What am I supposed to be learning again?

I've heard them say that you haven't seen Florence unless you've seen Michelangelo's "David". On HUF, you take a group tour of the Academia to see the David statue, among countless other beautiful works of art, but of course, thee only crowded part of the museum is where David is at. When we finally got the chance to go up to the 17-ft-tall statue, our tour guide made us walk all teh way around it several times, and we had to take notes for our humanities class over the uniqueness of Michelangelo's scupture versus the Davids of other sculptors. Once we had a chance to get over the awkwardness and take some good notes, our guide, Cindy, presented us with an interesting question: In teh sculpture, has or hasn't David already fought Goliath? Apparently, it's a pretty big debate in the world of art.

David's sling is empty in his hand, stretched out across his back. His face is tense, obviously showing worry, and even fear. His body's posture differs greatly from his face, however. He seems very relaxed, neither worried nor stressed. He seems confident. Victorious.

While we are all left for ourselve to decide what point in David's battle against Goliath Michelangelo has portrayed David to be in, Cindy brought up the point that David might have already killed the giant, and is not left with the task of cutting off his head. His sling is empty because it has just been slung. His body is relaxed because he has just become the victor over not only Goliath, but all the Philistines. The worst is over. Maybe the emotion on his face is not fear or stress. Maybe it's disgust at what he has to do now. He's just a little grossed out.

It's a possibility. Creative. That's what art is about, right?

Some of my friends leaned toward the idea that David has not only killed Goliath, he's done with the battle. They talked about how the empty sling and relaxed posture were obviously the most important part of David. The way he's standing became very popular for scultures in the Renaissance, it;s true. The whole idea pf trying to capture the reality of man and all of that. Maybe the worry on David's face is because he is not left with the task of ruling over God's people. He's already been anointed, and he knows the difficulty that he will face in the future.

This is a good point too.

Art is supposed to be very personal. It doesn't only matter what David meant to Michelangelo or to Florentines or to Florence's enemies; it matters what the David means to me. Michelangelo can no longer tell me exactly what the David was supposed to symbolize or whether or not he had killed the giant yet or not. So I am left to make the decision. And I have.

I don't think David has defeated Goliath yet. There is no stone in his sling; he's hardly gotten a start on his planning. But he is prepared to use what he has to do what needs to be done. He has to fight for his people and remind the world that Yahweh is God. Yes, his face is stressed and worried. You would be scared too. Contrary to the appearance of Michelangelo's scupture, this man after God;s own heart was indeed a man, not a god. He had plenty of reasons to be afraid. He was taking the biggest risk ever, preparing to make a sacrifice. I doubt it would be possible to be cocky enough to not be frightened by the idea of going one-on-one against a giant like Goliath. And I don't think David was cocky, nor do I think Michelangelo has portrayed him this way. I think he is confident. His God will save him. He knows it. he knows what's been preomised and he knows the Power that he's fighting for. He knew in his head and his heart that the God he was fighting for was bigger than any giant, or any army, and when he came to terms with that fact, of course he relaxed. His God would always be big enough to defeat his enemies for him. Even his fear. Even his worry. Even his stress.

I'm picking up my sling. There are alot of things I'm worried about. I have alot to stress out about at this very moment. I feel like everyhting is so uncertain. But it's really not. It's going to be ok, because my God is big enough to knock all of my worry and fear right out, and taake my trembling hand and lead me through all the rest.

"I am still confident of this:
I will see the goodness of the LORD
in the land of the living.
Wait for the LORD;
be strong and take heart
and wait for the LORD."
Psalm 27:13-14

Oh, the things you learn about Jesus from grapes...

Whew! So much has happened and it always happens so fast! Yesterday, I was in the library finishing a Humanities essay and one of the girls sitting at the table with me looked up and announced that we are a quarter of the way through our time at the villa. INSANE!

I think I am finally getting the hang of Florence and (in a way) the Italian culture. I am starting to figure out where things are (like the bus stops) and the best way to get there. Italian people don't quite scare me as much as they did a couple of weeks ago, and I've actually been brave enough to buy things (which might escalate into something that is not very good...). Anyway, things just seem to get better and better.

This week has been crazy. On Tuesday we got to go to a Fiorentina soccer game. I've never seen a town so insane about a professional sporting event. We took bus 16 from Scandicci to the city and while we were waiting at te next already crowded bus stop, a herd of drunk Italian guys with their faces painted purple and their fiorentina jerseys showed up. When all of us piled onto the bus that took us to the stadium, everyone was singing. Singing and banging on the roof of the bus and yelling and even people on the street joined in. It was AWESOME! (Yes, I had a hand on my purse at all times!) Andyway, it was even crazier when we got htere. You stand up THE WHOLE GAME. When we scored our first goal, the woman standing next to me jumped on me and gave me a huge hug. Of course, I wasn't expecting this, so I sorta fell over. It was hilarious. Everyone was smoking weed. Everyone was wearing purple. Except, of course, the Liverpool fans, who were crowded into one small section that was surrounded on all sides except the side closest to the field by those clear walls. And there was security everywhere, probably for their physical protection. It was a really grwat time. Firenze won, and everyone in the whole city knew it. Everyone was honking their car horn. We walked across a street on our way to the bus stop and a bajillion mopeds were waiting for the light. When we crossed and they saw all our purple Fiorentina shirts, they all honked and it was super loud. At first I was like "Uh, it says it's ok to cross the street, and you have a red light." Then I realized what was going on. You could even hear horns honking back in Scandicci. Talk about spirit...

We has onsite classes at San Gimignano and Siena the next day. I LOVED San Gimignano. These are medieval towns that are up in the hills. San Gimignano is smaller and had less people. It had all of these medieval towers and you could go up on a really high point and look out at the hills of Tuscany. SO beautiful. Siena was awesome too, but it was bigger, which took that small town Tuscany feel out of it. But lovely none the less.

On Thursday we went to this vineyard and harvested grapes for these people. It looked like it was going to rain all morning, but it held off until the afternoon. I think that Robbie, our director has a deal with the people that run the vineyard- he has a bunch of college kids that the vineyard owners can have as cheap labor all morning long in exchange for a delicious lunch cooked over an open fire and and "experience". Anyway, it was fun for the first 2 hours, then it got to be really monotonous. But it was still an experience and I'm really glad I got to do it... I mean how many of YOU can say that you harvested grapes in a Tuscan vineyard, surrounded by the Tuscan hills and a medieval castle?

Yeah, that's what I thought.... :)

On friday we had a less-awesome-than-wednesday's-onsite-class onsite class in Florence. Medici chapel and crypt and San Lorenzo Church, etc. But after lunch we went to the Academia and saw Michelangelo's David. It's a little weird seeing things like David and the Duomo and stuff that's so famous like that. Almost unreal.

That night, I went to cooking class. We made pasta from scratch and tomoato sauce from scratch and biscotti (which you dip in wine, not coffee in Italy) from scratch and these chicken rolls stuffed with spinach and stuff. We called them "chicken logs". It was all so so good. And I have the recipe. So I can cook them when I get back. The chef that taught us used to work in a restaurant and now she has her own cooking school. Her name was Marcella and she wanted to call us all by Italian names. Well, I'm pretty sure "Allison" does not translate into ANY other language. I have encountered Spanish speakers and Italian speakers that can't even PRONOUNCE it. And while marcella could say my name, it wasn't Italian, so she called me Alice all night. (ah-LEE-chay)

Yesterday was lame. We had to make up classes from the week. Class from 8-5 with just a lunch break. Ugh. 2 tests and a quiz yesterday too. Ew, ew, ew.

Today was the first time that we got to go into Florence for church. (Chiesa is the Italian word for church. [key-EH-sah] I think it's a really pretty word. We sang some songs in Itlaian and some in English. Some of the Italian ones are not originally in English, but today we sang Let the Lower Lights be Burning, Higher Ground, and Jesus Loves Me in Italian. :) It was AWESOME. The communion was indeed wine. And everyone made comical faces while drinking it. (It was a little strange.) Their cchruch building has a dome ceiling like alot of church buildings here, so the acoustics were super cool. We sang an Italian song that was just gorgeous. I might have to find out the name of it b/c it was so beautiful with the acoustics. After church we had a potluck, which they called "agape feast". (I like that better than potluck.) They just turned the wooden pews around to face eah other and put tables us in between them. We ate our dinner in the same room we had just worshipped in. But like Italy, we still had a first course of pasta served to us before we got up and went throught he line to pick out what else we wanted to eat. It was all so delicious. Church people always make good food. Italian Church people make AMAZING food. During the potluck I got to meet a few really cool people from the church. There was a couple, whose names I forgot, that ate at my table. The woman was an American and the man was an Italian. I met another guy named Nick who was born in Italy but was raised in Connecticut. He lives in Florence now and was really fun to talk to. He had lots of good pointers about travelling in Europe.

Ok, Zeus, the cat that lives at the villa just jumped up on my bed and plopped down next to me. Now he's purring. He's really old and just has one tooth. So sweet. I might have to get a kitty when I grow up.

It's tea time now. And tomorrow we're going to Pisa and Lucca and then on to Cinque Terre. So I'll go now. God bless! I love you all and miss you!