Buon giorno!

Kat, Whitney, and I were supposed to go running this morning at 7:30 but I went down to the lobby and they never came! I didn’t want to go alone for safety reasons so I just went back up to my room and fell back asleep for another hour :]. At breakfast, Kat told me she didn’t hear her alarm go off. This was very understandable considering how exhausted we all were the night before so it was no biggie. We must go running tomorrow morning though! All of these carbs are killing me!

We then took a taxi to the train station to finally head north to Milano! The taxi driver was so awesome! He told us how today was a horrible day because one of the bridges were closed because apparently the river was overflowing because a water tube exploded. He was also playing really good Italian music so I asked him who was singing and I think he said “Cirannini”? Something like that. I told him I liked this Italian music better than American music and he was surprised. He explained how most of the music people listen to in Italy is American music! I don’t know why, their music is awesome.

We got to the train station and as a group we prayed for safe travels among other things. It felt great to pray as a group. Then we got onto our train and headed to Milano! I got a lot of reading and journaling done so that was really relaxing. It’s nice to have some down time.

Milan is beautiful. I could see myself living here. The city is really modern but not too modern to the point where you don’t feel like you’re in Italy. I love love love love loooooove it!!! Our apartments are right near the train station so we didn’t have to walk far. However, Ryan and Cenia first had to go sign papers with the landlord so the rest of us waited near the train station just to hang out. I was starving so Kari and I went to get McDonalds. The McDonalds here sucks! The prices were really high and they had a limited menu. For example, they didn’t have a 1 euro menu, nor chicken selects, nor honey mustard, nor just a cheeseburger. It was very odd. We ate our food outside with the others and I dropped a few fries so I threw them to the pigeons. They should seriously make throwing fries at pigeons a sport because OMG I had such a great time doing this. I know it sounds ridiculous but pigeons fighting over French fries is the funniest thing ever! One pigeon will have it in its mouth and then the other pigeons chase it but then the pigeon can’t swallow it cause it’s too big so the fries fly out of its mouth and then another pigeon grabs it and it’s just this big chase it’s AWESOME!

When Ryan and Cenia came back we headed to our apartments. They are AMAZING! SOOOO CUTE. I can’t wait to invite students over for dinner parties. Once we unpacked we headed to the grocery store. I had already brought cereal and some Healthy Choice meals so I didn’t need too much for this week. I just bought a big tub of yogurt, strawberries, pineapple, bread, and orange juice. Oh and I had also brought peanut butter so I’ll make some sandwiches for lunch. (They only have Nutella here) We also all split the price for the cleaning supplies because we have to clean the apartment at some point (duh).

We got back to the apartment and put away our groceries and ate dinner. Yum yum yum. I’m so sick of pasta and rich foods. So I had cereal and yogurt. My favorite!

Random fact: they only have blood oranges here. They taste just like a regular orange but they’re extremely red on the inside. So when I first opened my orange juice I thought I had bought tomato juice instead but it tasted just like orange juice! Kinda weird.

After dinner we spent some time together as a group to share our testimonies. I was so proud of everyone who went. Thank you God for allowing everyone to be so vulnerable and honest with each other. Not everyone got a chance to go so this will be something we're going to do again but for the people that went I feel like I know them so much better now that I know their struggles and how they came to faith.

After sharing our testimones I suggested we sing God of this city by Chris Tomlin because I had been listening to it while I was journaling on the other girls' balcony and looking out to the city while listening to this song was just so powerful. We all went to the other girls' room and put the song and lyrics up on youtube, opened the windows, and sang our hearts out for the city of Milan. Amazing.

Later that night all the girls got together and got to know each other on an even deeper level. Tissues flew everywhere, tears were falling like a heavy storm but it was so wonderful. God definitely put us all together for a reason and I'm just so thankful for these beautiful girls on this project. We talked for a few hours because the next thing we know it was 1AM and we needed to be ready by 930AM which isn't too bad but still.

This night was just so spiritually and emotionally wonderful. Thank you Father. :]