Holidays Abroad

I have had my first Thanksgiving away from home and family. It was definitely a unique holiday. Italians don't celebrate Thanksgiving, but here at the school they try to make it special for us.

We had a day trip to Pisa and Lucca, two cities in Tuscany. Pisa, obviously, is famous for its Leaning Tower. I had already been there a month or two ago, so I just enjoyed wandering about the streets of the city a bit. It drizzled rain, but wasn't too bad. Next, we went to Lucca, a city I hadn't seen. It wasn't a big city, but it had several beautiful churches, including San Michele in Foro, which stood in a huge piazza full of pigeons. It was a nice little town and we all just strolled and looked in shops. Also, Lucca is known for its ramparts, the old city walls that are now grass-covered and turned into walking paths on top of them. Altogether, it was a good day.

In the evening, when we returned to school, they had prepared a really nice dinner for us. Delicious food! Almost all the traditional American foods. We all dressed up nicely and took photos, and just relaxed and ate together. It was definitely a good ending to the day. As nice as it was though, at the end of the day I couldn't help but think about my family and wish that I was with them. Some things will never change!

And speaking of holidays, I am shocked by how fast Christmas is approaching! In a little over two weeks I am heading off for Amsterdam with some friends for a few days and then Greece with my mother, father, and brother.

Here in Florence, everyone is getting ready for Christmas, also. We took a walk into town today to go to a Christmas market that is set up in the piazza at Santa Croce, one of the beautiful churches. Along many of the main shopping streets, they have strung up beautiful white Christmas lights and almost every store has nicely decorated trees in the windows. It is exciting to see how another country views the holiday. I love Christmas. When we made it to the market, it was so exciting! Delicious cookies, candies, hot cider, trinkets, all kinds of things everywhere. I bought some bread and pesto cheese for dinner, a pretty ornament and several gifts for friends and family. Mainly it was surreal just to be walking through a Christmas market in Florence, Italy in front of a beautiful old church. Definitely a Christmas to remember!

Some photos from Pisa, Lucca, and Thanksgiving dinner are up on my Picasa Album. Enjoy!

Ciao

Medieval Towns and the Mountains

About two weeks or so ago, we took a day trip to see two medieval Tuscan towns: Volterra and San Gimignano.

Volterra is a very small Estrucan walled city that is famous for its craftsmen who work with alabaster. It was one of those little towns that you see in movies (or actually, everywhere in Tuscany) with narrow streets paved with stone and beautiful views over the valleys of Tuscany. We stumbled across an elderly man who had an alabaster studio. It wasn't even a store, just a little room full of alabaster pieces and little statues and trinkets. So cool.

Next we went to San Gimignano, a place I was so excited to see. The city was famous for it's 70-some towers that were built by rich families and made into sort of a "medieval Manhattan." Today there are 14 of the towers left, which make is so unique. I took so many great photos of the towers and the shadows they made across the faces of the other buildings. In the middle ages, San Gimignano was an extremely important city along the main trade route, but it was overtaken by Florence in the 1300 or 1400s and lost its significance. However, this means that it is very well-preserved. It was a nice day we spent there, exploring the city and sitting in a cafe for hours. That's one thing I love about Italy: life moves so slow here.

This past weekend, we had a spiritual retreat in the mountains of Tuscany, at the "summer camp" of the Italian Adventists. It was a beautiful little spot with cabins and nice views. It was a short walk from a small hill-town called Poppi, which we went and visited. We had a few meetings with a religion professor from the school, but mainly we just spent time together. One thing that I loved was Saturday night when we made a big bonfire and had the Italian version of S'mores...a little different, but still delicious. Surrounded by beautiful hills colored with trees with orange and red leaves, I almost felt like I was in Tennessee--home. It was a nice feeling.

I really love experiences like that one: to be together as a group, to discuss important things, but also to laugh and have a good time. No stress, just fun and relaxation. I think it is an important thing to have to keep sanity. I feel a lot of appreciation for everyone here, and the new friends I have made.

Now I'm going to have a hot shower and catch up on my sleep!

Good News

A great new development has happened to me. Thanks to advice from those more computer-savvy than me, I have created an online web album that can be viewed by anyone. All you have to do is go to this website:

http://picasaweb.google.com/jennifer.meyer0

Currently I have only one album created with a few pictures of Florence and the school, but I will add more soon and try to keep you all updated in the future about all the beautiful places I am able to go!

If for some reason the link doesn't work, will someone please let me know? :-)

This weekend is a spiritual retreat in the mountains of Tuscany; can't get much better than that! I am very excited. Things have been going really well lately. I'm loving it here. It's really turning out to be the best time of my life.

Hope all is well with everyone at home! Miss you all!