Finding Hope in a Hopeless Situation

I have been learning a ton about myself while being on this crazy journey. One thing in particular is the power of pray and how it reflects my relationship with my friends, family, and God. 

I was really feeling helpless when it came to the hurting people that I come in contact with everyday. (As you know from a previous blog) Today it finally hit me. I was walking home from school when I walked passed a man who was laying in the middle of the square completely sprawled out and not moving. I stood there for a second looking down at the man and realized something was really wrong with him. As I went to kneel down next to him to see if he was okay, three women and two men ran up and started to see what was wrong. He had no I.D. on him and would not wake up... The people trying to help this man kept telling me to leave saying that I was no help, in not a very nice way. (at least that’s what I am pretty sure they were saying, it was broken English). 

 

In that situation I had to leave, I felt completely and utterly helpless on my own. So as I walked home all I did, all I could do was pray for that man. I am hopeless on my own, but with the power of prayer I felt a sense of hopefulness.  I don’t know what happened to the man, but if you could keep him in your prayers. J

It made me realize living far away form my friends and family is really hard and not easy. It’s hard to not physically be there for my friends who are hurting and struggling with deep and seriously issues. But God is opening my heart to pray and the power that it has. I am learning that I no long need to rely on myself alone to fix a problem or try and make a friend feel better, but I am depending on my God through the power of prayer.  That is all I can do in these situations.

 On a lighter note... here are some pictures from yesterday that I took. 

Hard Rock Cafe

church
 heres a random video.. just though you might like it :) 

some pictures from my cooking class

Italian Cooking Class

I took a Italian cooking class tonight form a man who owns a restaurant down the street from my house. I ate at his restaurant a couple of weeks ago and I have to say it was the best italian food I have had yet! So when I found out we could get free cooking class through the school I was totally in. 

We made casserole with home made meatballs, home made pasta with a wonderful meet sauce, and really yummy cookies.  It took 3 hours to prep and cook everything! It was really fun to learn how to make home made pasta! I can't wait to try and make it for you guys when I get home! He took  a lot of pictures of us to, but here are some that I took... more will be coming soon. 

Roomies
The kitchen 
I totally cut my finger trying to cut some cheese. The cook made me put salt on it.. this is the best picture I could get with my one working hand. 

Meat Casserole 
making home-made pasta
The pasta 
After the meal 
A picture of my school that i took to day from the top floor 

An American Weekend

This was a restoring weekend for me. Its been crazy living in the heart of Roma, the busy city, all the people, and little space was starting to get to me. So it was great when Kim invited me to her house this weekend.  Kim Lives in Roma, but its in the suburbs of Roma.

I felt as if I had entered the twilight zone for the weekend. I went with her and her family to the kids school for a family picnic. It was fun/strange to see American families cooking hotdogs and hamburgers, drink beer, and kids running all over the place. It made me realize that maybe if the opportunity presented its self sometime in my future,  I could actually move my family to another country. We went out to dinner every night and hung out at the house a lot. Which is amazing by the way. I got to take a bath (if you know me you know I love taking baths), drink BIG cups of coffee, have pancakes with syrup, watch American TV!, ate American candy, and slept in a big comfy bed for two nights. The one thing that I could have done without was the bug bites..

I am so so so so so so thankful for Kim and her family. Words can not begin to describe the appreciation I have for her. She has been so generous and giving. They are such a blessing. Living in a different country is really hard and can be difficult at times. I would be totally lost and a lot more homesick if it was not for her friendship! So if your reading this Kim... THANK YOU FROM THE BOTTOM OF MY HEART! 

Here are some pictures... sorry i didn't take that many.. but I kind of got my camera fixed so ill be blogging a lot more :) 

Here is a picture of me at the Family Picnic with the other women selling shirts. haha 

These are my bug bites... just on this part of my arm.. my whole body looks like this
The candy Kim gave me! 
The pool :)
The house
My room :) 

Today I miss These two girls

My sister sent be this picture today! I really like when she does this! (even though  I look a little crazy) 

 

Brittany and Resse Thank you for this picture, miss you guys so much! 

P.S. My camera battery broke this last week.. so I am having trouble getting some recent pictures for you guys. But my goal this weekend is to get it fixed! 

Trying to figure out the worlds problems.

There are so many things about Roma that I love, but there are many things about it that break my heart. 

As you all know Roma is a big metropolitan city filled with the rich and the poor. Every day on my walk to and from school I pass by the same homeless people.  I am starting to recognize them. They all have there own territory and are in the same spot day in and day out. Some I really like... 

There is this one lady in particular that I really don't think I like very much. Her, three other ladies, and this man beg for money. Which I get and is totally normal for homeless people to do.  But the thing I don't like about them is that they swap babies with each other. They have different kids everyday. It totally reminds me of Slumdog Millionaire. It totally breaks my heart. 

Today it really affected me and made me really upset at these women.  I just wanted to take those kids and bring them some where safe.  questions like these were running through my head: Who are these kids going to grow up to be? Are they even going to make it to adulthood? Do they ever feel love?

It just really makes me thankful for my life, my parents and the opportunities that they have given me, the blessing of having a roof over my head, and food on the table. 

I know this is a random post, but its part my thoughts and life here in Roma. I thought I might share it with you guys. 

My roller-coaster weekend

Friday was actually lame because we had class... they are giving us a day off for Thanksgiving, but made us make it up on friday. LAME!  We just hung out and made dinner :)

I don't really know what's going on with my shirt here haha 

Saturday we went shopping, which was fun in the begining. But I kind of had a panic attack. Their were so many people and I was getting so annoyed. I cried in the middle of Zaras (a department store) haha. Its not going to always be fun and games. I knew that going into it. I think I just got home sick and the Italians were making me very mad. They are really rude and mean to Americans. 

We decided to go to the HardRock Cafe for dinner, because I was really missing Home. IT WAS AMAZING! free water, free refils, english, chicken fingers, fries, burgers. We went all out! It was amazing!  It really made up for the not so good day.

The next day was the AS Roma game.

Round one of trying to get to the game: We all thought the game started at 1p.m. so we got up at 9a.m., went to breakfast, and then headed out to the game. When we got there we realized we didnt hear or see anyone. I looked at my ticket, the game started at 8:45 p.m. We were 10 hours early! hahahaa stupid stupid americans. We looked so silly! We went back and took a nap. 

Round two of trying to get to the game: Second time was a lot better! there were actually people there! It was so crazy! we were right next to the opponents section. people were screaming, lighting things on fire, throwing fireworks, flags were waving, people were singing, it was intense! 

So true in every way!

I'll leave this for you guys to enjoy! this is what life is like here in italy! 

www.infonegocio.com/xeron/bruno/italy.html 

sorry if you cant click on it but try and watch its awesome! 

I Promise...

Hey guys! I promise ill blog when I get home tonight from the AS Roma game! Its been a great weekend full of funny stories I think you will all enjoy! 

Just a Regular Day.

Well yesterday was filled with seeing Roma. Our class got cancelled again for the third time... so we decided to go see the Trevi Fountain and the Pantheon. We also bought jersey's for the AS Roma soccer game on sunday! YEP thats right I am going to a soccer game.. or shall I say a football game. Not to much has been happening around here. Just enjoying Roma, studying, and seeing the sights. 

Getting pumped for the game this sunday!
Try and find me :) 
Does this look familiar fellow blog lovers??? hint look at my header 
Trevi Fountain 

Okay... I could not help myself... i was craving fries.. so I gave in and bought some.. and it was totally worth every push and shove to the front on the "line".


When it rains we put our scarfs on our head... hahaa 
on the tram!