Ciao!

Buonasera!
Well, it is Monday afternoon at 5:45 and I have just gotten home from Milano. It has been a crazy weekend full of interesting things. I really had a good time, though. I went to visit our family friends, The Roberts, who are missionaries in Milan. They have four kids, Roseanne, 22, Daniel, 21, Michael, 18, and Paul, 12. Well, a lot was going on this weekend with them. Roseanne was in Piacenza friday and saturday picking out stuff for her new house. Daniel busted his knee out and was on crutches as well as sick with a fever Sunday. Micheal was with friends a lot of the weekend and Paul was away on a boy scout campout. Phew, that's a mouthful. Saturday was fun, Mr. Roberts arranged for his two college interns to show me around Milan. We walked on top of the Duomo and sat and talked a lot. It turns out one of the interns, Hillary (a DTS grad), knew Eric Taylor (one of the grace C.C. interns from two summers ago and also a DTS grad). the other intern is an aggie grad and his name is David. We then did some shopping. Always fun. After that we got on the mass transit and started talking, and we ended up missing our stop, so we got off and got on going the opposite way and went back to our stop. We went to the church and attended the young adults class. It was fun but was in Italian. So after that we ate some good pasta and salad and went home. Sunday we went to church again and Mr. Roberts preached (in italian). After that we went back to their apartment and MRs. Roberts had fixed a grrreeaattt lunch. IT was like Thanksgiving but it was traditional Italiain meal. :) The highlight was she made a devils food chocolate cake with three layers. It was Real American style. The Italians know how to cook meals, but desserts are another story... (except for tiramisu, of course). That night I watched tea with Mousilinni (sp?). It was filmed in Florence and Sam Gimiginao, two places that I have been. I went and spent the night with Roseanne (she was housesitting for some other missionaries) and the next morning she walked me to the subway and I was on my way home. Only, the day before the power was out so everyone was travelling monday because they werent able to travel sunday so the trains were very full and it took a very long time to get home. So that was my weekend. Next weekend, Switzerland. Weekend after that I might go back to Milan b/c they are having a special event with their church where they go up in the mountains and pick chesnuts. I want to go and maybe my roomates will go too.. then after that weekend we go to Venice for a week then have our ten day break after that. phew. this semester is just flying by! Love you all... Amanda PS if you want to email me its mandeyjane@hotmail.com

buonasera.
It is four nineteen in the afternoon and I have been a busy busy girl today. I had class this morning followed by lunch. After lunch, Jessica and I sprinted to our room and scooped up our dirty clothes and ran outside to the wash buckets so we would be the first ones. Then I went down to the photo lab and developed a few pictures for my black and white photography class. They turned out better than I thought they would. Im sad you wont get to see them until I get home seeing as they arent digital and can't be emailed.
Fast update on this weekend. I am going to Milan leaving here noonish friday. I am taking my roomates cell phone so I will be safe, don't worry. I am excited!
I will probably not get to post again until sunday or monday.
to Lauren--- Dont forget, Monday at 4:30 pm Texas time we will talk. :)
Love you all. AJL

Hello, all. An update on my friend Erin (the girl whose dad died) is in order. I found out from her roomate that the funeral is tomorrow and she and her sister will be speaking at the funeral. Wow, she is a strong girl.
I spent most of yesterday doing fundraising for flowers for the funeral. I just thought it would mean a lot to Erin to know that even though she is way far away we still miss her and are thinking of her during this challengingtime. Everyone here at the center really contributed a lot. We ended up with close to 140 euro which is over 150 dollars. So I got on the internet and looked up a couple of florists in houston and called one and it just so happened it was right in the neighborhood by Erin's house. One of the professors wives suggested that we request sunflowers be in the arrangement because the sunflower is the official flower of Tuscany (the region in which we reside). So I ordered a nice arrangement and it was sent yesterday.
I suppose we will hear more from Erin in the next few days. I will keep you updated. As of now she is planning on returning to Italy October 1. Please be in prayer for her as these next few weeks will be a very difficult.
Also, my roomate LeeAnne sprained her ankle yesterday and today she can barely walk. I have kept the icebags flowing for her all day long. I keep telling her she needs to elevate. She says I remind her of her mom. Hmmm, where have we heard that before? ha ha.
anyways, that's about all for now. Oh, I think I am going to Milan this weekend. more on that later.
oh yeah, if anyone wants to send me mail you can and I would like it. It only takes a week so its not so bad.
the address is

Santa Chiara
Amanda Lawrence
Via San Guiliano, 6
Castiglion Fiorentino
(AR) 52043 Italy

Bye for now

warning, the following post is extremely long. if you fall asleep while you're reading it I'll understand. :)

Hey Everyone!
Rome was awesome. We left on the 7:59 AM train from Castiglion Fiorentino to go to Rome. The school had bought us snacks for the trip so we were way excited. Two and a half hours later, we arrived in Rome. We immediately boarded a charter bus and prepared ourselves for a busy day of sightseeing. First stop, the Coliseum and wow! I had been waiting my whole life to see that in person and boy was it ever huge. We continued down the street and walked through the Forum. It was like walking through a history book. I was a little disappointed that I couldn’t remember more from my world history classes in high school because I know that it would have made the experience even more rich. But what can ya do? After that we went to the prison where Peter and Paul were chained to a post and we saw the exact same post!! Cooool! After that we walked to the Pantheon where our leader, Paolo, told us that over the years the land level in Rome had risen about fifteen feet since the ancient times. He said it had happened because over the years buildings had been torn down and the rubble had just been leveled off and not taken away and that caused the land to rise. Anyways, back to the Pantheon. The Pantheon is a temple dedicated to the worship of all Gods. Also, Raphael is buried there. It is this huge circular building with a hole in the top. Also, we learned that the columns out front of the Pantheon were brought to Rome by boat. But in order for the boat to not sink, they had to strap the column onto the bottom of the boat. He said it was same for the Egyptian obisiques.
We went to our hotel after a while and we just shopped the rest of the afternoon. Yeah, so, Italians aren’t really very big people. I found out the hard way as almost every shop I went into had clothes that wouldn’t fit over my big toe. But have no fear, don’t count me out of the running just yet. I have faith that I will find more than enough things to buy before I leave this magnificent country. (smile )
The next day we went to see St. Peters and the Vatican museums (which include the Sistine). This day was quite an interesting day. I was really excited about it in the beginning, but as the day wore on I realized that it just wasn’t cut out to be that way. It all started off with a conversation about God with a fellow classmate. I learned that he didn’t believe in the existence of God. That saddened me because I knew of his eternal destiny. Shortly after, our class was in the garden of the Vatican museum hearing a short lecture on the Sistine chapel and one of our professors cell phones rang. Quickly, I knew something was up. One of my friends and my next door neighbor in the dorm, Erin, was requested to call home immediately. I knew it couldn’t be good news. Erin took the call and walked out onto the lawn. I watched in silence as she took the phone call that would change her life forever. Her dad had died. He had been sick but not expected to die this soon. As she fell to the ground sobbing my heart sank. Not only for her loss, but for the lost souls among our group of friends and students. Needless to say the Sistine chapel lost some of it’s luster that day. I couldn’t enjoy the sights knowing the pain and grief my friend and neighbor was feeling at that exact moment. The rest of that day was a bit of a blur.
The third day we were all very weary but set out for one last day of sightseeing. On the dockets were three stops: the world war 2 memorial, the villa deste in Tivoli, and Hadrian’s villa.
I am only going to talk about the villa deste because it was by far the coolest thing I have ever seen. It was basically a huge house and an even huger garden (is huger a word). It was like something out of a book. It was absolutely amazing. There were spectacular waterfalls, beautiful plants. pools of water, and tree lined paths. Hopefully, there will be pictures available on my dad’s website of this soon.
That night we went to the Spanish steps, and after sooo much walking and getting lost we found our way to the Trevi fountain. We were not disappointed. The trevi is amazing as well. On the way to the Trevi we met some folks from Oregon and talked to them for probably twenty minutes. It was so refreshing to be able to communicate with someone other than ourselves. I can’t explain the feeling I got when I heard my own language being spoken to me by someone other than my friends. WOW! …The things you take for granted….
Saturday morning we left for Capri. Lee Anne, Meredith and I were the only ones going. Only we had to go through Naples to get there. Our professor and father figure, Dr. Greenwald insisted we travel with boys even though it was daytime because as he says, “Naples is an awfully dangerous place.” So we obliged. Once we got there we kind of understood why. It’s a bit of a shady place with some very shady characters hanging around.
Fast forward two hours. – We arrive on Capri and are exhausted. Three days in Rome will wear you out. We are bound and determined to relax and not be busy.. (lie #1) We get there and it is just as gorgeous as Elba. It’s only smaller and much easier to get around. Our hotel was great and the lady at the hotel totally helped us find out all the stuff to do. First on the list was we went to the blue grotto. Our initial plan was to jump in and swim inside… Well when we got there we realized there were about two to three jellyfish per square inch and well, that’s just not a good thing. Well our adventuresome friend and travel companion, Meredith, is an adventure junky. She jumped in anyways, and somehow managed to only get stung a tiny tiny bit. Go Meredith! You have more guys than I do
Next on the list, Dinner! The lady at the hotel hooked us up again. We got a shuttle to this fabulous restaurant! It was on a cliff overlooking the Mediterranean and we were seated at a vantage point just to watch the sun go down over the sea. It was a view to die for.! The meal was fabulous because we were dining in style. This was our splurge meal, and boy did we splurge. We all had multiple courses, and wine, and of course, in the Italian tradition, coffee for dessert!
The next day we went to the Villa San Michelle which is a guys house and beautiful gardens that overlook the coast of Capri city. There should be a few pics from this site too. Next we rode a chair lift to the top of the Capri. Poor LeeAnne is scared of heights but she went anyways! GO LEEANNE! She was hanging on for dear life. When we got to the top, however, she was greatly rewarded with a breathtaking view of Capri and west side of the Italian “boot.”
Well that’s about all of significance from this last weeks trip. I am exhausted and this weekend we will be perhaps just taking a day trip Saturday to Florence to do some hardcore shopping. We are all feeling a bit neglected in the shopping arena because we have just been shopping inbetween things and haven’t had any dedicated days just for shopping. So Saturday is the day!
Next weekend,. I will be perhaps, venturing to Milan to visit our missionary friends the Roberts. More on that later.
Now, it’s twelve midnight so I suppose I will turn in. Goodnight! I love you all..

Hi,everyone! No, I have not fallen off the face of the earth. I have meerly been traveling italy for the past five days. And what a past five days it has been. I am going to have to write a massive post for you guys but it will be later on today or tomorrow. Just wanted to keep you updated. love you and miss you!

Good Monday morning to you all!
The train arrived from Elba in Castiglion Fiorentino at 7:15 last night with 15 happy but weary Aggies on it. They practically ran 20 minutes uphill to Santa Chiara in an effort to make it in time for dinner (at 7:30). Granted, they were a little late, but when they got home to a hot Italian homestyle dinner they were glad they had sprinted because it tasted better than usual. (Perhaps it tasted so good because they had only eaten a few crackers all day long. Once they sat down their other Aggie friends were very curious to hear about their trip to Elba. And boy, did they ever have a story to tell them.
It all started with a brilliant plan to catch the 5:30 AM train out of Castillion F.no. All parties claimed they were willing and able to conquer the early start time. But the night before a little distraction by the name of discotech (english translation: dance club) reared its ugly head. Understandably, it wasn't the discotechs fault we were all up until 1, 2 or 3 am in some cases. it was no ones fault but our own. It's just so hard to leave a good dance club. especially on its opening night!
So 5:30 came early and everyone was up, but where in the world was leeanne, amanda and jessica, and the three amigos, john kevin and chris? Wasn't LeeAnne one of the head planners of this trip? Why yes she was.
So, Meredith, the other head planner of this trip proceeded to our room and knocked on the door. Amanda was the only one to wake up to the door knock (as usual). She went to answer it and found a very dumbfounded Meredith. Needless to say Meredith was disappointed we hadnt made it out of bed considering it was time to depart. Well our alarms had all mysteriously not gone off. Crazy, isn't it.
Well to make a long story short, Meredith took the early rising group on the 5:30 train. and LeeAnne and Jessica and I woke the Three amigos and we took the 7:30 train.
Cut to seven and a half hours later.
We arrive at our campsite at the beautiful Elba greeted by a distressed Meredith. Apparently, they hadn't had as easy of a travel day as we had. Actually, they had just made it to the campground a mere 15 minutes before we had. They werent so happy about that. IT was quite interesting actually, there group was tired and frustrated. and our group was excited rested and refreshed. and they didnt like that too much.. but differences were resolved once we looked out onto the beautiful mountainous island of Elba.
Elba was Amazing! it was like what I envision Hawaii to be like. Clear blue water that you can see your feet in. Surrounded by amazing beaches and towering mountains right behind them. Our bungalows were right across the street from the beach.
We mostly just beached it the rest of the day friday and all of saturday. It was soooo much fun and quite possibly the most beautiful place I have ever seen.
We ate good food Friday night at a restaruant on the beach. Saturday night we cooked in the bungalows. we made cheeseburgers (yum! everyone has been yearning for one since we got here) and garlic mashed taters (yum yum) and spinach artichoke dip (it was good, too). That night we washed the dishes and just sat around and played *ahhemm* card games. It was quite relaxing actually. Sunday we just woke up and shipped out. I think that is just about the end of the story. If you ever ever get a chance to go to Elba, you should do it!! it is the hawaii of italy. Maybe more pics on my dads website soon.
Coming Attractions: wed to friday we go to rome and then friday thru sunday/monday(??) we go to Amalfi Coast. There will be much to report about that excursion, I am sure.
I am positive that i am just about the luckiest person in the world to be getting to do all of this. Thank you thank you!
love you all! keep those emails coming. i will try to write you back as much as possible.
We just got DSL at the center and it's absolutely wonderfuly fast!!!!!!!!!!!
AJL

Hello and good afternoon, or should I say morning to you all?
anyways, It's september 11 and all of us are remembering. Tonight the city of Castiglion Fiorentio is putting on a memorial thing. I think some Italian dignitaries are coming for the ceremony. Also, the city is dedicating a sept. 11 monument that aggie architecture students designed and built. So it should be interesting. Also, I volunteered to be a part of some kind of pinning presentation where I will be pinning some kind of American memorabilia (I assume) onto one of the italian dignitaries. Pray that I don't draw any blood.
Then after the ceremony, all the people are coming to santa chiara (the school) to eat dinner. So that's exciting because dinner will probably be even better than it usually is. But the food is always excellent so I cant wait to see what we will be having.
Also tonight we are playing volleyball. I have been meaning to post up and tell yall about our volleyball team. Well, here's the story. There's this YMCA type thing here in the city which is hosting a very drawn out volleyball tournament. All kinds of teams are entered in this tournament - groups of high school girls that look like a club team, grown men, co-ed teams, and us, the Americans.! It is so fun but get this they play outside but it is not sand volleyball. The best way I can describe it is dirt volleyball. We have yet to win a game but it's really fun. ITs not the most organized tournament Ive ever been involved with but, hey, its volleyball so I can't complain. We haven't won yet either, but it's still fun!
Then also tonight, this pub called the velvet underground is opening in our town. They are having a welcome american students night so that will round out our very busy night.
Then tomorrow we board the train at 5:30 AM!!! Our plans are finally(!!!) finalized for this weekend. We are going to Elba (an island). Everyone get out out your maps and check it out. Were going to be camping in bungalows so that will be interesting! But apparently its right on the beach and it will be absolutely spectacular I am sure. There are about 16 of us going so it will be safe.
That's about all for now. Ill let you know how Elba goes.. XOXO AJL

Hello all. Today is Monday and this weekend was lots of fun. On Saturday we went to Cortona which is this city on a hill about twenty minutes away. Driving up the side of a mountian on a bus is lots of fun! and a little scary. The Italian bus drivers like to go fast to say the least so it is more like a roller coaster than a bus ride.
While in Cortona we shopped at the outdoor market and had our first sit down restaurant lunch. The waitress didnt speak a lick of english so the language burden was on us. So out came the handy dandy pocket translator. Few words were spoken that day, just a lot of pointing and grunting. but when it all was said and done we ate some good pizza and figured out *sortof* how to eat at a sit down. So that was good! in the afternoon we hiked up the rest of the mountain to the top where there was a church and a castle. We got some great pictures and we were about to die from the exhaustion but it was worth it.. While in Cortona we found a few american students that spoke english. You have got to understand what goes through your head when you are in a foreign country and you hear your native language being spoken by others your own age. Well it's just about the coolest thing imaginable. So we talked to them and they are from the university of georgia and they are studying abroad as well. There are about 60 of them and they have their little university center in Cortona. So we exchanged email and talked about getting together to hang out one night in one of our towns. They told us that we should come back to Cortona tonight that everyone was getting together that night. and we said we didnt think that we could make it. well we thought wrong. When everyone heard that there were other americans not far away they jumped on the opportunity and off we went again (for the second time in one day) to Cortona.
Sunday we went to Arezzo to a jousting tournament. IT was very cool and there is soo much to say about that. But I will keep it short and say it was very spirited competition, and there was a lot of people doing a lot of yelling and cheering. We didn't know it but we found ourselves nestled amongst one of the locals fan bases. Blue and yellow were this teams particular colors. Just to give you an idea of what it was like in American terms, think of Medieval Times in Dallas and then think of how itd be in real life and you got it! very cool.. i think it's a big deal to them, kind of like football to texans, but that's just a guess.
well thats all for now! This weekend were planning a trip to Elba which is an island. So were ironing out the details but Ill let you know how that goes. Ciao for now. More pictures soon, possibly.
Amanda

Hello, it's Friday about 3:45 and it's been a slow day so far. No classes on Friday for non architecture majors. Im excited about that. So to celebrate we stayed out late last night and got up late this morning. We barely made it to lunch! I have got to tell you about lunch. We had some awesome minestrone soup to start off. Then, as if that wasn't enough they brought out bruschetta, which is like heaven on a plate. Let me tell you about bruschetta: it is toasted bread topped with a mixture of chopped tomatoes, basil, garlic, splashed with a bit of olive oil and salt and pepper oh and something real hot was in it too, but im not sure what it was. And as if that wasn't enough we had some green salad and some kind of hush puppy type thing. This wasn't any ordinary hush puppy though. This had bits of bacon in it and was more quiche like than anything. Oh yeah, then we had some kind of awesome chunks of cheese as well. Oh, then there is desert. We had some more watermelon that was great. Now this is MY kind of lunch!! are you hungry yet? Oh yes, I almost forgot; tonight we are having a desert tasting after dinner in the court yard! I will definetly be posting up about that.
Our plans for tomorrow (Saturday) are to go to this designer outlet mall about an hour away from here. I have been furiously trying to read this train schedule book but its in Italian. So im in the process of finding someone who can translate the little sidenotes for me so we can make sure that the particular train we want to ride is going to be running. So supposedly this mall has prada gucci etc at discounted prices. Were still thinking that its going to be mondo expensive but we thought itd be fun to go anyways. Plus, more train experience is going to be a good thing!
Good news on the photographic forefront: My roomate Jessica has a digital and she's letting me send her pics to my dad and Im sure he will distribute accordingly. If you want to see some pics of where weve been email him at hossdavid@tyler.net . He will love to send them to you, I promise! Ciao for now :)

Hello all my friends and family!
Here's what's going on in Italy today. I woke up at eight o clock and got ready for school. I had an awsome nectarine I had saved from last night's dinner for breakfast! Boy was it good. Let me tell you Italy has the best produce I have ever tasted hands down. I am going to come back to the states and be sad, very very sad. anyhow, our first class was art history and we had a walking tour of Castiglion Fiorentino given by Paolo the original founder of this study center. Let me tell you this man was born and raised and educated in Florence. He moved to the the States be become a professor at A&M then they sent him back to italy to start up this Santa Chaira Study Center that I now attend. He and his staff have been here for thirteen years I think. Ok back to the tour. We enter the church that is next door to our school and Wow I was blown away. The ceilings are huge and there are frescos all over the walls. Straight ahead is a very grand alter decorated ornately. The church is in the layout of a cross and on the left hand side of the cross is a very awesome byzantine madonna and child. Paolo tells us it is worth 30-40 million dollars... yeah, i know, crazy huh? He explains that the picture is painted on gold which is part of the reason for its great price. After we leave the church, we trek uphill towards the top of town. He is telling us about how the towers in italy represent power and the more towers there were the more powerful the city. So we walk up and look at our city tower and he just says, hey I will go get the key and we will go up into the tower. Paolo must be a powerful man in the city because he got the key and we went up and we saw for many many miles. He explained how this area of Tuscany was once a great lake and how a long time ago this guy came to this part of the country and built canals that allowed the water to flow away and boy am I glad he did because it is sure beautiful now! He pointed to a castle on a nearby mountain and he explained how he repelled down the side one time. This guy is soo cool!! I could never pretend to have the guts to do that. Anyways, that was the tour of our little city. I know that was not all the sights to see in our medieval town but that was all we had time for today.
Onto another topic-- I am slowly learning about how spoiled americans are. We have everything we could ever want and its very accessible... Here in Italy---not so much! Walking has become our mode of transportation, but it has given us good exercise we would not have gotten driving a car around. Plus, it gives you time to slow down and appreciate everything that is around you. Also, another topic that goes under this heading is washing clothes. Today my two roomates and me went down to the bottom porch and handwashed all of our clothes in a bucket and hung them out to dry. I was missing my washing machine but it was very cool to have to do that. Again, we got a chance to appreciate the small things... we got to hang out and socialize as a community which we would have missed had we thrown everything in a washing machine. That's one thing I have learned from the Italian experience. They are very community oriented. Never before have I seen such open space in a big city such as I saw in florence. They have these things called piazzas. they are just areas where the town gathers to socialize for many different reasons. If that was america, those plots of land would have been built on a million years ago. Often there are many piazzas in a single city. I think this is a testament to the community philosophy that the Italians embrace. That's definetly cool, and maybe something to think about next time we pave over a park or a community center to build a sky scraper. Just a thought though.. thats all for today. ciao!