Le Jour Quinze (Day 15)

CAPTIVATED

Here we go again: early morning, packing, breakfast, bus. This time, we had to switch busses, which meant we’re not with Dr. Mac or Brady anymore. I’m really bummed about it actually. The new bus’s T.A. loves to hear himself talk on the microphone, Dr. Chuck (one of our other chaperones) blares his music into the microphone, and then we watched the movie Letters To Juliet, which is so fitting for our trip to Verona, Italy! I guess it would have all actually been entertaining or fun if I wasn’t SO exhausted and just wanted to sleep, blah. My throat is starting to get a little scratchy from the constant going, so PLEASE PRAY I feel 100% again.

Hillary

my friend Dane sleeping. GOTCHA!

We had to walk 5 blocks to get to our hotel, which is located in the CUTEST little alleyway.

This go round, we got placed in a three-person room, and it’s a little smaller than any of our other hotels, but still nice and has free wifi. Kelly and I are roommates with a girl named Amber who is super sweet, our age, and MARRIED! I know, right? There are two beds and then one couch bed thing, but I think it will be good, and we’re here two nights and hardly spend time in our hotel anyway. We are located on the first floor, and we have a sliding glass door that opens up into a courtyard, so several of us danced in the middle whenever we got here because we were so tired of sitting in the bus! I also just downloaded the song, “This is what dreams are made of” by Lizzy McGuire from the Lizzy McGuire movie from whenever I was a child; the setting was in Verona, Italy. I decided this was the next two days’ theme song, and I let everyone else know it too :P it’s so fitting.

Brady and Garrett

Sydney, Allison, Kelly, Drew, Brady, Garrett, and I decided to go walk around and explore this cute, quiet, quaint city while we had two hours to kill before our walking tour of the city. It was fun exploring; there are SO many cute shopping places here, and once again, everyone is SO fashion forward. Many girls are wearing dresses and skirts with boots, oxfords are very in, scarves, and the color ORANGE! No one wears T-shirts. That’s a no-no. Brady and Garrett play guitar, and they found a guitar store that allows them to play, so they were in HEAVEN playing, and actually sounding really good! We left them there. I think they’ve been having withdraws from playing, and the Lord graciously provided this especially for them.

 

the love gate of locks.

I came back to the hotel because I wanted to change shoes and get a glass of water, so I decided to strike up a conversation with our really nice, older bartender man. I want to soak in my time here and learn as much as I can about Italy or Verona in particular; I feel so naive about the bigger world around me, so, naturally, I asked him 100 questions. One of the big things I learned was that family is very important to people here, but in the last 5 years, there has been a DRAMATIC change in culture (especially in northern Italy) because it is so hard to find a job, so it has become extremely common for graduates from high school to study abroad in England or America and then end up living there, which brings a lot of immigrants into Italy for work and the family environment isn’t so cohesive. Then we talked about wines. I was all ears and would have asked a million more questions, but I almost got left by the whole group for the tour.

On the tour, we learned so much about the history of Verona, saw so many beautiful buildings, balconies with flowers on them, cobblestone pavements, a bride and groom on a horse and carriage who just got married, a famous gate with locks covering it (for couples who want good luck with their love), a statue of a woman that if you rub her boob (interesting?), it brings your love life good luck, and Juliet’s tower, which Letters of Juliet used to film some of the movie, inspired by Shakespeare’s story of Romeo and Juliet! As I was listening, I was also people watching and observing the culture. The people here are happier, more lively, smoke a LOT, dress very nice, are not sketch (looks like people are more trusting of others around them), and all have dogs, mopeds, or bikes. I LOVE IT HERE, oh my gosh. I will NOT be ready to leave in just two days, there is so much to soak in and appreciate here. And I LOVE talking to locals; I need more time.

After the tour, we all went and ate at this outdoor Italian restaurant in the middle of a beautiful, quaint open square area, and I got to sit with so many girls I just met on the trip whom I love! Kelly and Allison were there too, but we all enjoyed the different conversations with different people we had at each end of our table. This precious girl, Hillary, and I shared pesto gnocchi dish and then a mushroom, olive, ham, and artichoke pizza! YUM! We also got 10% off at this place for being students. Afterward, we all took over this gelato place that had the cheapest gelato I’ve seen in Europe yet! 1.50 Euro! WAHOO! That place made good money tonight. Afterward, I walked and hung out with a large group of us who went into the main market square area to hang out and take pictures. And once again, we were the main attraction for the local people, for they all kept taking pictures of us, watching us, and photo-bombing all of our pictures!

Then, the Lord completely blessed my night. For some reason, I had been thinking about being around kids a lot lately, and after hanging around college students for a long time, I always start to miss being around kids. In the square, I noticed a little Italian girl with long, black, bouncy curly hair who looked about 4 years old bouncing around the square, dancing, and people watching. She made eye contact with me and I waved. I guess she thought that was a signal to just come on over, so she did! I looked over at her family to make sure it was okay, and they were all smiling, and I waved to them to reassure them I’m safe for their precious girl to hang out with. Well, I quickly learned she didn’t understand a WORD of English, so we improvised and played nonverbally instead. I got down on her level and asked to give her a high five; she didn’t know what that meant, so she ran over to her family to ask what she is supposed to do. They told her to do something, so then she sprinted back over to me with a huge grin and grabbed my hands and began bouncing and I twirled her around and around and around! She felt like a princess. I learned her name was Sabria. All my study abroad friends were clapping for her and taking pictures of us; it was magical. We then both started doing ballerina spins together, played leap frog, and I clapped as she attempted what looked like break dancing. Before I left, she sprinted over to me one last time and gave me a kiss on my cheek, and everyone awed and clapped, including her family. It was such a God thing, and I’m glad I could make her feel like a treasured, loved little girl for the night, and if she didn’t, I sure did...

 

My groggy, semi-grumpy day completely turned around to be one of the most memorable nights yet, only ordained by the Lord and his goodness and grace.

I can’t wait to wake up early and explore tomorrow! I feel so safe here…