je ne te quitterais pas

i hiked in the alps today with solenne! just 2 km...but it was so beautiful. the goal was a lake...it was so peaceful and relaxing.

on the way down the mountain (by car) solenne turns to me and says:

do you want to drive?

i quickly answered yes.

haha. chinese fire drill, sort-of.

the last time i drove stick shift was when i was 16.

it only makes sense that the next time would be in france after almost a year of not driving.

i had fun!

avec solenne

je suis en france!!!!! c'est très belle! je suis trés content!

i'm going to switzerland and france! i will be with solenne! i'm very excited...but also very tired right now...
blessings to all! try and stay out of trouble til i'm back and can join in the fun... ;)

haha.

"you are a faerytale"

zuzana, one of our cleaners said this about me

how quaint

juxtaposition!

so yesterday after church i went with melana and courtenay (staff at shelter city) and 2 guests (from shelter city) nick and dave to a bagels and beans. it was a nice lunch with conversation.

at one point nick directed my attention to a girl sitting at a nearby table...

she was sitting on the edge of her chair with her bag on her lap and a small version rubiks cube.
she was diligently working on it; quite focused.
it seemed as though she had all the time in the world to focus on this small object in her hands.
nothing else mattered.

i was intrigued as i watched, and mentioned to nick that the scene we were watching was good material for a nice black and white photograph. he agreed. and then chuckling, said that he had his camera, but it would probably be really weird if he took a photo. i laughed too...the girl wasn't even 4 feet away from us!

the scene of the girl, sitting in a busy place, focusing on such a small object--it was quite beautiful. life is so busy...so it was nice to see someone just living in that moment.

unfortunately this was the next scene:

she received her order in a bag. this picture of time that i had witnessed watching her with her rubiks cube drastically changed upon seeing her retrieve her bagel in a bag.

:)

praise God for small steps with big prayers!

babynology.com

fun stuff

spelling is still important...and everything... just thought i would share a great example of this:

buona serra and buona sera. they sound the same. but they mean completely different things. the first you would say to someone commenting on their gardening. the second you would say if you were leaving and it was the evening.

direct translation? the first is good greenhouse. the second is good evening. you can't really mess it up if you're just talking to someone...but you better be EXTRA careful if you're writing it!

if you're not amused...that's ok. i don't mind. but i am still enjoying the italian language, that's for sure. :)

italian

so recently (maybe a month now or so ago) i really felt a sudden desire to really learn italian. really and truly. and i think God wants me to study it...who knows where this new desire might lead to!!

i have looked online for various courses...and found some and e-mailed them to myself. i've even spoken with some of our many italian guests. i have a miniscule vocabulary at this point, but that will soon change as i study more and add all the grammar and whatnot to my learning. this is so fun!

now of course i'm going to have fun with this, and i bet some of you wonder how. i'm easily amused...and yes, i am making up my own phrases/words.

for instance:
disgustosti...one word for when you have made a tosti that is disgusting!

AND here is my newest:
ru-bella...which translated means: ru-beautiful. you pronounce the italian ruBELla. and the translated is spoken like so: are you beautiful? many of you may be wondering how you answer such a phrase. it's SIMPLE! the italian is: ur-bella. and the english? you are beautiful.

i hope that my italian knowledge has brought encouragement. :) be blessed!