I'm okay!

Really quick update for everyone:

-Let me just start off by saying-An 6.3 level earthquake occured with its epicenter about 150 km away from Orvieto yesterday around 3 in the morning. My family always made fun of me because they said I could sleep through a tornado or fire. And I proved their point by literally sleeping through the earthquake. Luckily I am okay, as is the town of Orvieto, but Italy at large is feeling the physical and emotional after-effects of the natural disaster. Last I heard thousands are left homeless in the region closest to the epicenter and over 100 were counted dead. Please pray for their families and for the funds and quick repair of homes and buildings that were lost yesterday. Thanks to all for your prayers, emails and facebook messages checking on me.

-Went to Rome this past weekend for a time without a class agenda and to just explore and wander. Two friends from my program (Jess and Ryan) and I left early Saturday morning, got to have a delicious lunch at an outdoor restaurant, see Michaelangelo's Moses, and eat gelato and sketch at the Trevi fountain. I threw a coin in over my left shoulder so I WILL be going back ;) We also diverted from the Italian food after a month and a half of that and had an amazing late dinner of Chinese food near our hostel! It looked kind of sketchy from outside but it was really worth the hour and a half wait... it was authentically cooked, beautifully displayed (they made carrot sculptures on our plates) and was a perfect end to the Roman day.

-On Sunday I made it back in time for the Palm Sunday service at our church. It was really neat: because of the abundance of olive trees in Orvieto, baskets full of olive branches were displayed in the church and the choir (myself included) and church clergy got to process in to mass holding olive branches and singing an acapella version of an Italian "Hosanna." It was a breathtaking service with the church more full than I had seen it since I've been here, and my favorite part was a dramatic reading of a whole chapter in Mark with three different men reading from different places on the stage to represent different characters in the story.

-Sunday afternoon highlights: a fresh sandwich and great conversation with my friend Kat on the steps of the Duomo, followed by an early evening concert taken in with Hilary and Josh at the theatre in Orvieto. The concert I would love to write a whole separate blog post on so look for that soon. Afterwards, Hilary and I went out for white wine and sat outside of a cafe to people watch. I'm beginning to get really good at picking out the tourists vs. the Italians vs. the actual Orvietani here...

-I helped run an Easter crafts session with the kids here at the monastery and some Italian children in the area. My responsibility was organizing and running the egg dying table. It was adorable and brought me great joy!

-Going to a town called Norcia on the other side of Umbria tomorrow with my women's history class. Looking forward to seeing the place where St. Benedict was born, as well as talk with a current monk living there (he speaks English and is kind enough to meet with us).


More soon! Ciao!