"Everything is Beautiful"

Tonight at church Dr. Miller shared a few of his thoughts. The only word he could use to describe what we were seeing and experiencing here in Italy: beautiful. As I sat there, thinking about all the work that had to be done back at the college later that night, I realized he was right. Today was filled with just that: beauty.

This morning we went to church with the Italians. Singing songs in that beautiful church in the beautiful Italian language with beautiful-spirited people was so wonderful. Church lasted about two hours, though, and it was a little hard to sit through the parts where there were long monologues in Italian and I just heard gibberish. But it was beautiful gibberish! We would sing a few songs in Italian and then a few in English. It was really cool because we knew the tunes and the words in English to the song, so we could easily figure out what was being said.

After church there was a (beautifullllll) potluck where we were served "fat-kid" bread, pasta, meats and desserts. We stayed all the way until 3 pm! That...is... ridiculous. Church started at 10:30 am. But it was really interesting eating lunch with Nichola, aka Nick, the Albanian who lived in Italy for 3 years. I'd have to say this morning's church service was probably the best I've been to in a really long time.

After our bellies were full of yummy Italian food and real tiramisu, we went to the train station to buy our tickets for our free travel day- Friday! A bunch of us are going to Rome for the day. I'm so excited! However, I haven't really had time to process any time off because we've been so busy and stressed, trying to get everything done. We're in Italy though! Beautiful, beautiful Italy. When I start finding myself stressing, I think back to the fact that I am in my land of my ancestors and am learning so much about this culture.

Gabrielle and I went to the Duomo today after we bought our tickets, and did a feature story on the cathedral. We went inside only to find out the dome is closed on Sundays, which was disappointing, but we still enjoyed the beautiful artistic artwork and intricate details.

We walked around a little bit finding items for friends and family after we got our footage. We got lost and wandered in a giant circle twice, however, before we found our way back through the market to the train station. We took the tram and two buses to get to the Villa for dinner.

And can I just say that I love eating the authentic Italian cuisine that the cooks make the HUF students twice a day? They are so spoiled. But the joke is on them.. we get to eat Harding caf food every day... sometimes even multiple times a day!

Then it was time for devo. We went downstairs to sing and have Dr. Miller share his beautiful devotional thoughts. Dr. Hopper and Dr. Shock even joined us. The singing... just filled the whole basement with joyful sound. It made me feel so connected with everyone, especially the HUF students.

Then it was time to go back and work on stories at the college. While on our way there, we stopped to pick up Sarah Kyle and Grant Sloan. And it was beautiful.

Tomorrow is a whole 'nother day, which is weird to say because it's past 2:30 in the morning and there are most definitely six of us still awake in just this room, struggling to get all our work done. The edification, motivation, procrastination.... inspiration, creating memories(ation) in this room is... guess what? Beautiful.

I can't wait to see what the rest of this week is going to bring. I'm in ITALY! I'm so blessed to be here and I'm so excited to get to know more people. I am experiencing a once in a lifetime trip with some of the coolest people in the communication department. Who am I kidding? I'm with some of the coolest people at HARDING. :)