Here it is…

Well, I’ve started this over and over in my head. It’s hard for me to believe that my semester is over… I’m kind of in denial about no longer living in Italy! I’ve decided tonight is the night that I do my “final post” for the year, letting everyone know what my summer plans are. It’s time I face reality- HUF is over…

Tomorrow, I leave Jefferson City for Paragould, AR to work with the children’s home there with my youth group. We’re going to help them clean up from the tornadoes that left their mark all over the state. I’m leaving halfway through the week to go to Dallas for my friend Angela’s wedding. So far this summer, I’ve read lots and lots of books and been in my friends Jenny and Ben’s wedding. It was beautiful, and so crazy that I am old enough to have some of my closest friends getting married!! I’m so happy for all of them though, and I wish them the best!

After I get back from Dallas, I’ll unpack, do laundry, then repack and head up to Minnesota for the summer. I work at a camp called Flaming Pine Youth camp, and I love it! For someone who hates bugs as much as I do (no, really), being a counselor seems strange, but counseling is one of the most amazing experiences I’ve ever had. And Minnesota is beautiful.

I have dearly loved sharing my life with all of you who read this blog. I hope that you’ve enjoyed my ramblings- have an amazing summer!!

The End of the World as I Know It

Well… I’m home. My overseas adventures are finished. But not really. I have a new theory; overseas programs are never finished. I am a new person because of the things I experienced in the last three months. I will never be able to look at anything in the same way.

I’ve finally started sleeping through the night. I had jet lag for about a week, which was kind of bad because I was home for a day, then I visited Harding, then I went on a youth retreat, etc. Then, I had time to think about being home and what it meant. I watched Under the Tuscan Sun (because it said “Tuscan” in the title) and teared up when I saw the Duomo in one of the scenes. I know that all of this seems so unrelated, but it’s not! Everything I experienced is part of me, part of how I see the world now, and I think that’s beautiful. I am quite interested to see how everything that happened this semester is going to affect me for the rest of my life.

I do want to point out one thing that I’ve learned, though. When I went back to Harding to visit, it was for less than a day, but I felt like I was home. I love campus (especially in the Spring), I love my friends there, I love the community that comes with being a Harding student. Three of my HUF family members and I had a mini “reunion” in the parking lot by my car while I was there, and one thing we all said is that the whole semester felt like a dream. I started out the semester visiting campus, and I ended the semester visiting campus. Everything in between seems to be some fantasy that I had. It sure was fantastic, that’s for sure. The thing I learned though, is that it doesn’t matter where in the world I am; home is where my heart is. SOOOOO cheesy, I know! But seriously, I have a home in New Zealand, I have a home in Missouri, I have a home in Searcy, Arkansas, and I have a home in Florence, Italy, because in each of those places I have left a little piece of my heart.

I hope that every single person who reads this blog has had or gets the opportunity to love a place as much as I love Florence and the people I met and grew to love there.

This isn’t my last post of the semester, I promise. These are just some final thoughts on my amazing semester that is now at an end. I hope everyone has a blessed weekend- have fun finishing out the school year!!

I’m in London!!

Well, after a long two weeks of no internet where there is supposed to be internet, hostel after hostel, lots of trains, two flights, and more peanut butter than any human should ever eat, I’m in London! My free travel buddy, Kati, and I got here this morning, bright and early. Except not really, because we flew Ryanair, which is amazing at getting you places for fairly cheap, but awful at getting you actually to the place. What I mean is that I flew into Luton, which is an airport outside of London. Kati and I then worked our way to London via trains, metros, more trains, and our glorious two feet (or four if you’re talking about both of us). My hostel here actually has internet, so things are looking up!

Our first activitiy in London was to check into our hostel, which is actually quite far from the center of town. We had to take a train out here, but it’s a nice hostel, so I’m not complaining! Then we decided to go in to the British Museum, where we spent our whole evening. We woke up at 5:45 this morning, so after the museum, we decided it would be best to come back to the hostel and relax. So, here we are. We flew in from Dublin, which is an amazing city with wonderfully nice people and beautiful architecture. The funnies part of our whole experience there was trying to understand the people behind the desk at our hostel- Irish-English is much much different than American-English. It is so fun to listen to though! Yesterday, we took a train/bus to a town called Wexford, on the coast of Ireland.

I promise, that picture is from my camera! The entire country is just picturesque and beautiful- I would truly love to spend more time there sometime later in my life. I would have loved to spend more time there on this trip, but as I near the end of my time here in Europe, I realize that what matters is who you’re with, not where you are. I know it sounds so cliché, but I’m totally serious. I love spending time with Kati, but I miss my family terribly. If I was still at the villa, I wouldn’t want to leave- I didn’t want to leave. But moving from city to city, hostel to hostel, day after day makes me see that Ireland is a beautiful place, but I want to be able to share it with those I’m closest to.

If you ever get the chance to do an overseas program, I say, “DO IT.” Your life will change, in so many ways. I’ve grown so much this semester, and now that I’m looking back on my wonderful experience, I see how God has worked through this semester to make me a stronger person. I would love to answer any questions you might have about overseas programs, either through the comments here or on email. My Harding email address is:

jbreuer@harding.edu

If you even just want to drop me a line to say hi, I would love to hear from you! As for all of you who read this to see where I am on my Grand European Adventure, I love you all, and I hope everyone is having a marvelous weekend!

Paris!!!

I’m in Paris (in case you couldn’t tell from the title of this post)! I’m headed to Vienna, Austria tonight on an overnight train with my traveling buddy, Kati, where we’ll stay for a few days. I’m really excited about it! My computer isn’t plugged in because there are no outlets, so I am just going to leave you with some beautiful pictures of the Eiffel Tower that I took last night, or that my wonderful friends took for me!

Ok, I can’t get pictures to work, and I still have to get off of the computer, so I’ll try to post them later, when I have an outlet and internet! Have a blessed day!!!!!

La Vita Dolce

My life is beautiful. The title of this post is La Vita Dolce which is “The Sweet Life” in Italian. Let me just give you a run down of why my life is so sweet here at HUF.

On free travel, the last time I wrote, I was in Germany, planning to go to the Czech Republic and Austria before coming back to the villa. I ended up going to Prague in the Czech Republic then swinging over to Budapest in Hungary, before coming back to the villa. Plans totally changed, and they could… because I’m at HUF. Then I came home, got to see my HUF family and hear their stories. I got to sleep in what I now consider my bed. I woke up, had classes, did homework. Then yesterday, I woke up simply to jump on a bus that took me to spend my day at a castle. Then today, we went to the place where Machiavelli was exiled and probably wrote The Prince. Then, we had dessert at Robbie and Mona’s house, which includes an amazing drive through beautiful Tuscany. And I just finished listening to an amazing harp player from San Gimignano, one of the most beautiful towns ever.

So, yeah. La vita dolce.

Germany!!

Even though this has nothing at all to do with free travel, I just have to share one of the many amazing things that happened to me yesterday- we had Dr. Pepper at dinner!!! Our very own, very dear, very fantastic Kyle rescued us from our sad, sad lives of no Dr. Pepper by going to the military base and bringing back the soda of happy HUF students. It was beautiful.  Along with that, I got to talk to my family in Illinois while all of my little cousins were crowding around in front of the computer to talk to me. On top of those two things, we had a giant chocolate easter egg that we cracked open and there were flippers (yes,  for swimming), a unicorn stuffed animal, and a princess set that we promptly opened and dressed up with.
Seriously, the day could not have been better!

Ok, now on to free travel. I am currently in Munich, Germany. More specifically, Jaeger’s Hostel. Translation: Deer Hunter Hostel… I know, it’s strange, but hey, I’m in Munich. Today, Kati (my free travel buddy) and I rode on a train from 10 am to 6:30 pm, from Florence to Munich. I met a wonderful couple from Denmark, a girl originally from Wisconsin who is in the army and stationed in Germany, and another nice couple from Vienna. When Kati and I got to our hostel and set out for dinner, we ended up lost and met another wonderful couple who helped us find our way! They are originally from Atlanta, but they’ve lived here in Munich for the past 3 years. They were on a walk with their 7 week old baby, Anna. They got us un-lost, and we ate some wonderful food at a fun restaurant that had been recommended to us. Now, we’re going to go to bed, because it has been a LONG day! I hope everyone is having a blessed day; I will try to update this as much as possible on free travel!!

Oh my!!

You would laugh if you could see all of the drafts that I have started writing and not finished. I am so busy all the time, so on the go, and so overwhelmed with everything that is beautiful here in Italy and Europe in general, that I just can’t contain it all in words. I would love to tell everyone about everything that I feel and see and hear and do here, but I can’t. I am going to tell you a little about one of the blessings that I had last night, though!

Dr. Hopper, dean of International Programs and the Honors College, just left Florence this morning. He was here for a performance of Verdi’s Requiem that we went to last night, with the HUFS (Harding University France/Switzerland) group. Dr. Hopper is actually friends with the woman who sang soprano in the Requiem, Ms. Christine Brewer. After the beautiful concert, we had the privilege of meeting with Ms. Brewer for a kind of Q/A session. Last night, I met one of the nicest women you could ever meet, and she just happens to be one of the top soprano opera singers in the world. She and her husband, Ross, were a beautiful example of a happy couple with amazing careers. He is now retired from teaching, and is able to travel with her as she goes throughout Europe. 

I have no words to describe how blessed I am here at HUF. My memories are images and smells and feelings, and I’m not an eloquent speaker (I’m pulling a Moses here). I wish that everyone could do what I’m doing, living in Europe and growing into a more independent adult. I’m making lasting friendships while having the time of my life thus far, and I have to keep reminding myself how blessed I am!  I’m sorry that I haven’t shared more with everyone- like I said, I’m totally overwhelmed with my time here. I hope everyone is having a fantastic weekend!!

HAPPY EASTER!!

Free Travel in Spain!

Once upon a time, there was a girl named Jacque who traveled to a far away land called Italy, where the people speak Italian. She lived in a beautiful villa on a beautiful hill in a beautiful town called Scandicci, and she loved it. Then one day, the wonderful people who were teaching Jacque to live in the far away land made her leave for a week. She decided to go to another beautiful place called Spain, where the people speak Spanish, which is a lot more different than Italian than she thought. She spent a week in Spain, having many adventures every day.

Yup, that’s right! I’m back from Spain- I survived my first free travel!!! It’s quite an interesting experience to set out in Europe with nothing but a backpack full of things, a passport, and a Eurail pass. Also, a credit card (which is kind of important). I traveled with a group of five people, four girls and one brave boy, and it was glorious. We started by getting a ride down the big hill from Robbie who dropped us off at the bus stop (bus 16 for those of you who know Florence). Then we rode the bus to the train station where we got on a train to Rome, then another to Civitavecchia, which is where we boarded Grimaldi Ferries to ride to Barcelona. Throughout the course of the week, we visited Barcelona, Madrid, Toledo (which was AMAZING!), Valencia (where I saw dolphins!), and the trian station of Milan. It was a beautiful thing to learn how to navigate trains in Spain, grocery shop with a giant pack on my back, and get along with the same four people for a week of nonstop bonding time. I think I grew more during free travel than the whole semester so far, and that’s saying a lot.

I loved it.

I’ll leave you with the most memorable story of the whole trip: the wonderful pack shuffle of Barcelona.

Our ship at the very beginning of the trip came into the port at Barcelona. So when we found out how much a couchette/seat on an overnight train back to Milan would be, we decided that our best and least expensive option would be to take the ferry back to Civitavecchia and just backtrack. Mel, Cari, and I sent Adam and Lexi ahead to go buy tickets from the port, arranging to meet them later in a Plaza in the main part of town. Well, we got off on the wrong metro stop and ended up walking the whole time we were supposed to be sight seeing, only to discover from our ticket-buyers that the boat back to Italy was in fact running, but wouldn’t be leaving until 1:00 in the morning, getting us back to Florence after the busses stop running. So, we decided that our best option was to take the expensive overnight train. Mel and I volunteered to go back and get the tickets from the train station where we had left our bags in anticipation of picking them up later to go on the ferry. After we had taken the metro back to the train station, we bought tickets, then realized that the train left from a different train station. We decided that we needed to see where the other train station was, so we went to information and got a map, asked them where the train station we were leaving from was, and realized it was by where we were meeting the other three members of our group. After much deliberation, Mel and I decided that we needed to save the money and carry the FIVE PACKS by ourselves onto the metro and down the block to where we were meeting our group. So, with one pack on our back, one on our front, and one in between, we set off. We were a sight to behold:

After this picture was taken, we dropped the bags and rested for the rest of the afternoon until we got on our train and came back to Italy. Notice I can barely see around the pack on my front, and definitely not over it! It was an adventure, though, a good story to share with all of my faithful readers!

I’m terribly sorry I don’t write more- I don’t have internet as often as I would like when we’re traveling and such. Keep checking for updates, though, because I love sharing my wonderful HUF experiences with you!

Southern Italy!!

We leave for southern Italy in about an hour and a half!! I’m terribly excited- it seems that many HUF groups love this trip a whole lot! Of course, it seems that they just loved the whole three months, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that they love this one too! We had classes all day, then lunch, then we started packing. Mel and I went into Scandicci to buy some food for the trip, so we don’t have to eat out all of the time. It’s an interesting experience shopping in Italy- for some odd reason, everything is in Italian!! Needless to say, I have to rely on pictures to figure out what I’m buying! I have to go finish packing, and I won’t be back for a week, but if I get internet anywhere on the trip, I will give an update! Have a blessed day!

I LOVE ITALY!!!!

I have so many things to talk about, it’s overwhelming! My choice is to tell a hilarious story about a girl named Jacque, her friend Elise, and the giant mountain named Abetone.

One day, Jacque and Elise decided to learn to ski. So they spent four hours in ski school on the giant mountain Abetone’s bunny slopes with their ski instructor, Julia. Julia taught them to ski on the bunny slopes, and because Jacque and Elise were so good, she was going to take them up the mountain to try something bigger than the bunny slopes that they had mastered (yeah, right!). But, there were other people in the ski school group who were a bit nervous still on the bunny slopes, so Julia decided that she needed to keep Elise and Jacque on the bunny slopes with the rest of the group. At 4:00 pm, when ski lessons were over, Jacque, Elise, and their friend Travis decided to go up the big mountain Abetone. They climbed up the hill and got on the big ski lift, thinking it would be a fairly quick trip. Ten minutes later, and much panicking later, they realized that they might have made a bad decision. After discussing their options (”Maybe if I cry, we could get them to let us ride back down on the lift,” “We can just snow plow the whole way, we’ll totally be ok,” etc.,) Jacque and Elise decide to go down the mountain Abetone. They start out just wonderfully, falling when they need to slow down, and waving around frantically the rest of the time. Then Jacque kind of lost control, and took the right fork where Travis took the left one. Elise saw Jacque and decided to follow her. Later, they found out that Travis tried telling them that they needed to go the other way, but they didn’t hear him, so they went on their merry way. Quite soon, it became apparent that the hill was too steep, so they made a decision to go down on their rear ends. For about a mile. For about an hour and a half. Yes. They made that decision.

And it even gets better! Once we got to the end of the hill, we thought our adventure was finished, but it turns out we were at the bottom of the mountain in a different town! We went to a store and found a beautiful woman who spoke a bit of english, and found out there weren’t taxis running or busses, so our only option was to walk. Uphill, in our ski boots, carrying our skis, after skiing all day, after sliding down a hill on our rear ends for an hour and a half… Fortunately, Laura called our hotel for us and asked for Robbie and Kyle, neither of whom were there, but she still arranged something (we weren’t sure what). We  bought some Spuma (Tuscan soda) and a sucker, and waited on a bench out front. Elise and I couldn’t stop laughing… I mean, you can’t make this stuff up!

After we’d been sitting for a couple of minutes, drinking our Spuma and eating my sucker, an Italian woman pulled up and started talking to us in Italian, waving her keys around and pointing at her car. We’re not allowed to drive here though, and I really wasn’t sure what she was talking about. Then Laura came out of the store and talked to her in Italian and they all went back inside- Elise and I were totally confused the whole time. We sat back down, and then Robbie and the ski woman drove up and I burst into tears! I was laughing the whole time, but crying because it was such a relief to see Robbie, someone who spoke English and Italian, who loved me, and who was a piece of home. I don’t know that I’ve ever been so happy to see anyone in my whole life. He was laughing, and we were laughing, and we just had a grand old time!! We got back to our town, got our shoes, got some hot chocolate, then faced the rest of our group, who laughed too.

Needless to say, I had quite an adventure skiing in the beautiful mountains of Italy. I hope that all of you have had a wonderful week!! We leave for Southern Italy on Monday, but I’ll try to post tomorrow!