April Adventures and Events

Pronunciation class!

Okay, lots has happened since the last blog.  First, two fridays ago (April 19th) we had a pronunciation class here at the Bible School.  Elizabeth, who is a speech pathologist, gave the 3.5 hour seminar.  We had around 40 students come to the class.  Elizabeth lectured, and then each of us teachers would do practice exercises with a small group of students.  It was really neat, and they are still talking about it with me in our private classes.  It was very helpful to teach them pronunciation rules for things that are especially difficult for Italians in particular.  All of us Americans learned a lot about our language that we didn't know before either.  So thanks Elizabeth! It was great!  That is, except for the part when we broke into our groups and none of us Americans knew how to pronounce scythe correctly, and almost nobody knew what it was either.  :)

Last Saturday, Melissa, Alan, and I tagged along with Kyle, Elizabeth, and the Bakers to Pisa.  This was Alan's first time there, so we did all the touristy things, which basically just includes the leaning tower and the church.  However, it was really neat getting to go with Kyle.  It was like going with our own personal tour guide since he does this for the Harding students.  After we dropped the Bakers off at the airport, we headed to Viareggio on the coast for the rest of the day.  It was a cool day, but the water wasn't too bad for wading.  Melissa and I went crazy for our "beach day" and took lots of silly pictures.  It was nice to get out for the day!

Pisa!

Day off at Viareggio!

Sunday we had a game of soccer after church, and I joined in.  It was a little nerve-wracking since they take it so seriously here, and since I've never before played in a "real" game before.  Lets just say I was not the star of the day!

Melis!

Classes have been going well this last week.  All of my students want to continue on as far into the summer as we can even though the semester officially ends in two weeks.  This week we concluded the study in my grammar class that discussed the difference between the Catholic teachings and the Bible.  We've had some really good discussions.  Also, with several of my students lately, we have discussed the topic of infant baptism.  I don't really know how any of these conversations got started, but they've led to some small lessons on baptism/infant baptism.

Pretty intense!

Giacamo working hard

Alan has been enjoying his classes as well.  He has started meeting with one of the homeless guys that we see at the station each Sunday night.  He usually meets him in town during the week for an English lesson.










This past Thursday a group of us went to the Fortezza (fortress) in Florence.  They are having an international market.  It was neat to see the difference between the different nations. There were booths Italy, India, many different countries in Africa, Germany, Argentina, Latin America, Spain, and many others.  It was funny to compare them because the market booths in the India and Africa sections would bargain with you.  Here in Italy they don't really bargain at the market, and when we first got here, I didn't know that and it kind of annoyed me that they wouldn't bargain with me because in other countries I've been to, it's a normal thing. So I enjoyed getting to bargain for once.  In the evening, Melissa taught me how to make pizza Sicilian style.  It was fun and it was good pizza!

This past Friday, we had our end of the year cook-out for our students.  We have classes for a couple of more weeks, but this was the only weekend we could do this cook-out.  We had somewhere around 40-50 people come.  Though it threatened to rain all day, we were blessed and had dry weather.  We had traditional American bbq food.  Afterwards, many people joined in the karaoke or ping pong activities we had going on.

The bbq

On Saturday, David and Debbie left us. They will be in the states for a couple of weeks.  So we are planning to party it up here while they are gone. Just kidding. ;) I went to my first museum here (it's about time!).  I went to see the David that Michelangelo sculpted. We found a translation error on one of the plaques....just saying.  It said left ankle in Italian and right leg in English.  Big difference if you ask me. :)

Saturday morning, Alan went biking with Peter and Andrea, one of the Italian men that comes here for our Monday night Bible Study.   

Speaking of our Bible Study, it has grown a lot this semester.  We had around 30 people last time.  A new couple has started coming.  In fact, Alan and I were grocery shopping at the Coop for the dinner we offered at the pronunciation class.  As we were talking, a man asked us, in English, where we were from.  From there we had a conversation with him and we ended up inviting him to the pronunciation seminar.  He and his wife came, they both are coming on Monday nights, and now his wife is taking English lessons with Lindsay.  By the way, that day at the grocery store we drew a ton of attention because we had two carts piled high with food for that event.  Everyone was stopping us to talk to us about why we had so much food.

Monday Night Bible Studies

Today, Sunday, started out with riding my bike to church in the rain.  After church, I walked through Cascine park (very lovely) from church to get to downtown Florence, where I met Laura, one of my students.  We spent the day having lunch together, and walking around Florence while we talked.  It was a lovely day. 

Here are a few more pictures from the bbq:

Two of my lovely students on the left!

Rosa with Kyle and Elizabeth!

Umm as you can tell from this picture, Melissa and I went a little crazy on our beach day.  We just couldn't control our excitement to have a day off at the beach!