the first days in firenze: castello della paneretta and san gimignano

katie and i got settled in our apartment last wednesday and we are happy to report that we just now are getting over being jet-lagged! also happy (and lucky) to report that we might have gotten the only 2 person apartment that is offered in our program. We share a room and each have a twin bed to ourselves (like freshman year) and love it. it's nice to come home and share a room with someone i know and trust and can just sit and relax with and edit pictures next to without having to speak. but we have also had some wonderful conversations so far and shared some funny experiences already. we decided we need to get a journal to write down what happens during the day because there is no telling what will happen where we go. we have experienced the market and bought purses there, seen lots of naked statues, met a guy who designs leather jackets and sells them in his shop here and also to nordstrom, been practicing the little bit of italian we know even though we feel silly most of the time, tried unsuccessfully to call for a taxi, been drinking lots of incredible wine and eating even more pasta, and we keep getting asked if we are sisters. i guess when you travel everywhere with the same person and you're a blonde and red head american with curly hair, you look alike. i take it as a compliment :)

the first few days were a whirlwind and were filled with orientation and dinner dates with my mom and her best friend who are here until this wednesday. the morning after we got here we had orientation at 8:45 a.m. (which is 1:45 a.m. texas time) so that was an extremely long day. friday we got to walk around and shop with the mommas and ate the best gnocchi of my life. our waitor said the best compliment we can give someone on their food is magnifico so to the restaurant next to the market that i can't remember the name of, MAGNIFICO GNOCCHI! that night we had another dish that deserved a "magnifico!" …ravioli stuffed with cheese and pears. can't remember what the cheese was but WOWWIE WOW! we'll be going back for sure.

saturday we got to go to castello della paneretta (more pictures on Facebook) which is a medieval castle that also produces some dang good wine from their vineyards. the drive there was amazing and we stopped in a cute little town called san donato which is off the beaten path for tourists. side note- the next couple days paolo, our driver, kept calling after me and katie saying "come on asian girls! this way!" because we were taking so many pictures. every time we saw a group of asian tourists (i'm talking 50 at a time), he would point at them and say "oh look your family! your sisters! maybe cousins? take a picture with them!" so funny.

obsessed with this picture. sorry to those that are sick of looking at it.

paolo our driver loved to tell us stories of all the people he's driven- from the kardashians to hugh hefner to the CEO of walmart and his 21 year old wife...he had a story about everybody. katie tried to tell him we were important too and he just didn't know it yet. he didn't believe her when she told him we were obama's daughter. oh well...

looking back at san donato after we left

once we got to the castle, we had a tour of the wine production facilities by chiara. chiara (key-ara, our name for claire) had been working at the winery for a long time and said even her parents worked there. out in the country, all these places were family run and taken really good care of. she told us about all the process from picking the grapes to fermenting to storing to bottling and distributing.

the mother of the owner of the castle lives here (the entire first floor is hers!) and since she wasn't here on saturday, we got to see her secret garden!

after the tour we got to have the wine tasting and had a "typical tuscan lunch" which had lots of varieties of crostini (bread) and crackers and prosciutto and fresh olive oil and then had a delicious tuscan bread and vegetable soup that takes 8 hours to make! i told paolo i wanted to learn how to make it and he told me to forget it...he's apparently quite the cook and can't even make it. it needs day old bread and you have to have the time to cook it and its just not going to happen i guess. but it was good! after we left here we got to go see san gimignano. no history lessons, just pictures! siena and the first week of classes will have to come later :) ciao!

finally florence bound!

well the day has finally arrived and while i'm infamously known for not letting anything rob me of my valuable sleeping time, i can't seem to settle down or make myself tired. so here i am with my blog post letting errbody know that i am leaving TOMORROW (tuesday the 24th) for florence. it's been one of those times in life that i never actually thought would actually come and i am just feeling a whole lot of emotions amidst all the preparation and packing; anticipation for the unexpected and anxiety about leaving my family and friends and excitement for getting to see this dream become a reality and fear because of situations like amanda knox's and the movie taken :).

prayer requests:
-for safe travels because knowing i'll be sleeping while we are flying over the ocean all night makes me a teensy bit nervous. also, traveling in another country and continent in general makes me (as well as my father) a tad nervous…
-fighting a cold that just decided to attack me today. sore/scratchy throat, feeling lethargic, stuffy nose…the works of a pesky cold. prayers for that and that my body will adjust to the cold and humid/often rainy climate when we arrive. allergies tend to flare up when i get in places like that.
-that me and katie would love and serve each other well as we share a room and also an apartment with 4-6 other girls. i pray that it will be a place to encourage each other and that there will be rich conversations and lots of sweet memories.
-that solid relationships would be made with the other students.
-that this experience would draw us closer to our King and cause us to love Him more while our eyes are opened to His fingerprints that span beyond west texas and oceans and language barriers and that we would enjoy this experience, giving praise to our good Father who has created this amazing world that we get to explore.

so! with that being said, a lot of you have asked how there will be communication betwixt me and you lovely people in my life and i have already committed to this blog so that's where you'll get probably longer, more in depth updates (Lord willing) than say twitter (follow me! @eehinton) or Facebook and most definitely instagram (em_hint). i will have my phone but not unlimited text/talk time nor do i want to spend all my time talking to you people while i'm there. sorry i'm not sorry. :) skype will probably be used more than anything so skype me because i'm sure i'll be ready to see everyone's faces sooner or later :) travel time looks like this: midland to houston tomorrow afternoon, houston to frankfurt, germany overnight and frankfurt to florence wednesday evening. florence is 7 hours ahead of central time so about the time you're eating lunch on wednesday we should be unpacking in our apartment in florence!

i'm super thankful for all you who are checking in about the trip and feel free to Facebook, Skype, whatsapp messenger me (app on iphone/droid), text, tweet or whatever whenever you feel like it and hopefully you'll enjoy some semi-frequent blog updates. going to try to catch some shut-eye. expect an update soon after we arrive in florence! ciao for now :)

new year.

there have been times in my life when there are events or milestones or something of significance looming in the future, and i can honestly say i never thought i would actually get to them. getting my driver's license was one of those times. when i was 15, that was all i could think about and the days seemed to drag slowly on and i thought that surely Jesus would come back before i could FINALLY get my driver's license. seeing as i'm 21 1/2 years old and i have my driver's license, that day came and it was the greatest day of my life at the time.
graduating high school was another one of those. i played (almost) all the sports my school had to offer, spent a ton of late nights studying with my best friends, completed my senior thesis and as far as i was concerned, i was ready for college. before i knew it, i was at tcu ready to start my freshman year.
there have been many other points in my life when i have felt this way- that if i can only get past this test week or this group project or this period in my life, there is something great to look forward to just up ahead. well, 2012 is here and there are already things i'm looking forward to.
this year is one of the milestones or times that i never thought would ever roll around. it is the year of my college graduation, it holds in it the semester i'm supposed to go study abroad in italy with one of my best friends, it is the year that my brother is leaving for the navy and my sister will enter her senior year of high school just to name a few. Half of these things i just listed were things i never thought would happen or come to fruition.
unfortunately (or fortunately, whichever way you want to look at it) i have given up on new year's resolutions; i never stopped cracking my knuckles and i still eat ice cream like its necessary for survival. i can't even remember the many other goals i've set for myself but never kept. so while creating a new year's resolution has been at the back of my mind, this new year's celebration caused me to look at another aspect of this year that i often forget about.
i got to go back to camp to celebrate the new year with my second family and we got to chat about what has been going on the past semester since we were all at camp. we got to reflect on what God has been doing in and through us, our struggles and accomplishments, and things we needed prayer for. i stayed an extra night with a couple of my best friends after the reunion was over and we went to a church in austin that the majority of our staff goes to on sundays in the summer and since it was january 1st, it was appropriate that the sermon was over the new year that was before us. the pastor was one i'd never heard speak before but it was good, and exactly what i needed to hear.
he talked about how there are a lot of unexpected things that will unfold in this year that we are unaware of. i have plans, sure, but we can't anticipate for certain all that is in God's plan and the reason we are going through a particular hardship or why we are given the opportunities he gives us but we do know 2 things for certain:
1) God is going to exalt His name this year ["be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth." psalm 46:10]
 2) God is going to work everything out for our good. ["and we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are calling according to his purpose." rom. 8:28}
while this just a snippet of what was preached, it was such a humbling truth to rest in. this is going to be a great year and there are a lot of things ahead, but when things don't go exactly my way or the way i have envisioned, how peaceful it is to rest in the fact that He sees the big picture, He is there working even when I can't see Him, He's working for my good, and while the date and year change, He stays the same. He has carved out the story that I will walk in this upcoming year and my prayer is that i will walk forward boldly, knowing my God, my Hope, my Rock, holds me in the palm of His hand and there is nothing to fear because all things happen for His glory and my good.
lastly, i was introduced to a book over the break called the valley of vision. it is a collection of puritan prayers that really are beautifully written and help encourage me in my prayer time with the Lord. i'm not one that reads the king james version or anything and these prayers are written in old english so i do have to use my dictionary app sometimes but this one, appropriately enough, is called new year. i hope and pray that it encourages you as much as it did me and refocuses our hearts on what truly matters as we walk forward this year.

o Lord,
length of days does not profit me except the days are passed in thy presence,
in thy service, to thy glory.
give me a grace that precedes, follows, guides, sustains, sanctifies, aids every hour,
that i may not be one moment apart from thee, but may rely on thy Spirit
to supply every thought,
speak in every word,
direct every step,
prosper every work,
build up every mote of faith,
and give me a desire to show forth thy praise;
testify thy love,
advance thy kingdom.
i launch my bark not he unknown waters of this year,
with thee, o Father, as my harbor
thee, o Son, at my helm,
thee, o Holy Spirit, filling my sails.
guide me to heaven with my loins girt,
my lamp burning,
my ear open to thy calls,
my heart full of love,
my soul free.
give me thy grace to sanctify me,
thy comforts to cheer,
thy wisdom to teach,
thy right hand to guide,
thy counsel to instruct,
thy law to judge,
thy presence to stabilize.
may thy fear be my awe, thy triumphs my joy.