Lorenzo dei Medici

Well, as I suspected, the weeks are zooming by! This week we have mostly been taking care of housekeeping items.

Monday, we had an orientation meeting for Avanti, in which several former Avanti workers that are still living in Italy came and talked to us and gave us advice. Kelly, Sarah, and Julie all had really good information for us. Chad talked to us some from a more recent perspective - about things he wishes he'd done differently, etc.

On Tuesday, we spent the day getting the packets that we needed to apply for our "permesso di sogiorno", and also Dad took Jill and I into Florence so that we could take our language test! Ahhh! I was a little bit nervous, as I think was she, because it has been over a year since we have taken Italian. This test was to determine our level and which class they would put us in. We both did well enough, apparently, because we were placed in Intermezzo 3 - the last intermediate class before the advanced.

Wednesday was full of shopping - we got groceries to last us for a while, and also we went to IKEA for things we needed for our rooms. May I just say, that one of my favorite things to eat here is the yogurt? I'm just sayin'. Bianco dolce. :) Although I'm pretty sure it's imported from Germany. Boh. We also had the pleasure of welcoming Phyllis and Liz (aka "Phiz" or "Lyllis" according to Kyle) to Florence. They travel here often, and have made several friends here over the years. They are so much fun!

Thursday was full of errands as well. Phew. We had breakfast with David Shack, who had arrived the night before. He will be around for a while, and it was good to see him here. We put Chad on the plane back to Catania, had a panino and then filed our permesso di soggiorno, which is done at the post office here along with paying bills and many other different things. That done, Jill and I went back to Florence to officially register with Lorenzo dei Medici language school - also to pay for it. ha. We begin classes bright and early on Monday morning. We have two two-hour sessions - the first with Luca, and the second with Silvia. I don't know them yet, but we are on a first name basis already.

We spent most of today cleaning up around the Bible School. We had to clean all the rooms upstairs, since we had many guests from the Convegno staying here. Also, Dad is in the middle of repainting the walls of the classroom downstairs, which is quite a job here. You have to scrape the former paint and plaster off, re-plaster, then sand, brush the walls down, primer, then paint. So far we have two walls down to the "brushing the walls down", so next time we will be able to primer. Woohoo!

Mona and Jonathan Shackelford are both set to arrive this week, so we are excited for that. Also the HUF students are due in about two weeks I believe. Jill and I are hoping to do a few service projects with them every semester to get involved more with the Scandicci community. Anyway, big things are happening soon, and we appreciate all your prayers, thoughts, and support. Love to everyone!