Archive for the 'summer' Category

All Set for Summer

Published by Matt on June 19, 2007 in news, summer and thoughts. 1 Comment

Well, we in Italy are coming up on one of the strangest seasons of all in the country: Summer. In case you didn’t know, most Italians are appalled when they hear about American vacation for the first time. To them, the US is a country full of workaholics and Italy is much more sensible. Italian vacations and holidays include the following:

  • 10 to 20 state holidays a year.

  • the ponte or “bridge” between a holiday and the closest weekend if said holiday does not fall on a monday or friday.

  • the week around easter.

  • the week or two around christmas

  • ferragosto, the two week span in August that is more exciting than Christmas to some Italians. Though officially about two weeks, this effectively includes the entire month of August, and perhaps some of July, too.

Weekends are out too once the weather turns nice in May. (There’s one family who attends the church that hasn’t been here in about a month because they have been at their mountain cabin most of the time.) And all in all it’s a bit silly–and a bit frustrating–as suddenly everyone who was very dedicatedly coming to bible studies or meetings from January to May suddenly turns into a flake.

Still, it has its perks, as we will be able to have much more time with the youth. They all about disappeared mid-May to be very studious only to show up again this last week, as say, about 100% of the evaluation of students in the Italian school system is final exams which are notoriously difficult (blech!). Because they are all done and don’t have anything to do until September, we will have fun with them.

Really, summer has the potential to be great, as everyone has a lot more free time. The biggest hurdle is to convince people that the church is worth spending time with. For various reasons, be it family, a lack of normal work hours (the normal work week is 36-40 hours, but free days aren’t necessarily Saturdays), or culture in general, we have trouble as a church having a sense of community.

The church has a hard time creating a more effective community because most people within it don’t see the point of it. Effectively, while the Sunday morning service is big enough to fill our small meeting space, the attendance of activites outside of the worship service is made up of a dedicated few.

Hopefully this summer will prove more fruitful. With the youth we are trying to provide a more welcoming environment for them to make their own.

So, we hope that summer is off to a great start back in the States, and we ask that you pray for us and the church here, especially for help in being a Christian body in more than just the abstract!

Summer and Vacation

Published by Lauren on June 8, 2006 in convengo, news, scent, summer, trip and vacation. 4 Comments

And now it’s summer which seems absolutely unreal. Not only is it still cool spring weather, but I seriously couldn’t tell you where the weeks, no really I’d have to say months, have gone. Notable fact for the moment, there are an insane number of three to four day weekends in Italy from the beginning of the month of April till the beginning of June…..like 6 really….4 of which are in April. And I didn’t know about a singal one of them till three days before. Which means every week or so I said… “what you mean it’s festa?”

Now everyone has begun thinking of going to the beach on the weekends… by July all the moms who don’t work will be there for the weeks and everyone will visit them on weekends…then in August everyone will be on vacation. I’ve decided I kind of like the system. Though being gone from your own house for so long seems tiring but I guess it isn’t really gone from their own house since they all have houses in the mountains or on the beach that are actually their houses. Second notable fact, I think in general italian houses are smaller but that they tend to have more then one as a general rule…which means they kind of even out with us, unless we have a monstrosity.

I’m just getting back into the swing of things again because Matt and I just got back from traveling last Wednesday late in the night. We started out going to a convegno in Rome, at a camp ontop of the mountains outside of it actually, which was great….more exciting than we expected though since our car broke down…. the italians have decided WE’RE OK!!!! it’s so cool really…. before this it’s mostly been…well your here and well… but at the convengo they decided we were even worth talking to … which really is such a blessing … because they appreciate us at Avanti as a concept tons…they love the thought of us as far as that goes it seems…the reality though of who we are, each individual person who comes and is apart of their lives for a shortwhile is different though, and for good reason. Avanti has earned their trust, judgement, respect or otherwise and is attached to a series of old memories. We, ourselves, individually, on the other hand are an unknown young and probably on the dense side though well meaning american until we prove otherwise. So Being OK!! is a big step a wonderful one, one that means budding friendships and the ability to actually converse in their world. And I thank God hartily that it has happened not just with the Florence church ( whom I love so dearly just so everyone knows! they are incredible, awesome, human and yes, quarrelsome, but they are so dear to me!)

After the convengo Matt and I went early the next morning to catch a plane to get to the United States. The visit went really well….I love being with my family! My sister is learning to drive, my mom is looking for the next play to do with her drama class, my dad broke his foot playing soccer, my brother is beginning what looks kind of like an actual business making wooden Animai cartoon swords for people who want to look cool a comic conventions, and the dogs and cats are up to their old mischief! I love just hanging out with them all….but I missed here alot, I missed the people I’m attached to at the moment the watching them grow and be from week to week (same for my garden here!! the radishes were to big to eat when we got back). Partially that is just me… being a visitor, is hard on me from the been longer than a week to less then four weeks slot…I don’t have stuff to do I am required to sit and relax which makes me ansy after I’ve gotten all my sleep back in that first week (by 4 weeks I’ll have made up enough new projects to keep me fully satisfied).

The smell of Italy when we got back astounded me. It was the same smell that I had left, but when I walked out of the bus I realized that I had missed it. Now it is again different because the jasimine are all in bloom, wafting tantalizing enchantments through the streets. I read a book last week that talked of the US being surprisingly void of smells and scents. I don’t know if that is true. I realized though that it is certainly devoid of one scent, the scent of Italy.

Plans: Albania … for the month of July!