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Name: Charity Lovene
Country: United States
State: California
Metro: Sacramento
Birthday: 6/9/1982
Gender: Female
Interests: Loving God, Missions, Reading crazy books about missionaries and people who love God without regard, Language, Linguistics, Books, Coffee, Mountain Biking, Backpacking, Service dogs, Search & Rescue dogs, and lots more.
Expertise: I don't consider myself an expert at anything...but there are a lot of things that I would love to be an expert in eventually...
Occupation: Student
Industry: Real Estate Investing
Message: message meEmail: email me
Website: visit my website
AIM:  barkmyname
Member Since:
11/24/2004
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| Buon Giorno! Well...I'm finally sitting down long enough to write up a recap of my trip to Europe. I've almost unpacked my bags, and have finally re-adjusted from the jet lag, and I'm nearly caught up on work.
The trip was absolutely incredible. My mom is the most wonderful traveling companion ever, and best friend, and the sweetest mom ever. She did a wonderful job of planning the trip and being the tour guide everywhere we went.
To be honest, I was so involved in other things, I didn't help plan the trip at all. I just stayed up until 3am the night before in order to pack and jumped on the plane. That was about when it hit me that I was going off to Europe! Wow. Fun!
The first part of our trip consisted of 8 days in the north of England, up in the Lake district. It was cold and rainy when we arrived, but that was to be expected, I suppose. Too bad for me that I didn't plan very well for the rain, but I survived. We flew into Manchester and then met up with a walking tour group for and Inn to Inn tour through the most beautiful parts of England countryside. We walked through fields of sheep and cows, looked at lots of old churches and buildings, investigated ancient Roman ruins, and toured castles and old houses of famous people like Beatrix Potter, William Wordsworth, and John Ruskin.
The most interesting part of the trip for me was talking and observing the other people in our group. They were quite a diverse group of people, mostly from the East coast, with interesting life stories, and quite the mixture of political and religious views. I was the youngest in our group by about 15 years, and the oldest was a couple in their 70s who were just about to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary! Mom and I had a wonderful time talking with each of them and telling them about us. They all thought we were quite the anomaly, with our unusual affection for each other, our odd jobs, our incredibly positive outlook on life, and of course our Christianity. It really made for fascinating conversation.
(You should have heard me at dinner one night talking with one lady who was a translator for the UN and on her way to Egypt to study Arabic after the tour...we discussed Christianity vs. Islam for quite a long time...)
After England we hopped on a little beater plane to Paris. Paris was wonderful. It was so...European. The French were, well, French. They were so funny to watch and so outspoken. I loved watching all the incredibly well-dressed French girls flaunt their fashion, and boy are they good at it. I was wishing my Alyssa was there with me to enjoy the gawking...mom just wasn't quite up with the trends enough to enjoy it. We were privileged enough to do incredible sight-seeing in France, The Louvre (where my legs almost fell off, but I loved seeing "The Wedding at Cana" & Napoleon's apartments), the Eiffel Tower (beautiful at sunset), Notre Dame (an incredible building, but completely life-less in the Spirit), the Musee d'Orsay. After 3 days in Paris, we hopped on a train and headed to Florence.
A train to Florence? Maybe I won't do that again...but, I managed to get a good 10 hours of reading in and learned a little Italian from our fellow passenger (an Italian grandma who didn't speak a word of English). Our hotel in Florence was perfectly positioned in the heart of the city so that we could walk everywhere. And walk we did. A lot! We walked all over Florence, with it's squishy sidewalks and hundreds of tourists. The street markets were lots of fun. The river was stinky. The Ponte Veccio was just so Italian, I loved it. We had a great time ooing and ahhing over the jewelry. We waited in the long lines at the Academy and Uffizi museums, but they were both worth the effort. Although, I think that Florence has as much interesting art outdoors for free as it does indoors for a high price.
My favorite part of Florence was the day we took a guided trip out of the city to a wonderful Tuscan Mansion and learned about the local wines and olive oils and then were treated to a delicious, authentic Italian lunch. It was refreshing to get out of the city and we enjoyed talking with the others on our trip who were from all over the world (Israel, Denmark, Australia, etc.).
Florence conquered, we were now off to Rome by train. A quick trip and we arrived in the heart of the BIG city. I was overwhelmed just by the drive from the train station to our hotel, by the magnitude of the city, the spacious roads, the incredible fountains in the middle of the street, so much to see. We could have easily spent the whole time in Rome. I loved Rome. It was such an interesting place, so full of art and history and culture. The Italian's are hilarious people, I enjoyed talking with them and watching them. They have the oddest sense of fashion. I talked with several fellow tourists who just concluded "only in Italy" could they pull that off.
By the time we got to Rome I was sick of art museums, poor mom, it was all she could do to get me through the Vatican and Sistine Chapel...well worth the effort, but my brain was so full of art it was all beginning to run together. Not to mention the 2 hour wait and the 4 hours it took to tour it. St. Peter's was incredible and i thoroughly enjoyed attending a morning mass service. What a highlight. It is an extravagant place with gold and marble everywhere, and I sensed a lot of spiritual sadness there, but also an overwhelming awe-someness of God. I was reading that it was built to inspire in all who came to it how big our God is. I think it does a great job of that. The rest of Rome was a wonderful blur of sightseeing (the Coliseum, the Spanish Steps, the Trevi Fountain, the Wedding Cake, Hadrian's Villa, Villa d'Este, and eating delicious food. By the time the last day came around, I was very ready to come home.
I can't say that there was just one highlight to the trip, it was all a highlight. I thoroughly enjoyed spending time with mom, reading (I think I plowed through 5+ books), sightseeing, walking, taking tons of pictures...and creating beautiful memories. What a wonderful trip! I highly recommend it! Thanks Dad!
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| Finally, a computer, a keyboard that works, and an internet cafe with more than 2 computers! Wow! Novelties... We arrived in Florence by train from Paris. It was...well...a squishy experience. I got a lot of reading done. Cant say so much about sleep. We were ushered quickly off the train at Florence, with all of our luggage and left standing on the cirb to flag a taxi to our hotel. We made it to the hotel at...8 in the morning. Darn. Checkin isnt until 2. So...we had a little breakfast, looked at things to do in Florence, and found the internet...trying to kill some time. So far on the trip, I think I really enjoyed Paris the best...but I dont know. Each place is so very different. I am not impressed with Florence yet, but I have only been on about 3 blocks of the city, so I am not judging it. I plan on being impressed. Off to find some excellent cafe. Bon giorno! | | |
| So...I'm not actually sure what day it is, but we left for Manchester on Friday the 21 at 11:30 am and we arrived in Manchester, UK at 9am on Saturday...so maybe this is technically day two. Anyway...our flight was uneventful, except for the two little girls crying across the aisle. The stewards on the 8-hour flight from Atlanta to Manchester were excellent and even treated us to mini bottles of red wine to enjoy with our duty-free Godiva chocolate. Mom and I arrived safely in Manchester and wandered about the airport a little in search of currency exchange and coffee. Coffee helped our tiredness a little and we were then able to procure a taxi to the hotel. Our hotel is wopnderful. Gotta run. Times up. More tomorrow. | | |
| Dad and I watched the Gospel of John tonight. Powerful. I love seeing the Word enacted. It brings it to life and makes me think about things I don't always get from the written text. Although I don't always agree with the way they portray things, I can definitely appreciate the effort. Worth watching.
I've a new goal...I want to have a prayer life like Daniel. I've been meditating on Daniel and listening to it in my car as I run errands. Daniel had a CRAZY prayer life, so crazy that all his enemies knew about it and realized that it was the only way they could trap him...and even that didn't work.
Went to sushi tonight at Sushi Unlimited in Roseville. Mmm... yummy.
Enjoyed 2 whole hours of pleasure reading today. Amazing. I don't get enough reading time in these days. I don't think I have enough friends who just enjoy sitting in the same room and reading together anymore. That's what I used to do with my friends as a kid. I should educate my friends on this most enjoyable practice...
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| Another bedroom update...
Oh...that's Chok my super smart dog. She got tired of reading my Ethics book. ;)
I know...it doesn't look like much from the pictures yet, but it's improving...the walls are all finished...and...
This is the most exciting part...I have my desk back. I'm actually living in my room again. Yay!
Yes. There's lots more to do, but Alyssa and I have been too busy to go buy fabric for the curtains. Someday soon.
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