HUF, Harvest and Halloween

As you know, the HUF program here in Florence is very active and invites us and our students to many activities. There are three that I have personally participated in most recently.

The first would be the grape harvest in the beginning of October. I did this last year as well and man, it was so interesting and gross last year. It had rained for several weeks and the grapes were moldy and the ground was really muddy. This year on the other hand it was perfect. There had been just enough rain but the ground wasn't too muddy and the grapes were gorgeous and not so low to the ground. Awesome! It went much quicker and we would fill up the buckets before they could empty a load so we could continue to harvest more grapes. Afterwards, there was a cookout with big slabs of bacon, ribs and garlic bread. It was so delicious!

The next event was the olive harvest, which was only last week. Harding has probably 50-100 olive trees around it's property and each Fall, the HUF students help harvest them. I went up for an hour or so since things are staying so busy at the Bible School and helped with the harvest. It's very different than harvesting grapes and makes you appreciate olive oil a lot more.

That night was the Halloween party at the villa. Kyle asked the Avanti workers to play a part in the Haunted Walk they do for the students. How it works is, Kyle or Mona take a few students at a time around the grounds of the villa telling scary stories about Scandicci or the villa. My role was to be a ghost of a girl that was always late and one day she got left and now, on Halloween every year, she comes back to haunt the villa. It was fun and if you've ever been to the villa, you know it's pretty easy to make it scary.

This next part has nothing to do with HUF but happened the weekend before the olive harvest and Halloween party. The church where Andrea is working hosted an area wide retreat and invited us to come and be a part of it. So, we left Saturday afternoon and arrived in Bondeno a few hours later. There was one speaker that evening and then we all went out for a pizza, stayed in homes, and the next morning came back to the church building for worship and a meal. I stayed with a girl named Esmeralda...I say a girl but she is actually somewhere around my age. She was very sweet and even though it was just for one night, it was nice to get to meet her.

Me and our newest Avanti Member, Kelli

It was great to see Andrea again and all the work she has been doing. She and some of the other young people have been painting the building and she worked very hard in helping organize this weekend. Great job Andrea!

Thursday visits

In honor of tomorrow being Thursday, I've decided to write about "visitation". Visitation is not what you might think, we do not go every Thursday for what we call visitation in the States. Visitation is where we go visit a member from the church, or a student, or someone that we would like to get to know better.

Here are a few of the people we've visited:

Maria Teresa and Emma and their kids. They are all from Honduras and just recently started coming to the church in Florence because they were taking the bus to the Prato church but it was too difficult with all of the kids so now they are here! Hooray. We went to the park and played and had a "merenda"(snack) with them after the kids got out of school.

Mario is a retired man from church and with out him, things would fall apart. He is a true Florentine and has been here forever. He came to the Bible School for lunch and each of us had a question to ask him. We found out so many interesting things about him. He has literally been in Florence since the flood...the one in 1966 and he also has pictures of Florence during World War 2 and the flood. Really interesting stuff.

Niccolo is another retired man from church and he came to the Bible School and we celebrated his birthday. Sadly, I didn't get to talk to him as much, but he is a firecracker, let me tell you. I'm sure we'll have him over again sometime and I will get to talk to him a little bit more.

Christina is from Brazil and she works at a nursing home in the Alzheimer's ward. As you know, Laura and I are at the building Thursday morning to do the weaving class and Erme comes a little later to have a Bible study with the mother, Maria. So, if we do something for lunch for visitation, usually it is around the church building. There is a pretty good pizza place close by and that is where we went with Christina. Once again, I was at the other end of the table so I didn't hear all of what she said but afterwards, Laura and I went back to the church building to weave some more and Christina came and we talked until it was time for the Conversation Class that night.

Last Thursday, we decided to visit Elizabeth Whatley, the director of the Pepperdine Program here in Florence. She is always doing something and this Thursday her plan was to plant 700+ tulip bulbs in her garden at her house! So, instead of cancelling the visit, we went and helped and I know she appreciated it. We brought a picnic lunch and drinks and after we ate, we started to work. There were 8 sections to be planted and only one of them didn't get planted and she said that was probably the easiest one so it wouldn't be a problem for her to do the next day. Success!

(Sorry, I don't have anymore pictures right now.)

These aren't in order and are just the most recent "visitees" but maybe you have an idea of what Thursday Visitation is now. I think this is one of the best things we do here and that it is part of what we're called to do as the church. I'm guilty of this as well, but I would go to church say hello and ask how they are and then never really found out about the person. Now, especially the people we've gone to visit, it's more meaningful to see them on Sunday mornings. I know it's a continuous thing to get to know people and be part of their lives but I know this is atleast a step in the right direction.

God Bless all of you and thank you for all of your encouragement!

And we're off...

The new school year has started and the craziness begins. Officially, our lessons started 3 weeks ago, but 2 weeks ago was when all of my students started coming. This semester, I have 12 one hour time slots. 11 one-on-one classes and one group grammar class. Registration Night, we had around 20 new prospective students show up and my parents were still in town, so they got to meet some of them. I wish you all could have been there to see my mom and dad with the Italians. It was great.

On that note, my parents came to visit! We went to Rome first and saw what there was to see and more. My parents were lucky enough to experience a real live strike, and not just any strike, but a "general" strike. That means that it wasn't just the buses that stopped running, but all of the museums and exhibits were closed as well. Fun. No worries though, the churches were open so we took the time to see those that day. We met with the church in Rome  twice while we were there and the second time we all had dinner together at the building...gotta love pizza. After Rome we went to Naples and Pompeii and we all loved it. Some people might cut Naples from their trip but I'm so glad we went. The people there were very friendly and Pompeii was one of my favorite places that we visited. That concludes the first week. The second week was spent mostly in Florence and then one day in Venice. I know what you're thinking...one day in Venice!...but that's all we could do. Like I said before, they got to come to student registration night and it was great to see two parts of my life come together.

My schedule is similar to last year to where our days to have lessons are Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and then Thursday is set aside for visiting someone from the church, Conversation Class and Bible Study at the church building, and Friday is physical Friday, where we do something to clean up the Bible School or go help someone else doing something similar. There are a few changes this year to my schedule which includes teaching at the 'Asilo Nido' (preschool) and teaching a weaving class Thursday morning at the church building. Yes, I know...weaving class.

This summer, Laura and I went to a little town near by called Stia that the Harding students visit with HUF. There is an old mill and a museum in the old weaving factory. The lady that works there, Angela(great name right), teaches people how to weave and Robbie asked Laura and I if we would like to learn and then teach others how to weave on the looms he bought for the HUF students. Of course we said yes and spent 2 full days learning the basics of weaving. Laura made a video of it and interviewed Angela on what she does. Very interesting.  Weaving Video on Facebook So now, on Thursdays, Laura and I are teaching a mother and 2 of her daughters how to weave and make bracelets. This family consists of 7 children and the parents and neither one of the parents have a consistent job so this will hopefully be a way for them to make a living. So far, we have had 3 lessons and they learned how to measure out the yarn, put the yarn on the loom, actually weave the yarn and make 2 different types of bracelets. They're doing so well and it's great to see the progress they make each time. I'm sad to say that with this family at first, I was very reluctant to interact with them at all. They were different from me in so many ways, but I'm so glad this opportunity has come and that we get to spend time together each week. It gives me an opportunity to see a little part of what their life is like and share our lives together and hopefully show them Jesus. Please pray for the work here and especially this family and all of our interactions. Until next time!

I have officially written about everything on that list that I posted a while ago. NOW, there's still more! Of course, that has happened even since then.

In the month of July, Peter stayed home and didn't go to camp and helped David with completely redoing the kitchen. They took a mini-jackhammer and evened out the walls, re-tiled the floor, put new tiles on the wall, added more electrical outlets(because there were only 3 in the entire kitchen before, one for the fridge, one for the mixer, and one for the coffeemakers(American and Italian). So yes, there were times we needed a few more and now there are at least 8...hooray! They also painted the rest of the wall and the ceiling, moved the new furniture in and put in new faucets...it was a job, let me tell you.

They weren't the only ones that helped though, everyone chipped in and even visitors helped out. There was a mother and daughter that was passing through and they helped for several days, Derrick and Jay, Emily's friends, helped for several weeks. They were supposed to do a work exchange with someone else in Florence and once they got here, in Florence, these people cancelled! yikes, so they did a work exchange with us instead, they worked on the kitchen and got room and board. Once we got back from camp, Ryan came over everyday and helped until it was time to stop. Everyone else helped as well, but I can't name everybody.

The furniture is actually used but it's new to us. Pepperdine University in Florence was redoing their kitchen and getting rid of the old kitchen stuff, so Elizabeth Watley knew we were doing our kitchen and gave us their old stuff. Awesome! All stainless steel and the kitchen looks great and is so much better than before. It will be so much easier to work and prepare big meals now. Thank you so much to everyone that helped with that!

I'll post some pictures of that soon.

VBS!!!

Ryan and Laura organized VBS at the Florence church this summer in June. The kids loved it and so did everyone that helped.  The theme was "The armor of God". There were kids from Prato, Florence, and Pistoia. Here's the video Laura made and there is a clip of the skit the guys did that you have to see...they really put on their actor faces. VBS video You'll have to be logged in to see the video and if you still can't see the video let me know and I'll ask Laura for a copy of it or something. Here are pictures even if you can't see the video...

Emily really took her job seriously, making the armor.

Tested and Approved by Emily Woodroof

Zoey is sporting her name tag

First and Second Campeggio

Campeggio is the Italian word for Camp. Every summer at the end of June and beginning of July, the first week is for the younger kids(7-12) and the second week is for the older kids(13-18ish). It was a marathon of speaking in Italian but I loved it! Different in several ways from American Summer Camp, like every meal there was a full italian meal, pasta, meat, a side of some kind, bread, and fruit w/ nutella. I think I gained 10 pounds at camp(not really but there was always plenty of food to eat.)

Great news as well, 3 girls were baptized at camp! There is no baptistery or body of water so the decision was made to empty the freezer and fill it with water...and then we had a baptistery.

Laura made an awesome video, as usual, showing all the different aspects of camp and that will tell you more than I ever could about what a great time we all had those 2 weeks. Camp Video

Thanks for reading everybody!

Ferrara Agape

Also in the month of July, the church in Bondeno(close to Ferrara), where Andrea is working, invited the Bible School people to come worship with them and enjoy a meal and "show" afterwards. Andrea and the kids there had been working on a play about Lazarus rising from the dead. It was amazing! There were props and costumes and the kids did all of their lines from memory. They did a great job and we really enjoyed seeing everyone from Bodeno again.

After lunch, we were all talking outside and someone came by and gave Umberto, the older man in this picture, a huge fish! atleast 4 feet long. Apparently, the person that brought it already had too much so he gave it to Umberto. I wish I had taken a picture of it, because it was one of the biggest fish I have ever seen. Maybe next time.

Women's Day

Women's Day
Every year, around April, there is a Nationwide Women's Retreat near Rome. The women here love to get together and see their friends this weekend every year but last year the women in the Tuscany area decided they wanted to get together more often. It was great to see everyone once a year, but we all live so close, why shouldn't we get together more? So, everyone decided there would be days throughout the year that all the Tuscan women would get together and share a day of fellowship.

Since then, there have been 3 "Women's Days". The first meeting was just for organizational purposes and that was hosted at the Bible School. The first real meeting was in Pistoia in July and there were over 20 women! Laura, Ermenita and I took the train to Prato and then some of the ladies from Prato took us to the meeting because it was at one of the church member's houses. We had a great time of fellowship and singing and sharing.

The second meeting was just recently in Prato and there were over 20 women again with games and singing, and this time, we all came prepared with a written out "speech" about who is someone that has influenced your faith, in the Bible or otherwise. There were tears and there was laughter, which makes for a great day! I look forward to the next time we all get together again.

Pizza, Parades and a Party

Party - End of the year
The month of April had 5 Fridays and since that is our night to have a planned activity for all of our students, we decided that would be a great time to have our end of the year party. We had around 50 of our students come and several of their family members. Since we're so good at cookouts and it shares a little bit of American culture with our students, that's what we did for them, hot dogs, hamburgers, baked beans, and Debbie's Potato Salad. Delicious! We had a slide show playing of pictures from different events throughout the semester and we all stood around and talked the entire night. I was sad that it was (almost) the end of the school year but it was great to see all of our students together talking and getting to know one another.


I can't wait to see all of the students again in September and we've had atleast 10 more people come by this summer asking when our classes start.



Parades
I am part of the Scandicci Filarmonica and the Scandicci Big Band(Jazz Band). Both are very active in the summers because in every town, it seems, in the main piazza, there is a concert or event of some kind going on every night. The Scandicci Band played 2 or 3 times in Piazza Matteoti here in Scandicci, 2 parades, and the Big Band played in Porciano one night, about an hour away. Something you should know about parades in Italy is that you don't have to necessarily all march in time with the music or with the people around you...that was a very new thing for me. I'm so glad they allow me to be a part of the group and that I get to play trombone while I'm here.

Parade

Band Day in Scandicci
(Another band from close by came and played with us and we all had dinner together after the performance.)

Pizza in Empoli

Our good friend, Lorenzo Guiducci invited all of us to go have pizza with him in Empoli. He is a student at the Bible School but has been here since he was a kid. He went to Harding for the Fall semester last year and came back speaking English even better than he did before...probably better than I do. Another side note on Lorenzo is that his father grew up with Robbie Shackleford, the director of the HUF program, because Robbie's parents were missionaries in Scandicci when Robbie was young. Anyway, Lorenzo is a great friend and always helps when he can.

In Empoli, there is a pizza place where you can eat and drink as much as you want for about 10 dollars. That is a great deal because each pizza is hand made from scratch! It was so good and great opportunity to spend some time with Lorenzo and his girlfriend Giulia(Julia). There were also several visitors that came with us, 2 students from Harding and a Jeremy and Katie Daggett, who were here getting everything ready for the Harding group that stayed at the Bible School for a month. We had a little contest to see who could eat the most pieces of pizza and Jeremy won with 28 pieces. Wow. I will say I ate 22 but that's almost a whole pizza less than him...maybe next time. Hooray good pizza!

Pizzeria from Ryan's iPad. Awesome app called Auto Stitch.

Pre-Summer Events

Fabio e Viviana's Baptism

This is Fabio and Viviana. Originally from Catania(in Sicily) and now they live in the northern part of Italy, close to the border of Italy and Slovania. I met Viviana and Fabio this past winter in January or February, when they came to several services at the church in Florence. Alfredo, an Italian at the Florence church, does Bible Studies with people online and corresponds mostly via email at first and that is where Fabio and Viviana met him and got involved with the Florence church.
Alfredo continued to study with them and Viviana even came to the Women's retreat in February. I can't remember the exact date, but in Spring this year, they both got baptized at the Florence church and it was a blessed day. They have continued to grow and become leaders in the church. One of the things they started and have asked all of the churches in Italy to do is an Evangelizing Day in Italy. Meaning all the churches in Italy, on the same day, do some sort of evangelizing in each one's town. It's still in the planning stages but I'm excited to see what will happen and watch as they grow.

Easter Weekend
Easter weekend was the weekend of the Bologna Retreat but we came back on Saturday so we could be in Florence on Easter. Easter weekend was great and as most families do, our American-Italian family got together for dinner and had a cookout and painted eggs. Not that we didn't want any Italians there, it's just they were all with their families. Debbie and all the other cooks out did themselves and the guys did a great job with the meat. Thank you Lord for a wonderful day of fellowship and food.

Aquarium Trip

Last year, around April, the Bible School invited everyone at the church in Florence to go to the zoo and they had a great time. This year, we thought it would be nice to go to the aquarium as a group. So April 17, 40ish of us set out to Livorno to see their aquarium. We made sack lunches and stopped at a park on the way and then once we made it to Livorno explored the aquarium and the sea, right next to it. It was a great day and we all got to know each other better. The group picture was a little disorganized but I think we eventually all got together for one of the cameras. Overall, it was a great day and the kids really seemed to enjoy it.

Una fine settimana per i giovani(A weekend for the youth)

In September last year, the weekend after I arrived, we had a youth weekend here at the Bible School and 5 Italians were here and had a great time and so we thought we should do it again. SO, April 20-22 we had another one!

Friday night was the last Game Night of the semester for our students and the first night of our youth weekend so we did both of them together. Since it was the last one, we decided to do Real Live Clue! It was so fun(and I think the students enjoyed it as well.) The Bible School was the board and some of the Avanti workers dressed up as the characters.

It was Colonel Mustard in the Library with the Candle Stick...
somthing like that...for sure Colonel Mustard

Erme was Miss Scarlett, Andrea was Mrs. Peacock, Laura was Mrs. White, Peter was Mr. Green, Ryan was Professor Plum, David was Colonel Mustard and I was "The Nanny". I was the mediator/host so I didn't have a character from the game. Eric graciously played Mr. Body at the beginning but still got to play the game. Great fun!

After the Game night part was over, one of the Italians gave a devo thought, Joele. He did a great job and we were all so proud of him(it was his first time).

Saturday we had American Breakfast, pancakes! and then we headed off for a town in the hills called Vallombrosa about an hour away. We translated "There's a stirring" into Italian and played volleyball for a good while. It's so gorgeous up there! Saturday night was a cookout, a devo, singing, and a game.

Sunday morning we all went to church in Florence and it was an amazing Sunday. Not only were the youth from Italy there for the youth weekend but there was also the new Harding students and we had invited our English students to come so it was packed!! It was so encouraging to see everyone there. As a preface to this next part, last year at camp several people translated the song "He is faithful" and the youth really like it so...Sunday morning as one of our songs to sing for the church we sang "Lui é fedele"(He is faithful) and right as we started singing that song, our cook, Rosa, walked in with her husband. It seriously brought me to tears the combination of the words to the song and her walking in at that moment. There have been so many people praying for her and her family for the 25ish years she's worked for Avanti and I just know prayer works. Anyway, there were lots of other people there as well that we have been praying for and I got to see God working especially that day. Jim Woodroof brought the lesson to us and I heard he did a great job! I was upstairs helping with the kids class.

After church we went to lunch and everybody headed back to there own towns. But...there was a strike for the trains so everyone that was from Rome stayed an extra night and went with us to the Harding Devo at the Villa and it was such a blessing to spend that extra time with them.

Here is a video that Laura put together of the weekend. Enjoy. Thank you for reading and more to come soon. In this case, it will be a feast or famine kind of thing...you've experienced the famine of no news and now you will get to feast on everything that has been going on. Sorry for the delay.

Bologna, the city not the meat

The church in Bologna hosted a youth weekend, the same idea as the one I went to several months ago in Aprilia. The main speaker this time was Franco Verardi and he did a great job! The theme for the weekend was “Cosa vorresti fare per la chiesa?” translation - "What would you like to do for the church?" He demonstrated with a human pyramid, among other things and scripture, the importance of unity, and then asked what we can all do to build the church and encourage unity not just among the young people but the entire church. The young men and women at this convegno need to know they are not the church of tomorrow but the church of today and have a vital role. After lunch and Franco's class, we walked around downtown Bologna for a little bit and got some gelato and saw the important buildings. I only went on Saturday but the festivities lasted until Monday morning(because there was a holiday so everyone had off school.) From what I heard about the rest of the weekend, it was just as great as the first day. There was youth there from all over Italy and I know they went away encouraged and "recharged". Jessica and Eric were also there and it was great to see them again and hear about everything going on down in Taranto. They are doing such a great job! Anyway, here are some pictures from the weekend.

After lunch fellowship

Luca really explaining something to Emily and Andrea

JESSICA!

Luca "translating" something for Emily
(The truth is, Emily helped him with a few words and
didn't really need the translation but it was nice of him.
I'm pretty sure this picture was staged.)

Looking down on a Piazza in Bologna

Farewell for now friend.

I realize now that I was being a little ambitious with my last prediction of what I would write this time, so, I think I will just do the first one and call it a day, which is Andrea leaving for Ferrara.

Around March(as best as I can remember), Andrea started to communicate with the church in Bondeno, near Ferrara, to see if there was a need for a worker there and they communicated all through April and asked her to come work in Bondeno with the youth of the congregation. Out of all of the churches here, besides Florence, the one we have come in most contact with is the church in Bondeno and we have all formed relationships with the members there, so naturally, Andrea has formed some bonds with the youth as well.

She left the middle of May and is doing great. She is staying with a family there and loves it! We received a letter today from her that said everything was going very well and we got to see her at the youth weekend, a week after she moved. We all miss her here but I know she's doing great work there and will continue to do so. Here is a link to her blog if you would like to read more about what is going on at the church in Bondeno:http://lavitainfirenze.blogspot.com 

Andrea and all her new friends!
(old friends but now she gets to see them more often)

Until next time!

"I don't know why you say goodbye, I say hello"

The Spring semester of HUF ended and we were all a little sad to see them go, especially because Laura's brother, Clayton, and cousin were here but had to leave. No worries though, the next group arrived the middle of May and several of them stayed here for 2 weeks and now the villa is ready and all of the HUF students are there. 

Side Note: Also, Laura's parents came to visit soon after the HUFfers left, so we were not short on Lemmons for another week or so. While they were here we had a cooking school, and grilled out for Laura's birthday. It was great! It was also Christy's birthday, a lady from church, and her and her family came over as well. What a party! We played games and ate lots of food...everything good for a party.

Anyway, with the new HUF group, we've done a hike/trail cleaning day. What that means is Robbie split everybody up into 3 groups and we went in our prospective groups to hike and pick up trash on a trail in Scandicci. The art school in Scandicci also went with us so the students got to practice their Italian and the Italians got to practice their English. On the trail I went on, we hiked to the top of a hill to the Forest Fire Fighter's Base. They weren't there but it was still pretty interesting. Afterwards, we had a cookout all together and then headed back to the Bible School. There have also been several concerts at the villa including a piano concert, Passogigante(a local band), and a Beatles cover band.

Our favorite director singing to his wife accompanied by Sgt. Peppers(Beatles cover band)

Lemmons - Stephens Clan(minus Clayton)

Thank you to Ryan for letting me use some of his pictures! Currently at the Bible School, there is a group of Harding Bison Athletic students that are only here for month. They arrived May 31 and will stay through June. It's a little different than when the HUF students stayed here because we are responsible for several of their meals, which we spend a lot of time on. So far so good. They left for their first big trip today to Rome and I hope they have a good time. That's all for now but more tomorrow on Andrea moving, Bologna weekend, and the youth weekend here.

End of the semester

hello again to all. It's been a few months since I've updated and it's been super busy around here. SO, I decided to have several short updates on just one or two events each but one every few days until I've covered everything we've been doing. 

Here is the line-up(not necessarily in order):

• Bologna weekend
• Ferrara Agape
• Andrea in Ferrara
• Viviana and Fabio's baptism
• Aquarium trip to Livorno with the church
• End of classes
• Parades, band concerts
• BBQ's(Easter and others)
• Youth weekend
• HUF group arrived
• BAT group arrived
• Visitors at the Bible School
• Campeggio preparation
• Pizza in Empoli
• Women's day

Now you know what to look forward to in the next several days. Until next time!

When in Rome...2

Part 2
As I wrote 2 posts ago, we have started having a different activity every Friday night. We are half way through our second round and the first rounds all went pretty well. The first 2 movie nights have gone great and we had a good turnout for both of them, Despicable Me and The Blind Side. 


The cooking school, which falls on the second Friday of each month, has been a great success. The first one, Debbie demonstrated how to make sweet tea with lemon, pot roast (with potatoes, carrots, onion, and celery) and green beans with butter, salt, and pepper, rolls with butter and berry cobbler with vanilla ice cream. Oh my goodness, it was so good. I had to leave before it was over because I had band rehearsal but I got some leftovers that were awesome! The second cooking school was done by Laura, her first time to do it and she did great. The menu was meatloaf, potato casserole(the one with corn flakes on top), california cabbage and homemade chocolate chip cookies. I stayed and helped this time because Debbie was out of town and I'm not sure if we had rehearsal anyway. My contribution to this night was making the program/menu for the students to write on and take home and official title Assistant chef(which means I did what I needed to in the kitchen and then if Laura needed something during the presentation, I would get it. Ermenita also had this job.) Andrea was also assistant chef and helped a lot with the preparation of the food and she sat with students during the cooking school if there happened to be an awkward pause. Ryan and Peter were the dishwashers and they did a great job. With all of the help we finished at 10:30(which last time with just 3 people, they finished at 12ish)  Laura made this video from that night and it is great. 

Game Night is what I'm in charge of but I haven't actually gotten to do it yet. The first one I was gone to the women's covegno and this next one is tomorrow night. I think only 2 students came to the first one so they played scrabble, but I heard they had fun. Here is a picture that Ryan took  that night:

 

This past Friday the HUF students came to the game night with our Italian students. It was really exciting because we had a chili supper, a devo and then we played Pictionary(with English and Italian words). Sadly, the boys won in the lightening round but oh well. The HUF students really got into it and at the end we sang a song that Emily (and Sarah Bailey) wrote about Italy a few years ago. Here is a video of the night and of part of the song.

The fourth Friday of every month we have book club, that Andrea and Emily are in charge. This Friday they are going to Ferrara so Peter and I are in charge of the book club. We are doing the 3rd chapter of The Pearl by John Steinbeck. I haven't read it yet but the chapters aren't very long so I'll get on that. They had a good turn out of 7 or 8 at the last one and they studied the intro and the first 2 chapters of the book.


My birthday went really well and I had a great time with my friends and David even made some entertainment for us. Once again, here is a video of our entertainment and some pictures.