arrivederci roma

(goodbye rome)

this will be my last post here in rome. today is my last day at school. it feels so weird. thank you all so so much for all your encouragment in comments, emails, letters, and packages.

i am sooooo excited to come home. i miss everything so much. there are a lot of things i will miss about rome, mostly the cappicino and gelato...and hanging out in amazing places....but i am ready to come. hopefully someday i will be able to come back here.

see you all soon.

<3

barmotzo

today i got back from this little tiny village inbetween rome and florence. me, sarah, danielle, and natasha went to stay over night with one of our friends here who owns a little house there. it was so beautiful. it was very similiar to the other towns we have been visiting. very quaint and mountainous. have you ever heard of the monster garden?? well that is located in barmotzo. we had fun exploring it.

SCHOOL IS OVER!!! oh man, i am so glad. all of my finals went very well.

the next few days will be really fun. tonight is danielles last night here after 8 months, so we are all going to go out dancing tonight before we send her off tomorrow morning.

i am getting so excited to see all of you when i come home in 5 days. :)

the paper room

here are a few pictures of mine and sarah's paper room that we made for our sculpture class. someone in my class took them, they aren't super great pictures, but they will give you the idea of it. our whole little studio space was completely covered from the floor to the ceiling in paper that we made.

tomorrow at this time i will be done with my junior year of college. i cant wait. i only have one more final crit to get through. today really feels like summer. it is so warm and hot out. :)

the Cross was it.

i got caught in a lot of rain on my way to school today. i got very wet, but i sorta enjoyed it. it smelled delicious. there was this lady who offered to share her umbrella with me while we were waiting for the tram. i was blown away. in my experiences here, people aren't usually that friendly. she brightened my day.

last night i had a really fun time with my girlfriends. we went to the hard rock cafe. we decided to embrace our americanness for one night. it was so weird. we felt like we were in the states again. it was so great to drink FREE water out of BIG glasses. and we watched awesome 90's music videos. and we ate american food! it made me really glad i am coming home soon.

this morning i read this in a book my dad gave me, called "Christ is All!" by David Bryant. it was really encouraging to me.
"Then one day the Gospel came. I believed. Immediately from God's perspective I was raised with His Son from the dead. My destination became identical with His. God reckoned me to be crucified two thousand years ago with Jesus, at the very time He bore the judgment for my sin (and for all sin) on Calvary. The judgement my Lord experienced became my primary judgment, too.
Since I am permanently abiding in Him, I can be disqualified only if Christ Himself could ever be disqualified from full participation in the Age-to-Come (which will never happen). There is no fulture judgment that will ever expel me from the glories of the New Jerusalem. In the most profound sense, my "day in court" has passed. The Cross was it. The Cross was final. The Cross put behind me the life-threatening consequences of my incalculable rebellions against the Almighty One."

the countdown begins.....only 9 days. woah...

yay school is almost done

there is me and sarah on a boat in ventotene...right before we jumped into the freezing water.

so...things have been pretty crazy lately. i have been trying to finish up my finals and such. only a few more days of school left. i cant wait. it seems crazy to think that i will be a senior in college. how did that happen???

we had the student show last night. it was fun, lots of people came. sarah and i had our paper room project in it. we were also supposed to have our other project in it, but due to bad planning on our part it didn't happen. that was frusterating.

i leave in 12 days.

jenelle and i had a really good time together. on easter sunday we went to church and then i took her to all the major rome sites. there was soooo many people everywhere we went. we got gelato everyday that she was here. it was so nice to see her again and hang out.

buona pasqua!

well it is almost easter time. im sad to miss the easter egg hunt at my grandmas house and of course delicous easter meals. however, my cousin jenelle (the one i went to visit in london) is coming to visit me tomorrow! she is staying for a few days. so i will be with her on easter. we will probably attempt to make our own easter dinner. things are going to be absolutely CRAZY here in rome this weekend because apparently thousands of people come here to go to the vatican for easter. tonight me and a few friends are going to go to the colosseum to see the pope. that is if we can even get in....it should be interesting.

happy easter!!

John 20 11-18
But Mary was standing outside the tomb weeping; and so, as she wept, she stooped and looked into the tomb; as she beheld two angels in white sitting, one at the head, and one at the feet, where the body of Jesus had been lying. And they said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping?" She said to them, "Because they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid Him." When she had said this, she turned around, and beheld Jesus standing there, and did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, "Woman Why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?" Suposing Him to be the gardener, she said to Him, "Sir, if you have carried Him away, tell me where you have laid Him, and I will take Him away." Jesus said to her, "Mary!" She turned and said to Him in Hebrew, "Rabboni!" (which means Teacher). Jesus said to her, "Stop clinging to Me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to My breatheren, and say to them, 'I ascended to My Fahter and your Father, and My God and your God.'" Mary Magdaline came, announcing to the disciples, "I have seen the Lord," and that He had said these things to her.

Ventotene

i have no idea why some of these pictures came up normal size and some are really tiny. sorry about that. so these are from this past weekend at ventotene. it was a great trip. there was 8 of us who went. we had a great time exploring the island. there was a really cool ancient roman ruins part up on a cliff. everything there was so beautiful. it reminded me of cinque terre in some ways. everyone on the island was so nice and friendly (unlike rome). we had delicious food and layed out in the sun. on saturday night we made a campfire on the beach. we took a boat ride, and sarah, me, danielle, ted, and marissa all decided to be crazy and go swimming. it was so incredibly cold. its not warm enough to even wear a bathing suit, but the water was so clear, we thought it would be fun. so we counted to 3 and all jumped in together. it was so cold. SO COLD. i think my body went into shock because it was really hard to breath and started to feel sick so i was only in the water for like a minute. but im still glad i did it. anyways, we had a really fun weekend. here are some pictures:

all of us on our boat ride

does this look familiar?? (minus all the people)

us girls being explorers

clear (and very cold) water

hanging out on the beach

beautiful...