New apartment

It's official I have moved into my new apartment with my friend Riccardo! It's kind of funny because I will spend one night here then at 4 am walk to the train station (which we live right next to) and ride a train to Milan...then catch a plane to The United States...7000 miles away! But at least for one night I will get to stay in my own place.

I am really excited because for the last 6 months I have been living out of suitcases...and now I will actually get to set things up and leave them set up!!! Wu Whoo!! The simple things make a big difference. One thing that is pretty fun about my new place is that I have a balcony and the sun comes in the window/doors into the room really nice and bright. From the balcony you can see the train yard for the train station nearby. You might now know...but I really like trains; I had many model trains when I was little and we say I have "iron" in my blood.

I am off to pack for my time in the states, applying for more VISA's!


Ben

P.S. The photos are the view from my room...and a shot of my room.

In Europe...but not Italy...yet

(photo: NYC as I flew over it)
Buon Giorno!

I am happy to write from Europe! Though I am not in Italy yet. I flew Thursday to Berlin for an "emerging leaders gathering" and I am not in Dortmond staying with some missionary friends. It has been a good trip so far though I have struggled more with jetlag than on any other previous trip. The first day I tried so hard to stay up until it was time to sleep but as I sat I realized my eyes were so tired everything was going blurry and before I knew it I was out like a light!

4 hours later I woke up and the room was spinning! Woah! Not a nice little horizontal spin...more like being a NASA astronaut spinning all over the place...resulting in...well luckily I went outside for a walk with Oliver who was from Western Germany and shared a lot of cool stories with me about the church there and his family. It was encouraging.

For the second year in a row I spent just 1/2 a day touring Berlin, when I know it deserves many days. It's still just a big tease. One nice thing is that I feel I am understanding more Italian than I expected to, though I am not ready to start speaking...I am warming up the Italian part of my brain still!

Tomorrow we will drive 12 hours to Torino over the alps...or perhaps THROUGH the alps via one of the longest tunnels in the world. I will write more from Torino!


Ben


(photo: emerging leaders gathering)