Friday, November 28

so..since im home instead of typing about my whole trip...you can just aks me and ill answer any question!

Tuesday, October 21

Second free Travel

This free travel was defnately a lot colder than the warm octobers i am used to in Memphis. And we also did not cover as much ground as many groups usually do. Yet, both of those above statements are ok with me. We only visited two countries(if you dont count italy)-Switzerland and Austria. On thursday night we took and overnight train from florence to Zurich switzerland(got there on friday monring)-Then immediately hopped on a couple of trains and a got to Interlaken Switzerland in the middle morning. Interlaken is a incredible town-situated at the base of several high mountains, and in between two lakes. the city itself is about 1000 meters above sea level. It has quickly become the base camp for all extreme activites in switzerland. Just walking around the town one can have a choice of guide services to go caving, sky diving, glacier climbing, white water rafting, kayaking and many other extreme sports. We walked around for the day, ate some incredible chcoloate, and got to our hostel. We ended up spending 2 nights i interlaken and spend most of our second day on a ropes course. A ropes course is a series of metal wires,zip lines ,challenges and ropes strung between trees way above the ground. Your have a harness, carabiners and zip line equipment.After a quick safetly lesson you are on your own to conquer the varying degrees of difficulty courses(i did the black level with a few other people-the hardest one. Just for comparison sake another an tried to complete the black level course and had to be rescued because he got so tangled up) It was blast rushing around on zip lines 20 meters above the ground in the forest of the alps, or trying to walk across a tight rope with only your safety clips locked in. The ropes course was in sealpark. Being completly worn out from the ropes course, i spent the rest of the day hanging out in the hostel-it had a room with pool, pingpong and other stuff like that to chill in. The hostel also has the best nightclub in town, and they were having a "white night party" Whomever had the best white outfit on would get 100 and 200 franc bar credits. HA, but you dont have to worry about me, i was not there.haha We left interlaken and spent some time in bern switzerland. they had a bear pit there. Literally, in the cnter of town is a concrete pit with a bear in it. random.Also, we hung out a little while in zurich. The best memory i have of zurich is the random culture that was performing in the center of town-there was about 8 senegalese drummers performing, and after they were done a group of Native american men were going to perform. We hopped on a night train and got to vienna austria. In vienna we went to the zoo, which was actually really nice. They had pandas amongst a great variety of animals in really nice exhibits. they also had the biggest tiger i have ever seen in my life. That night we went to a carnival in the center of town, which really reminded me of the fair of home. that was a nice enclave from my regularly scheduled european life. We got on a train from vienna monday morning(i sat next to a girl from texas who was recruiting international students to come to Wake Forest), and got back to hotel sobaria in citerna about 8PM. Overall it was a beautiful free travel. The alps make any mountain ive seen(appalacahians) look like small mounds. I am so blessed

Monday, October 13

Big update

So for everyone wondering where in the world ive been in the last lil while, and wondered why i have not update my blog: this paragraph is for you. We just got back a few days ago from our trip to greece. Its tough to describe everything that i saw, experienced and got to be a part of. Basically we caught a ferry from ancona, italy to patras, greece. From there we drove through a part of athens on our way to the hotel we were staying on-Hotel Kalimaki, on the beach. We got to the hotel late at night, but stills swam in the ocean. The next day we boarded our cruise ship. Yea, we cruised the meditarrean, and would make stops at random places and islands-In tha time we got to visit-mycenae, mykonos, ephesus, corinth, patmos, santorini and other places that i really cant remember. santorini was the only location we did not disembark because the waves and wind made it unsafe. that day was also the day i got introduced to dramamine. After our cruise we spent three days in athens-the acropolis, mars hill, athens achaelogical museum, among other places. After athens we came back, got back on the ferry from patras to ancona then made our way back to citerna. It was easily my favorite trip so far bacause of the biblical history(following the book of acts and seeing where john wrote revelations), the country was barren, rocky, and uninvintingly beautiful, and the food. Every night in athens i ate at this hole in the wall gyro place where you could get a gyro and bottled coke for 3.30 euro. Keep in mind that if i bought a bottles coke by itself outside of a major european monument like the colosseum or acropolis then it would probably be 2.80 euro. But anyway the gyro was incredible. Little things like that hole in the wall are places i wont forget. I also have been keeping a free-lance journal on my labtop-partially because i have to for one of my classes, but also because its one of the best ways to rememeber all this stuff that is going on. I'll share a couple of m entries so that you can get an idea of really what went on in a random day on the greece trip

Friday October 4th-Saturday October 5th- "I modeled in Turkey"


I would love to invite any person that does not believe this trip is worth the cost, or not spiritual enough to come with us over the last couple of days. Where have I been over the last two days? I have stood in the ampitheater where the great riot of ephasus occurred(acts 19). I have walked the streets in Corinth where Paul spent a year and a half of his life preaching and teaching(Acts 18). I have visited the island where John was imprisoned and wrote Revelations(Rev 1:9) Places people can only dream about, I’ve been blessed to visit in 2 days. As I write this im on a cruise ship in the Mediterranean, about to go eat a 4 course meal and watch the sunset on the deck. What a life.
Yesterday we got to go to Corinth. It was great, almost breath taking to be in the place where I know paul spent 18 months of his life. He was arrested and released. I saw the place where he stood on trial. I almost got arrested too, when I threw a rock randomly, not hard at all, just to be goofy -it bounced up and hit an inscription-as the security guard happened to walk buy. Luckily, he told our tour guide that he was about to be off shift and did not want to fool with the paper work. But its cool to think about almost getting arrested i the same place Paul was arrested. Not too many people can brag that. The museum at Corinth was pretty cool, and the ancient city was awesome because we were the only ones there. So it felt very personal. We also visited mykanos. It was ok, not too much tho. I stubbed my toe on the rocks in front of the windmills. And there are cats all over the place because euthenasia is illegal in greece.
Today we got to visit Ephasus and Patmos. Ephesus was awesome and in pretty good shape. Visitng the amphitheatre was awesome and to experience Paul like that was impressive. We also got to visit a leather shop. That completely blew me away. I was expecting to see some mom and pop leather shop, but it was an obviously high end place-they even put on a fashion show for us. The lights dimmed, strobe lights and colored lights turned on, loud italian fashion show bass music played and the models slowly paraded out showing off the leather fashions. I felt like i was in Zoolander. At the end of the fashion show one of the models grabbed my hand(and bailey gilreath, another student here as well) led us to the back, threw some leather on us and led us walk out as the lights flashed and the techno music raved. I threw on my shades and walked out on the runway, made my turn on the catwalk amongst cheers and every person in our group taking pictures and videos, 360 spun and walked back to the back. the whole time i kept a straight face, but on the inside i was laughing so hard, just thinking about the fact that i was MODELING IN TURKEY That was so much fun. And we also visited patmos. Patmos has been my favorite island that I have got to visit so far. It was relaxing, good prices on shopping and very pretty. And we got to see the cave where church history beleives john wrote revelations from. I had a blast. Well its about time to go to dinner-I need to shower and tonight is blue/white night on the boat (greece colors). It should be a blast

Tuesday October 7th-"Cherry on top of the Greece Trip"


Some of the funniest things that I see or do on the trip are completely random and spur of the moment. I had one of those moments today. As a group of us had just finished lunch on our ship that was taking us back to Italy, we decided to go on to the ships deck to watch the illegals. Yea that’s right….to watch the illegals. Basically here is the scenario-The whole shipyard is fenced off. Illegal immigrants have torn holes in the fences, to get into the dock area. Once inside they hide from the police and port security that are constantly patrolling, and when they get a shot make a mad dash for an eighteen wheeler. They then hide in the eighteen wheelers cargo area, or underneath the trailer. If this is successfully done, they ride their way secretly onto the boat and into a new country in which they are not suppose to be. On top of the deck, watching this was really great entertainment. Imagine a cat and mouse game, except it’s the authorities and illegals. We could see the hole in the fence, the illegals sneaking around and security racing all over the place. Everyday the police do this, so sometimes they just chase the guys off, and sometimes they arrest them. I saw a group of about 30 men running from the police, and one guy got chased in a circle around a car more than one time by a police officer on a motorcycle(got that on video). The officer did not want to bother with arresting him, so he just chased him off. Its really great fun and a great way to end an incredible trip to Greece.

Im sorry i have not posted any pictures(cause everyone likes pictures) but its really really tough to post pics here because the internet is not too strong. I will try in the future to give yall a couple to whet you appeitite, but most of the picture (and video viewing) will have to occur when i get home. I love everyone and cant wait to get home! Ciao!-matt

Monday, September 29

FREE TRAVEL!

What can i say about free travel. It was unpredictable, incredible and exciting. the group i traveled with was Me, Preston, Paul (FHU), Jonathan Edwards, Genevieve(FHU), Brittany(FHU), TIffany(FU), Brent(FU), Jessi(FHU). We started off taking an overnight train to munich. I loved staying in the six person sleeper cars. I felt like i was in my own little clubhouse. When we got to munich that morning we took another train to Fussen and then a bus to neuschwanstein to see a sweet castle. It was actually the castle that the sleeping beauty castle is modeled after. We walked around that and ended up climbing down a moutain into in a dry creek bed near the castle. It was pretty cool b/c there were no tourists, no attractions and little sign of human activity. It was us and the german wilderness and it was awesome. We drank the water straight out of the mountain stream, explored some and took a picture near a sweet waterfall. We found our way back to fussen, ate some incredible sausage. We got back to munich that night, and took an overnight train to venice.(that overnight train was easily the worst night of my life). In the span of a few hours in the morning i went from being able to lay down on a seat, getting some great rest, to being yelled at by the conductor on more that one occasion for latching the door closed, and i lost all my extra empty seats to a group of large african women. Needless to say i was only very little sleep when we got to venice. but the city was really cool, and i was just in a good mood to get off the train once we got there. I expected venice to be all gondolas and romantic singers driving the boats, but it was not like that at all. It was literally like a city, that had water instead of streets. Everything around it functioned with the water just like we would with streets. No big deal at all. We walked all over venice(and i picked up a few presents for folks) Later that day we went to lake Como. There we stayed with a woman jonathan had met last year and she let us stay in her yard(incredibly nice house built into the mountains, overlooking the lake) Her name was greta and she had a daughter named gretchen and a son named paulo. We went into her house, she served us coffee/coke and we hung out some. We also sang "lord be there" for her and she was amazed. This sprung into a conversation about religion with her and also about us americans(because we did not fit the obnoxous american stereotype) As jonathan was talking to her about our faith in italian it was literally like watching a seed get planted right in her heart. It was really cool to be a part of something, especially when someone is genuinely interested in us and our faith. So we camped in her yard over the night and headed to florence the next day.That night we say florence(fiorentina) play genoa in soccer. WOW. All i can say is wow. The energy at a regular season european soccer game is incredible. Imagine how the crowd sounded when memphis took the floor last year v tennessee in basketball. Now take that noise, put it outside, take away any sophisticated PA system and the jumbotron and you start to get a feel of how the whole game sounded like..and this was just a regular season game of a non-rival soccer club. the othe teams fans sat in a caged off section of the arena, surrounded by guards and they are required to be escorted in on a special train and into the stadium by police before florences fan show up, and they have to wait for the stadium to be completly cleared before they are allowed to be escorted out of the city. The whole stadium was packed. When a player did something good(or bad for that matter) the whole stadium cheered or booed him for encouragement(and it worked). Everyone joined in on the chants. Everyone was wearing something with their team colors on it. There is nothing like it. All this happenned before the game even started. Once it got started the game flew by. 45 minute halves. NO commercial breaks or stoppage in the action(unless serious injury occured). No "powerade starting lineups" No movies, fireworks(except for the few fans with flares), no bumping rap music, no gimmicks during timeouts(there were no timeouts). The fans sat in the seats because the game was on, and only left during half time. The game starts and it goes. Ten minute break in between halves. This is easily the most pure sport still left in professional sports. Florence won 1-0, and i got the goal on video tape. I have NEVER heard a roar so load, as when florence scored. Grizzlies playoffs, Tyson v Lewis, 1 v 2, nothing compares to it. And i saw something most sports lacks in America(unless your team in incredible)--Pride. Pride throughout the whole stadium. Florence is not at the top of the league, they are just ok. But to an american who had never been to anything like this, i felt like THIS game was the biggest game of the season. I got it in my blood and i cant wait to go back again. On sunday we went to Pisa for a little while. Besides the leaning tower and a couple of buildings Pisa was pretty basic. But it was cool to see and i got some sweet pictures. And that my first free travel. Im glad to be back in Citerna, and i am looking forward to Going to greece very very soon(more info on that later)

Wednesday, September 24

First Free Travel

So, we all knows plans are only made to be broken. I was planning to go to spain on my first free travel, today till sunday. But plans changed and now my free travel plans will be something like this.

germany-Austria-Itay

We are planning to see the castle that cinderellas castle was modeled after, go to the city romeo and juliet was written about, camp and catch a soccer game. Also going to hit up cinquaterra at dawn to see the sunrise(if that is spelled right)-cinquaterra is a group of five cities on the coast of italy. ive heard its one of the most beautiful places in the world. It should be a blast. (and dont worry mom, oktoberfest is going on now, but were not gonna go to it). This will be my last post for a few days, cause im not taking my labtop with me. In about an hour several of us are gonna catch a train to Munich and start our first free travel off. Pray for us to be safe!

Matt

Saturday, September 20

A quick glimpse of the semester

So i know some of these dates are already passed, but i wanted to give you an idea about where we are gonna be throughout the semester
Sep 3-Arrive
Sep 6-Cortona
Sep 7- Florence and Uffizi art Gallery
Sep 10- Siena and San Gimignano
Sep 13-Florence and Academia(were the David statue is)
Sep 16-18- Rome
Sep 19-Pompeii
Sept 21-Florence/Fiorentina Soccer Game
Sept 24-28- Free travel (Spain-Barcelona, Madrid, Valencia/ Italy-Pisa)
Oct 1-9-Greece
Oct 16-20- Free travel (??Switzerland/Germany??)
Oct 25- Free day (??Cinqueterra??)
Oct 30-Harvest Party
Nov 1-Free day (??)
Nov 7-10- Free travel (???)
Nov 17-24-Free travel (??France, Scotland, Ireland, Great Brittain??)
Nov 25-Fly Home

Friday, September 12

Hello from Italy. Let me first say its good that we have internet back and working. Keep your fingers crossed that it will stay working!



Because its been a while since my last blog, let me try to give you a run down of all the cities we've visited and throw in a couple of the best pictures we've taken


Cortona


Cortona was our first group travel. It was really cool walking throughout the streets surrounded by high high buildings. we actually stumbled upon a wedding party that was just coming out of the church building. Suprsingly the traditions of american/italian weddings were not much different for the little i saw. (expect for the fact all the guys had sweet italian suits on). I got to eat bruschetta, tried some increeibly pizza and enjoyed the twon square. Every town we visit has a unique piazza(town square)





Florence(Firenza)


Florence, the center of the italian renaissance. We walked into the square and immediately i was hit with the most amazing buildings i have ever seen. And we also went through the Uffizi art gallery. Heres some of the things i saw


The duomo, ghiberti's gates of paradise(below), the birth of the venus, venus of urbino, a couple of da vinci's paintings, a micheangelo piece, florence cathedral(below), the wrestlers. The florence cathedral wa easily the most impressive. Besides being several hundreds of years old, the detailing was amazing(notice all the disciples are around Jesus at the top of the building) And were going to see the statue of david in another museum in florence saturday







Siena

Most of the few hours i spent in siena was standing in line to climb the tower. But it was defintely worth it. In siena the town hall has the largest tower not related to a church in italy. And for a small fee you can climb it, if your up the to the challenge. Of course i was. The view from the top was incredible. I tried to take some picuters(the tower and some pics from it are below) but it really does not do it justice. After we climbed it we ate some lunch and headed to another town












San Gimignano


Back in the 14th centruy(i beleive) san gimignano was known as the town with the towers, because it had 40 towers built by noble families. But once the city lost its prestige and power via the black death it was taken over by the jurisdiction of florence and many of its towers were removed. About a dozen or so remain. But now, which is better for me, it has the italian gelatto world champions from 2006 and 2008. and it was easily the best gelatto(ice cream) i ever had.






Its really hard to beleive i've done all this in such a shorh time. Each day we wake up and honeslty it only gets better. Free travel is coming up and some of us(including me) are going to spain. Pamplona, Barcelona and Madrid better watch out!



Heres another pic of me..my knees from playing soccer!



I love EVERYONE of yall and miss yall. Hope everything is going good in the states