Day 6 & 7: Weekend Ways

I wish I had some really fun and exciting news about my first weekend in Ariccia, but it mainly consisted of sleeping, booking flights and running (and by running, I mean running once). Remember how I said on Friday that I was excited about sleeping in on Saturday? Well, boy did I ever! I slept till....wait for it..... 12:30!! Can you believe it? I couldn't. I swore my clock was wrong. Because if you know Sara Kate, then you know that me sleeping in means waking up at 9:30. Never have I seen 12:30. I guess my body was making up for the lack of sleep and exhaustion it had gone through during the week, so the sleep was much needed. So after almost every one of us rolled out of the beds at 12:30 and were in complete shock that half our day was gone, we got going. Kasi, Anna Curl, Caitlyn, Meg and I all decided to go on a run to Genzano because it was a beautiful day outside. The run was about 3.5 miles (uphill there, downhill back--thank goodness) and it ran straight through the festival Ariccia was having... so we got many stares as we paraded like a herd of cattle through their street vendors. That took up a good amount of our day because we had to cool down after and regain consciousness, so later we all go on a roll with booking (yes, we're still booking flights) flights for our weekend trips. We are on the mindset that it is better to go ahead and do it earlier when the rates are cheaper and so we don't have to stress about it later. So we planned our flight to Prague (we have heard nothing but rave reviews) after our week in Milan, and also checked out B&B's for Dublin. When we had exhausted our travel agent skills we decided it was time to get in the shower and get ready for dinner. After lazily getting ready, we all were about to walk out the door to go get some cheap pasta when Peek (our Auburn instructor that is on the trip with us) came barreling through the door and guilted us into going to dinner with some backpackers that are Hotel and Restaurant Management majors from Auburn (they are also in the College of Human Sciences, so Peek knew their instructor leading them). Wellllllll lets just say that this was an epic fail. We followed the instructor's lead and went into this nearby restaurant for dinner. Well, right after we sat down the waiters started bringing out all of this food. And they kept bringing it. And bringing it. And bringing it. Seriously, there wasn't room for my glass of water on the table. They brought out bread loaves, fresh mozzarella, olives, proscuitto, beef kebabs, roasted potatoes, ham, stuffed red peppers and the list goes on and on. And we didn't even order any of this! So after we got done eating (and the backpackers we were sitting next to absolutely dragged Barcelona over the coals, which we were like "great" because were spending 4 days of our midterm break there....), the people were like "Ok 17,50 Euros each." What?? I didn't even order it. We all looked at each other and we're so upset. So of course we got a ginormous to-go box and took everything we could get our hands on because we realized we were going to have to eat in the next few meals. As you can imagine, we were needing a little happy after that meal so a few of us went and got gelato (always a good solution). That about sums up Saturday in Ariccia. Here are a few pictures from the street festival at night:

My first Italian sunset :) B-E-A-UTIFUL.

This is from standing on the bridge, looking into Ariccia. That's the Chigi Palace on the left.

I woke up on Sunday around 10:30, which was good because I didn't need to waste my day away. I made my Italian coffee (I have a picture of the appliance you make it in, it's very interesting! I want to buy one and bring it back home), worked on my blog and had my quiet time.

This is what you make your coffee in! Cool, huh?

During my quiet time I read my daily reading in My Upmost For His Highest and the verse for it was 2 Timothy 1:7 -- "For God did not give us a spirit of fear/timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline." That struck a chord in me, giving me an "ah-ha" moment. Thats why I'm here. That's why, by some Divine intervention, I am in Italy. I think I go through times in my life when I am so comfortable and content with my surroundings that God takes a back seat because I think I have everything under control. That is how I was this past semester and how I would be if I had stayed home this summer. Me coming to Italy and living with 19 different strangers for 3 months is a situation in which I must rely totally on the Lord for strength and security. I have already noticed me going to my Bible when I am struggling to open up to the girls or missing my family back at home. 2 Timothy 1:7 changed my outlook on this whole experience. I can either let my fear get the best of me and control me, or I can pray pray pray and have the best experience guided by the Lord himself. I am actively choosing the latter.

As you could imagine, that got my day off to a good start. After lounging around for a little while, Kasi and I decided to walk down to the festival and see what the street vendors have to offer. Ya'll, this festival was nothing like what we have in The States (P.S. I love saying I'm from The States when people ask. We are ballers). It had everything from jewelry, purses, shoes and clothes to cactuses, crepes, CDs and lawnmowers. I'm talking random stuff! I showed will-power and resisted purchasing. On a side note, the weather warmed up so we were excited to finally break out the shorts! I didn't have very much food at the Palace so I grabbed a slice of pizza from sweet Luigi at Pizza Maxi and headed back. Delicioso (once again)! My afternoon wasn't very excited, but it was relaxing and we needed that. I finished my "Expert of the Day" homework assignment on The Pantheon and started our Free Rice online assignment (we have to learn 1920 Italian words by July 12.... daunting....) For dinner a few of us made pesto pasta and watched P.S. I Love You to get in the Ireland mood! Loving the scenery. Hope everyone had good weekendsss :)