Surprise!

This past weekend was great, even though I kinda feel like I wasted it, but I really didn’t. I stayed here and spent time with friends. It was such a great bonding weekend, and exploring the city more. It was also a semi lazy weekend which was wonderful.

This weekend has been great though. Along with spending time with people, I have learned something major about myself, which was a long time coming. It’s more complicated than these few words, but I have learned why I like to be so busy all the time at school. Literally ever second of my day is packed with something I want/should/need to do. I find my identity and emotions in how many people are counting on me that day. Here, I am just a student. Period. So it has been a tough transition for the past week and a half or so. At first, it was wonderful not having any responsibility, but as I just said, it’s getting tougher since I realize that part about myself, and want to adjust that since obviously that’s not what (meaning who) holds my identity.

A couple friends and I have a standing Sunday night dinner date which is exciting! It is a little place right next to the school, a good central location for us. We know it’s good when only Italians eat there and the menu is totally in Italian. It doesn’t see much tourism since it’s out by us also. We live in an area with no tourism, only locals. It makes it more difficult to order but our lovely waiter speaks English. We have had him twice now. The first time, I ordered a Fanta (I have fallen in love with their “orange” Fanta which is different than the states). His response after I asked if they had it, “It’s babies drink. You still want?” Of course I had to be on the defense and explained I would be drinking some of the wine also. It’s good to know I drink a babies drink.

So, highlight of my weekend: Mark Schultz just showed up at the worship service I have been going to on Sunday nights. For those of you who like contemporary christian music, you know who that is. He’s a big name in the music business. Pretty sure most people know several of his top hits on the radio. I was literally in shock when I found out. Here’s how it went down: we had a few normal worship songs with music by a local Italian directing. Then, the woman who was directing the service stands up, says a few words with a prayer and says “we also have Mark Schultz here tonight. He is staying in Florence for two months and wanted to join us.” then she sits down. I knew his name but at this point, I was like, ‘Noooooo!, not THE Mark Schultz‘. She down played who he was so much I was completely doubting he had any major hits on the radio. Well, he stands up and starts singing a song I know very well, “I am”. The girl next to me leans over and said the exact thing I was thinking, doubting he was actually the guy we were thinking. Weirdest thing ever! I felt like I was in a movie. It was great! Even right now I am like, really? That woman couldn’t have prepared us a little better? I normally don’t get star struck, they are people just like me who happen to have a talent, I am just so surprised he just popped in to play for 40 or so people at a tiny English church. There aren‘t many English churches so I‘m guessing he will be back.  P.s. “Remember Me“…go listen to it right now. Such a sweet song!

I continue to love my host family more and more. They are so sweet and frequently go out of their way to meet any needs Claire and I might have. My roommate and I have started taking our Italian notebooks to the dinner table to practice. It forces me to speak, and the notebook gives me the security I feel I need. Bruno picks on me because in any given sentence I will include 4 different languages: English, French, Spanish, and Italian…in that order. He finds it funny. I wish my Italian prof found it funny.

Monday I had my ‘Artistic Patronage of the Medici’ class. It is a once a week class and 3 hours long, but each class is at a significant historical site somewhere in the city, sometimes two. Today it was Santa Maria Novella. I had not seen it yet since it in a part of the city I don’t go to much but I fell in love with the story behind it, as I am with many of these old buildings. Last week, we were at the Medici Palace. I highly recommend reading a book on the historical significance of these buildings. In basic terms, we are learning families thought they could buy their way into heaven due to a law that came about just after Deuteronomy (and other reasons but this stands out the most to me)….I don’t have anyone to tell this to, so the blog gets it…sorry! At the risk of sounding egotistical, once again, I pass by these buildings often but don’t stop to think about who once lived there or what their lives were like, etc. I never once stop the think who walked the halls of that Palace I just toured or what ceremonies happened in the Duomo. The story of these structures are so complex that just by walking by them, no one could ever know it. Even in class, we can never understand the pressure these families were under to keep their noble standing for what they thought would be for infinite generations. They are just words to us. No emotion or feeling could ever be grasped by us who are unattached to the enormous pressure. The only world they knew was to be at the top. Once that ended, which it did for most (including the Medici family), their world was shattered. It is such a complex history which to us is just something to be toured and lectured about, a landmark on the map.


Sarah