2 down, 2 to go

My first two weeks of school have passed so I thought I should post a picture of my good-lookin' class for all to see.

From left to right you have:

• 1) Luciano-he's from Madagascar and speaks French so he has that throat thing going on when he speaks Italian. He is very sweet and has a beautiful smile that he readily shares with the rest of us.
• 2) Teresa-she's from Mexico and is at Centro Italiano with a group from her university. She's had an easier time picking up the language seeing how close Spanish is to Italian and was the only other girl in the class so we bonded right away.
• 3) me :)
• 4) Marcella-she was one of my teachers (Maria was the other one and I didn't get her picture last Friday but will post a pic soon!) Marcella was absolutely wonderful and so PATIENT with our broken Italian; it was her last day this past Friday because she usually only works during the summer months so I will have a new teacher tomorrow along with Maria.
• 5) Ezron-sweet Ezron is from India and has the most beautiful singing voice. He became my buddy and him and Antonello got along right away. He spoke some English so we were able to communicate a little easier with that. He is going to Rome soon to study theology and hopefully become a priest in 3 years! Mamma mia!!!
• 6)Giascinto-he is also from Madagascar and is friends with Luciano. He carries around one of those electronic dictionaries so we always knew we could count of him to be a fast translator!
• 7)Taka-he's from Japan and we had a blast together! He is in Naples for a year and is studying to be a pizza maker!!! He's one of the funniest people I know and along with Ezron and Teresa, his time at Centro Italiano is finished.

All 3 of them have already finished their course and won't be there tomorrow so I will have new students in my class...it truly makes me sad when I think of it. We sort of became a little family these past 2 weeks but you know what new people means........new memories, so bring it on!

Below is a picture of Piazza di Gesu which is located right by my school. There is also a cute library to the right of this statue where they sell a wide array of english books! Hooray!!!!

As my time at Centro Italiano is coming to an end in 2 weeks, I remember the fear and trepidation I felt when I had a month, 3 weeks, 2 weeks, 1 week, 1 day left until school started, and to read about it in my journal now, I have a deeper trust in God. He is so faithful and although I might have said that before, I not only say it now, but know it. I have experienced his faithfulness in a way I have never before.
As the cover of my journal says:

"She's turning her life into something sacred: Each breath, a new birth. Each moment, a new chance. She bows her head, gathers her dreams from a pure, deep stream and stretches her arms towards the sky."

question

Do you ever just want to push the fast forward button on life to pass a difficult time so you can see what is on the other side...to see if all of it is worth it?

once upon a yesterday...

Once upon a time...

...I met an Italian man who, after 6 days of knowing me, approached me and shared his heart with me. He told me he thought I was special and beautiful and that he wanted to know me better.

Once upon a yesterday...

...this Italian man and I traveled back to the exact spot where he said those sweet words over 1 year ago.

my first day of school!

Well, my friends...I went to my first day of school today at Centro Italiano. Above, you will see a picture of what it looks like outside. Thankfully, Antonello had a test at his school so both of us were able to take the bus together this morning and my precious fiance walked me to the front door of Centro Italiano, which resembles what hobbits would walk through!

I was a little early, so as we arrived, a woman did as well. It turns out she is one of the teachers and her name is Monica. Antonello asked if he could drop me off with her and she said of course; I was in good hands. Monica and I went through the hobbit door and entered the courtyard, which is shown above. We climbed 3 flights of stairs and found our floor; she unlocked the door and I walked into what my life will look like for the next 4 weeks.

After meeting a girl from Austria, named Ursula, who speaks English, and taking both a written and oral placement test, I was placed in what seems to be level 3. There are 5 other people in my class and we are only allowed to speak Italian in class...wait a minute...is this my life?

Am I really doing all of this? Did I really move over here to be with Antonello in a whole new world and am now studying in Italia? Am I really going to wake up tomorrow morning and leave the house BY MYSELF and take two buses, for a total of 45 minutes, to travel to school and speak Italian for 4 straight hours without any english help and then hop back on the bus, straining my brain even more to push the little red button on the bus for my correct stops to make it home okay?

All I can say is, "Sono pronta per questo avventura!"

a trip to Bari

I went to my first Italian wedding...well, my first Italian Catholic wedding that is. Antonello's cousin, Dario, got married so I met even more family as we traveled 2 hours to the east side of Italy, called Bari. Marina's brother, Mino, lives over there with his wife, Maria, and their three children. It is definitely smaller than Naples and is located more in the country; it was nice to see another city other than Naples, but we were happy to get back home on Friday.

We had a lot of fun eating the 13 course meal (which wasn't that great) and dancing the night away. The whole night lasted almost 12 hours so needless to say, we were very tired.

The next morning, Antonello's aunt, Maria, took us to the "The Grottoes of Castellana" which was discovered in 1938. It was absolutely breathtaking and unfortunately you weren't allowed to take any pictures except in the first cave, which you will see below.

Franco, Emanuela and I before the wedding

My handsome fiance

Emanuela, Franco, Marina, me, Antonello & Nonna (Grammy)

outside the restaurant where we had appetizers

Dario and Katia...the newlyweds another view from outside the restaurant...the party moved out here for dancing and the cutting of the cake

the tables inside the dining room Marina and I
Mom and son
the best food of the night; lemon sorbet in raspberry sauce"I wanna dance with somebody!" outside pics

outside of the grottoes...houses called "trulli"inside the grottoes

2 stories

Story #1:

On Monday, Antonello and I went to downtown Naples and shopped around their street fair they have daily. We ended up around the movie section, looking at a huge pile of them. At this fair, because Naples sun is so hot that it can burn your skin off, they have huge umbrellas set up all along both sides of the street to provide some much needed shade. As I was walking around the huge bin that contained the movies, my feet found the gigantic umbrella pole and and since it was a little lopsided, it felt like a trampoline. Well...of course, I started jumping on it and after a few seconds of fun, the umbrella started to fall over! With my huge muscles and of course some adrenaline, I braced myself and grabbed the pole with all my might to bring it upright again. All the commotion caused a few Italians to run over to my aid; I showed them my muscles and they laughed. After finding a movie, we decided it was time to go home so we headed to the bus stop...this is where Story #2 comes alive so keep reading.

Story #2:

After the street fair, Antonello and I (and our four bags full of goodies from a successful shop that afternoon) got on the bus to head home. The bus was absolutely packed and we barely found seats. The bus system here requires you to pay for a ticket ahead of time and when you first enter the bus, you are required to put your ticket into a machine which prints the time/date and spits it back out to you. As much as this is required, many Neapolitans end up taking a chance and riding the bus for free...as long as the "controllore" (or ticket checker guys) don't catch you and make you pay money (usually 40-80 euro) for cheating the system.

On this particular day, Antonello decided to take a chance and not stamp our tickets so we could use them for another day. Lucky day for us because through the sea of people came one of the ticket checker guys!!!!! (I forgot to mention that it is rare to see them on the bus.) Coming up to us and asking for our tickets, Antonello handed him our blank ones and this ticket checker guy was not happy with us. Thinking it couldn't get worse, it did. My wonderful fiance started speaking english and saying to the guy, "I don't understand you. What is happening?" I couldn't believe my ears...he was totally pretending to be American not understanding what was going on so maybe we wouldn't have to pay. Antonello kept looking at me and saying, "What is happening Sarah?" I started kicking him and telling him to speak Italian but he kept a straight face the whole time and wouldn't stop. Well, this ticket checker guy thought that BOTH of us were Italian and were lying to him.

By this time, EVERYONE in the back of the bus was listening to what was happening with us and was telling the ticket checker guy that I was American but he didn't believe anyone, including me. He was pretty mad at this point and said to both Antonello and I, "Andiamo polizia!" That means, "Let's go to the police." He made us get off the bus with him and at this point, my heart was in my throat and I thought I was being taken to jail. I started saying, "Mi dispiace, mi dispiace!", which means, "I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" He proceeded to write something on both of our previously blank tickets and walked away. After turning to Antonello with a surprised look on my face, he explained to me that we had been given "warnings" and if we did it again, we would have to pay 80 euro for our shenanigans.

We escaped, but just barely. Criminals on the run.

culture shock

Definition of culture shock....

1. The mental shock of adjusting to a new country and a new culture, which may be dramatically different from your own.
2. Being in a strange place and losing the power to communicate can disrupt a person’s world view, self-identity, and systems of thinking, acting and feeling.

I think it would be fair to say that these 2 definitions sum up EXACTLY what I am experiencing.

• mental shock...check
• dramatically different culture...check
• strange, unfamiliar place...check
• unable to communicate (fully & effectively)...check
• questioning my self-identity...check

Sometimes, on grammy's balcony, amidst the noises on the streets of Napoli, I close my eyes and picture what my life used to look like. I know I have only been here for a little over 2 months, but it is comforting to sense the familiar, to remember faces, to cherish times of solitude I once had, and to breathe in my previous independence that now seems so fleeting.

• His plan is bigger and better than my plan...check