazing. Then there were several pauses for silence when I think you were supposed to pray which is what I did which was very cool. Like in this cathedral/chapel/whatever you call it when everyone is quiet there is this reverence and air to the whole place which is unbelievable. So, at first I was just looking around like in tourist mode and then I was like, God, during the course of the next four months I want to really see these people through your eyes. I want to understand what makes them tick and also just what is my role here with them. Is it merely to learn about them, or should I do something? Anyway, you walked out of there just like in reverence for God and just…wow. Then Catholic culture we walked directly from the Vespers service to the Preghiera(prayer or praise) at San Bernardino chapel(beautiful interior as well). San Bernardino is a more Pentecostal Catholic denomination sort of. They had acoustic guitar, bass, a few microphones for singers and a few tambourines and shakers. The worship was amazing there. It was not your typical Pentecostal type very eccentric worship, but was a mix between some fairly contemporary acoustic driven worship and also like sweet a cappella harmonization. I hummed along with the music and even just tried to sing along with some of it because I couldn’t help but to join in to this beautiful music. The sense of community and passion in their worship was so cool to see. During the worship a lady walks in the doors and down the aisle and is kissing and hugging excitedly many of the people she passes along the way…pinching a little boy’s cheek in his moms arms…truly experiencing the joy of community and seeing the love amongst the congregation. At some points in worship there were like not just one harmony, but like maybe 5 or 6 different notes, words, rhythms all blended together to create a beautiful sound. I wish I could put the beauty into words, but it was some of the most gorgeous and passionate worship music I have ever been a part of. There were majors and minors sometimes blended together at the same time and notes that would normally create dissonance were all blended together nicely enough that it was gorgeous. To think that heaven will be even great than that really excites me. So then the sermon was really cool too. It was all in Italian, but tonight was the first time where I was feeling like I was at least getting the gist of like every 1 in 3 sentences ish…so I was able to see where he was going with his sermon and it was really cool. He didn’t read his sermon and he was very passionate…used the informal forms of verbs in speaking with his congregation and really seemed to engage us. When I saw us I saw that because at the beginning of the sermon he addressed it to the Gentile, the Old, the young, the estudiante(students/us), and tutti(all). K, so this was the first Catholic priest that has actually engaged his congregation with a passionate and meaningful sermon that I have ever seen…it was cool. It gave me a different outlook on Catholicism. I want to learn a lot about it. K, sorry that was a lot, but it was a really awesome experience and I can’t wait to frequent that church. Now comes dinner. We had legit Italian pizza after pizza after pizza. Wow. K, plain cheese(not really…actually like legit Italian cheese that is delicious with delicious homemade tomato sauce..etc..herbs…homemade everything…etc. WOW), potato(yeah you heard that right) and prosciutto(smoked super think bacon type thing) and some white sauce…sounds different but amazing…olive and like a very strong cheese…I had a bunch of pizza…as soon as we finished one they brought out another and it was a different type. So good. Then after we were done with our pizza they brought out tiramisu. (in Italian it literally means pick me up because of the espresso that is in it) I have had tiramisu several times in the states and have thought it was pretty good a couple times I have had it, but often it is dry and doesn’t seem very flavorful…Oh wow did I have a bad impression of tiramisu….this stuff was like died and gone to heaven. So chocolaty and have some much coffee flavor as well…not too rich, but just right…left me wishing I could hide my plate and act like I didn’t get any so I could get another piece….wow. This is a long blog and I think that people might stop reading it after this one, but I promise to try and keep them a reasonable length, but today was so awesome I wanted to get everything down on the page. It is like midnight here now though on Wednesday and I still have not gotten to writing yesterdays blog and I know there is some stuff from yesterday that I will forget by next time I write, but I need to go to bed because I am getting up at 7 to go the Thursday local market before class starts. Fresh fruits and all kinds of cheap goods :) K Ciao for now!