"The time has come," the Walrus said...

Done. Fine. Finito. Bene. Primavera. SUMMER!

The tests are over, the papers in, and I am packed and ready to go home! Yay.

I talked to Phil, Ben, Pitch, and Cupcake yesterday, and I got butterflies in my stomach thinking about being back! It feels good.

This experience has been absolutely incredible. Life changing, if I were going to be cheesy. When I look back at all of the different things that I have done, reading old posts and looking at pictures, it’s hard to believe that this actually happened. And so fast…

I always say that I need time to process things before I can fully appreciate them: books, mission trips, sermons, and experiences. This trip certainly falls into that category. I don’t think I’ll fully understand or appreciate exactly what I have been so privileged to do until later. I do know, however, that this was HUGE.

Before I left, I was telling Stephen that going on this trip was a huge step for me, because I am always doing things for other people, hardly ever stopping to consider what is best for myself. Leaving was hard…the church is understaffed, Phil and his family weighed heavily on my heart, and I haven’t been home in God knows how long. I felt selfish. But, Stephen (count on him to give the BEST advice) said, “Hill, I think that by doing the best thing for yourself, you are doing the best thing for us.” Basically, he told me that they want—they need—me to take care of myself and to ensure that I am doing what is best for me. Did I mention how much I love them?

I did. I grew. I changed. I laughed. I hurt. I learned. I loved. I missed (a lot). I failed. I succeeded. I prayed.

Now I am going back, after experiencing the sweetness of nothing, making the promise to myself that “Things will never be the same. We will never be the same” (Crowder, again).

Pace e Bene.

Keep up!

Ok…long time no post. Sorry. It’s been hectic. And by hectic, I mean that’s the biggest understatement of the world.

Life has officially begun in Orvieto. I don’t know why, but the people are all over the place. Sunday night, we went to dinner at Coco’s, a small and cheap favorite, and we walked out to learn that there was a big festival going on. We pretty much just followed our ears and found some live music, accompanied with free wine and hors d’oeuvres. The people who were throwing that party told us (in broken English/Italian) that their house was our house, and that the party was all over the city. So, we partook and had fun!

Yesterday morning, we woke up bright n’ early at 6 to get on the bus at 6:45. We headed to Rome, where we stopped at a church to see Caravaggio’s Calling of St. Matthew. I love this painting, because it handles light beautifully. Plus, the story is great. Jesus enters the room, where the ray of light is coming, and points to St. Matthew, a tax collector (basically a nasty disreputable job back then) and says, “Come, follow me.” Then Matthew does. It’s a really awesome painting. The church is a French church too, so all of the signs and what not were in French, which was exciting that I could finally read something. I got really into this bulletin board they had set up about their African missions in French-speaking, war-torn countries in Africa. Hmmm…

Next, we made the most important excursion of our day: to the two best coffee shops in Rome. Lea took a group to the coffee shop that invented the grancafé (frozen coffee), and Kathy took the rest to the best hot coffee. Apparently it’s a big rivalry, so I was totally in heaven. It was delicious, and Kathy generously paid for our group, since there were only 3 of us (it was really hot, so the weaklings went for the icy stuff. Lame).

After coffee, we went to this other church that’s all about tricking the eye. The ceiling is done in 3rd point perspective, meaning it looks like it goes straight up, even though it’s flat. It appears to be the angels ascending into heaven, and some of them look like they can fall on you any second. Weird.

We got a lunch break, where a group of us went to see the Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Steps, before stopping for gelato at “the best gelaterria in Italy.” No joke, it was. AMAZING. And HUGE (see picture). Lea was there too, and we got to experience her cussing out some dumb American tourist over a line issue. I think she may have had a couple of glasses of wine at lunch…haha



Now onto the purpose of our day: Vatican City. First stop, St. Peter’s. Before I go any further, I want to preface this by saying that I had high expectations of my experience here, and I have an immense respect for the Catholic Church. However, I am pretty much disgusted with St. Peter’s. Don’t get me wrong—it’s GORGEOUS. But spending that much money on a church building when the Bible says that “God does not dwell in temples built by hands” (Act. 17:24) seems just ridiculous. I don’t just criticize this specific church, I think it’s a problem that exists in most churches today (including my own, who is about to spend $8 million dollars on an organ). It just isn’t Biblical. Beautiful, but not Biblical…but as my favorite author, Shane Claiborne, says in his book Jesus For President,

“It’s the beautiful things that get us. Perhaps the greatest seduction is not the anti-God, but the Almost-God. Poisonous fruit can look pretty tasty…Lust begins with a recognition of beauty. Gluttony begins when our enjoyment of the delectable gifts of God starts to consume us. Idolatry begins when our seeing a reflection of God in something beautiful leads to our thinking that the beautiful image bearer is worthy of worship.”

Scary.

After St. Peter’s, we got a short dinner break before our appointment at the Vatican Museum. We got to go in after hours with a genius tour guide and spend an hour and a half in the most incredible museum in the world, including the Sistine Chapel. The chapel we had to ourselves, which was an awesome experience, especially compared to the last 2 times I’ve been there, smushed in crouds, shhh-ed the whole time, bumped, elbowed, etc. It was sweet.

We got kicked out at 8:15 by the power-driven Italian guards, got on the bus, and headed back. We got in around 11:30 (thanks to a brief Auto-grill detour), which made for a long last day of classes today.

The cramming, procrastinating, packing, celebrating, and disbelief has all set in, and everyone is on the countdown for the next 48 hours. It’s so weird to think that it’s almost over…where does time go?

I have to say I am really excited about going home. Like I said in the post before I left, I am sad to leave but excited to go. I really wish I could be 2 places at once. Or just have teleportation powers. Either would be fine.

Ok so my posting is caught up, but my writing is not. So I have to go find something else to do instead of writing my paper…

Frolicking in Fountains

Summer has officially joined us today. I say this not because today is the first day of summer, but because today the temperatures reached 100 (I think) for the first time. It was SCORCHING.

We started the day at 6am with breakfast and went straight to the bus to head to Rome. Of course, Kathy overestimated how long it would take us to get there (only by 2 hours), so we got there at 8:15 for our 11am appointment at the Borghese Palace. It was actually good though, because we got to stop at the church where one of my favorite pieces of art, the Ecstasy of St. Theresa, is held. We arrived at the church during mass, so we were only allowed to go in 5 at a time--that is, until the priest interrupted communion to literally shoo me out the door...oops. At least I got to see it!

After the church and some coffee, we headed for the Borghese, where crazy Ric (our cinema teacher) gave a long, pointless, and scattered lecture in the park on some weird movie that we watched yesterday. Thankfully, we headed in the museum shortly after.

The museum was very cool, and we got to see several of Bernini's most famous sculptures, including the David, which completes my checklist of seeing all 3! We also saw some incredible Caravaggio and Corseggio paintings. It was cool, but I think that I was, again, one of few that actually enjoyed it.

The bus picked us up from the Borghese and took us to Trivoli, where we were going to the Villa D'Este. This enormous villa is the sight of endless, crazy beautiful natural fountains.



If you've seen the Lizzy Maguire movie, she frolics here with her Italian lover at some point in the movie. We really enjoyed it, and it was nice because the water actually cools the air down, so it wasn't miserably hot. We took tons of pictures, and we got to listen to the organ fountain. There is actually a fountain in there that plays the organ with its pressure (Roman Bellagio...sweet).



We got back to Orvieto around 7, hot, sweaty, and hungry, so we are all about to grab some dinner and go try to be productive in these last few crunch days. Class again tomorrow presents some pretty demanding work loads, and after Capri, studying just seems so overrated!

Leather and Limoncello

What a glorious day! We started out with breakfast at the hotel, which consisted of stale croissants and coffee that tasted like burned firewood. After our Italian excuse for a morning meal, we walked up to the center of Anacapri to catch a bus down to Capri. The town is about 2x4 miles total, and it has two cities: Capri, the more ritzy and touristy part, and Anacapri, which is the quiet, quaint part that reminds me of Mexico a lot. We are staying at a little hotel called Hotel Bussola di Hermes, which is run by a little women named Rita, who has probably smoked 10 packs of cigarettes a day her entire life. Everyone is really sweet and helpful, so she gave us some tips for what to do during the day.

In Capri, we stopped in this little shoe shop called Costanza, as per advice from friends and Trip Advisor. Evidently this guy makes leather sandals to fit your feet, and he has fit the soles of people from Jackie O to Sarah Jessica Parker. All the girls got sandals, and we watched him make them right in front of us. It was so fun and cool, and the guy, Costanzo, was hilarious!



All that shopping of course made us hungry (kidding), so we grabbed a quick lunch with Katelyn and Evan to try to make it to see the Grotta Azurra before it stopped running for the day. The Grotta Azurra—blue cave—is the highlight of the island, apparently, and when you are inside the water just radiates in a gorgeous royal blue. To get there, you take a motorboat, maybe 25-feet long, around the island. Oh my, it felt SO good to be on the water! When you looked up, the cliffs ascended into the clouds, and the natural stalagmites and stalactites hung down from the caves and arches, where the birds dove in and out. It was beautiful. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to go inside the Grotta Azurra, because it was so rough that the paddleboats couldn’t even make it inside.



All of us were getting quite toasty by this time, so we met up with Clay, Kylie, Abby and Arleen at Faro Beach (where we were yesterday) and shelled out a couple of Euro to sit on chairs by the pool; the concrete slab just wasn’t quite cutting it. We swam some more, ate some snacks and enjoyed some drinks—WITH ICE—before we all dozed off under the setting sun.



Clay woke us up for dinner around 7:30, and we walked up a flight of stairs to eat fresh seafood on the deck and watch the sun finish setting behind the rocks. Did I mention this place was beautiful?





We all have been told repeatedly that Limoncello is a must, especially in Capri. So, following instructions from friends, locals, and our bud Rick Steves, we went to a little bar to try this island specialty. I have one word: AWFUL. It was sweet, sour, and so full of alcohol that after one sip, I had heartburn the rest of the night. Never. Again.



By that time, everyone was tired, salty, and a little sunburned, so showers and beds were in order pronto.

Cliff Hangin'

Well, we made it, but barely in one piece. We woke up at about 3:30 to start the taxi train down to the bottom of the hill. There is only 1 taxi in Orvieto, and our entire group was leaving for Capri, so it was a serious extravaganza to get us all there. We were in the first cab, so we got to the train station at about 4, an hour before our 5:05 train. It was a hilariously delirious hour, to say the least.

The train was interesting, at best. Since it was so early, and it was an inter-city train, everyone was asleep, and therefore everyone was taking up two seats. It was dark, and there were people asleep in the aisles, so finding a seat and getting everyone settled was a little unnerving. We made it, though, and 4 hours later we arrived at the station to take a cab to the ferry port. So, in case you have lost me so far, that means that our trip to Capri includes: bus down, train fake out, bus up, cab down, train, cab, ferry, cab, then walking through the alleyways to get to our hotel because the roads are too narrow for the drivers to get out. Adventure? I’d say so.

Starving, tired, and dying for sun, we went straight to lunch and then to the beach. We swam in the Mediterranean and jumped off the rock cliffs.l It was freezing, but no one cared because we all just wanted to officially be at the Italian beach (which was more like a concrete slab on the rocks than beach, but whatever).



We had some wine and ate at a nice restaurant, and then we went straight to bed, exhausted after a long day.

Fake Out

I am sweating. For the first time since I have been here, I think, the temperature has reached a level that actually required me to take off my Juarez sweatshirt (that hasn't been washed the whole month, might I add). Actually, though, that's not the reason I am sweating...

We had class today, as usual, and watched some Western movie that I didn't pay attention to at all. In art history, we went back to the Orvieto Cathedral to go to a chapel inside with a fresco cycle of the last judgment. Honestly, I enjoyed it and loved the cycle, but we are all so ready to peace out for our free time in Capri that no one really cared about anything but their impending train rides.

So Nicole and I practically threw our stuff in our suitcases, ran to the free internet cafe to check email, and then booked it down the hill, only to find out that the Funicolare is broken (that's the gondola thing that takes us down to the bottom of the hill, where the train station is). Plan B: BUS. Our now 8-person group waited, very anxiously, for the bus to arrive. It was then 3:40, and our train left at 3:55. It normally wouldn't be that big of a deal, except it is a 4-hour train ride that has to make it to Naples in time to catch the LAST ferry of the day over to the island of Capri. AND, to top it all off, Naples is the sketchiest place in all of Italy, so spending the night there isn't really an option.

I am sure, by now, you've figured out how the story ends, but let me fill you in what happened in-between...yes, we missed the train. So Clay, Regan, and Ben talked to the extremely angry ticket window lady for about 40 minutes while the girls chilled and got snacks. Against her advice, Ben and Regan told us that they had a new way figured out, so we all bought our tickets for the Plan C train and then went to validate them, only to find out that the train strike had canceled that train (which the angry ticket woman had been yelling for the past 35 minutes). By this time, the girls were laughing hysterically and the guys were freaking out and sweating. Typical.

Finally, two hours later, we took the bus BACK up the hill and are spending the night here tonight, just so we can wake up at 5am tomorrow morning and try plan D. Can't wait!

Haha, it actually was a hilarious afternoon, but I have to say that all of this traveling is making me very weary. I will be extremely excited to settle back down in my own bed in Dallas!

Wish us luck for the morning!

The Wall

I think you all know what I am talking about when I refer to “the wall.” Today, our group collectively hit it. We had a long day, starting with a 7am meeting at the fake David. All the girls are whining about their hair and nails, and the joyous trips to McDonald’s are in full swing. I think, slowly but surely, everyone is getting ready to go back to the states.

We went to the Uffizi, the Palazzo de Medici, Orsan Michele, and the Accademia with Lea and her friend Tuba, who is a specialist in Italian Renaissance art and architecture. It was fun and very informative, but we were all exhausted and really just worn out from our weekends. Everyone was thrilled when we finally got on the bus to head back to Orvieto at 5.

The highlight of my day was my lunch, which I enjoyed with Mr. and Mrs. Hart (my high school art teacher and her husband). I had already been to all the places we visited today, so those weren’t as exciting to me. It was great to see some different faces, and especially ones from home. We had great conversation and tried to catch up before I had to run to our next appointment. It was rushed, but wonderful.

We have our cinema midterm tomorrow, so everyone is quietly and sleepily procrastinating studying. We’ll see how it goes!