Ciao from the Other Side!
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Duomo di Milano
Buongiorno famiglia e gli amici/Hello family and friends!
I am thrilled to be writing to you from across the pond, or as Adele would say, “Hello from the other siiiiiiIIIIiiidee!” Thank you all for your prayers, all my flights and traveling were mostly uneventful and I had nice people to sit next to with beautiful British, Australian, and Italian accents.
That's a door. Just stare at it for a while. The man in the photo is for size.
I flew into Milan on Tuesday afternoon, where Paul (Gallery 4 Italy Director) was kind enough to meet me and help get my luggage to Florence. But first, we explored and saw the Duomo di Milano and the giant museum of a train station before we departed by train and travelled to Florence at 300kmh/186mph. Wheeeee.
Took a bus to Iacopo Nardi 2 (my apartment) and reunited with Rachel! She and her parents had dinner all ready and it was just wonderful. I managed to stay awake for a bit before crashing into bed after being awake for a solid 32 hours. I slept like a champion, although I did wake up once with a “where am I, who am I??” moment. I don’t think I figured it out before I fell back asleep. I’m Jane Doe in a comfy bed and I don’t care, lalalala!
So what will this summer hold?
• Settling in. That might be a bit obvious, but just reacquainting myself with the flow of the culture here, brushing up on my rusty Italian and continuing to learn, and finding a natural rhythm of life.
• Apartment hunting. I’ll be moving in with Silvia and Vanessa, two art students, when I come back in October. They started a search, and now I will continue as they just went home for the summer.
• Searching for a Gallery space. Paul had placed a bid on a beautiful space in a great neighborhood, but it fell through. So the hunt continues, there are still a few top runners, and we just have to be patient and continue to trust that the Lord will provide what He wants us to have when He wants us to have it.
• Our first Gallery opening in July, in about a month! We really hope to have a space by then, but if not we can always rent a space temporarily.
A pretty vine-covered building
The four points above are all things you can be praying for. You can also pray that the Lord would provide both a language tandem partner for me, someone who I can meet with and help with their English and they help me with my Italian, and a culture mentor, someone who will help me with understanding and operating in the Italian culture. Googling "How to act like an Italian" will only get you so far...
If there is anything I can be praying for you specifically, shoot me an email, I would love to be able to!
Side note: the wifi is out at my apartment for the time being, but I reactivated my Italian phone number and have data and such on that where you can reach me.
