Due Anni da Favola

Mischief Managed.

2011-08-21T09:53:00.000-07:00

Well, I realize that I start almost every blog similarly, but I can't believe that TWO YEARS have already passed.

Two years ago I was met at the Rome airport by my dad and Kyle Thompson, taken directly to the Italy-wide church retreat in Florence, and the immersion began. Then I couldn't know how many blessings I would receive, how many wonderful people and friends I would meet, how many unforgettable memories I would make, or how much I would change...but as I met the church members that first weekend, it did give me a glimpse of what was to come. And now it has become a bookend of my time here, as my last activity as a member of Avanti Italia was the August retreat.

Now it is strange to think back to that time when we were strangers...now that they are friends, camp buddies, family, teachers, students. I can't even begin to try to describe my experience here with words, but I hope that people will understand somewhat of what it was like by how much I've changed. I can say for a fact that I am a better person for having been here. I give credit for that to God, my parents, my students, the Italian church, my fellow avanti workers and all those here who have loved, encouraged and supported me, such as Robbie and Mona Shackelford.

It is such a bittersweet time to be leaving my life here, which I love. But I am also excited for the new experiences that are to come, and I will take my love of Italy and all that it has meant with me.

I know I also end my blogs similarly, but that is just because it has been so important to say. Thank you all for your support and encouragement throughout this time, which has made you as much a part of this work as it has me. May God bless you! Vi voglio bene!

Italiano:

Mi rendo conto che comincio ogni blog nella stessa maniera, ma non ci posso credere che sono gia passati DUE ANNI!

Due anni fa mio padre e Kyle sono venuti a prendermi dall'aeroporto a Roma, e sono stata direttamente portata al convegno d'agosto 2009 a Firenze. Così e' cominciata l'immersione. A quel tempo non riuscivo a sapere quante benedizioni riceverei, quante persone favolose e amici cari conoscerei, quanti ricordi indimenticabili avrei, quanto mi avrebbero cambiata...ma mentre stavo fra i fratelli quel fine settimana, avevo un idea di quello che potevo aspettare. Ora il convegno e' diventato un tipo di fermalibro, vedendo che il mio ultimo attività' con Avanti Italia/La Scuola Biblica e' stato il convegno d'agosto 2011.

Oggi e' strano pensare al fatto che in quei tempi eravamo estranei, ora che siete amici, compagni dal campeggio, insegnanti, studenti. Non riesco neanche a cominciare a descrivere la mia esperienza usando delle parole, ma spero che la gente ne capisca una piccola parte vedendo come sono stata cambiata. Posso dire senza dubbio che essendo qua sono diventata una persona migliore, grazie a Dio, ai miei genitori, ai miei studenti, la comunità' della chiesa di cristo, agli altri ragazzi dell'Avanti Italia, e a tutti quelli che mi hanno amata e incoraggiata, come Robbie e Mona Shackelford.

E' una cosa agrodolce, dover lasciare la vita qua che amo, ma sono anche pronta per le nuove esperienze che stanno per realizzare. Porterò con me il mio amore dell'Italia e tutto quello che mene rende così speciale.

So anche che i miei blog finiscono in una maniera similare, ma questo e' perche' viene detta una cosa importante. Grazie a tutti voi del vostro incoraggiamento durante questi due anni che ti rende una parte integrale del mio lavoro. Che Dio vi benedica! Vi voglio bene!

Spring.

2011-06-10T10:45:00.000-07:00

The title of this post is also the title of a poem of mine that I wrote while I was in the third grade. Amazingly, the poem was about spring. And a bird. Flying. It was pure genius. So much so that they published it in a book, along with other third grade literary masterpieces. You should find that book and buy it. For my poem alone it would be worth it.

We have finished our individual classes for the semester, due to our rather hectic summer schedule. It is sad knowing that I won't be teaching them again next year - sad and strange! But I have had a wonderful time not only teaching them English but also becoming their friends. I love my students, past and present!

The first weekend after our classes ended we hosted our second youth weekend here at the Bible School for all the youth of the churches in Italy. We had young people from all over Italy - Rome, Aprilia, Florence, Naples, and Ferrara. It was wonderful! We tripled the number attending from the first event, and we had 15 Italian young people involved. And that was just the ones who stayed at the Bible School. Several of our students came and were involved in different aspects of the weekend. The first night we combined our English student activity with the youth retreat and played life-sized Clue, amazingly organized by Angela. It was very fun and mysterious. The Avanti workers were all characters from the game, and the students and youth had to rotate through different stations trying to guess who the 'murderer' was. It was also great to have the opportunity to introduce our students to some of the young people who are members of the church. Saturday we spent the whole day at a National Park called Vallombrosa. We played volleyball and frisbee and had a picnic lunch. We also took an hour, broke into groups, and worked on translating the song "Light the Fire" into Italian. As we were packing up to leave, the thunderclouds were rolling in - we barely made it to the cars before it started pouring. We left just in time. It also hailed on the way back home - very strange weather. Sunday was very special. My grandfather, Jim Woodroof, was here visiting, so naturally he was asked to preach every sunday that he was here. He preached at the Florence church that weekend and asked my student Lorenzo to translate. It was so great to see Lorenzo and his parents, Sandro and Chiara, at church with us. And they weren't the only visitors! We also had our group of youth that was visiting, as well as the newly arrived HUF students. Plus, Rosa, who kindly and wonderfully cooks for us, and her husband Felice surprised us there. I have never seen the Florence church so full - what a great feeling. So many young people, and such wonderful singing.

Also new, a group of Harding athletes arrived on May 31st, who will be here through the entire month of June. We are being kept busy cooking and cleaning for them, and they are a great group. We're having fun getting to know them. We are also getting ready to host a few more events, such as a VBS at the Florence church on June 18th, two kids' days in july to practice English during the summer, an afternoon of sports with our students, as well as continuing to hold movie nights throughout the summer. Several of the Avanti workers are also leaving for camp for two weeks starting on June 26th. We will be counselors, teachers, activity leaders, and (at least Ryan and Laura) nurses. I had a wonderful experience at camp last year, and it really enable me to get to know a lot of the kids better and to build relationships with them. I can't wait to go back!

Thank you for your thoughts and prayers - they mean so much to us!

Tutto a posto...everything in its place...?

2011-04-27T10:50:00.000-07:00

I feel the need to inform anyone and everyone of one little phrase in Italian. Tutto a posto. Literally translated I would say it means "all in place". They use it like "Is everything going okay?" And the response is "Si, tutto a posto" - "Yes, everything's going okay." Just a little edition to enrich your Italian vocabulary, and one that I didn't know after having studied Italian for two years! :)

Well, we're coming up on the season of change....spring. The Harding students from the spring semester have come and gone - we will miss them! They were a great group, and I feel like we got to know them well. We've had several visitors come through already, such as Ivo, Danny & Bernetta Crow, Rhetta Dean, Mark Slagle, Jeff Hopper, to name a few, and many more to come. My grandaddy arrives tomorrow morning, and he will be staying a month or so, helping dad out with some repairs to the school and preaching every Sunday that he's here (surprise, surprise!).

All of the Avanti workers attended a youth retreat last Saturday in Bologna. It was really great - there were about 40 young people in attendance. The retreat lasted from Friday to Monday, but we were only able to go on Saturday. Franco Verardi spoke and presented some thoughts, and then we all discussed them.

Monday was the Day of Liberation from Fascism here in Italy, which is a national holiday. Andrea, Angela and I (being part of the world-renowned Scandicci band) played in a parade that morning and then a concert that evening. We had quite a crowd following us for the parade, which finished in a cemetery where the soldiers who died in the war for liberation were buried. It was a great day.

We are wrapping up our regular classes for the school year on May 18th. Our summer schedule is a little different than the rest of the year, and it is hard to keep a regular schedule. We have a group of athletes from Harding that are coming to stay for a month at the Bible School, so we will be kept busy cooking, cleaning, and helping them out. They will be here until the end of June. The last week in June and the first week of July is the kids' summer camp. Ryan, Laura, Angela and I will all be participating this year as counselors and Bible class teachers, as well as activity group leaders. Laura and Ryan will also be the camp nurses. I had a really good experience with camp last year and felt like I really got to know the kids better because of it, so I'm looking forward to returning this year. Also Ryan and Laura have begun planning a VBS for around June 18th for the cities of Florence, Prato, and Pistoia. The theme will be "The Armor of God".

There's not much new going on outside of that - just our normal schedule and activities. Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers! I love you!

"Red fish, red fish, in the sea" and "Little Boat on the Water"

2011-04-04T14:50:00.000-07:00

..... two enormous hits with the kids at the daycare - something incredible, seeing as I made them up on the spot about two minutes before teaching them to the kiddies. Simple is best! Cheesy is better! :) Everything is going great here in Scandicci, our classes are as full as ever and our new activity schedule is a big hit. I'd say we average at least 10 students at movie night, 7 students at Book Club, and Cooking USA is overflowing - usually about 15 students or so. Game Night is the only area that's taking a while to catch on, but we're not giving up on it!

So much to tell about. Back in February we participated in the women's convegno which was held in Velletri, a town near Rome. It was wonderful to spend time with women from all over Italy and all over the world. We had about 55 participants, and this year our theme was "The Beatitudes of Our Time". We broke into 8 discussion groups (one for each beatitude) and there were two group leaders per group to guide the conversation. Ermenita and I were group leaders together, and we were responsible for "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness...". Everyone had great things to say and interesting comments to jumpstart our thinking caps.

We said "goodbye" to the two married couples, Eric and Jessica and Ryan and Laura. I say "goodbye", because Ryan and Laura didn't really go anywhere. They moved into an apartment in Brozzi, a suburb of Florence and are still working with the church in Florence. We get to see them all the time still! :) Jessica and Eric moved down to Taranto to work with the churches in that area. From what I hear they are doing really well down there and the people love them. We miss them around here though!

Because of some repairs going on at the villa, we had Harding students living with us at the Bible School this semester, which was different and fun. They were great to have around - we're gonna miss them too!

We just have about a month and a half of classes left until we break for the summer, so we're trying to make these last 6 weeks count. Thanks to everyone for the encouragement that we get from all of you! We appreciate your thoughts and prayers!

Away We Go!

2011-01-24T03:12:00.000-08:00

Hello to all!

Everyone is back from the holidays, and all hands are on deck! We each had a good time to rest and relax and get ready to dive back in. We are starting up the individual and group English/Bible classes again, but I also wanted to let you all know about some of the activities that we are planning for this coming Spring semester at the Bible School.

We are starting a rotation schedule of activities that our students can participate in and I think it's going to be a lot of fun - not only for them but for us too! Here is a small summary of what each even will be:

Movie Night – We will be showing a movie in English with Italian subtitles.
Possibility of a short quiz after the movie is over! (Ryan, Peter) 1st Friday of the month

Cooking USA – Learn to cook yummy American dishes – and eat them too!
Monthly fee: €7 (Debbie, Laura, Ermenita) 2nd Friday of the month

Game Night – Play games of all sorts with native English speakers!
(Angela, Eric, Jessica) 3rd Friday of the month

Book Club – We will be reading and discussing the book The Pearl by
John Steinbeck, a well-known American author. (Emily, Andrea) 4th Friday of the month

We also will be participating in the Women's Retreat in February, which will be held in Nettuno, a town near Rome. Laura and Ryan Stephens have been invited by the Florence church to remain and work with the congregation here, focusing on evangelization - especially towards young, college-age people. They have many projects that they have thought up and would like to start working on, so we will be participating in those events as well.

Eric and Jessica Smith have made the decision to move down to Taranto in Puglia (the bootheel of Italy), and they will be working with the congregations down there. They will be leaving at the end of February, and we will miss them!

Also, I have recently become aware that I have never really told anything about my students, so I would like to kind of introduce you to them and ask for your prayers as we study and spend time together.

Daniela - She is a receptionist at the Community Theater in downtown Florence. She studied English in middle school and
hadn't studied it since when she began studying with me last year. She is about 40 years old, and both of her parents
are in bad health, which causes her to have to be at home a lot. She is a beginner, but we are seeing progress and it's
very encouraging!

Veronica - She is a tour guide licensed in English and French for the zones of Florence and Siena. She speaks very well and is
one of my more advanced students. We were invited to the wedding of her brother Samuele last summer, and we
have become good friends with their family. She also has begun teaching Art History at an American University in
Siena.

Giulia - She is a student at the University of Florence studying Physics (yikes!). She is the girlfriend/fiancee of one of my other
students - Lorenzo. She plays on a community volleyball team and has also recently become licensed as a referee for
volleyball. She speaks well, and we have some good discussions in our Bible studies.

Roberta - She has recently graduated from the University of Florence, and she is my age. We have a lot of fun together. She is a
sweet and thoughtful girl. She and her sister Renata have been coming to the Bible School for a long time, and are also
involved in many of the Activities at the Harding Villa with the students.

Anastazija - She is a licensed lawyer, but right now she is not practicing regularly. She own a ceramics shop in downtown
Florence, where she taught herself to make and decorate her own pottery - she is very talented! She also taught
herself English, which is very impressive as she speaks very well. She is from Croatia but has lived in Italy for 8 years
now.

Claudia - She is an English tutor and also owns her own company in which she sells different items that she has made from
recycled materials. She speaks English very well and is very involved in her church and youth group. She is a
wonderful person and always has good things to say. She comes to lessons with her friend Paolo.

Paolo - He and Claudia are two of my newest students, but we are getting along very well. Paolo is not quite at the level of
Claudia, but he is very intelligent and tries very hard. He works for a branch of General Electric here in Italy.

Lorenzo - He is a student at the University of Florence and is studying Languages. He speaks English (very well), Portugese,
Spanish, and has just begun studying French. He is the son of Sandro (who works at Harding's Villa) and Chiara (the
doctor for the HUF students) and just recently spent a semester studying at Harding in Searcy. He is also going to begin
tutoring me in Italian! Poor guy. :)

I would just like to ask that you keep our students and all of our activities with them in your prayers, that we may be a help, encouragement, and a good example to them. Thank you!

Home for the Holidays

2011-01-10T13:02:00.000-08:00

I spent the last four weeks traveling around, visiting family, and most of all EATING. Good grief. I don’t know if I’ll ever want to eat again.

I flew into Memphis and was met at the airport by dad. We stayed in a hotel with mom that night, and the next day we headed to Nashville to visit my sister Elizabeth. She just moved there last summer, and it was fun to see her house and meet her roommates (in real life, not just on Skype). We spent about 4 or 5 days there, spending time with her and some of my dad’s family that lives there or near there. We ate dinner at my Aunt Beth and Uncle Mark’s house with the whole gang, and it was really good to see everyone.

Then we drove through Searcy on our way to Galveston and spent one night there. In Galveston we visited my little sister and brother-in-law and their two dogs, Kira and Tripp. They have a really cute house that is about two seconds from the beach, where they go regularly with their dogs and/or surfboards. We had fun playing games and….eating. One night we made a full Italian meal – my special potato pasta, tagliata, and salad. Yum!

The next stop was Dallas (or really Flower Mound) where my mom’s family all lives. We had fun there too. We played games and…..ate. And ate some more. ☺ My uncle Tom takes us to a really nice restaurant called Texas de Brazil every year for his Christmas present to us, and it is amazing but a very dangerous all you can eat buffet. Andrea, one of the other Avanti workers, happened to be in Dallas at the same time as us and got to meet up with us for a little bit. She even brought more scarves and ties for Mom to sell at the cooking school, as did Angela.

And then we were back to Searcy! We had Woodroof Christmas in Searcy, and amazingly everyone got to come this year, except for Erica and Justin who had Christmas with Justin’s family this year. Since we are renting our house out and my grandparents sold their big house, we all stayed in the La Quinta hotel on Race Street. The first time that I remember staying in a hotel in Searcy, and a little strange. But we were very comfortable there, and we also reserved the Fellowship Room at College Church, where we played games, ate, and just spent time together. Very fun! The 3rd and 4th of January, Mom hosted another cooking school as a fundraiser for the Avanti Italia program. I believe that there were 30 in attendance the first night and 50 the second night. There was a lot to do, and she, Ermenita and all the ladies’ helping them out worked very hard. Angela even took time away from seeing her family to drive down and help out with it.
I have a special prayer request for you all – the Dawidow family in Poland (whom I stayed with for 2 weeks last December) just lost their son Mikey on January 1st to a massive heart attack. He was only around 30 years old, and he was found by his father that morning. Please pray for them in this terrible situation. They are a wonderful Christian family and give so much to others.

I’m so thankful that I had the opportunity to come home for the holidays this year. I got to see lots of my great friends and all of my family, and I feel so blessed to know that I have people that love me and are thinking about and praying for me.

November Notes

2010-11-24T01:38:00.000-08:00

Well, you can definitely tell it is finally winter here. Not by all the falling, changing leaves and crisp autumn air, but by the endless, endless rain! haha. The rain is posing a problem, as the Bible School clothes dryer is broken down - it's hard to get dry around here lately. We have an outside clothesline that we try to use as much as possible, but it rains and the clothes don't even have the chance to dry. Ah well!

This has been the month of weekend trips! The last month of October we went to Aprilia, a town about 40 minutes outside of Rome, for the youth retreat there, and it was great. The new guys got to meet a lot of people and make contacts that way, and we got to see some of the friends that we had already made. We ended up caravaning with 3 of our Italian friends - 2 from near Ferrara and 1 from Vicenza. Also Lindsay came down from Vicenza to ride with us. Harding let us borrow their van so that we could all drive down together - 9 people in the van and 5 in my little Panda car.

The very next weekend, Ryan, Laura, and I were back in the car and on our way back to Rome! They were invited to visit by the church there. We stayed at the house of Vittorio and Tonia Vitalone, who are such welcoming and gracious hosts. Their daughter Virginia and son Riccardo also made us feel very welcome. We had a great weekend - me seeing people again and they meeting them for the first time.

Then I had a weekend off of traveling. On Sunday the 14th we attended a concert organized by Robbie Shackelford that was held at the Florence church. A quartet (accompanied by a percussionist) of 2 different types of saxophones and 2 different clarinets played, and they were very good. We had lots of visitors and several of our students from the Bible School came.

Then just this last weekend, the two married couples (Ryan & Laura, Jessica & Eric) and I (driving) went to visit Vicenza. We left early Saturday morning and arrived in Vicenza by lunch time. We were invited to eat with Francesco Fergnani and his family (wife Lorenza and two daughters Miriam and Anna)....and let me just say that we ate well. A little tooooo well possibly. After lunch we drove to a nearby town to watch our friend Marco (who attended the youth weekend we held here at the Bible School) play in his soccer game. Then we drove back to Vicenza and met some of the young people from the church. We went and walked through downtown Vicenza and then ordered pizza to take back to Lindsay's apartment. We were housed by different families of the church - Jessica & Eric stayed at Marco's house, Ryan & Laura stayed with a young couple named Cristian & Sonja, and I had a sleep over with Lindsay, haha! On Sunday we attended the church service, and then Laura & Jessica went upstairs to help Lindsay with the kids' class while the rest of us stayed in the adult class. For Sunday lunch we were invited to Marco's house, and we ATE! His mother made a FANTASTIC meal that I think I am still full from to this day. We had pasta, delicious meat and potatoes in a kind of mustard sauce, spanish salad and coffee. It was a real shame that I was the one that had to drive home afterwards, because all I wanted to do it curl up and take an awesome nap!

On our agenda now are the preparations for our Thanksgiving meal. We have invited our students and some friend to eat with us Saturday night, and so now we are in the midst of grocery shopping, cleaning, and cooking in order to get ready for it. It's going to be a blast, with about 50 people in attendance. Happy Thanksgiving to everyone back stateside! We will be thinking of all our friends and family during this holiday season!

Summer goes by in a blur, and Fall is off like a shot!

2010-10-07T07:01:00.000-07:00

Well, that's definitely it for summer folks. Our classes have officially started back up, along with all of our other regular school year activities. We are all fully loaded with individual classes on Monday - Wednesday, plus this year we have added a beginners' grammar class which is offered every Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday night at 9:00pm. Last night, the teachers (Ryan, Angela, & Andrea) had about 15 students, which is pretty incredible. I was a little sad at first about not having all my old students, but I decided it would be better for them if they had a variety of teachers rather than listening to same old me all the time. :)

We've also started back up again with the English Conversation class that we teach at the Florence church building. It's every Thursday night starting at 6:30pm. We have an hour lesson with grammar and conversation, and then we offer our students a simple meal that we cook there at the church. We then invite them to stay for our Bible study - in Italian - which starts at 8:00pm. We've had good response to this class, and several of our students from this class have visited the church. One of our members is a regular student of ours - Sveta, a lady from Russia, who married an Italian (who is originally from Naples). They have an adorable 4 yr old daughter named Lisa. :) The new workers have been great in helping out with this too!

Other than our English/Bible studies at the School and the Church, we have many other activities that we are involved in. I go once a week to a nearby daycare (same one as last year) and teach English to the 3-yr-olds and the 4-yr-olds. This is a little bit of a change from last year, when it was Jillian and I both teaching only the 5-yr-old class. They are so small, and the 3-yr-olds are only just beginning to learn their colors in Italian! So we are moving slower, but this week was the first week and they did a great job paying attention and repeating what I said. Some of them were so into the coloring sheets that they colored holes right through their red apples. :) So that is my schedule for every Tuesday morning from 10 - 11:30.

Also, we are partnering with the Harding Students once a semester to have a Storytime hour at the local Scandicci library. For four consecutive weeks each semester, we teach vocabulary, read a short book, and then have an activity planned to go along with the story. It's a lot of fun, and we've had great turn-outs. This week we have 40 kids aged 5-12 registered, and we are planning on doing the stories of "The Three Little Pigs" and "Little Red Riding Hood". Harding is responsible for two of the weeks, and we are responsible for the other two weeks. And again I would like to thank those of you who have sent children's English books to donate to the library - I asked the librarian about them last week, and she said she can barely keep them on the shelves! They are so grateful for the books - they only had a few before this summer, and now they can actually have a section of them at various reading levels. Thank you!

On Monday nights, we are back to our Bible studies at the Bible School. We had our women's Bible study every Monday last year, and this year the guys have started a men's Bible study. We have several English students that are coming to the Bible studies, adn they are really a blessing to our work here. We generally meet together at 6:30pm for a simple meal and then begin our study at 8:00pm. Right now we have about 12 women and 12 men that are coming.

We have a few new additions at the Bible school. Peter arrived Tuesday, and started language school yesterday! He barely had time to breathe before he was right there in the thick of things. Also, we have a new puppy! Her name is Zoey, and she adds a lot of life and joy to the Bible School.

There is always a lot going on around here, and God is blessing our work! We have some wonderful students who are genuinely interested in studying the Bible and who have such kind, giving spirits. Thank you all for your love and support - we have such generous, wonderful people who help to make all this happen. God bless you!

The Newbies

2010-09-22T01:29:00.000-07:00

Our numbers have gone from 4 to 10, and soon to be 11!! Yes, that's right. The new workers are finally here! Angela was the first to arrive, shortly followed by Andrea, then Jessica & Eric, and the day after Laura & Ryan. So in a very short time, our daily habits and goings-on here at the Bible School have changed pretty dramatically.

Now, naturally I had some misgivings as to whether this would be a mostly positive change to our routine. It's much more difficult to manage and work with 10 people as opposed to 4, and anytime time you throw strangers into the same house to live, work, eat and breathe together there's bound to be some tension and uncomfortable situations. I was very excited for the new workers to get here, but at the same time I was a little uneasy about how it would go down.

Absolutely no reason to worry! There has been minimal if ANY conflict since they arrived! They are all wonderful, helpful, and friendly people, and I can tell already that I'm going to love working with them.

After the two girls had been here for about a week or so, and the couples 2 days and 1 day respectively, we hosted a youth retreat. I was feeling bad for the two couples - coming off an international flight, with jet-lag, and being put in a situation where you don't know anyone and don't speak the language.....you can see how it could have been stressful. But they jumped head first! They were so wonderful with the Italian kids, and fortunately many of the Italians spoke English pretty well and were glad of a chance to practice. It seems like everyone went away having had a wonderful time.

Yay for new workers! :)

Precious puppies…and their problem

2010-08-25T22:53:00.000-07:00

Oh my word. Whoever knew such a cute ball of fluff could be concealing an attitude the size the Alps and a curiousity that WILL NOT be satisfied? I’m talking puppy here, people.

Now, I’m no stranger to the puppy scene. We’ve had dogs all my life, and while I will admit that my parents and Erica were mostly responsible for the most recent ones, I also worked for a veterinarian for close to 3 years. You see a lot of puppy traffic in a vet clinic, and a lot of the clean-up and emergency trips to the vet that go hand in hand with owning an adolescent canine.

BUT. It is a WHOLE different matter actually LIVING with the puppy. Like I mentioned, I am house-sitting for a woman who is on vacation in America for about a month. Two weeks before she left, she became the owner of not just her current 4 yr old Labrador, but also of a then 3 month old Labrador puppy. And let the games begin.

She called me two days before I’m supposed to house-sit to let me know that Izzy (that’s the puppy) has eaten mouse poison, and had to go see the vet. They were pretty sure she would be okay, but I would have to take her for a check-up the following Monday. No problem, I can handle a vet’s office – albeit that an Italian vet’s office isn’t exactly like an American one, and that I don’t necessarily have all the vocabulary in that particular area. But no worries! Another learning experience.

So the owner leaves, and I begin my 4 week residence as plant-waterer and dog-feeder/trainer – because naturally she is not house-trained, being a 3 month old puppy new to the house. House-training in of itself isn’t going so badly – she is getting better and better, and it is only when she goes to the bathroom in the house while looking me in the eyes after just coming back from a 30 minute walk that I get very frustrated with that aspect.

About the 4th day on my own, I climbed the stairs to find thin glass shards throughout the hallway. Wonderful. I continue on the bedroom to discover a broken lamp complete with busted light bulb on the floor. Signing, I went back to the hallway to clean up the glass, and there was the puppy, looking at me. So I gave her a disappointed face and finger shake and scolded her, and proceeded to pick up the pieces. I guess she wanted to help me, because she snatched up a piece and swallowed it down so fast I couldn’t even react quickly enough.

Back to the vet’s office. This was on the Wednesday after the Monday when she had her check-up for the mouse poison incident. I was at the vet’s office every day that week and had to feed her a special diet of soft bread, mashed potatoes, paraffin drops, and a little bit of meat (prescribed by the veterinarian for flavor). But the danger passed thankfully, and she was her old mischievous self as soon as we got home.

She has taken on as a new personal mission the destruction of the household plants, so that’s been fun. I keep finding leaves, potting soil and stems strewn across the carpet and in unlikely places (the bed). She tried to start chewing my shoes, but after she chewed a section of my jelly shoes – BIGTIME NO!!! – and was strictly reprimanded, she hasn’t done that again. Poor jelly shoe. It will never be the same.

Even with all the chaos and confusion and cleanup, I love having them around. They are so fun, and sometimes there is nothing like having a dog for company. And so I will plod on in this discipline, mess to mess, plant to dying plant, until I overcome or am overcome!

Gone country…Italian style.

2010-08-16T02:27:00.000-07:00

Well, I’ve done it. I’ve had a major breakthrough, and I’ve done it! I can now pick, handle, wash, cut, slice, dice, purée, and stew tomatoes - without feeling nauseous!

This may not seem like a big thing to most people, but I’ve had a lifelong hate-hate relationship with those red-skinned squishy things. Not really that big of a deal in America (free country), but in Italy – land of the tomato lovers – it’s a big deal. I’d say a good 90% of their meals contain tomatoes in some form or fashion – my own personal culinary nightmare.

I don’t want you to think that I’m so immature that I just REFUSE to this poor vegetable. I honestly try to taste them once every few months or so, just in case my taste buds have changed without my knowing it. I also think that I have a slight allergy, not just an aversion, towards them. But for Italy’s sake I try.

I owe my breakthrough to my current past time of house/garden/dog-sitting for Elizabeth Whatley, the director of Pepperdine’s study abroad program in Florence. She is gone for about a month to America, and I am here to keep an eye on things while she’s gone.

She has a beautiful old, restored villa in the Tuscan hills right outside of Florence, complete with garden, flowerbeds, a small stream running through the backyard and two chocolate Labrador Retrievers. I am responsible for watering and gathering the produce from her garden, as well as taking care of the two dogs – one four years old, and one FOUR MONTHS OLD. More to come about that at a later time.

And so, I have picked cucumbers (with glee), eggplant (ignorantly – who grows eggplant in America? I think I ate it twice before I came to Italy), and the dreaded tomatoes. So there I was, with about 40 fresh, ripe tomatoes on my hands, and absolutely no idea what to do with them. Normal people would slice them up with olive oil or mozzarella cheese for a light salad, put them over lettuce, eat them sprinkled with salt. No, no, and NO! I can only eat a tomato that has been good and cooked. So I cut those babies up, blended them together, and stewed them together for 3 or 4 hours, and I made homemade pasta sauce with things right outside my back door! It was the most delicious sauce I’ve had in my entire life. ☺

Welcome to Italy

2010-08-05T00:40:00.000-07:00

So we have adopted a phrase that has helped us a lot during our transition period into the Italian lifestyle and culture....one that covers situations of many kinds, even if they are seemingly absurd and unbelievable in our American eyes. For example.

Back last July (you know, before I was even IN Italy...), I applied for my VISA to be able to come, just all part of the Avanti process, and I was told that it would take just a few weeks for them to ship my VISA (and my passport) back to me. Well, many sleepless nights and unanswered phone calls, faxes, and emails later, we arrive at the day before my departure is scheduled. Can't get a hold of anyone at the Consulate - I even try calling the Italian consulates in different states, important states, like Washington D.C. and New York. You would think powerful sounding political states like that could make things happen. Nope. Neither could my congressman. Going to sleep that night, I had pretty much lost all hope for making it out of the country the next year, let alone the next day. One thing happens to change this. My dad makes one phone call FROM Italy, gets through, and gets my VISA shipped to my aunt's house where I'm staying which arrives at 7:30am, just one small hour before I'm supposed to be at the airport.

Apparently, you're supposed to leave a self-addressed envelope when you go to fill out the application. Apparently I forgot to give one (and apparently they forgot to ask). Apparently my VISA had been ready and waiting since two days after I applied for it. Apparently they just let it sit there with my passport for company, waiting for.........? Me to call? Me to fax? Me to email? Yeah. And that was my first introduction to the phrase that says it all....

Welcome to Italy.

And there are so many things, some small, some big. You must apply for a permit of stay, waiting nine hours in a freezing waiting room to go up to the window (tricked into thinking that this is really the window you want, not just a window that gives you a number to a different wait, different window) just hand them some papers, be given another appointment time, wait 6 more hours on a different day - but oh wait the electricity is out that day so you go back another day.

Welcome to Italy.

Mom wants to paint her kitchen red, so she goes to the paint store. No, no, no, kitchens aren't supposed to be red, red is not a good color. She can have cream, white, or light gray.

Welcome to Italy.

Florence 20 years ago: Tram.
Florence 15 years ago: Tram system removed.
Florence 10 years ago: Maybe the tram wasn't such a bad thing, begin rebuilding of tram system.
Florence as of last December: Construction finalized on tram.

Welcome to Italy.

Mom had several 60 year old women offer to blowdry her hair, because they were afraid she would get sick going to sleep with her hair wet.

Welcome to Italy.

And other crazy, crazy things. But on the other hand....

Poppies in the springtime and fall...

Italian cuisine....

Tuscany.....

Downtown Florence.....

Warm, friendly people....

Welcome to Italy. :) It's worth it!

**This post is part of an effort attempting to placate a certain friend who says my blog is static (CLIFF). Follow-up critique anticipated. :)

Momenti sul Monte 2010: The Camp Longing Returns

2010-07-11T11:30:00.000-07:00

As many of you know, summer camp has been a part of my life for many years.....it all started at Camp Wyldewood when I was about 11 or 12. I was driving to the Retreat Center on my way to community basketball practice, saw that field of horses, and the rest is history. I began volunteering (really just being pesky and trying not to be in the way TOO much - this stage lasted until I was about, oh, 16) every summer at the Wyldewood stables, arriving at 7:30am and working all day doing stable-y things and also maintenance work (clearing pastures, repairing fence line) until it was time to go at about 5:30pm. And I loved it! I did this faithfully for 7 straight years, finally making it onto the glorious summer camp payroll for my last two years there, since they couldn't legally pay me until then. But I loved it and learned a lot about horses and just plain hard work.

Then I missed a few years when I went to college, spending the summers of 2004 and 2006 in a little foreign land called Italy.

I had thought my summer camp career was over - after all, as far as duration goes, I was well into retirement. I had other things going on in my life (making money for college unfortunately had to be towards the top of the list), and I wasn't even considering working at camp anymore. However, I was called out of my retirement by one Ross Cochran and the wonderful camp he directed called Camp Tahkodah to fill the position as Head Wrangler for the entire summer. Now, as much as it is denied, there exists a competitive banter between these two camps, and I accepted the job with some mixed traitorous emotions. But man, what a blessing that camp has been to me. I have met and worked with some of the most amazing people in those cabins and have made many close friendships that I know I will have for many years to come. I learned a lot about working with people and children of all ages and backgrounds, God, faith, teaching, and so many other things. Not to mention that I got to be around horses ALL day, one of my favorite pasttimes. I was very lucky.

And so, after working at Tahkodah for three consecutive summers, I had graduated college and was already looking forward toand getting ready to start my work in Italy, done with college, done with camp, and ready to start new things. I've already written about most of the things I've done since I've been here, which for the most part are things I had been expecting to do. Camp was not something I was expecting to participate in again....at least not in a counselor position. But it seems that maybe camp just has to be a part of my life!

Lindsay Walle and I were invited to be part of the staff at the Italian Church of Christ summer camp, which is not usually a service opportunity for most Avanti workers as it requires a certain level of language skill and not many workers study Italian before starting Avanti. And once again, I was so blessed by camp. The camp is held at a facility (no log cabins for italians!!) that is in the Marche mountains, on the east coast of Italy - so beautiful, and wonderful weather! I'll give you an overall setup to give you an idea of what it was like. It was divided into two, one-week sessions.

The first was for kids ages 6-13 and we had 71 participants, which means we were packed full. We were also a little understaffed - I think we had less than 20 staff members - which means a week-long marathon! This was our daily schedule:

8:00 Wake up call
8:30 Breakfast
9:00 Room Cleaning
9:30 Morning Devotional
10:00 Bible Class
11:15 Activity Period
12:45 Lunch
2:30 Rest time
3:30 Sports period #1
5:00 Snack
5:30 Sports period #2
6:45 Showers
7:45 Dinner
9:00 Evening Devotional
9:30 Evening Activity
11:00 Lights Out
11:30 Everyone Asleep

This was the schedule for both weeks, except the older kids got a little later bedtime. Our theme for the first week was "The Fruit of the Spirit". Each day we concentrated on one of the "fruits" and had a biblical story that coordinated. My responsibilities the first week were co-teaching a class (in ITALIAN, mind you!!) of 23 10-yr-olds (18 of which were energetic little males), arts & crafts (a new experience, which including planning the activities the day before), and then I was also in charge of taking the kids that didn't want to play sports on hikes during both activity periods in the afternoon. The first week was....a little more stressful than the second week, for a few reasons.

1. There were 71 kids.
2. I had to teach and communicate pretty much 24/7 in a foreign language.
3. We had no counselor orientation, so I was unaware of the fact that most of the water faucets in the building do not provide drinkable water. Oops. So some children (whom I provided with the water) and myself drank who knows what substances until I was informed of my error....on Thursday.
4. Something else that I wasn't told is that the camp is located in the middle of a National Park, and so all the bouquets of flowers we were picking for the cooks were illegal. Caught this mistake a little sooner. On Wednesday.
5. We were understaffed.

But it was so much fun, and I had some people from my church that I got a ride there with - Julie Giordano and her two girls Michelah and Deborah. The last night we had a "banquet" which consisted of grilled meats and watermelon outside, and then a end of the week show, displaying all of our many talents and projects that we had worked on during the week.

During the second week, we had 23 kids ages 13-18 and our theme was "Facing Your Giants". And let me say that I had so much fun with them, too. It is a different dynamic of fun - more like hanging out with friends most of the time. We had some excellent classes - I did not teach, but I participated as an "assistant" in the oldest class. My parents were also at the second session - Mom worked in the kitchen and Dad was a counselor like me. Dad, Roberto, and I all helped out with the Chorus/Theater group during the activity period, which was really neat. The kids recited some Psalms, and then for Chorus Dad had translated the songs "The Joy of the Lord" and the newer "Our God is and Awesome God" into Italian and we taught those to them, which they really liked. The last day two of the older boys ended up being baptized, which was wonderful. We didn't have a pool or river or any large body of water, so the men brought out an old freezer and filled it with water and that's where they were baptized. :) To make it even more special, one of the boys had almost not been allowed to come to camp on account of some past behavioral problems. He even admitted that this year he had planned on causing chaos at camp...and then to have him decide to be baptized! It was wonderful - I don't think there was a dry eye in the whole place. Then we went on to have a huge water/mud fight which was delightful. We cleaned up from that and had our cookout and talent show.

It passed so quickly, and I can't even begin to tell you every wonderful thing that happened there, but hopefully this gives you an idea of the great things that happened and how special a time it was for us all.

Tempo estivo...

2010-06-10T00:20:00.000-07:00

Well, well, well, hard to believe! Another month gone by and me not writing anything! Let's see if I can fill in some of the gap...

The new Harding group arrived about May 17th, so it's been fun getting to know them. We've already had them over for a BBQ and pictionary night - great times!

On May 24-26th, I went on a mission trip to Bondeno (close to Ferrara) and Milan with five other church members, some from the Rome area, some from Puglia down south. We met with the young people, cleaned the kids' class in Milan, and Vittorio and Franco gave a few seminars. In Milan we worked some with the three Harding girls doing the "Let's Start Talking" program, which was fun. It was a great trip - I loved getting to know my fellow travelers better, and I got to meet and help a lot of new people...not to mention practicing my Italian.

Also, we have been hosting an art group from ACU since May 31st, and they are fantastic. I've never met a sweeter, more thoughtful group of people. They insist on helping to clean up after dinner, are always very gracious and thankful, and to top it all off, a ton of fun! They spent 3 weeks in England before coming here, and they will stay in Italy based out off Florence until July 2nd, or sometime around then.

A sad thing that happened is that Jillian left to go home on June 2nd, and we really miss having her around. But we are happy for her and Travis and their new engagement, and we wish them all the best!

I'm getting ready to participate in the kids' summer camp starting June 27th for two weeks. For the first week, the younger session, I'll co-teach a Bible class and do arts and crafts with Lindsay. The second week I will be a co-teacher also teach English to the older kids. I've missed camp life, and I'm excited about experiencing it here in Italy. I know it will most likely be different from Camp Tahkodah and Camp Wyldewood or any other American camp, but it's going to be great, too!

And then one of the highlights of this past month was that Meredith came to visit me!!!! She stayed for one short, wonderful week, and I had so much fun with her. It felt so normal having her here, and I was very sad when she had to leave. Stinky David and D.C.!! Just kidding....but seriously.... ;)

And the summer's only just begun!

My First Book Tour/Into the Land of the Mafia

2010-05-12T07:51:00.001-07:00

What do you think of when you hear the words "Sicily", "Palermo", "Southern Italy", "Cannoli"..... Jim Woodroof's Southern Italy book tour, of course.

And what a tour it was! Grandaddy is here in Italy speaking about his book "Between the Rock and a Hard Place", which has recently been translated into Italian. Many churches throughout Italy requested that he come and speak to their congregation, and so a book tour was in order.

We started out our trip with the church retreat in Velletri - a small town near Rome. The retreats are sometimes the only times that we see certain people of congregations throughout the country. We had a good turnout at this retreat. Jillian, Lindsay, and I taught the kids class Saturday morning. We sang our own Italian rendition of "The Lord Told Noah" and talked about the story of Noah. Then we had all the kids draw their own ark with their favorite animals. And of course there was snack and outside play time! We had some good presenters, and also a representative from each church stood up on Saturday evening and gave an update on their respective congregations. It was a good time to find out what everyone was up to and all that they were involved in.

Sunday morning we left Velletri and drove to Aprilia, where Grandaddy preached the sermon for that morning. They have an amazing congregation - so welcoming and friendly. I always enjoy visiting there. We were invited to stay and eat with them at their potluck, or "Agape", which we did willingly! :) Then their chorus had a rehearsal, and they sang for us and did a wonderful job. Grandaddy really enjoyed that.

From Aprilia we drove on down to Naples. We arrived there at about 6 or 7 Sunday evening, and Grandaddy spoke again to the congregation there. Unfortunately that was all the time we could spend in Naples. We grabbed a pizza (and let me tell you, they deserve all the pizza-hype that they get!) and headed on to our hotel on the Amalfi coast.

Now the Amalfi coast is a beautiful place. Unfortunately, reaching it at midnight, in the rain and cold and dark, with a crazily winding road, we didn't see very much of it. We spent a peaceful night, and then left the next morning after breakfast. Still beautiful, despite the clouds!

Our next stop was the ferry! We boarded the ferry and landed in Messina on the island of Sicily. How beautiful Sicily is! It was different than I had remembered from our HUF trip there. We drove on towards Catania, stopping in Acicastello to meet Anna Maria and Alan Earhart for dinner. It was so good to see Anna Maria (whom I knew because she had lived in Florence before) and her new baby! Well, new for me...I guess he is a year old or so. :) And I met Alan for the first time. We had a good dinner with their family and then drove on to Catania to meet our host families.

Jillian and I stayed with the Cammarata family - we are good friends with their daughter Melissa, who is about our age. They were so hospitable, offering us every convenience and providing anything and more than we could ask for. Such sweet people! The next day, Melissa took us around downtown Catania, showing us the duomo, the main theater, the fresh fish market, and also her university, which is a former monastery. It felt like we were in another country, not just in the south of ours! Everything was a different artistic style from Florence - the Baroque style is very ornate and detailed. It felt a little like being in Spain. Melissa had to leave us for a few hours, so Jillian and I decided to take the tour bus around the city - which ended up only costing 5 euro! amazing!

From Catania, we went and saw some of Agrigento and the Greek temples they have there. Unfortunately, all we could do was drive through as we were short on time. Then we were on our way to Palermo. We also got a very warm welcome from the church in Catania, not to mention the best take-out pizza i've ever had in my life. :) After dinner about 10 of them walked us back to our hotel. It was so nice to meet all of them! We also took a bus tour of the city of Palermo, which is beautiful! Lots of shopping, theater, and beautiful outdoor places. We were sad to leave after only a day, but we had our reservation on the overnight ferry to Naples.

After an evening of card games and after eating a RATHER expensive dinner in the cafeteria, we all went to sleep in order to make sure we were up by the time we had to disembark. We reached Naples at about 6:30 the following morning, got in our car, and headed back to Florence! We were so glad to be at home and eating lunch with Rosa by 1:00pm.

It was a fantastic trip! We met lots of new people and visited many congregations (several of which I had never visited before). And our six-seater Fiat Multipla got us there and back, safely, soundly, and comfortably! :)

Andiamo allo zoooooo!!

2010-04-21T02:06:00.001-07:00

Well, last weekend was a crazy, fun-filled blur!

Friday, we had our usual daycare class at 10:00. However, we were planning on going to a friend's graduation from the University of Florence, and since we needed to be there by 11:45, we had planned a shorter lesson at the daycare in order to make it by bus on time. Upon arriving at the daycare, we learned that they had a guest (mom) speaker that day, and she was doing all kinds of fun, easy science experiments - e.g. baking soda/vinegar volcanos, guitars made of rubber bands and tupperware, play dough balls and boats to illustrate water displacement in relation to surface area....you know, things like that. :) So we got to see her demonstrations, which was very fun, but only left us with about 10 minutes of English time. So we taught some vegetable names and had to take off.

When we got to the graduation, we were honored to find out that traditionally just family and close friends are invited to this very intense final oral thesis presentation. The graduate has to appear in front of a panel of judges/professors and present precisely within 15 minutes a powerpoint presentation that accurately represents their yearlong project and research, as well as answer any questions the professors might have. Yikes! But Roberta did a fabulous job, receiving full points for her presentation and graduating that very day. It was a very special time for her family, and I felt touched that she had asked us to be there to share it with them.

As soon as the graduation was over, I had to hurry back to Scandicci, arriving exactly in time for my meeting at the Scandicci library. We are in the process of organizing a reading program - which will hopefully involve future HUF students - in which we will have a monthly block of weekly English book readings for the children in Scandicci at the local library. We will choose one book per week, and, with the help of the students, read a book, work on the vocabulary, and play some fun games or do some crafts that relate to the story. The meeting went very well, and I'm excited to start working on it.

And then that night I had band rehearsal.

The next day, I painted a little bit on the downstairs classroom, which we are in the middle of re-doing and which is looking eons better than before. Then I went with Dad, Ermenita, and Matt to Badia a Settimo, a little town very near Scandicci, which has a very awesome Basilica, complete with partial moat and a drawbridge. We had a relaxing afternoon and then when we got back we started setting up for our monthly English movie night. April's feature film was National Treasure - always a good choice - and we had a good turn out. I think about 7-9 of our students were there, not including ourselves.

On Sunday after church, we took all the kids from church to the zoo in Pistoia! It was so much fun. We saw all kinds of animals, and you could even pet and feed the elephants and giraffes and goats. We brought a picnic lunch which we at there, spent a few hours in the zoo, and then went into downtown Pistoia for a gelato. It was beautiful! Very small and peaceful. In the baptistery of the main church, they had an exhibition of all kinds of bells, old and new. A little bit of advice: even if they have a gong set out with all the other play-able bells, complete with mallet, DO NOT PLAY THE GONG. You will get into trouble.

After the zoo, we all went and ate a pizza at Movida near the church and Florence, not getting home until about 10:30 at night. Needless to say we were all bushed, but it was a great weekend spent with some wonderful people. Can't wait to do it again!

Quick trip stateside...

2010-04-06T10:04:00.000-07:00

Well, what a great time! I recently made a surprise visit to the States, and it was so wonderful to see everyone. I surprised two of my best friends with the help of a third, saw many friends including my awesome friend JCliffie, got to visit with my family, and spent some great quality time with my sisters and brother-in-law. It rushed by too quickly, of course, but I felt so blessed to be able to be there! Many of my best friends are moving to faroff places before the next time I come home, so seeing them was very important to me. I was in the country for 17 days, and in that time I visited Dallas, Galveston, Nashville, and Searcy! Lots of traveling and lots of fun.

I had a little bit of reverse culture shock when I entered the Kroger's in Galveston - so huuuuuuuuge! And I kept looking for the little plastic gloves to put on in order to handle the produce (Italy), the scales that print the labels (Italy), and it required three people at the check-out counter in order to scan one of the vegetables I was trying to buy - radicchio (Italian, apparently not popular in America). Although, my "mispronouncing" it probably didn't help.

Kroger employee: "Ummmmmm......*flipping frantically through the itemized pricing catalog*..."
Me: "It's called "rad-eek-eo", if that helps you...."
Kroger employee: "Ummmmm......*calls over another employee*..."
Lady behind me in line: "oh, isn't that "rad-ish-eo?"
Me: "...........ummmm, yeah."
Kroger employee: "Ohhh, okay.....still don't know where it is."
Third Kroger employee: "I think it's back here.....yep, there it is."

And I get many strange looks. But it was all good. The lady behind me ended up scanning her Kroger card for me, so we parted friendly. :) But it really is pronounced "rad-eek-eo".

I also gave a small chapel announcement at Harding on April 1st, just showing a short video (found attached to this post) about what I've been involved in for the past seven months here and then I was in the student center to answer questions afterwards. We had quite a few people fill out cards saying that they were interested in more information, so I think it was a good thing to do, if only just bringing the program to people's attention and reminding them about it.

All in all, a great trip, but it's wonderful to see Italy and the Italians again!!! :) I'm glad to be back.

Convegno delle donne, 2010

2010-03-09T01:57:00.000-08:00

Well, what a whirlwind of a weekend! As many of you probably know, this year the Women's Retreat for all the churches of Christ in Italy was hosted by the Florence and surrounding area congregations. Members of the local communities met together months and months in advance in order to prepare for what we hoped would be a spectacular weekend. We divided ourselves into various job assignments according to our different talents, such as decorating, song leading, kitchen management, activities, and - my area! - technical squad. :) We put some hard work and elbow grease into getting this thing together, and it was all worth it!

We had an overall attendance of about 65 women, from as nearby as Montelupo to as far away as Sicily. Our theme this weekend was "Per un tempo come questo...", or "For such a time as this...". The planning committee chose six of Esther's admirable characteristics and programmed the discussions and speeches around them. We had three main speakers and one to wrap it all up at the end. We had activities that were wonderful for breaking the ice and getting us prepared for the weekend - we broke into smaller groups which each had to act out in skit form part of the book of Esther. We were assigned animals, and then we were required to make the appropriate animal noise until we found everyone in our flock/herd, etc. Hilariously, Mona Shackelford was given the only donkey assignment, and so when she was walking around to find her fellow donkeys there were none. Hahaha.

We also had three breakout discussion group sessions, one for each of the characteristics of Esther that we chose. I was put in charge of the discussion group for "Fede" or "Faith"....ummm, in ITALIAN! I was very nervous, I tell ya. Being one of the younger attendees and not being a native speaker, not to mention never really having led people older than me in a discussion, were all very intimidating factors. Fortunately, I had help from my friend Laura from Aprilia, who is older and much wiser than I, to help keep the discussion contained when people started going off on tangents or when I had vocabulary malfunctions. :)

Like I said, I was in charge of all the technical elements of the weekend, like the sound, powerpoints, and also the headphone kits we used for simultaneous translation from Italian to English and vice versa. I also was in charge of getting pictures for the slideshow/DVD that we make after every convegno. I had to delegate the filming of the speakers to someone else! Thanks Jill! Does this all sound like anyone else you know? *Sigh* It must be genetic. :)

Dad and three or four other men formed our cooking staff so that none of the women would have to miss out on the fun and important things that were going on. They did a wonderful job and worked so hard. That's my daaaaad! :)

There was a small presentation on Disabilities, and mom and Julie Giordano gave small presentations - Mom for how you should act around people whose parents have disabilities and Julie for how to act when you know people who have children with disabilities. It was a very touching and interesting presentation, and in true feminine style, there were many tears and hankies. :)

Speaking of feminine, you could hardly expect a group of 60 women together for study on Esther and queens and beauty and not expect there to be pampering involved. The planning committee organized that for Friday and Saturday night after the regular program of internal beauty was over that there would be external beauty time! We gave facials, manicures, hand, shoulder, neck, and foot massages, and foot baths. It was a lot of fun - you should have seen some of the older Italian women and how much they got into it!

Overall it was a wonderful weekend, and I had fun re-meeting the people I knew from other convegnos, meeting new people, and getting to know the other young people from different congregations. And so while I was exhausted to the limit by the time it was all over, I was blessed and am a better person for the whole experience. Thank you to everyone who helped make it happen - those who worked publicly and anonymously!

Meglio tardi che mai!

2010-02-14T06:16:00.000-08:00

So, better late than never! Sorry it's been so incredibly long since my last post - and I know it doesn't probably help much to say that I've been just crazy busy since then. It also probably doesn't help to have nothing new to show for it. But that's the truth, and so I'm going to go with it. :)

The last month and a half I have kept myself busy with the usual goings on: English lessons, English conversation class, teaching English at the daycare. Also, I am really enjoying getting to know this semester's HUF students. They are really fun, friendly and willing to try new things. They came to our last English movie night, which pushed our attendance to over 50. We have also been to a soccer match with them and an Albanian dancing night. We invited them over to the Bible School for a chili supper, and then later that night we went to the Villa for their Superbowl party. Good times.

Lots of English. In spite of this overwhelming amount of English in my life, I am on occasion forced into speaking Italian. I am pleased to inform you that I have (since we last spoke) made major strides in my Italian speaking skills. I told the story of the Creation to the daycare kids in passato remoto (a fairly difficult tense, which doesn't exist in English and many other language), succeeded in using congiuntivo correctly 50% of the time, and congiuntivo imperfetto correctly 40% of the time and incorrectly 30% of the time. (I know that doesn't add up mathematically. This is because the remaining percentage of 30% is how often I consciously/unconsciously use present tense when I SHOULD use congiuntivo.)

However, being human and American, I inevitably slip. Usually in very silly and unexplainable ways. Here is an example.

**One time in between English lessons, I was chatting with the two boys whose lessons were back to back. We were talking in Italian (since we weren't actually in a lesson), and I was keeping up and contributing to the conversation.

First Boy: *telling a story about something that happened that we had all been expecting to happen*
Me: "FinalMENTE!" ("Finally!")
Both Boys: "hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!" (hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!)
Me: ".........Che c'e'?" (What is it?)
Second Boy: "FinalMENTE!"
Me: "Ho sbagliato?" (Did I mess up?)
First Boy: "No, solo l'hai detto con un accento americano!" (No, you just said it with an American accent!"
Me: "Come devo dirlo?" (How should I say it?)
First Boy: "Finalmente."
Me: "Finalmente."
Both Boys: "HAHAHAHAHA!"

Whatever.

Other then the OCCASIONAL linguistic mistake, things have pretty much gone on as normal around here. I have taken on one more individual student - my schedule was actually full so I added her to another girl's time in order to have a group lesson. I have started going about once every two or three weeks to have English conversation at the school of one of my students who is an English teacher. Last time we learned "I Wanna Hold Your Hand". Classic. I'm still playing with the Scandicci concert band and really enjoying it, and I'm spending time with my Italian friends. On Physical Fridays we are slowly but surely replastering and repainting the walls of the downstairs classroom, which badly needed it. There is always that kind of work/project to be done. We're hoping for some handy boys to come and help dad out with that kind of stuff. :)

We are also busily planning the Ladies' Retreat that will be hosted here in Scandicci on March 5-8, and looking forward to it! We would love it if you could keep this event in your prayers, as well as our projects and activities here at the Bible School.

Life is good, and I'm trying to enjoy every minute of it!

The clarinet, the clarinet, goes diddly-diddly-diddly-diddly det.

2010-01-05T04:25:00.000-08:00

Let it be known, that I, Emily Christine Woodroof, have joined the Scandicci band. Yay!

So far I have survived the grueling rehearsals....all two of them.....grueling for me because I'm out of flute shape, and 3 hours is a long rehearsal for me anytime. I'm going to copy and paste a note I wrote on Facebook shortly after my first rehearsal to best portray my emotional state:

"Well, I just experience my first band rehearsal.....in five years. In a foreign language. That's right. I just practiced for two and a half hours with the Scandicci band for the very first time! And it was incredible.

I practiced every day for four days leading up to the rehearsal (even scarier because it was in Italian), and amazingly I could still play my scales. And sightread. Granted, not to the Sarah Covey/Lisa Orpin level, but well enough. :) Despite my having not having rehearsed with a band in four or so years, my fingers somehow still remembered their notes.

But it was with a great deal of trepidation that I sat down in front of my music stand and looked at our first piece. Sitting next to a boy in his sixth year of music conservatory for flute, I will admit I was nervous. And would you believe it? It was something we had played in high school - Blue Bell something. And then the next piece was Pomp and Circumstance (hate that song, but I DO know how to play it!). And we played Liberty March by Sousa. Once the music started playing, it didn't matter that I was the only American (and the only blonde) there. Harding University Ensemble was stamped on a lot of the music that we played. :)

I had so much fun! And it made me so thankful all over again for Mr. Smith and the years he spent teaching me a skill that I can enjoy for the rest of my life."

I also practiced almost every day the next week the music that most of the other musicians had already played before, and I felt even better after the second rehearsal last night. That was a four hour haul, in preparation for our concert that is today. TODAY! I will hopefully have a video of part of the concert to share with you guys, so stay tuned!

Baby Goat at Christmas

2010-01-02T03:32:00.001-08:00

What a fantastic holiday season. I can't believe that it's already almost over! As most of you know, Jillian and I decided to remain here in Italy for the holidays - after all we've only been here for 4 months now! Not to mention the frightening flight fees. :) I was excited, mostly, to be spending my first Christmas in Italy. Very, very different than my normal holiday routine being surrounded by family and friends and food. Okay, there was still the food. And friends....and family in a way.

Having decided to keep our English lessons going as long as our students were still able to come, Jillian and I ended up just taking the one week of Christmas and New Years off. We thought that my parents being in the States would cause things to slow down around here, but no! :) I still had a full class schedule (other than the week of vacation), and on top of that we were flooded with the invitations of friends.

For Christmas day, Rosa took us under her wing and invited us to spend Christmas lunch at her house with her whole family. She is a wonderful lady - she is so good at demonstrating that she loves us and the Bible School. She works hard and is a very generous person. In typical Italian style, there was course after course after course. We arrived a little earlier than her family, so we got to help her with the finishing touches on some of the appetizers. There were salmon crostini, sausage and cheese crostini, candied figs with cream cheese and walnuts, liver pate (delicious), vol-au-vents - a type of little pastry with cream cheese, chives, and ham, and she also mixed up some of her own personal stash of ranch dressing that she had brought from the States.

And those were just the appetizers! The next course nearly brought tears to my eyes...and I will admit they did cloud up. She brought out the primo, and she had made my favorite Rosa pasta - tuna and lemon. She had made the noodles from scratch, and then for HER family's Christmas lunch she made my favorite pasta. I attempted to thank her by eating a sinful amount.

For the second course she had prepared baby goat. Dubious at first, I was soon brought around to the idea after tasting the meat. It was delicious! A little stronger than meat that I'm used to eating, but it fit very well for a holiday meat. She served it with roasted potatoes. The Italians aren't usually big dessert people - this was probably one of the biggest differences between my American and Italian Christmas feasts :), but Angela, Rosa's daughter made the most delicious apple cake I've ever had in Italy....and possibly in America. I had also brought caramel corn, as a gift, and that was a big hit. Especially with all the women! :) They were all so welcoming and made sure they included us in their conversations, and were attentive when we didn't understand something. Five hours of hosting Americans, and they were still so wonderful.

The next day we went to Paola's house for lunch. We received the same hospitality and welcome at her house also. She is one of the cooks at the Harding Villa, and I have known her for about five years now. Yet she always amazes me with her generosity. She is one of the sweetest, most thoughtful people I know. On Sunday, Mario from the Florence congregation invited Jill and I, and also a university student named Redi and a member of the church named Mathilde to a seafood restaurant that is owned by one of his long-time friends - and also where he is somewhat of a VIP. :) Mario is just an incredible person. i believe he is in his 70s, but he is still actively involved and supportive of the Florence church. He also loves young people and is always ready to take care of them and welcome them. A couple of days later, one of my students, Veronica, invited us over to have dinner with her family. Her brother Samuele is one of Dad's students. They are both wonderful people, and their parents were as well - no surprise there. We had a great dinner and time with them. Veronica works at the Uffizzi museum as a tour guide in English and French (my hero :) ), and she is also a part time teacher of Art History. I really enjoy spending time with her at lessons, but it was really nice to be able to spend time with her outside of the School.

We were so occupied that I hardly had time to be homesick at all - only on Christmas day and during a family reunion that I missed did I really feel it. So after being continuously showered by blessings and kindness by our friends and family here in Italy, we have taken the last few days just to stay at home and relax. There has been serious movie-watching time - we had an all night movie marathon on New Years Eve - and I have been able to read three books! We are ready for mom and dad to get home, and we are replenished and ready to start up lessons again on Monday. Happy Holidays to all of you there in America! Love, miss, and God bless you all!

To jest, on jest, ona jest....

2009-12-16T02:02:00.000-08:00

Avanti Italia goes to Poland. Molly and Annabelle Dawidow were part of our Avanti training in Searcy last August. Molly and her husband run the Bible Institute in Sopot, Poland, and the two women have come up with their own syllabus and their own methods for teaching English using the Bible. They had many interesting things to show and teach us in August, and so Jillian and I have been wanting to go up there and experience their process for ourselves. We took a ten day trip to Poland!

We left beloved Italy on Thursday morning, December 3rd from Pisa. I had made the Ryanair reservations about a month before we left for Jillian, Kyle, our friend Phyllis, and myself. What I didn't realize was that Phyllis was bringing a checked bag AND a carryon. Oops. We had a connecting flight in Frankfurt (most of you already know what horrors that place has always held for me) that was scheduled to depart one hour after we landed. Which would have been close even if we all had just carryon luggage, but it was almost catastrophic in Phyllis's case. So we landed, were shuttled to the main airport, and then we flew! Not on a plane, but through the doors of the airport to the luggage claim. Then Jill and I continued our flight to the check-in desk, through security and to our gate while Phyllis and Kyle waited for the suitcase. Jill and I made it through about 5 minutes before the flight desk closed, so we had little to no hope that we would ever set eyes on Phyllis and Kyle again. Of course, in a moment such as this, something ridiculous would have to happen. Some kid comes up to Jill and tells her that he needs to check the size of her bag and weigh it - this is after we have gone through check-in and security. Luckily all was in order, but it gave us a scare. Then, while anxiously waiting at the gate, we see the crowds part, and Phyllis rounding the corner just out of the security line! Running through the crowds, yanking on her coat while toting her not-too-small carry on, she finally caught up with us. But no Kyle! They stopped him in security to search him. Arrrghhh! Just then, they announced that they were boarding our plane. We had priority boarding, so Jill and I went ahead and got in line. Still no Kyle. Finally, just as they were taking my boarding pass out of my hands, Kyle comes through the door. By then, however, the other passengers have formed a huge line, blocking the path to the priority line. So everyone has to wait as Kyle pushes his way through the crowd, saying "Scusi, scusi"...in Germany. Then the flight attendant asks if there are anymore priority boarders, and Jill proceeds to explain to her in Italian that there are two just right over there. ahhahaha! We were a little bit frazzled! But we made it onto the plane!

Little did we know that our flight would be re-routed. Instead of landing in Gdansk where we were scheduled to land, we had to land in the city of Poznan due to the weather. The flight attendants informed us that a bus would take us from Poznan to the airport at Gdansk. Sadly, Poznan is about 5 hours away from Gdansk/Sopot. Also, at the airport information desk they didn't seem to know what bus we were talking about at first, and then they told us it wouldn't be here for another hour. So rather than waiting for an hour, riding five hours on a bus to arrive at a destination that we weren't ultimately headed for, we rented a car. And droooove to Sopot! We arrived at midnight - Molly had already prepared a lovely dinner for us, as she thought we were arriving earlier, so we had a nice leftover midnight meal. :) Craziness! But we made it, and that's the important thing.

So we stayed in Sopot at the Bible Institute for the next week, teaching English lessons learning the things that Molly had to teach us. It was very, very helpful, and I feel like I will be able to use the things I learned and apply them to my lessons here. I made friends with a lot of the students, and I was sad that we were just staying a week. They were all so sweet and intelligent. Several of them remember when the Harding chorus came and sang in the local competition and won, so that was a neat thing to have in common.

During our time in Sopot, we were able to make some day trips to the nearby towns of Gdansk and Malbork (which has a medieval fortress which is the largest brick building in the world). And then our time in Sopot was over! It went by so quickly. We left early on Friday morning on a train to Torun on our way to Warsaw. Torun was a neat town - the home of Copernicus and a gingerbread museum. We really enjoyed seeing it. And then Warsaw! Warsaw is an amazing city. So much history there. If you ever go, you have to go see the Warsaw Rising Museum. Trust me. Also, we got to see our friend Ivo! He used to live in Italy when he was little and returns there once or twice every year. But he is Polish and lives in Warsaw, so he picked us up from the train station and ate a late dinner with us. It was nice to get to visit with him. The next day, we went around and tried to see as much as possible - impossible to do in just one day. But we got to see a lot of interesting things. It was cooooold! In Sopot it wasn't too much colder than here in Italy, other than there being no sun during the day. But in Warsaw there were snow flurries and wind. Brrrrr. We flew out Sunday morning at 6:15am. Yippee. We were sad to leave, but happy to see beautiful, sunny Italy again. What a great trip.

I got to catch up on a little bit of the culture shock that I haven't had yet in Italy. Polish! What a daunting language. The title of this post is about all I picked up while I was there...I learned to say some other phrases like "thank you" and "hurry up" (for Kyle), but I only know the phonetics. It was kind of tough to be in a place where I couldn't communicate WHATSOEVER. While I'm not fluent in Italian, I can communicate. I guess I'm just going to have to make sure that this never happens again. It's going to take a long time to learn all the languages of the world, so I think I'd better get started now...on to German!

A Little Piece of Home

2009-11-29T10:13:00.000-08:00

Well the holidays are certainly here! What a fun time we have been having. Strangely enough, Italians don't celebrate Thanksgiving - go figure ;). So the Bible School decided to host a Thanksgiving dinner of our own and invite some of our Italian friends along with our American friends here. What a party!

We had it on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, seeing as most Italians work on Thursdays, but the preparations began on Thanksgiving day proper - lots of cleaning, shopping, and cooking! Thursday we cleaned the dining room from top to bottom, moving couches, wardrobes, and other furniture. We also made a trip to the Metro (kind of like a Sam's), bringing home two over-sized shopping carts full of supplies. The next day we fired up the ovens, producing mass quantities of.....desserts mostly. The most important element in any Thanksgiving dinner! Also on Friday, our friend from language school, Tracey, arrived to spend the weekend with us. What a guest! She helped us cook, clean, wash dishes, and decorate. She was so willing and such a great help to us. Mom has requested her presence next year in advance. :) We made cherry/pear crisp, a huge pumpkin pie, clam and spinach dip, and the beginnings of dressing. We woke up Saturday morning and finished the checklist of dishes - chocolate pies, sweet potato casserole, sweet tea (very important - this is the only thing Tracey couldn't help with, seeing as she is from the north ;) ), corn, peas, mashed potatoes, fruit jello salad, and of course the three turkeys. Whew!

It was a great night - we had 32 diners including ourselves, and it was so much fun to spend time with our Italian friends and to introduce them (or re-expose them) to an American cultural tradition. It was worth every minute of preparation, and I wish we could do it again tomorrow!

Non COSI giovane -Not THAT young....

2009-11-15T08:36:00.000-08:00

I didn't realize how much I missed being around kids! Jillian and I have started teaching at an "asilo nido" (daycare) down the street, and it is simply a blast! Here in Italy, kids start going to daycare early - this one has ages 3-5. I had met Gabriella, the maestra, only once before - she had stopped by the bible school when I was the only one here, and she requested that we come to her class once a week to teach the 18 5 yr olds English. That sounded like fun to me. After all, I have taught that age group before in a bible class at College Church. (Good memories, right Ali? ;) ) So we agreed that we would.

So, our first week.
We worked on teaching materials the week leading up to the first session - just basic colors and animals for the first time. We really didn't know what to expect, or how much material we needed to fill up an hour and a half. Jill came up with teaching them "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes" in case we needed something a little more active to keep their attention. We reached the gate the first day, were buzzed in and greeted by Gabriella, and entered the classroom. So many little faces! I don't know if you are aware of this, but all Italian children are born adorable. It is impossible for them to be otherwise. We were introduced as "le belle ragazze che non parlano italiano" - "the beautiful girls that don't speak italian". I'm still not sure if I'm supposed to take this as a compliment. I began by teaching them the colors and holding up corresponding sheets of colored paper. They were very thorough when I asked them to find things in the room that were a certain color - down to their neighbors shoelaces or my yellow hair. They picked things up so quickly and seemed to be having so much fun! But asking a five year old to memorize things for a long period of time is never a good idea. I could tell they were starting to get restless, so next Jill taught them "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes". And they LOVED it. Please take a moment right now to watch the video attached to this post, and feel free to laugh out loud. Well, we did it about 3 times just to learn the words, and then we repeated it 3 or 4 more times. It was so cute. (Side note: the next day I was walking to a friend's apartment and couldn't figure out why my knee muscles were sore...then I realized it was because of a children's song...please see title of post) And that pretty much took up our hour. The teacher had them all sit down and color a circle in their favorite color, and then we came around and helped them right the name of the color in Italian and English. If you don't already know, teaching is hard work! I don't know if I could do it all day like they do. It takes a lot of patience and repetition.

We made some noise, obviously, and the other teachers of the younger classes apparently noticed. As we were leaving, they stopped us at the door and asked us to come to their classes for 30 minutes every week after the 5 yr old class. So the week after, Jill went to the 4 yr old and I went to the 3 yr olds - we didn't have quite the same effect there. They are a tad bit too small to appreciate English. My class had only just learned the colors "red" and "yellow" in Italian, so it was a little hard getting them to say them in English too. Just a lot of big-eyed staring faces. And one little girl who talked the whole time, babbling but not really saying anything, laughing at herself when she apparently said something funny, nodding at me as if I understood - the teacher didn't even understand. Oh well. They are fun to be with. :)

Fun times in an Italian daycare!

Yay! Sono ancora giovane!

2009-11-04T03:12:00.000-08:00

Well, this last weekend was a trip! Jill and I headed to Aprilia for the weekend, which is a city about 40 minutes from Rome. The church in Aprilia hosted a youth convegno or retreat which included all the young people ages 16-25 from all the churches of Christ throughout Italy. Yes. I just barely made it.

Jillian and I were hosted by the di Pietro family - Donatello, Laura, and their son Riccardo. I had made met Riccardo at the regular annual church convegno in August, and it was nice to spend more time getting to know him. :) They have a lovely home, and we felt very welcomed by them.

We arrived on Friday evening at about 5 o'clock, and we were met by a member of the church named Valerio. Soon afterwards, Riccardo came to pick us up and take us to the church building. We were the first ones (besides the kids from Aprilia, of course) there! Riccardo was in charge of transporting people between the church and the train station, so we rode along with him for a while. By about 8pm, there was a pretty good number of people there, and we had a welcome service and ate pizza.

The whole next day is kind of one big blur! :) I didn't really know anybody there - Riccardo I knew the best - and it had been a while since I spent the entire day speaking Italian. And what a humbling experience that was! I do pretty well in Florence, speaking and understanding, but it was a whole different ball game with 35 young Italians speaking lightning fast and in all the different dialects. So between trying to meet and get to know people and trying to understand what they were saying....let's just say my brain has felt better. And my pride! :) The day was organized and run by the youth group at Aprilia, so they led songs and prayers and introduced the convegno. The main discussions were led by Titus Robinson, an American missionary living in Vicenza, who is acting as their unofficial youth minister. The theme was "Giovani Insieme: Siamo noi la futura" - "Youth Together: We are the future".

Sunday was great too, as we got to meet the church members and have a potluck lunch with them. I knew some of them also from the August convegno, so it was good to renew those acquaintances. Also, they have a chorus made up of members of the church! Laura and Donatello are part of the group, and they sang several hymns in Italian, which was beautiful! About halfway through the concert they broke out into the English rendition of "Go Down Moses", which made both of us very nostalgic. I can't tell you how many times I've heard that song performed by first my high school chorus and then the Harding University chorus by many, many of my good friends. I couldn't help but smile like a fool the whole way through.

After the potluck, we hopped back on a train and headed back to Florence. What a neat feeling, getting off the train at Santa Maria Novella and feeling like you're at home! So, all in all it was a great weekend, and we made lots of new friends and contacts with some young Italian Christians. Giovani Insieme!!

For Such a Time as This

2009-10-21T03:22:00.000-07:00

Helloooooooo from Florence!

Well, as always, I hardly know where to begin. Our days are filled, and we are always busy doing something. However, when I sit down to write about it, I have the hardest time remembering exactly what I did!

My English lessons are going very well. I have 8 students that come faithfully every week to learn....from me! Sometimes that is hard to believe. I would like to tell you a little about them. I will give you a little portrait of each of them throughout the next several blogs.

I have one girl that comes that is 15 years old, and she always can make me smile. She is pretty quiet at first, but she usually warms up pretty quickly. We have very similar tastes in books, so that has been fun to talk about and discuss. I think she will go to see a movie in English at the Odeon with Jill and me. Also, she is very smart and remembers everything! I will try to quiz her over a Bible passage that we have read, but it's pointless, because she gets every single one correct. (I have found that to be true with most of my students, though.) We are studying Mark together, and it's so fun to be able to see small improvements already. Also, we just started reading The Magician's Nephew, the first book in The Chronicles of Narnia series. She's really liking it so far - although we are only on Chapter 2 - and I'm excited, because I know what a great sense of accomplishment I felt when I read my first book in Italian. And I get to help somebody else do that! Anyway, she is wonderful, and I always look forward to our lessons.

Well, today was our last day of language school. We are official graduates of the Lorenzo dei Medici intermediate 3 and advanced classes. It was sad saying goodbye to our teachers and all the people that work there - we are friends with both of the baristas, as we did our homework in the school bar every morning. It is also kind of liberating having all of our mornings free for other things now though. We are planning on starting to work more at the church building.

We will go tomorrow morning to the Questura Ufficio d'Immigrazione to get our permesso di sogiorno - finally! We had an appointment there on Wednesday, but when we got there the electricity was out! So they told us we had to come back another time. Boh. Beverly, Debbie, and Rachel leave tomorrow for some traveling, so we will drop them at the train station before we go to the Questura.

I'm excited about the youth convegno next weekend in Aprilia! I think it will be a really good experience for Jill and I, and it will give us the chance to get to know some young Italian Christians. We will be full-submersion Italian, that's for sure! The members of the church are going to host us in their homes. Yahooo!

Also, the Florence church (along with the churches nearby, such as Prato and Pistoia), are hosting the women's conference next year! The conference is in early March, so we have been having meetings to discuss the innerworkings on Saturdays. We have decided on Esther as our theme (thus the "for such a time as this" heading), and we are very excited about it!

Let me know if there are things in particular you are curious about, and I will do my best to write a good description! Love you all!

I DID IT!!!

2009-10-07T10:03:00.000-07:00

Once more, proof that I am just a little bit nerdy: On Monday, Wednesday, and Friday Rosa cooks lunch for us and has it ready by the time we get home from language school. Very wonderful. Then we all sit down together and chat - always in Italian, because Rosa CLAIMS that she doesn't speak English. I am still skeptical of this. Anyway, last week an amazing thing happened. We were sitting there talking, and I was telling Rosa about something that had happened earlier that day, and.......I correctly used a sentence in the imperfect conjunctive tense!! Weow!! Now, I know that may not seem like a big deal to most of you, but it was a milestone for me. It was the first time it came relatively easily - that is to say without scrunching my nose, lowering my eyebrows, and squeezing it out of my brain.

My school decided that we are improving as well. They permitted us, after completing the intermediate 3 class in september, to sign up for the advanced class this month. We started the class on Monday: Jill, Cecilia, and I are all together again with the new addition of Camilla (Colombia), Isabella (Boulder, CO), and Kamal (Egypt). Also we have one of our teachers from last month again - Luca. He teaches us all four hours this time instead of having two different teachers for two hours apiece. So much fun!

Gramma still hasn't arrived, because of some trouble with her medication. I think everything is worked out now though, and she is planning to arrive Monday. Yay!

We have been having our women's Bible Study every Monday night, and that has been a really good thing. This week Ermenita's birthday was on Monday, so mom and tracey baked her a cake and we surprised her after bible study was over. Also there were flowers!

I have ten Italians studying English with me now. Whoo! And more asking all the time. We're having to tell them that we won't be able to take anymore until November, when we are finished with language school. Haha, in language school today, we also learned some idiomatic expressions that involve animals. I thought it was a fun exercise, so I did the same with one of my more advanced students. It's funny, because they have a lot of the same ones we do! There was one in particular today that really made me laugh. I told her that in English we have the expression "that's a long row to hoe". And she looked it up last week and today she told me that they have an expression that means the same thing: " Che brutto gatto a pellare" - "What a (hard) cat to skin!" Bah hahah.

Some things coming up:

Jill and I are hoping to go to Poland at the end of November/beginning of December to learn the program that Molly and Annabelle Dawidow have developped. We will be teaching English up there for about a week. So exciting!

Also there is a youth retreat (with relief I discovered that we are still considered "youth") for ages 18-25 organized by the young people in Aprilia - a town close to Rome - that I hope we will be able to attend.

We're having fun hanging out some with the HUF students, doing projects at the church (like decorating the bulletin boards ;) ), learning Italian, and going to Bible studies. All is well in Florence!

I THINK I still remember English....

2009-09-24T13:58:00.000-07:00

Well, I can hardly believe it's been almost three weeks since I last posted something! The time is flying by. But at the same time, it feels like Jill and I have been here for so long - I feel so comfortable and happy here.

Jillian and I have 8 or 9 students each at this time, and all of our lessons fall on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. We meet for an hour with each student, and I am really enjoying getting to know my students. I like figuring out what they enjoy studying, and different ways to get keep them interested. I have one female student especially who is very interested in studying the Bible and learning more about the church in Florence. She comes at 9:00pm and usually she stays for a couple of hours. I am really enjoying our time together. I invited her to come to church with me sometime so that she could see firsthand what we're about, and she was definitely open to that. Lessons are always interesting, because every student is different, and they are also all on different levels in their English abilities.

We are working on getting a service project together that the HUF students, our English students, and hopefully some Italian students can get involved in. We are having the HUF students over for a devo, meal, and AI info session on Sunday night. I have invited a few of my English students to come and practice their English, and I think a few of them want to.

Friday is Rosa's, the AI cook, 25th anniversary of working at the Bible School! She is wonderful, and she works so hard to feed us. We love her and appreciate all that she does for us.

My gramma is coming to visit! She arrives next week, and will probably stay with us for a month. Yay! Also my friend Beverly Rose will be arriving soon - the middle/end of October. It's always nice to see people from back home.

Our Thursday night Bible studies at the church have started up again. Dad is wanting to start a conversational English class at 6:30pm, have a light supper with our students, and then invite them to stay for the Bible study at 8:00pm. Hopefully we can get things in order to make that happen.

All in all things are going wonderfully here! Thank you all for your love and support - we feel it in so many ways. :)

Il primo giorno della scuola...!

2009-09-06T22:46:00.000-07:00

Yikes! It feels like a very long time since I've had a first day of school! Jill and I are riding with Dad into Florence to drop Kyle, Liz, and Phyllis off so they can catch a train for their 7-day cruise! Then Jill and I are off to Lorenzo dei Medici to become Italians. Or at least to hopefully learn some Italian and not sound quite so American. :) I hope the teacher doesn't call on me!

*******************************************************************************************************

Well. Obviously, the first part of this post is from approximately one week ago. And I forgot to finish it on Monday. I was hoping to have skillfully kept you in suspense by inserting that line of asterisks, and then informing you of the rest of my day at school. So much for my clever intentions!

Nevertheless, language school is going very well! I love, love learning language. And both of our teachers are really great. We have two different teachers every day: Luca teaches us for approximately an hour and a half starting at 9am every morning, then we have "una pausa" for twenty minutes, and then enters Silvia for the remainder of our time. I find Luca's section a little more challenging, because he tends to deal more with the grammar....and also possibly because he talks a mile a minute. :) There are two other American girls in our class, and we have enjoyed getting to know them. Their names are Cecilia (yes!) and Tracey. Cecilia is from Connecticut, and Tracey is from New Jersey - they are both studying abroad through different programs, and they are just a few years younger than Jillian and me. Another fact about them that interests me is that they both also study French! I like knowing that other people share my pain of mixing up languages. :)

Another big accomplishment this week was setting up our English lessons! We will be begin meeting this week, starting tomorrow. There are many, many things going on always, and it is hard for me to remember all of them. If you want to know my schedule in more detail, send me an email at ewoodroof@harding.edu and I will share my google calendar with you. :)

We just returned this evening from the Women's Convegno/Retreat, a great weekend spent getting to know many Christian women from all over Italy. This year it was held in Aprilia, Italy, a sea-coast town near to Rome. Our theme was "Unity without Uniformity, Differences without being Divided". We prayed, studied, sang songs, played get-to-know-you games, and ATE together. I must admit, it was pretty exhausting - it's pretty tiring getting to know a whole group of new people in of itself, but even more so when they speak a different language. Luckily I was able to keep up most of the time.

Not so luckily, I seem to have forgotten all nine years of my French education. There was a French girl at the convegno with whom I became friends, and I tried to speak with her a few times, but all I could think of was Italian! This will be remedied, and I plan to brush up on my French (just a quick review of nine years) so that I can send her messages in her own language. Although, she happens to be fluent in English and speaks well in Italian too. Quelle domage.

Like I mentioned before, we have many goings-on this week, but I will write about those later. In the meantime, I am looking forward to commencing with language school and also to the arrival of the new HUF students! I realize that I have an atrocious absence of pictures since my arrival, but don't worry - I have been taking pictures and hope to get around to publishing those soon. :) Love you all, and let me know about things happening over there! Ciao ciao tutti!

Lorenzo dei Medici

2009-09-04T14:25:00.000-07:00

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!

Il Convegno

2009-08-31T07:21:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned in my last post, I arrived late on the first night of the convegno. There is a retreat for all the churches in Italy once every year in August, and I was glad that I got here in time for that. I met a lot of new people and made some new friends from all over Italy. I met Ermenita and Melissa in person, who were my facebook friends before I came. :) They were very welcoming and really made me feel at home right away. Ermenita lives and attends university here in Florence, so I will be seeing a good deal of her, but Melissa lives in Catania in southern Italy. She left today, but I hope to be able to travel down there sometime to visit and she wants to come back here. I talked with Adriana and Riccardo from Aprilia (near Rome) quite a bit the last few days, and I have made a deal with them - that when I come down to Aprilia I will teach them English in two days flat. haha!

I believe there were 70-80 people altogether that attended the conference, and it lasted from Wednesday until Sunday at about 3:00pm. The theme was "I colori dell'anima", or "the colors of the spirit/soul". Several men from the different congregations presented lessons to us, such as Vittorio Vitalone from Rome, Tonio Console from Bergamo, and Robbie Shackelford. Wednesday through Friday we had lessons, sang songs together, and ate wonderful meals prepared by Angelo, Mario, Carla, Giovanni, and my mom. Saturday we all went together to a big park with beach volleyball, soccer and a swimming pool and had a picnic and spent the day there. It was very nice - the weather even cooperated and was comparatively cool and breezy.

I met several women from the churches that will attend the Convegno delle Donne (Women's Retreat) in a few weeks - September 11-13 - just outside of Rome. Tonia Vitalone from Rome is in charge of it. Mom, Sarah Bailey, Ermenita, Jill, and I will drive down together from Florence. I am looking forward to it. I believe the theme has something to do with being different but unified. I talked with Tamara Short (a missionary working in Milan) about some ideas for the weekend, and I think it will be a great thing for getting to know all the women.

Last night, Jill, Kyle Thompson, Ermenita, Chad Fetters, Melissa, Sarah and I went and got Chinese food for dinner and brought it back to the Bible School. We had a lot of fun hanging out and talking. It is fun to hear Melissa say "Sweet Kyle"..... or "sweeet -ah Kihle". Then we played Guesstures together until midnight! Melissa, Ermenita and I were on a team - which was interesting because they would guess in Italian and I would in English. Ha!

Anyway, this is really long, so I will just wrap it up by saying that I am so very happy to be here. Thanks to everyone who helped get me here! Especially Aunt Pam, Uncle Tom, Gramma, and Liz on my trip over - they had many phone calls and video conversations to accomplish. :) God bless!

Che cosa e' succesa?

2009-08-28T06:02:00.000-07:00

Well, as most of you know by now, I MADE IT!

I was getting a little worried as training came to a close and my VISA still had not come (Ah!!!). I had tried getting in touch with the Italian Consulate in Houston several times during the two weeks of training in various ways: phone calls, emails, faxes. No luck at all. I did not one time receive an answer or get a hold of anyone. Also Howard and Elizabeth were helping me try to contact them, as I was in training most of the day. I had applied for my VISA on July 17th, and they told me it would reach me in plenty of time - by the first week in August at the latest. We could not figure out what was going on, and I didn't know what else to do!

Well, I had bought a flight from Little Rock to Dallas on Monday, August 24th. Monday rolls around, I still don't have my VISA, and I was supposed to flight out Tuesday! On the way to the LR airport, I try calling my congressman's office, who referred me to the State Dept, who referred me to the Italian Embassy in Washington, D.C., who gave me the same number for the Houston Consulate that I'd been using all along. Weow.

So I flew to Dallas anyway, thinking that if by some miracle my VISA arrived that afternoon, Liz could just overnight it to me. Thank goodness Dad and Mom were on the case too! They had a specific extension number for someone in Houston, called it, and reached someone on the first try. Hahahaha! Ah. Anyway, turns out that my VISA had been ready since July 21st. Another reason it was distressing is because I had left my passport with them, and they were going to mail it back with the VISA. It was partially both parties fault, as I wasn't aware that I was supposed to have left a self-addressed envelope with them to mail to me, and they forgot to ask for it when I applied. Also, they didn't contact me, but left it sitting on a pile there. Good grief! But it all worked out. Dad had it FedEx-ed to me overnight, and it arrived at 7:00am Tuesday morning - in plenty of time for me to fly out from DFW at 11:45am!

Flying standby, as many of you know, has never been my forte. I have always gotten stuck somewhere along the way. This time I got as far as Washington D.C. before I caved. :) I ended up buying a flight from WA D.C. to Frankfurt, to Rome, and it was so nice to know for certain that I would be on that plane! Dad and Kyle met me in Rome and brought me home to Scandicci. Yay family reunion! I arrived late in the evening of the first day of Convegno, which has been great. I will tell you all about it when it is over! Ciao! A doppo!

Il mio telefonino non c'e' di piu'!

2009-08-19T18:09:00.000-07:00

Well, the slide into Italy begins!

Training comes to a close on Friday. We have had a wonderful two weeks, with teachers who have taught us SO much. I am lucky to live in a place where there are so many quality Christian men, who just happen to be fantastic teachers to boot. :) It has been intense, I will admit, but we are going so much better prepared! Thank you to everyone who opened their homes to us and fed us amazing meals - in all seriousness, we didn't have the same meal twice, and every single one was DELICIOUS.

Today I also killed my cell phone - literally and once and for all. I canceled my cellular plan, so if you need to reach me, the best way is by email or facebook. My email address is ewoodroof@harding.edu. That felt a little weird...I have had that phone number (and a cell phone) for five years, and now I can't be contacted automatically!! Whatever will I do? Ahh, nothing. A little break from technology will do me good. Provided that I can keep my computer. haha!

If I haven't started packing as of yet, I have at least started "sifting" through things that I want to take, things I can store, and things to take to His House. Plenty of time for all that! Hmmm.

So it seems I have everything in order! Oh. Except for my VISA still hasn't come. I was told it would be here the first week of August, and I have seen neither hide nor hair. This wouldn't be so detrimental, except that my passport is with my VISA! Wherever that may be. Also the Houston Consulate doesn't exactly rely on any form of modern communication to communicate with the people they work with. By that I mean that they aren't answering emails, picking up the telephone, or replying to faxes. All of which I (and Howard) have done with nothing to show for it. By some miracle, Howard (and I must) believe that it will come sailing into my hands the day before I leave. He says that this happens sometimes. Boh. I am flying standby out of Dallas, so I may have to be there a little longer than anticipated waiting for VISA to come. Gramma will be so disappointed! ;)

I know that everything will work out, and that I will get to Italy, so I am just waiting and praying that it works out SOON!

Abbiamo comminciato!

2009-08-10T21:45:00.000-07:00

Wow, things are just going by in one BIG blur! This last week I had some friends come to stay with me to see me before I left - Amanda, Mikey, and Kinch, I had a blast with you! Also, Jillian, Travis, and Cullen arrived Sunday, so the company continues. As if that is not enough excitement for one weekend, I have also been moving out of our upstairs apartment where I have lived for the past two years (aka TOO MUCH STUFF). I am only moving downstairs to a bedroom, but moving is a big deal no matter where you are going. !!

Jillian, Travis, Cullen and I began our Avanti training today! For the next two weeks we will be soaking up as much wisdom and life experience from our teachers as possible. We have class from 8am to 5pm, and our classes include Catholic church principles, the Beatitudes, Italian music and drama (as a form of outreach), and also we are studying how Jesus evangelized the way he did. Grandaddy is teaching two of our classes, and I am loving having him and learning from him. He is so good at making the story of Jesus personal and touching. We also will start each day with an hour of team unity building supervised by Carl Mitchell. There is a couple doing the training with us - Bob and Marla Housby. They won't be doing the typical Avanti program - they will be going to do mission work and work with a church.

We had a great first day, and we learned so much already. The men involved are all wonderful, and we all feel very blessed to have them helping in our preparation.

I must mention that although I love singing (especially hymns in Italian!), I do NOT love singing solo in front of other people. I already knew this about myself, but it was brought to my attention again today. :) Thank you, Mrs. Marla, for also singing soprano, even though you didn't think I was really singing! haha. :)

A variety of families has offered to invite us into their homes and feed us dinner throughout the next two weeks, for which we are very thankful and excited. Tonight for dinner, we participated in the Sharing and Caring outreach program that is through the College Church. They invite people from the community to come participate in a devo and share a meal with some members from the church. I met three interesting and very nice people whom I sat with for dinner. One of them was a refugee from hurricane Katrina, so it was very humbling to hear his story. I was very impressed by the success that this outreach seems to have - I think I heard that their biggest number so far has been 153 non-church members. An experience worth having, for sure!

Two weeks from tomorrow, and I will be on my way!

VISA Application is a go!

2009-07-20T14:20:00.000-07:00

Amazing! I can't believe how easy it was. I arrived at the Italian consulate in Houston at 9:15am last Friday morning, thanks to Erica, my chauffeur. :) I signed in, we waited in line for about 40 minutes, and then it was my turn.

Now, I had been a little anxious about this meeting - what if I didn't have all the paperwork I needed? Or if I had some spot on my criminal record of which I wasn't aware? Ah! They could reject me!

Thankfully, it was all very simple and couldn't have gone more smoothly. I had everything that they needed/asked for, and I was only in the room for about 5 minutes with the agent. I was then able to enjoy the rest of my weekend with my sister Erica and her husband Justin. I love Italy!

VISAs and Training

2009-07-06T14:05:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone!

Things are really starting to get moving now. Thanks to all of your generosity and support, I feel that I am ready to hop on a plane right now! My team member, Jillian, has had a lot of pieces come together lately as well, and we both feel so blessed to starting this together.

In 6 weeks from today, I will be scheduling myself for a flight to Florence. It's so hard to believe that what I have been praying and looking forward to for so long is actually coming to fruition!

I will be heading down to Houston the weekend of July 17-19 to formally put in my VISA application with the Italian Consulate. An added blessing is that my little sister and husband have just moved to Galveston, so I will be getting to visit with them while I am there.

After that, I have Avanti training with Jillian, Cullen, and Travis. It starts on August 10 and will last through August 21. And then on to Florence!

They have me working from the moment I arrive - those parents, they tend to do that. ;) There will be a conference, or "convegno" that will start on the 26th that I will be able to help with and participate in.

Until then, I have plenty to do packing up my 23 yrs worth of accumulated possessions and organizing accounts, plane tickets, VISAs. I hope to see as many of you as possible before I head off into the wide, blue yonder! :)