At LAST

I am finally able to upload pictures! This weekend, our reservation at the Salvation Army was screwed up, so we are having what is being fondly referred to as "Project Sleepover." It is really just a bunch of people crammed into 3 or 4 apartments, but it is super fun anyway, for many reasons. We get to use the phone for free! We get to use the internet for free! We get to cook (we are all very deprived of basic things like fresh fruit and veggies since we've been eating out for every meal)! We get to do laundry! We get to all hang out together, which doesn't actually happen that often, because we tend to be split up into missional teams or action groups or whatever.... Anyhow, the cool thing about project sleepover is that I can finally upload pictures! So here is a little tidbit. I will of course be able to show more once I get home and can go through and edit and whatever, but I thought I'd give you guys a little taste of what I see while I'm here.

This is the view from my bedroom window at the Salvation Army. The building you see is another building that belongs to the Salvation Army, and between that building and our building is a beautiful courtyard where I have been doing my quiet times and where we sometimes hang out as a group late at night! Che bella!
This is our room. Simple. Comfortable. Better than I expected, to be honest. The bed on the right is mine... and just to the left, you can sort of see the bunk beds. My roomies are Ashley, Brittany, and Monica. We have a good time :)
This is the view from a bus stop that we go to almost every day. One of my favorite things about Rome is that everything is beautiful. I don't think I've seen a building yet that I saw and thought "wow... that building is uuugly..." I love the colors too. The Romans are not afraid of pink on their buildings, or bright orange, or yellow. And the shutters are functional! I am such a nerd, but I got so excited that the shutters aren't just decorative. They actually use them here....
This is San Giovani (Saint John) The piazza that is here is named for this church, and this is where we pick up the metro every day to go to campus or to go into Il Centro. Did I explain Il Centro yet? Just in case I forgot... It's the historical center of Rome. (See photos below)
This is the metro. There are 2 lines. This is the B Line. It is covered in graffiti. The A Line isn't. I just think this picture looks cool.
THIS is in Il Centro. These are some ruins. I'm not sure which yet though, because I only took this picture in passing. I'm fairly sure we'll be visiting them soon, and I will take loads more photos, and I'll find out about some of the history and what not.
I forget what this building is called. We call it the Wedding Cake Building. It is also in Il Centro.
Italian kiddos are adorable. End of story.

Story time. After church on Sunday, we went to the Spanish steps to have lunch and these dudes come jogging by. There is a golf cart following them, and it stops, and some people start handing out cards and sweat bands that say Roma Calcio. We assume that this is the Roma soccer team. Falso. After taking lots of creeper pics of these guys and getting all worked up about how close I was to these sweaty guys who are basically legendary, I just found out last night that these are NOT Roma soccer players. This girl from Project, Amanda, was at a party with some Italian Students and was telling them that she got to meet some Roma soccer players, and she showed them the pictures and they were like, "No! Those aren't Roma players! Those are guys from Junior league or something." Dangit. Now I have creeper pictures of people who aren't even significant.
This is Pompi: the self proclaimed Regno di Tiramisu. Ahhhh. You guys, it was seriously one of the best things I've ever taasted in my life. AND they have other kinds of tiramisu. Strawberry, Banana and Nutella, Mixed Berry... DE lish.

I'm not exactly sure what this is. But we were taking a walk the other night and paassed it. So I snapped a photo. And this brings me to aanother one of my favorite things about Rome. Everything is old. But some things are especially old. So you can be walking down the cobblestone streets and admiring the old crumbly apaartment buildings and the shutters and what not, and you turn aa corner, and there is something really old. And you just feel like the city is steeped in history and you wonder how many feet have walked on the same cobblestones upon which you aare walking. It is so unbelievable.
THIS my friends is the Trevi Fountain. I took day time pictures too... but I posted the night time ones. These little photos cannot even begin to do justice to the magnificence of this fountain. It is literally breath taking. The first time I went there, I got out my camera and I staarted taking pictures because I was thinking, "It's the Trevi Fountain! I have to take a million pictures!" The second time I went, I just haad to stand there and look at it. It is so incredible. It is so big. It is so intricate and gorgeous. It is so majestic. I LOVE it I LOVE it I LOVE it.
So I included another picture...

Colosseo! Once again, you haave to see it to believe it. It's so bizarre because you get off the metro station, or you're just looking around at random buildings, and then there it is. It's this thing that you've seen in pictures for your whole life but it's so much bigger and so much more incredible when you're there!

And on a final note, I'm loving Roma. God has been teaching me loads! At a certain point, I think I hit the level of just total exhaustion, and I'm just trying to say, "OK God. I'm here. I'm tired. Use me. Energize me. Renew me." And God has been teaching me that he can use me as I am now! Philippians 3:10-11 has really been speaking to me here: "I want to know Christ & the power of his resurrection & the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, & so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead, Not that I have already obtained all this, or have been made perfect but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me." Christ took hold of me to make me holy and perfect and blameless and to restore me to the fellowship with God that I was designed for. So I need to press on to take hold of that too! It will be a process, for sure. It won't end until I get to heaven, but I'm realizing that there is such joy in pursuing him now!

OK, that's all I've got for now friends. :) Hope you all are well!

Love,
Kate