SB 2013 in Italy!

Day Thirty-Four

Well, technically this is the "late winter vacation" in France because I have another break in April...when do the French go to school you ask?  Yeah, I'm asking the same thing.  But I'm not complaining!  I've been in Italy since Sunday with my friend Amelia visiting family friends and this has been a wonderful break.  Here's a few stories from my past couple of days.

On Monday, Amelia and I went to Venice with Mrs. Juliano and Tia for the day and after, we stayed the night in a hostel.  We had lunch at Tia's favorite pizza place and there I tried a spritze for the first time (the drink of Venice).  It's a very light drink made with local proseco wine, Aperol, and sparkling mineral water, garnished with an orange wedge and an olive.  Typically it is also served with a bowl of potato chips (interesting but perfect combo) that is taken as an aperitif (appetizer).  We slowly made our way to St. Marco's Square where we parted ways and Amelia and I had the true Venice experience of getting lost in the small streets.  Seriously, it's a huge maze trying to get around that huge city, even with a map.  It's very hard to find the names of streets and the smaller ones aren't noted on the map but we had a lot of fun because we weren't in a rush.  We managed to find a great, clean, safe hostel less than a 5 minute walk from the square and from the coast for 26 euros a night!  It was a private hostel room for just us two as well!  What a SWEET deal.  We had a pasta dinner and I tried tiramisu.  It was great!  We did some more walking around and went to bed after a long day of exploring and we didn't want to be out late at night in Venice, alone, with the high probability of getting lost if we ventured out into the streets. 

The next morning we stopped by a bakery and bought some biscotti, which is not the "biscotti" that you imagine.  Basically, they're just an assortment of small cookies.  We walked to the Rialto Bridge and ordered a hot chocolate/cappuccino and ate our biscotti.  Just so you know, hot chocolate here is literally melted chocolate.  So it's extremely thick and rich.  We then did some more walking around and met up with Becca, who's a WP cadet studying in Lille who was touring around Italy with some friends, at the square.  It was so nice that our vacations matched up in Venice that day and I'm glad we were able to have a reunion!  She was with four other girls and that was cool walking around and doing some shopping with the girls.  We had a kebab for lunch (kebabs are everywhere in France/Italy) for 3.50 euros.  All of us bought a few souvenirs and I got 2 really nice scarves for 10 euros and a few postcards.  Had some gelato (it's a daily ritual) and it was the flavor of sweet white wine and nutella!  It was amazing!!  Venice is such a beautiful city.  The combination of the history, the bright painted buildings, and the canals is phenomenal.  There's no place like it.  What an experience!  The one thing I wasn't too much a fan of  was how commercialized the city had become.  Tourist traps everywhere you look with aggressive vendors who keep talking to you as you walk by their stores and come up to you with their products of mostly junk that I wasn't ever intending to buy.  One guy literally tried to shove a stemmed rose into Amelia's arms to get her to buy it.  Not really the way to get customers but at the same time, I undrestand they have to be proactive for their job--but don't block the top of every bridge with your products where I'd rather take a picture.  Or let people walk around sightseeing attractions without being bombarded by cheap things made in China.  :/

Just a little rant but that's the only thing that's been an issue during our time here.  Great perks of the trip thusfar:

• being able to have long talks with close family friends
• introducing Amelia to the family
• having homemade meals
• having access to American food
• traveling to Venice and Verona for 8 euros roundtrip on the train.
• seeing Juliet Capulet's balcony
• tasting a new flavor of gelato everyday (only buying from the places where they actually make their own gelato right in the store!)
• having real Italian pizza
• walking through authentic shopping markets
• seeing the Vicenza Army base and feeling a piece of home here
• seeing Roman ruins and arenas
• talking to interested high schoolers about WP
• having homemade risotto
• eating baguettes with olive oil, salt, and fresh basil (yum!)
• seeing beautiful cathedrals with painted frescos

There are way too many beautiful photos that I've taken, so just check my facebook for those.

Countless Wonders

Day Twenty-Six

This is short and sweet because I actually returned early from the ski trip with my host family--explanation to follow in next post...and I have a LOT to update but way too much to start this late so I'll leave you with a teaser of something I want to highlight because where I was in the Alps was breathtakingly beautiful when the skies were clear.  I'll just say that you don't need to go to a religious retreat to have your faith burn with fire...just take a step outside and see the beauty He has painted in nature to recognize His sovereign, almighty power. 

I spent the past four days exploring/skiing by myself because the rest of my host & extended family are expert skiiers and we couldn't ski on the same hills.  I was honestly kind of depressed/lonely that first day but that all changed after the second day when I stopped caring about that and started soaking/meditating on everything around me!  On the second day, I took my iPod and listened to Chris Tomlin's "Burning Lights" CD as I was skiing and I'm including the lyrics later in this post of one of his songs that was all too perfect.  I can't even explain how humbled and grateful I was when listening to this song and seeing just one speck of the miracles of His work.  I'm so thankful that going skiing in the Alps was more of a spiritual experience than anything, praise God.



 

You reign in endless power above the world You made
Across the sky is written Your majesty and praise
And still You move in mercy and hear the humble heart
For every soul that’s searching, Jesus there You are

Your beauty fills the sky
Your glory reigns in brilliant light
Great God of countless wonders
I will lift my eyes

The mysteries of heaven and all Your works displayed
Every star, every ocean, the universe proclaims
For every sun that rises, Your faithfulness to me
Like the changing of the seasons, like the river to the sea

No one can fathom all Your mighty works O God
Just one glimpse of You and I am overcome
You open up Your hand and pour out once again
Your everlasting love

Your beauty fills the sky
Your glory reigns in brilliant light
Great God of countless wonders
I will lift my eyes



 

 

Short & Sweet

Day Twenty-Two

Because I won't be in classes next week, I went ahead and did the required homework assignments so I could hand them over to a classmate today so they would be in on time.  It felt nice to do some homework, lol.  I also did laundry and because utilities are so expensive here, I'm only allowed to do ONE load PER week.  So I stuff everything together and can't seperate whites and colors.  I washed them in cold..but my white sweater is now gray.  I guess it's really not that bad, good thing I don't have any red shirts that leak...but still.  :(  And I'm not very experienced with doing laundry, which makes it nice that my host mom has these detergent tablets that you just throw in to the mashine and they disintegrate.  So I don't have to measure anything out!  Haha, yay for me.  Went out to lunch at a Taiwanese place with my friend Sophie who I met at the scavenger hunt as well.  She's from Missouri, if I remember correctly.  Then had class where we went over le subjonctif (which actually isn't as bad and now I feel more comfortable with it) and then talked about fast-food, haha.  After class I did some packing for next week and then headed out to Bible study where we had a baked potato bar, some boiled vegetables, and homemade chocolate truffles!  I'm so stuffed.  The study was on the Trinity and really being able to gain a better understanding of how God is three in one.  Now I've finished packing and so I won't be posting for a while.  I'm not going to take my laptop so in a way, I'm forcing myself to really embrace a week with my French host family and their extended family skiing in the Alps.  :)  Many pictures to follow.  For now, here are some that didn't get posted yesterday.

Emi and I at dinner with our yummy soup!

Sakura and Emi

Mina, Sakura, Emi, and I about to see Les Miserables!  Kind of hard to take a self-group photo lol

Yeah..a store for chic rainbow colored toilet paper, lol...

Les Miserables

Day Twenty-One


Yesterday had my first sessions of the cultural classes.  I chose French News/Media and Francophone Studies.  The first one is with my actual teacher, Ludvine, and she is amazing.  BUT!!!  Everyone in the class has to give a 10-15 minute oral presentation on a news article when it's their turn and then the class will participate in a debate.  That's going to be terrifying when my time comes around.  That's a long time to present a news article in English--let alone FRENCH!  But, that's a worry for another day.  After classes Dave and I had a meeting with the directrice of the French language immersion program for the university and we finalized the dates on when we'll be spending a week doing some training with the French military.  Also, she asked us how things are going and such.  She's very sweet and everyone in the office is very helpful and friendly.  Unfortunately, as much as I wanted to impress her with my French, of course I made a fool of myself by answering questions she apparently never asked, lol.  But like I said, she was nice about it.  But jeez, way to get yourself to feel like an idiot lol.  Afterwards, met up with two classmates and found a restaurant in Vieux Lyon with an entree, plat, and dessert for 14 euros--great deal.  Unfortunately, this place wasn't impressive.  The side dishes were bland.  The best part was the salad, bread, and dessert haha. 

Yesterday I woke up at 7 to meet up with Katie and run at the local park. I took my camera to take some pictures of parts of it. That was really good and what kept me running and motivated was knowing that I was going to buy a pastry I had seen in the window of a local boulangerie on my way back to the apartment, lol. By the time I got there, my hands were frozen because it is FREEZING to run that early with the drabby, windy weather and the man behind the counter was unimpressed with my cold hands and enthusiasm for what I was buying...oh well. I'd rather find a boulangerie with a friendly owner next time, hopefully make a habit of it too. I'd love to actually have a place where I could become a "regular." That's such a foreign concept to me, lol but I've always dreamed of it! Cleaned up, had a really good breakfast, and did my devotional before meeting up with Amelia to go out for lunch. We went back to the brioche sandwich place and for 4 euros I had a fresh sandwich, cookie, and drink. Sweet deal. Then had class and unfortunatley, it got pretty dry at the end. But we went over French etiquette for the table and discussed food today. Made me hungry for my plans after class. I met up with Sakura and Emi for dinner. Sakura took us to a pretty famous place that was really reasonable and had a great atmosphere. Their specialty is a tartine which is essentially half a toasted baguette with various specialty topppings. I had a complete lapse of common sense and ordered the tartine trois fromages et poires, which is 3 cheeses and pears. Unfortunately, I could only eat one section of my tartine because two of the cheeses were goat cheese and bleu cheese. I feel like the only cheese that is tolerable for my taste buds is cow cheese. Everything else smells so bad and tastes so distinct/strong, my senses just find it revolting. I could smell it from other people's plates as well. That was pretty unfortunate. Sakura was so sweet and took my blue cheese section in exchange for part of hers which was cow cheese with some kind of syrup and pralines. That was really good. We had yummy soup and dessert as well. I could eat French dessert forever...and ever. I was so close to getting a tarte framboise (raspberry tart) but I decided to get their dessert du jour which was a homemade cheese cake and it was....marvelous!! Afterwards, we met up with Mina to watch Les Miserbales! After Pride and Prejudice, it is definitely my favorite movie. The music is absolutely beautiful. I caught myself wanting to sing along numerous times. It's ridiculous (and wonderful) how music and lyrics evoke such emotion--that's why I LOVE IT! It was very cool to read French subtitles. Learned some new vocabulary from it tonight :) Tomorrow will be a long day and then Saturday I leave for a ski vacation with my host family and their extended family in ....THE ALPS!! Then after that, I'm on vacation and headed to...ITALY!! Don't worry, I'm giving thanks every second of every day for the amazing opportunity that this semester is offering me.

La Salade Lyonnaise!  Greens, croutons, poached egg, ham

Me & Rosaura!

Classmates practicing French over dinner!



Beautiful view at night



Park where I met up with a friend to go running this morning



main gate entrance of the park

The internet is acting up, so I wasn't able to attach more pictures.  Until next time, which might be a while! 

Blessed

Day Eighteen

Today I woke up the earliest since I've been in France!  (to avoid torturing my fellow cadets back home, I won't say what time that was.)  I actually did want to go on a run as well but I was waiting on a package delivery this morning where I would have to sign upon its reciept.  Which was delivered and I seriously have the best family.  My mom, of course, overdid it with her care package but I am definitely not complaining.  But no more packages because the shipping costs are absolutely ridiculous.  But if you're reading this--mom and dad, I LOVE YOUU!  And that's not relative to how much Korean food you send me, that's unconditional! I don't even know if I'll be able to finish all of this, but don't worry, I'm a problem solver :) --I did my first French homework which was just passé composé and l'imparfait conjugations.  I made strawberry toast for breakfast and watched a Francis Chan video--he is so convicting, I definitely recommend looking him up on youtube.  (short blurb: I was able to hear him talk at the Passion Conference at the start of the new year and it was down-right phenomenal!!)  Got ready and was out to have my first meal in a restaurant--solo! 

There's a local cobblestone alley about a 10 minute walk from my apartment that is FILLED with the coolest French restaurants so I wanted to try one of them.  They all have a "formule midi" menu where it's a fixed menu of either (entrée + plat) or (plat + dessert) for a very reasonable price.  At this specific restaurant, it was 13 euros!  For a gourmet meal made by the chef--you really can't beat it.  Today I had le porc rôti (roasted pork) and for dessert, la tarte tatin (a play on apple pie).  It was SO BEAUTIFUL and good!  Haha.  Then I tried to walk off that amazing meal and headed off to class which was great fun with my teacher, Ludvine.  She's hilarious but she got pretty upset with us at the end of class because no one responded when she would ask questions and a majority of the class never contributed to discussion.  She's really cool--as long as we participate.  Thankfully, she wasn't lecturing me because when I talked to her after class about next week, she said I've done well with my participation.  Yesssss!  Class if 4 hours, it's difficult if only the teacher is talking.  So I had class and planned a dinner with two other classmates tomorrow night!  I'm excited because they're both super nice.  Rosaura is from Colombia and the other guy is from China.  By tomorrow, I will have memorized his name!  It's quite strange to look at my schedule for the week and the only thing I see are two meetings and then everything else are lunch/dinner/movie plans.  I am so blessed to have this opportunity to just embrace the experience that's life.  To actually be able to go about my day without a suspense/assignment/cadet breathing down my neck with something else I have to do.  I love my school, absolutely!, but this semester was very much needed.  After class I headed back home and started making plans for what I'll do with my "winter vacation" starting the 2nd of March.  Dinner tonight was avocado with mayo, pumpkin casserole of sorts, yogurt, and fruit. 

Funny story.  So last night I watched the French movie, Heartbreaker (L'Arnacoeur) and of course when I pronounced it, I was greeted by very confused facial expressions.  So then I tried to explain it by doing hand gestures of someone breaking a heart in half--that didn't work.  Then I said something along the lines of "someone who *hand gesture* un coeur...le couer...uhhhhh"  haha and I kept repeating the title, trying to work on my enunciation and then my hostdad was like "OHHH, L'Arnacoeur" in a perfect accent (which I obviously hadn't used) and we all started laughing, lol.  We were all apologizing for not explaining/understanding what I was trying to say.  But it was pretty funny.  Then I asked them what their favorite French movies were and we started a discussion on that and he showed me to their DVD collection and went through all of their movies (like 300) and started picking out the French ones and giving me a short synopsis on all of them and recommending which ones I should try.  That was very, very sweet of him.  I was beyond thrilled because I'm always looking for ways to have more conversation with them, but to not be so forced about it.   I'm about to try one of the movies, I'll give a review of it later once I've finished. 

Love from the parents!

You can't really find peanut butter here, so I specifically asked for that and some Korean bean paste!

It's an art

 

Yum

The outside of the restaurant, so cute!

Les Fleurs et Les Nouveaux Amis

Day Seventeen

This might be a little long [fair warning!].  Sunday I went with Anish (the English boy who is also on exchange staying with the host family) to go exploring.  We walked through the Sunday market and found across the river that there was an art market!  Man, if I had loads of money--my house would be a museum with art, lol.  We also went to a free Indian art exhibition that was really cool!  Everything was handsewn and under each piece they noted the amount of days it took to make the work!  The longest duration we found was for 450 days!  That is a lot of dedication!! We then went to Le Musée Gadagne which has three museums in one (the history of Lyon, marionnettes, and Renaissance architecture).  We saw old letters, manuscripts, textbooks, etc.  I cannot believe how beautiful European calligraphy was back then, haha!  It's a funny thing to be so amazed at but man, it really caught my attention.  Everything just seems so much more important when it's written in ink and in authentic cursive.  We saw various maps showing Lyon throughout the centuries and it was cool to see how Place Bellecour didn't change its location but everything around it slowly developed!  And I still can't believe that this city has been developing for centuries!  We then had lunch at the house which was salad and a very German-like dish.  It had a hot dog, two types of sausages, and ham with sauerkraut and potatoes.  It was very good and it's another French traditional plate.  After, I went to church and met someone who just arrived from Malaysia!  I thought I'd be late to the service but actually got the service time mixed up and was 20 minutes early instead!  Haha.  Came back to the house for dinner and we finally had the dish I'd been waiting for--lyonnaise salade.  I guess what I had previously thought was lyonnaisde salade, really wasn't.  This was the most American-like becaue it had iceberg lettuce and croutons!  It also had poached egg.  It was so good but I came to find that this was the main meal!  I could've eaten five more servings of it, lol.  If I eat salad as a meal, I need a pretty large portion but with a lot of bread, yogurt, and fruit--I was content.  I watched a French movie (Heartbreaker) which I had seen on netflix a few months ago with American subtitles and last night I watched it with French subtitles.  It's nice to see my progress :)

Today I woke up to the doorbell ringing several times with no answer. I slowly walked to the door and didn't see anyone outside but when I opened the door, I found a box for me of beautiful roses from Charlie!! I guess an international order takes four days to make its way to my doorstep, lol. What a GREAT way to start my day :) They haven't all bloomed yet so I know they'll last a while! Then I worked out, got ready, and met up with Madison (a friend from the international church) who's also here for a semester. We wanted to try a place called Frites Alors but found it was closed so we tried a local Indian restaurant. It was so good! For 7 euros I got a "sandwich," fries, and a drink. Lunch was so good and she's so sweet! Good company and good food, that's what I've come to find in Lyon! Then I went to class and it was so much fun. I love my professor who teaches on Mondays and Tuesdays. She's hilarious and always engages our class. She also makes sure we understand all the vocabulary that we're exposed to. I asked the girl I was sitting next to, Xiangwan, if she wanted to grab a snack after our class because dinner at the house would be late. She agreed and we actually ended up growing to a party of four with two other classmates, Luc and Elisa, who are also from China. We found a really cozy tea/coffee shop by Hôtel de Ville. We had some coffee and dessert and it was delicious! All we did was talk in French and they would talk in Chinese to each other some as well. It was so fun and I'm glad I asked Xiangwan to spend some time after class together! All of them know more French than me so it was really cool to learn some words and practice my French. I came back and had dinner just with my host mom because the dad was traveling for work and Anish had a night class. We had salad, boiled broccoli, yogurt, and fruit. And surprisingly, I was so full after the meal. Boiled broccoli with salt is good, lol. Plus, I always eat a lot of bread whenever the main course is just vegetables so that helps.



Indian art exhibition!



Outside of the museum!

 

Surprise box :)

 

Beautiful blooming roses!



This is a school that I walked by today.  If my elementary school looked like this...lol



Lunch!



Madison and I were very excited :)



Elis and Xiangwan!



Luc and I!



Coffee and dessert :)  I think this is my favorite dessert now, lol

A run and a hike

Day Fifteen

Yesterday was another good day in class.  We learned a little about the history of the French language and how up until it was established as the official language, there were more than 50,000 different dialects in the territory that is now France.  We went over how to physically describe someone in more detail than I'd learned in basic French, like specifying the shape of someone's face, body, nose, and eyes.  There was a lot of new vocabulary that I learned.  Again, I was pretty intimidated by the vocabulary that I wasn't following very easily.  Thankfully, a lot of other people had the same issue but I'm going to ask my teacher on Monday what she recommends I do: go to a lower level class or stay in this level.  I can handle the day to day lessons but I'm just a little concerned about when the quizzes and exams come around.  After class I went to the youth group and once again, there was a great talk on whether man really has free will.  We had a GREAT dinner of sloppy joe, baked beans, and homemade cinnamon rolls.  :)  I don't think I'll have cravings for American food because I'll get my weekly fill from these group meetings!  The people there are so sweet and very outgoing.  There were three new people I hadn't met before.  One from India, another from the Dominican Republic, and another who was French and wanted to practice her English (which was phenomenal!).  I also found out one of the girls there, Katie, was a runner!  So we made plans to run together the next day.

Thankfully I woke up early enough to wear I could have a small breakfast of some baguette pieces with jam and do my devotional before meeting up with Katie. We met at Place Bellecour and then headed to the Rhône River where we ran all the way to this huge park in the middle of the city! We did a lap around the park (which I know will be absolutely beautiful once spring comes around) and then parted ways, after planning to make this a routine once a week together. I think the run was about 3-4 miles in total. It felt really good; it definitely helps when you have an accountability partner haha. Then I got ready and met up with Amelia for lunch and some shopping at Part Dieux.  On our walk, we found an adorable traditional cuisine restaurant where we had the plat du jour and dessert for 14 euros. The main meal was roasted chicken in a special sauce with vegetables. For dessert I had rice pudding with raspberry--it was amazing. What I like about eating here is that the portions are the perfect size to make you feel content but not like you're going to keel over. And food is an art. Everything is about presentation. Even the water jugs they bring on the table are so pretty! They typically come in a glass wine bottle--just for tap water! We spent a couple hours shopping at Part Dieux to get some things for her. I got a cardigan sweater and knitted hat for 13 euros. This mall is huge as far as French malls go and it had +250 stores with a cinema and a grocery store! I bought some raspberry tea :) We made our way back after we'd bought a few things and after coming home, I started watching a French gameshow. It's essentially "taboo" between two teams but you can only say one word at a time. So the person with the word says one hint and then the guesser has to make a guess and so on. The winner became a finalist for the 50,000 euros. Then, for dinner we had salad and a homemade bread with olive and sausage bits in it. Then fruit and yogurt. Very good, as always. Now, I'm watching the 8th "Champs Elysées" Music Show with the most popular French singers. :)

Lunch :)

Dessert (after I already had a few scoops)

Hotel Dieux (a VERY old hospital that is currently under construction, I can't wait to see the inside after its renovations)