The Hiding Place

This was pretty much the highlight of my life...

So on Tuesday, I went to the Corrie ten Boom museum in Haarlem, Holland. (P.S. I really loved Holland...the Netherlands...whatever it's called. It was super cute, even though people didn't go around in their wooden shoes.) Anyway, I don't know if you know the story of the ten Boom family, but Corrie and her father and sister worked with the underground Dutch resistance and hid Jews and other people hiding from the gestapo in their house during germany's occupation of Holland during WW2. They ended up being sent to a concentration camp, and 5 members of Corrie's family died. Anyway, their house/clock shop is a museum now, and I went on a tour of it. The cute little Dutch lady must have thought I was insane, I was so excited. We got to see the secret room in their house where 4 Jews and 2 other people were safely hidden from the gestapo for 2 and a half days after Corrie, Betsie and Casper were arrested. We actually got to go inside it! They took out the wall in Corrie's former bedroom so now people can easily get in it. There were 5 of us in there and it was crowded! Definitely standing room only. And the woman giving our tour said the "toilet" would have been totally full and unusable after 1 day. Ick. Plus, they had to have all their belongings in there too so there would be no sign of them in the house. I got to stand on the farthest edge where the last person in would have stood and closed the passageway. It was super cool.

Google maps and H&M...

Friday afternoon, I left Florence for free travel, and I cried. Alot. I cried when I hugged Robbie, Mona, Leda, and Paola. I cried when I walked out of the villa. I cried when everyone else sent us off. I cried through the whole van ride to the bus stop. I cried when bus 16 started moving. I cried when I got off bus 16. I cried when I hugged Ryan and Andrew bye at Santa Maria Novella. I cried when my train left SMN. I cried when my train left its stop in Milan. No joke. And the ridiculous thing is that I'm going back to the villa in a week. Robbie and Mona and most of my HUF family won't be there, but I'll be back in Florence. I'll see Florence again. I'll see Leda and Paola again. And I'll even see Andrew at the villa and Ryan in London. I felt so silly.

I made it to Zurich safely and was immediately confused by my google maps directions. I wandered around the giant train station, going out and in every exit, until finding an ATM, getting some francs, and going up to the taxi stand. The cab driver first greeted me in Italian. How incredibly ironic. I pointed to the address on my map.

"You go over the bridge and then turn left," he said pointing out the bridge.
"Can you driver me there?"
"It's 500 meters!"
"Uh, okaaaaay..."
"Just go over that bridge and turn left."

I went over the bridge and turned left. By now my 18.5 kilo backpack was KILLING me. Then I wandered around a Zurich neighborhood in the dark for 45 minutes before finally finding my hotel. At one point, I walked down a street, realized that I had gone the wrong way, and turned around and came back uphill. When I got back to the intersection where I had started out, I realized that I had been standing in front of a big sign with the hotel logo on it. It had a big arrow and said "30m" on it. So I followed the arrow up a shady alley and arrived in my hotel room at midnight.

Zurich was not shady at all in the daytime. It was really beautiful actually. I walked to the train station. (It took me 7 minutes to walk what took me 45 minutes the night before.) After finding out that I didn't need a reservation to get to Frankfurt or Amsterdam, I set out down the street that is supposed to be like the main shopping drag in town. I went inside H&M and then realized that I could buy NOTHING because I had NO room in my backpack and no money to spare. Next time I come to Switzerland I will make sure that I have lots of money and an empty suitcase before I set off down Zurich's Bahrnhoffstrasse. Ok, I don't rememeber if it was called "Bahrnhoffstrasse" exactly, but it's the best I can do with these street names.

Then I went and saw the largest clock face in Europe at St. Peter's Church steeple. Corrie ten Boom would be proud. Of course, you can see it from all over the city, but I went up to the church. I think it was a holiday or something, because there was something going on at the church and there was a parade all along the river. I went down this cute little walkway right by the river and went into some of the little craft shops. I bought some postcards from this erally sweet and cute little lady that pretty much only spoke Swiss-German. Good thing I know the most important word: "Danke."

Except I kinda said it like an Italian or a Spanish-speaker would say it: "dahn-keh". Apparently it's supposed to be pronounced like "Dahn-kuh", or maybe it's just "Dahnk". Anyway, I don't know if she was correcting me or just thanking me back, but I've tried to say it right after that. I went on to the Coop, finding it very familiar. One entrance and not enough exits. Tons of people and very long lines. But I got some stuff to eat. My stomach had been growling and I realized that all I had eaten from my sack dinner was a clementine and a Mars bar. And I hadn't gotten up and ready in time for breakfast. It had been over 24 hours since I had eaten anything even resembling a meal. Welcome to free travel, I guess.

I left Zurich at 8 am the next morning and arrived in Frankfurt, Germany at noon-ish. I ate some sack lunch and waited for my train to Amsterdam, which arrived at like 1:30. We were supposed to get in to Amsterdam Centraal Station at 5:30, which would have given me enough time to catch the little connection to Haarlem at 5:40. We didn't get in until 5:45. I was proud of myself though. After a very short period of freaking out time I went and look at the departures for another train that would stop in Haarlem, which is like 15 minutes out of Amsterdam. Train run all the time and I missed the next one, but before I knew it, I was in Haarlem, which is just as cute as can be, even in the dark... and the rain. But it wasn't coming down too hard, so I found my hotel pretty easily.

I've decided that Haarlem is the Scandicci or the Netherlands. My hotel is on the square and all day there has been a little market going on. It was pouring down rain when I went out today. My clothes were soaked in just a matter of minutes, and my umbrella was useless against the wind. I started following my google maps directions to the ten Boom museum and, of course, walked the complete wrong direction. I can see right down the street from my hotel and somehow missed it. I turned around and came upon it. I didn't realize that Corrie ten Boom grew up next door to H&M... Anyway, her house is now. But the museum is closed on Mondays. Apparently in most of Europe, Monday is just like another weekend day. Which sorta seems like a good idea, but it was some poor planning on my part. I meant to leave for paris tomorrow, but I'll be staying in Haarlem another day. I mean that is the whole reason I came here. And that's ok. Paris will wait for me. And I can get lost again with my google maps directions...

:)

Talking About Love.

In exactly a week, I will be getting ready to spend my last night at the villa. It won't even be the same. Half of our group will have already left for free travel. At least 3 of my 5 roomies will be gone. THis wonderful semest has flown by. It seemed like forever while it was happening, but these last few weeks have gone way too fast. Going home will be bittersweet. I'm ready to be home with my friends and family. But I'm not ready to leave the villa, and even the people I'm here with. Yes, I'll see most of them on campus next semester, but it will never be the same. Most of all though, I'm not ready to leave Florence. This place has become almost just as much my home as Searcy has. I get so restless in Searcy, and after the time I've spent LIVING in ITALY, I don't want to go back. I love Harding, but I've never really loved Searcy.



I'm rambling alot, I know. I'm crying alot too, just FYI.



On the day that we got here, I came up to my room, and found my bed and closet with my name tags on them. On all of our beds there was a rose and 2 pieces of candy. A few days later, I ate my first piece of delicious Italian toffee chocolate peanuty candy and on the inside of the foil wrapper, there was some little piece of Italian wosdom. I don't remember it, but I thought it was cool. So naturally, I opened up the other, ate the wonderful candy, and looked at the words on the inside. I don't remeber the Italian, but the English translation of it read: "We've talked a lot about love. Now let's try to listen to it, shall we?" This is what I needed to hear. This was what would take over my semester.

While I've been here, I've been learning. And most of that learning has nothing to do with the classes I've taken. I want so much out of life, and God will give me what I need, but I feel like he's been leading me on this adventure to calm me down, to prepare me for a bigger purpose, one that I don't understand. And He hasn't revealed it to me yet, because He knows that if He did, I would never agree to it.

I don't just want to talk about it. I want to be in on it. But first, I have to learn to listen to it.

I don't have anything to be afraid of. I might have been to timid this semester, but I want to start jumping into God's will with both feet without thinking about what I'm doing first. It's such a wonderful exciting idea that I can hardly contain my excitement.

I love Italy. I love Firenze and Scandicci. I love the villa. I love my fellow HUFers and the racket they constantly make. Sometimes you have to be loud.

I don't think I can write anymore right now. I wish I had been blogging more and journalling this, but I know there are things God will never let me forget. Pray for me please. Starting on saturday, I'm spending a month travelling around Europe. God has big plans for it, I know.

:)

Pangur Ban

We went to Ireland on first free travel. It was AMAZING! We spent a lot of time travelling around and saw Belfast and Galway and Malahide, but we spent most of our time in Dublin. I completely fell in love with the city. I love Florence, but after just a week, I almost love Dublin just as much, even with the rain. Anyway, one of the cool things that we saw in Dublin was the Book of Kells. It's like this elaborately decorated copy of the 4 Gospels that was one of the first copies of Scripture in Ireland. It was really interesting going through the exhibit and and seeing all of the history about Christianity in Ireland. There were monks in monasteries in and around Ireland who were scribes and would copy down the scriptures, not unlike what was happpening all over the world, where Christianity was coming to areas of the world that were engulfed in pagainism. Anyway, I came across this poem in the book of Kells exhibit. It was written by a 9th century Irish monk who lived in a monastery and worked as a scribe. Apparently Pangur was the cat's name and Ban means it was a white cat. I never liked cats until I got here, now they're growing on me I think. But I think you'll love this poem even if you're not a fan of cats.



Pangur Ban



I and Pangur Ban, my cat,
'Tis a like task we are at;
Hunting mice is his delight,
Hunting words I sit all night.


Better far than praise of men
'Tis to sit with book and pen;
Pangur bears me no ill will;
He, too, plies his simple skill.

'Tis a merry thing to see
At our task how glad are we.
When at home we sit and find
Entertainment to our mind.

Oftentimes a mouse will stray
Into the hero Pangur's way;
Oftentimes my keen thought set
Takes a meaning in its net.

'Gainst the wall he sets his eye
Full and fierce and sharp and sly;
'Gasinst the wall of knowledge I
All my little wisdom try.

When a mouse darts from its den,
O how glad is Pangur then!
O what gladness I do prove
When I solve the doubts I love!

So in peace our tasks we ply;
Pangur Ban, my cat, and I.
In our arts we find our bliss,
I have mine and he has his.

Practice every day has made
Pangur perfect in his trade;
I get wisdom day and night,
Turning Darkness into Light.