Palm Sunday

Woke up this morning in a great mood for two reasons; God is good and my Cats are headed to the FINAL FOUR! I have been trying my best to keep up with Kentucky as much as possible but last night was the hardest for me. I couldn't get a link to watch the game until the last minute of the game. It was 5am in Italy by the time the game was over and I had to force myself to go to sleep considering the fact that everyone had already been asleep for 3+ hours and no one was up to celebrate our victory with me.

It has been the most beautiful Palm Sunday and I was reminded by some of my favorite songs this morning of the victory of that I have in Jesus, my savior forever. I am so blessed and can not even begin to thank God for everything he does for me and how he loves me. I have been really challenged to use this time that I am here to grow in my walk with God and I am thankful for the people in my life the encourage me and support me in my walk.

 "In the morning when I rise, give me Jesus.. when I am alone, give me Jesus.. You can have all this world but give me Jesus." 

"This is amazing grace, this is unfailing love, that you would take my place, that you would bear my cross. You lay down your life that I may be set free, Jesus I sing for all that you've done for me."

Yesterday, Derbra, Meggy. Christine Leigh, Christine O and I traveled to Torino to explore that town. Andrea, our site director, said that Torino is one of his favorite places in Italy. We are trying to make our way to small towns around Italy before we begin our month full of big trips to other countries. We started the day with coffee and pastries and made our way around to see the major landmarks around town. Torino has a beautiful, distant view of the Swiss Alps that was unfortunately too distant to get a good picture of. Its just one of those views that wouldn't have been done justice by a picture. 

After seeing the major buildings (most of which were under construction), we walked along the water and relaxed in the popular park in that area. It was such a warm, beautiful day and the whole town seemed to be out enjoying the weather. 

(Been thinking about this girl a lot lately. We sat next to each other on the plane over here to Milan and in that moment of meeting her, we both knew that these four months were going to be good. Two months later, we haven't changed our minds. I love this girl and her amazing personality. I can't get over how great God was for sitting us next to each other on January 31.)

After relaxing in the park we visited the famous Egyptian museum in the city center. These pieces have been in Torino since 1824 and are still a major attraction of all travelers to Italy. We noticed that Torino must have held a race that morning, because we saw a bunch of runners and tents set up everywhere. Also, on our way to the Egyptian museum, we passed a huge Zumba class going on. Debra and I obviously had to join. I can now check "Do Zumba unexpectedly in a random Italian city" off of my non-existent bucket list. 

We had a great day, with great weather and all left a little sunburned after being sun-deprived for so long. At the end of our day, we found a hidden gem along a back street. It was a popcorn shop with bacon, pizza, cheese, chocolate, etc. flavored popcorn. We couldn't pass it up after sampling every flavor. Plus the owner spoke really good English and loved us so we were happy to support her. 

Next stop on my journey (after classes of course, because I still am doing some work here) - GREECE. 

xoxo