The BEST weekend of my life!

So as I mentioned in the last post that I got to go with the American's to Rome on Saturday night. I walked up to EBEI around 4 PM and we left around 5 PM. We drove to the Metro and then took the Metro into Rome. Because of all my previous Metro travels I felt like a pro. I knew exactly where I was going and I already had a stash of Metro tickets.

I liked this trip to Rome the most because I had already taken all the pictures of the sights so this time I could just walk and enjoy the scenery!

I got to be really good friends with 2 of the girls. One girl, Lauren, was 20 and 2 months before she came to Italy, she had just gotten back from The Philippines for 6 months! She went and worked in a birthing center because she wants to be a midwife. A missionary had set up this birthing center, so it was kind of a mission trip for her. She plans on working on her Doula license when she gets back to Colorado.

Lauren and I

Another girl, Ruth, was a very sweet girl. After talking with her for a little bit we found out that we knew a couple of the same people! For those of you who know the Raber family, her and Luke took Chemistry together and they studied together! What a small world to meet her in Italy!

Ruth and I

There was another girl, Kayla, who come to find out goes to Tabor, which is the school I went to my freshman year!

Ok, this was supposed to be just Kayla and I. We had no idea Emiliano was behind me. And we actually got a picture with just us two, but I just love this one so much!

Then there is Emiliano and Luca. They are guys that I met at the church that Andrew and Patrizia go to. The cool thing about Luca is that when I first met him all he could say to me was, "How...are....you?:" That was a little over a month ago. When we were walking around Rome, he was telling me history of all the sights! Now, he wasn't fluent and I had to help him out some, but seriously...this guy has learned more English than I have learned Italian! And Emiliano and I could communicate a little bit in the beginning but his English has improved SO much! Saturday night we were walking together and he was asking me all these grammar questions. Like, "What is the difference in the way you use the word 'Excuse me' and 'Sorry'. So we worked on that for a while. It was very fun! He really wanted to say things the right way and not just get by. What a cool guy!

Luca on the left, Emiliano on the right. They are best friends!

Then there was Sunday. We went to church and I sat with the Americans...of course! I thought that that was the last time I was going to get to see them, but they said that they were going to go out that night and told me to be there at 5 PM and I could go! Yay! Sunday's are my only definite days off so I was excited to have something to do again. We went to a little town about 5 minutes from where we live called, Monteportzio, and this is where there is beautiful scenery and the pope has a summer home here. Actually this photo...

is of a guard outside the popes summer home and when the guard is standing there that actually means the pope is currently in that house. I shouldn't be so excited about that but I thought it was pretty cool haha!

Then there was dinner, which was by far my favorite part! It was this little hole in the wall REAL Italian restaurant. There was no servers, the owner himself brought out your food. He would come out singing a different song every time! He was a hoot!! There was 5 courses! First was pasta with red sauce and pancetta. Second was pasta with mushrooms...eww...but I ate it. By this time I was STUFFED!!!!! Third course was three different types of meat. One was their equivalent of hamburger which I am not fond of...another was I think lamb, but it tastes like steak so I ate that one. I have no idea what the third piece of meat was and I didn't touch it haha. Fourth course was salad topped with olive oil and salt! Fifth course was the best potatoes I have EVER had!!! They were chopped up and then I think fried in butter or something because they melted in your mouth! Red wine and white wine came with dinner. I wasn't too fond of the white and I usually don't like red but this red wine was SO good! Then they brought out some Spumante wine! OH MY!!! It was so good! I was sitting next to this guy named Chris who was just on Holiday visiting his aunt Hannah who came to dinner with us. He is from Switzerland. But he told me that I needed to be careful with the Spumante because of the bubbles and you can get drunk really fast. So...I only had one glass. But man was it good!

My favorite part of the dinner and probably the whole weekend was when all the Italians and the owner of the place started clapping and singing! Danny, who is the missionary over the English camp that the Americans came to do, said that this was a common song that is sung in places like this. You have to watch this video! I want to marry an Italian and live in Italy just for this haha!

The guy with all the tattoos is the owner of the place. Danny, the missionary, is the guy at the head of the table. He is one cool guy. He was born in Italy but lived in the states for 6 years going to school. His English is SO good! He just has a small Italian accent when talking English. He teaches at EBEI but is also a missionary supported by various churches. One of the churches is the one in Colorado that all these Americans came from. Oh and if I had my pick of which Italian guy to bring home...he would be the one haha. Not that I am bringing an Italian guy home...sorry to get your hopes up for a minute!

This next weekend is when I am going to Ostia to stay Saturday night with Monet and Marco! I am sure I will have stories and pictures to share then!

This weekend was totally worth everything that I have dealt this whole trip! I was blessed to meet some amazing people and hopefully a couple of life"