Sweet Home Alabama

I’m home from Italy and still wishing I were asleep. Looking back over the past week
all I can do is laugh. Yes, I saw some absolutely incredible pieces of art and
experienced an incredible culture but the best thing was the friendships I know have.
So here are a few memorable quotes said by a few of us…I’m sure they won’t be as
funny to you but believe me I am still laughing about them!!

After talking to his mom Kendall says, “She misses my voice”
Michael responds, “That’s impressive”
Kendall answers, “I’m just that incredible”

“Wait a second, its in Italian, of course I can’t read it!”
Michael

“I’m gonna call you M squared…Momma Mindy”
Daniel

“Is Mitchell playing hide and seek again?!”
Kendall

“The Pope is Batman”
Rebekah and Daniel

“I love a good high powered toilet”
Kendall

After walking all over Florence, Michael made the comment “I don’t have calves
anymore, I have bulls. They aren’t veal but grade A beef!”

“So…in front of the foot locker next to the Vatican”
Dr. Mitchell

“AKA the Pope’s Foot Locker……So does the Pope wear Air Jordans?”
Kendall

“Embrace the suck!!”
Dr. Mitchell

“The finger of Gawd HAS touched me!”
Kendall

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The Sun will come out…TODAY!

Today is our first day of real sunshine and no rain!! YAY!!!  Since it was such a
beautiful day and our last one in Rome Kendall and I decided to take a walk down to
the Trevi! On our way out we met another group and all joined together for the hike!
We all took turns throwing our euros into the Trevi for the chance to come back to
Rome and great photo opportunities!  Tonight will be the most amazing dinner we have
ever had in our lives…that I am sure of! Dr. A, maybe we will get a pic of Daniel
kissing Mitchell on the cheeck like Bryce did to you!!! HAHAHA!!! GREAT MEMORIES!

I realized about half way through the trip that I had great expectations of this one
because of the first time I came with Dr. Abernathy two years ago.  Many things are
different about this one and that was exciting for me but also bummed me out a lot.  I
thought that things should be the same and we should stay in the same places and see
the same things but that is not what happened.  I got extremely homesick on this trip
and had a lot of alone time.  Alone time as in being with the group in the museums but
drifting over to a painting or sculpture and taking a closer look for myself.  Dr.
Mitchell has been an absolute blast the entire week!  Last night I became one of the
guys and got to have dinner with him, Daniel, Kendall, and Michael…what an adventure
that was!  I love my girls on this trip, don’t get me wrong but there is just
something about the guys that keep me calm and laughing.

This is the last time I will get to blog until I land in Mob-town and Im rather sad
about that.  I am going to take some time on our upcoming 8 hour plane ride, gather my
favorite memories of this trip, and send those and LOTS of pictures for my last one.
USA, here I come!!

PACE,
Rebekah

ps, PACE means Peace in Italian

IT’S THE COLLOSEUM!!!

The past two days have been quite the adventure. Rome can be described in two words right off the bat, cold and rainy. Oh and I cannot forget HUGE! I got use to walking around Florence without a problem in one day. Rome is quite different. It is about three times as big and has so much more to see…Florence is still my favorite though! When you walk out of my hotel room onto my balcony you can look out and what do you see directly in front of you? That’s right, the bell tower of St. Peters.

Yesterday we walked to the Colloseum. One of my all time favorite things about Rome is the Colloseum. As Charissa, Mindy, Alicia, Dana, Leah, and I rounded the corner and I could see it I exclaimed with great excitement “ITS THE COLLOSEUM!!!” Our tour guides have been incredible!!! Susan and Laura are so much fun and know how to relate what we are looking at and learning about into our daily lives. Its not that we are just there looking at old pieces of rock, it can actually mean something to us.

Today was an all day tour of Renaissance Rome then the Vatican Museums which included the Sistine Chapel!!!!!! Michaelangelo’s ceiling amazes me. The detail of every character. The largeness of every detail. The idea. It is silencing. He made the ceiling into different panels which portray the creation of the world then Noah and the Ark. My favorite panel is definately the one of the creation of Eve. Adam is asleep and God is reaching out for an Eve who is desperately reaching out to the one who created her. Breath-taking!!! oh but then we walked through St. Peters and I was drawn to Michaelangelo’s Pieta. How can one person have so much talent?? The Pieta is a large piece of marble that is sculpted into the virgin holding the dead Christ in her lap. Absolutely incredible! Words cannot begin to describe these pieces of art.

Tomorrow brings our last day and a dinner in Casto Gandolfo!! YAY!!!! I am so excited! Casto Gandolfo is where the Pope’s summer palace is located and you look down over a lake whose bottom is made of volcanic rock.

I really dont know how to end this blog….I guess I can’t encourage anyone enough to take a step outside of your comfort zone and go somewhere new and discover things that have made the entire world take notice like Michaelangelo and his Sistine Chapel and his Pieta.

OH, Mrs. Darlene, Kendall is behaving himself and doing a GREAT job at being the protector of the girls! Fobes, Daniel is having such a great time and is ready to come home to show off all his pictures. Mom, I’m having a blast and cant wait to bring your your present!!!

New friends in old places

I thought my last night in Florence couldn’t get any better then I sat down to blog and catch up on my emails when a man named Lance joined me.  Daniel, Michael, Kelli, and I began talking to him because we were excited to be able to have a conversation with someone, be understood, and understand what they are saying as well.  Lance is a native of Hawaii but he and his wife currently live in New York as he goes to culinary school. We talked about our love of Italy and experiences thus far.  The genreal questions of where we are from adn where we have been were asked.  When I told him we are studnets at a Christian school that opened up a whole new conversation.

Lance grew up Buddhist yet had the apethetic belief of “I dont care” until he met his wife.  she also did not believe in God but began going to church with a friend from work.  Lance’s wife suffered from great anxiety attacks and an eating disorder.  By going to church with her friend, Lance’s wife learned the power of prayer and was healed of her anxiety and disorder.  Lance could not understand what had happened but knew
there was something different about her.   Soon Lance met Christ as his Lord and Savior.  He  is now excited about what God has in store for him and his family.  You see, Lance and his wife found out on their trip to Italy that they are going to be parents for the first time!!  God has done a great miracle in their lives and is still working!

After hours of talking and sharing our hearts with each other we each drifted away one at a time.

UM family and friends who are reading these blogs, we ask you to pray for Lance as he continues his journey through Italy but more importantly that his wife have a healthy pregnancy; they lead their child with the love of God; and that Lance have the courage and boldness to tell his Buddhist family about the grace, forgivceness, and love he has found through the one and only Creator, Savior, and LORD!!

ROME…..here we come!

L-O-V-E

“L is for the way you look at me. O is for the only one I see…

V is very very…extra ordinary. E is even more than anyone that I adore.”

What a song, right? Imagine having that sung to you by an Italian dressed in a black pinstriped suite with an accordian behind him while eating real Italian food. Now imagine having that Italian come up to you and reaching out to you, stop singing, and have you finish the chorus. That was my evening. In the words of Kendall, “It was life changing”!!!

WHAT AN INCREDIBLE DAY!!!!!!!!!

I wandered away from the group during our tour of the Academy so I could have my own personal look at the paintings and sculptures. Then when we got to David I had to take a look for myself. It was just as great as the first time I saw it. Why am I not an Art History major???

This is for Kelli’s mom….first of all, she is absolutely one of the GREATEST people I have ever met. Secondly, she got some FANTASTIC bargans today in the market. Thirdly, and most importantly, why doesn’t she let people know she can sing. While the Italian singer was singing New York New York to me Kelli chimed and serenaded us with him.

Our last night in Florence made it even more clear in my mind how much I am in love with this city!!!

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Busing, blogging, bonding

We left Venice this morning on our Mercedes-Benz tour bus to find ourselves four hours away in what might be my favorite city of Florence!
What is so great is that when we got to Florence and got to our hotel I discovered that it is the same hotel we stayed in two years ago!! I don’t believe I have ever laughed so hard in my life than when we learned Italian on the bus and began to dance and sing to American hip hop! Oh and I greatly wish you could hear the bells in the cathedrals here! The class of 2007 has NOTHING on Italy with their Senior Gift of putting bells in Lyon Chapel!

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Hey Pretty Lady!!!

March 2 

Early morning wake us call didn’t effect the excitement of the Doge’s Palace. In honor of Venice we began the day taking a private boat to the island, rode a gondola, and took a private boat ride back to the mainland. There are over a 100 islands, 400 bridges, and more canals than I know how to count. I have seen all the movies where people scare the great batch of pigeons away in the big squares…well, I wanted to have one of those moments this morning when we reached the San Marco Sqaure. Because it was so early there was still dew on the ground and being the not so graceful person that I am, when I took off for the pigeons I slipped and fell on my behind. Needless to say, I have sock burn, 0 pigeons flew away, and everyone else got a GREAT laugh and GREAT pictures…I think Rebecca is adding a few to her blog for everyone to laugh at as well.

As we walked down the streets there were men selling knock off purses and they kept yelling things like “Hey Pretty Lady…you like-a this purse?!” Well, Kelli became that Pretty Lady and got quite the deal on some Prada and Louis Vatton! We had such a blast barganing with the vendors and finding gifts for people back home!

Oh, by the way…we are having a GREAT time but we all miss you guys back home so much!!

“Excuse me ma’am…but you are going to have to turn that off”

Today has been such an incredible day…exhausting, but incredible. I have officially been awake for right at 36 hours and am feeling it all over my body. Yet again I landed in Italy, walked to our bus in Venice, and it all seemed to surreal. After settling in for a brief moment, we all decided to take an adventure to the Heart of Venice. We had Isabella, our tour guide, lead us as the rest of us followed at a steady pace. Dr. Mitchell was taking pictures when she decided to keep walking which then made all of us create a line of students taking random pictures which will end up being all of the same things.

The plane ride from Rome to Venice was hilarious. They did not let us listen to our iPods or take pictures and is where my blog’s title came from. Kelli, Megan, Michael, and I were taking fun pictures on the plane when the stewardess came by and said to me in her Italian accent “Excuse me ma’am…but you are going to have to turn that off”.

After that the picture taking abilities were challenged. My day officially came to a wonderful conclusion when Charissa and I offended the waiter at dinner. Little did we know, you cannot take your own drinks into resteraunts. He gave us a dirty look but we paid for our bottle of water in the end. I do believe my next blog will have to be about the many faux paus of Rebekah while in Italy.

Stress, sickness, and suitcases

This semester has proven to be one interesting semester, to say the least. I was going to class, tutoring in the LC (Learning Center), working with Sara Jane in the Student Success Center on our Career Fair, and trying to hang out with my roommates…you know, living my everyday life, when BAM the “Saraland Crud” hit me with a vengeance. Jokingly, my friend Thomas told me I needed a break and I immediately thought that Italy would be the perfect break. My immune system thought otherwise. It decided to make me slow down and take time for myself.

Thank goodness I have incredible roommates who made me chicken noodle soup and didn’t drink my apple juice! While I was gone everyone else had an incredible package brought to them…a black bag with itinerary and plane tickets!!!! This morning Dr. Mitchell waltzed into the LC
with mine and dropped it right in front of me in a Mission Impossible type of delivery. I eagerly grabbed everything out of the bag and held in my hands MY plane ticket from Mobile, AL to Venice, Italy.

Although my mom is used to watching her children walk onto airplanes in order to fly to other countries every time it’s still her baby leaving her for a little while. She has already started asking me if i could leave enough room for her in my suitcase. As I get ready to cross, as Mom calls it, “The Big Water” I have stood in my closet and just looked at my clothes trying to figure out what to take.

Brown shoes…check
Black shoes…check
Flip flops…check
Roommate’s camo jacket…check
charged iPod…check

but that’s far as I’ve gotten.

All I really need is help with flight reading materials. Got any ideas?

I think I’m going to make a No Spaghetti Vow for the next two weeks….

Italy here I come…AGAIN!!!!

I cannot wait to step on the plane that will leave the United States and take me to Europe. Though the plane ride is a ton of fun, that is not what I am looking forward to this spring Break! I am eagerly awaiting riding a gondola again, finding the carving in the bridge that Bryce wrote about two years ago, standing in the dungeon of the Doges’ Palace, standing in awe of Botticelli’s Birth of Venus, watching the sun set in Florence, and licking…yes licking…the colloseum AGAIN!!!! I think when Webster put the definition of beauty in the dictionary he had an Itallian sunset in mind. I must agree with Dr. Mashburn, there is nothing like traveling, and I am so glad I have had the opportunity to go with some of my closest UM friends and faculty. Even though I can’t wait to have gellato again I think when Mindy and Emily have it for the first time mine will taste even better. I think I am looking forward to seeing my friends experience this incredible trip more than I am about going. God taught me things I never knew possible two years ago. I can’t wait to see what He does this time!!