Moved in, New Years Resolution, Italian

All moved into my little closet-sized room.  I'm in love with it.  When I brought some of my things on Saturday, I got awkwardly sentimental about how tiny it is.  My mind took me back to some homes I went to in Uganda--they were probably the size of my room but housed multiple people.  Even though by American standards my room is little, I still feel enormously blessed.

My aunt and uncle were gracious enough to let me borrow a blow up mattress so I'm camping out until I dare drop the money on a bed.  It was really sad leaving my aunt and uncles home.  Not because I love being dependent upon other people, but because I so greatly value their company.  They're really amazing people and I've loved spending time with them and their cute kids.

I do, however, love the feeling that I've made a little bit of progress out here.  I don't have a dream job or anything yet but that's okay.  I'm in an apartment, closer to the city and I feel like I'm inching toward my original goal.  Progress.

My bedding currently consists of a right nice, fuzzy, giraffe print blanket.  I love it.  It was a great Target find.  haha Also, conveniently a way to deal with missing Africa. haha Pathetic.

My New Years Resolution is to be better about recording spiritual experiences/promptings.  During my mission I was consistent about keeping a scripture journal.  It is so valuable to me now.  It was where I wrote my insights, what I understood, how I could apply it to my life, etc.  I love that little journal.  Unfortunately I haven't been consistent in the least at keeping a scripture journal post-mission.  So this touristy Leaning Tower of Pisa gem has been used to record my scripture insights lately.  I've been loving it.  I get so much more excited to read the scriptures and love reading back over what I've written and learned.

This weekend was so lovely.  Saturday and Sunday I had skype dates with peeps from Italy.  Now when I say "skype date", it wasn't an actual date...just an arranged time to converse with a person of Italian decent. haha Both of these people are people that I'd only met one time.  They're members of the church that I met at a church activity or because they joined us touring the city on a P-day, but they were members of a different ward.  Well we talked for a couple of hours and it amazed me how people that I only met for a brief time over 3 years ago, are now people that I consider friends.  We talked, laughed, shared experiences, things we've learned, what we want from our future, etc etc  I guess I was struck with the beauty of how all it takes is a brief encounter with someone to make an impression.  Both of these people left distinct impressions on me when we met years ago and we were somehow able to pass hours of our time together as if we'd been friends all along.  I love that.

I'd forgotten how much I LOVE speaking Italian.  Oh my dear it makes me so happy to hear it.  It's hard for me to explain.  It makes me smile hearing it spoken by Italians.  I love the expressions that just don't translate into english.  I love the happy, musical inflection.  I love how poetic it seems. I love the warmth of the people who speak it.  I need to be better at keeping in touch with my friends in Italy because I was overwhelmed with how much joy it brought me using my mission language again and catching up with those that played such beautiful roles in a critical part of my life.

I discovered the wonder of Trader Joes tonight!  I'm obsessed.  I literally oogled at the cheese section with satisfaction and joy.  That's classy Trader Joes.  Real classy.  Though I've heard Whole Foods puts them to shame in that department.  I pretty much just want to buy a sack full of produce and live off it all week.  Now that I have unpacked, I'm ready to put my Vitamix to work and throw a bunch of produce in there.  So stoked about this....Til next time.   Happy MLK day.