a week at home

hello friends! i apologize for my lateness in posting...i know mom has been eager for me to post pictures, so i guess you all are ready too. well i have been home a week and it honestly feels like a lot longer. it is really weird to transition to another way of life so abruptly. i will admit though, it is nice to be writing this blog from my own laptop and not from the stinky internet cafe. so i know you are all excited to see pictures, so here goes...i'll just start from the beginning and go from there!

this is the santa maria novella...we lived only a few meters down the road from this piazza and spent a lot of our time hanging out here...we did praise and worship on the steps of this church every sunday night.

this is a close up of the front of the duomo (the famous cathedral in florence)...it is so big that i never could get the whole thing in a picture!

this is the ponte vecchio...that means 'old bridge' in italian...it was built 1354. we learned that during ww2 when the nazis invaded germany, hitler gave a specific decree to keep this bridge intact. almost every night there were musicians performing on the ponte vecchio...during the day, it is filled with people shopping in the many jewelry shops that line the bridge.

this is the amazing view from the piazza di michelangelo...this is where i summer!

these are some of the girls from my team...thecla and ally...so beautiful! this is just a picture down by the river at night...i love florence at night!


this the view in fiesole, a little town right outside of florence (and one of my favorite places!)

some more girls on my team...jessica (in the middle) was my roommate!

we got to go to a soccer game too...italy vs. belgium....forze italia!

theresa and i in front of the duomo!

another amazing view of florence from fiesole...yep, i lived here!

there i am! i just love florence!

a view of florence from the top of the duomo....all 460 steps later!

this is eduardo and paola...you'll remember them from a previous post...please continue to pray for them!

my roommate, jessica, and i at the leaning tower of pisa!

ally and i at the piazza del campo in siena!

the duomo in siena!

another spectacular view of florence!

jonathan and i with our italian friends gisella and sara! i have talked a lot about gisella in previous posts!

this is where we debriefed...cinque terre!!

some of the girls decided to hike from one town in cinque terre to the next! this is my roommate, jessica, and i mid-hike!

the city we hiked to...vernazza!

adam and i with our favorite italian...cosimo!!! ive also talked about him a lot in previous posts.

this is the group that went to novoli every day! (half of our team)

these were our team leaders...toby and jessica vaughn!

and this is stephanie and i on the plane ride home...we are obviously sad to be leaving!

well there you go! those are just some of the pictures i took this summer...i ended up taking over 1000! i wasn't about to put all of those up, but if you want to see more, i put them all up on facebook! thank you all again for being so supportive of my trip this summer, and for praying the whole time. you cannot even imagine how crucial those prayers were. please continue to pray for my italian friends and the italian people in general. pray for their salvation! and don't stop!!

grazie mille i miei amici! ti voglio bene!