Quick Update

I can't believe how quickly time is passing! I've mainly been traveling to small towns around Florence and exploring the city for this half of the semester. We have all of our projects/midterms coming up so I'll have to start staying on top of academic things now a little more than I have been. However, in two weeks I'm starting another round of travels... I'll be meeting up with a few of you in Brussels (yay!), then going to London, and Dublin. The following weekend I'm going to Barcelona and then to Vienna for Thanksgiving. It's going to be a whirlwind!

One thing I definitely miss over here is having a campus fellowship. I've tried out a couple churches here in Florence but I still haven't really found a place where i feel `'at home`' if you know what I mean. Plus, as you said Dan, finding a church and really getting involved is hard because we are traveling on the weekends and studying abroad is such a short amount of time anyway. I attended an Italian mass in the Duomo (huge cathedral) in Florence which was really interesting but I couldn't understand more than a few words given my limited knowledge of the language :) . Since then I've tried the two English-speaking churches I could find. One was an Anglican Church (which was a lot like a Catholic mass) and then I went to a worship night in an Evangelical Church across the street from me. Both were good services but I really miss the powerful sermons back home and the worship music. Fortunately though, I met some really nice girls studying abroad with Indiana University so I'm going to try to spend time with them sometime if we can arrange it. It's a little hard being the only Christian in my apartment and not having other people to talk to about the spiritual journey. Sometimes they will make comments based upon Chrisitian stereotypes and I have to walk the fine line between defending my faith and still wanting to "fit in" and keep them as friends. At the same time, being here is motivating me to really seek God out for myself. Not having "regular Christian events`' makes me personally responsible for my own spiritual growth. I just hope that God can use me while I'm here to spread His love.

Saturday, September 27th was fantastic because my aunt from Taiwan actually came to visit me. She was taking a tour of Italy with some of her friends and they were in Florence for about 8 hours so I was able to meet up with her while she was here. I was SO excited to see her because we've always been really close. Trying to get in touch with her was quite interesting though because I had to call a hotel and talk to a man who spoke Italian to try to get him to transfer me to my aunt who speaks broken English. When I met up with my aunt's tour group, they had lunch reservations at this restaurant so I was able to go and eat with them. I was able to try the steak that Florence is famous for and it was DELICIOUS!

What was really nice was that I was able to give my aunt a tour of my apartment and show her some of the places that I go on a daily basis. The only thing was that being around all those Chinese speakers made me wish in a way that I had studied abroad in China or Taiwan. I'm LOVING my experience in Florence (it's a dream come true!) but I definitely feel like not being able to speak the language really limits your ability to immerse yourself in another culture. I almost feel as if I'm living in a little "NYU Bubble here" because we all go to the same place for classes, live together, and hang out at the same clubs/bars on the weekends. In a way, I think I really would have enjoyed a homestay in another country because I feel like you experience so much more when you are actually surrounded by locals but I wouldn't trade what I've been blessed enough to have.

Last Sunday, I went on a bike tour of Tuscany. It was absolutely GORGEOUS! We toured a castle where they have vineyards and did wine tasting and sampled their fresh olive oil. :)

Here are a few pictures from the tour (including the picture in our dorky helmets! Haha)

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