ikea & tacos

i know i'm in italy when...

people write weird quotes in english on the bus.

on another note, we treated ourselves to TACOS after church today. my mom sent a few packets of taco seasoning with clayton and i already used 2 of them to make taco soup. this was the last one :( i also made a modified (i can't get cilantro or rotel tomatoes in italy) version of pioneer woman's salsa. it was all really good and it really hit the "mexican" spot.

on another other note, through a very random series of events this weekend we discovered that ikea is actually about 1 mile behind our house. we have gone 3 times before but twice in the car from the bible school and once from the bus on a weird route that got us very turned around. one of the only things i pride myself in is being good with directions and knowing where i am, so this one really pulled the rug out from under me. ANYWAY, we have needed a lightbulb from there for about a month (who knew you have to use only an ikea lightbulb for an ikea lamp), so today we saddled up and battled the elements for a sunday afternoon at ikea (every other person in the city had the same idea).

i really mean saddled up, the freezing rain was not going to stop us from enjoying this new and blessed discovery. i think we would have gone even if we hadn't needed the lightbulb, just because we know it is so close now. also, something that is missing from this picture is the humongous green umbrella that i was carrying while riding the bike. ryan was laughing the whole way there :)

ryan wanted my mom to see what the inside of the store looks like (this was in the "study" section, not as interesting as other sections)

this is really why we do it...

40 cent SOFT SERVE gelato that comes out of a little machine!!!

ok, other stores that sell fabric need to take notes...at ikea you measure and cut your own material, you lay it on this little digital scale, click on the fabric you got, it spits you out a little barcode sticker, and you slap in on your fabric. i loved it! i got a piece of fabric to fashion a makeshift curtain for our bedroom (that window is all too revealing).

other things we did this weekend:

friday night we had dinner at elizabeth whatley's (the pepperdine director) house. i never blogged about it, but a few weekends ago she took us to torino with her to scout out the city before she takes her students there. she needed some company and we were free, it was a great weekend. so friday night, she had us, 2 of her neighbors, a fellow teacher of her's at pepperdine and his wife, and 2 pepperdine graduates that are living/working in florence now over for dinner. it was a fun time and the food was wonderful.

saturday night we went to mona and robbie's house to celebrate mona's birthday! they had us, keith and christy smith and their kids, the other avanti workers, david and debbie, their friends sandro and chiara, and their son jonathan and his girlfriend all over for dinner. we ate and ate and laughed and mona pulled out the old family photo albums so that was really entertaining. it was a great time!

*the pictures of friday and saturday night are both on our little camera and clayton has the cord so none of those on this post sadly

then this morning before church (we do this the last sunday of every month) all the church members came together and had coffee and pastries. it's a great time to catch up and share breakfast together before worship.

now that we are all settled in our new home and the women's retreat is finished, ryan and i are just focusing on meeting as many university students as possible and hopefully starting a college age bible study/worship service thingy on sunday nights.

keep praying for us and our work here. happy first week of march!