Sono Grato

I finally got a notice that my Metallic Structures class starts next Monday! So I have my first class of both my engineering courses starting next week on Monday, back-to-back!  Go figure, by a mistake, I show up a week late for my classes, planning on being a week early so I have time to get settled in, and by odd circumstances, both of my classes start 2 weeks late, so I still had a week+ to get settled in before starting classes!!  Now I only have to wait to receive my research project…which I’m not in any rush to get (don’t tell, but I’m only doing the research because it’s paying for this trip, and because it looks good on a resumè.  It would be really sweet if I were actually interested in whatever project they give me, but I feel like that’s almost too much to ask…I’ve already received too much greatness by choosing to come to Naples to do this research project).

It’s so obvious that God’s hand is on this trip; it’s ridiculous.  The amount of details that have been falling in to place for me so that I am prepared for any situation I’ve come to is really cool.  I’ve always had only just enough explained to me to get me through whatever task has been ahead of me, so it’s still a challenge, but I’ve been able to safely get where I need to go.  On my trip to England, that there was free internet at the airport, and an information desk with a phone to call Jenn, completely changed what that trip could have been like.

I am also so lucky to be staying in such a perfect place… My experience in Italy has become more about this place where I’m staying and what I’ve been learning here, rather than what I will learn in my classes (granted, I haven’t started the engineering classes yet…but I don’t think I will learn as much in them as I have by living in Villalta).  Since I haven’t been able to learn anything in my Italian class (well, that’s not true...today I learned how to ask what time it is…but I will never need this because my iPod never leaves my hand), it’s very nice being in a place with 40 great women, who are willing to teach me Italian (not only am I being taught how to speak Italian and how to behave in Italy, but I’m also being taught the manners required of a princess, just in case that ever happens to me..), rather than living in an apartment on my own.  I thought it would be cool to come over here and figure things out on my own, but God knows what’s up better than I do… it turns out it’s way better to be living with guides.  And, I’ve already gotten to go to England!(which I would not have done if I were living alone), and I’ve met up with Jenn (which wouldn’t have happened otherwise until she came to Italy, and I would have already missed some great travel opportunities with her by then (I emailed her today asking for her to send me a schedule of her travel plans for April)! 

It’s also just really nice to have a safe place to stay, where I will not go hungry if I am not feeling brave enough to go out and try to figure out how to get food on my own.  God knows I like my sense of security, and He’s letting me have that here, even though He loves when we are not feeling secure so that we depend on Him (and by saying I have a sense of security here, I very much feel unsecure a lot of the time, so God is still forcing me to depend on Him, praise God).  I’m just feeling incredibly blessed at this moment, because I’m stepping back and having a look at how lucky I am; I’m sure that in only 30 minutes from now, I will be back to my tunnel vision of slight panic, which is easier to maintain than a state of being overwhelmed with gratefulness.  (“I know you can be overwhelmed, and you can be underwhelmed, but can you ever just be whelmed?” “I think you can in Europe.”-for Liz.)  Perhaps I’m just whelmed, then.

Okay, on to the food, for those of you who only read this to figure out what to cook for dinner… Breakfast was like breakfast has been everyday- excellent, plain, hard breads (kind of like their version of a bagel…at least I took it like that- I spread some cheese on it that is very similar to cream cheese… they usually put marmalade on it- there’s always an assortment of cherry, apricot, apple, and strawberry marmalades), coffee, milk, juice (apricot today. I thought it was peach so I took a glass-full, then regretted it once I tasted it…I’m not a fan of apricot), and cornflakes.  Nesquik and nutella are always there if you want them as well!  Today, there was also some sweet bread, which was left over from snack yesterday (which I definitely had because eating it twice yesterday was not enough), and the Italian sweets that were left over from last night were out (I was too full after my bread, juice, and coffee to get to try any more of these, but I tried a couple more at snack today… ones that were like macaroons.  When I tried to tell them that we called them macaroons; they looked at me like I was crazy. They might have thought that anyway- no big.).  For lunch I stopped at a café stand on the way back from my Italian class and got a nutella crepe (great! But very over-priced. I won’t be stopping there again), a coke, and a bag of “picante” chips (I picked these because they were supposed to be spicy, and I hoped they would be like jalapeño chips. They weren’t very spicy, but they were good).   Every Wednesday is “film night” at the Villalta, and we eat dinner in the living room… so I have no idea what we’ll be having for dinner for what sort of “film” we will be watching, but I’m pretty excited about it.

I also wanted to mention (I am quite proud of myself) that I made a couple of friends in Italian class today!  While we were waiting for the teacher to arrive, I noticed that Ronnie- the guy who sang for the class- had a Julliard bag, so I asked him he attended Julliard.  He said no, he used to teach there!  He went on to tell me how he’s from Norway, but he’s been travelling around for the past 20 years.  After class he told me that he will be in Italy for a year, just trying to learn Italian.  He told me about the places he’s been scuba diving and how he couldn’t believe how cold Chicago was (isn’t Norway cold??).  Also, in class I sat next to the girl from Estonia who I talked to after class last time, and she seemed pretty excited to have someone to talk to.  She’s the only person in the Erasmus program (it’s the exchange program all over Europe) from Estonia.  She wrote out a sheet to help me figure out Italian articles, which she had learned back in Estonia, since our teacher was struggling with it.

Okay, okay.  I am off to film night.  Ciao bellezze!