Sunday, June 03, 2007 12:40pm

We have now been in Italy for 5 days, and we have three more days until WFL is completely over. I have mixed feelings about it all. It will be good to close a chapter in my life and start a new one, as this one has overstayed it’s welcome in a few ways. But I will also REALLY miss all these people that I have become such great friends with. Ricky made an observation the other day. He said, “You know Matt, it’s almost like WFL has just been a continuation of life at FV. Even though we graduated, our life didn’t change a WHOLE lot. But with the end of WFL, that era of our lives will really be over. We will be completely moving on, getting a job, going to college, etc.” Anyways, so you’re probably not all that interested in the feelings I’m having right now. You want to know what Venice was like, right? Okay, I’ll tell you.

Our train to Venice had a little bit of excitement right at the beginning. We didn’t initially realize that there were assigned seats with the tickets, so we got on and started to get settled. Then our error was discovered, and we saw that we were two cars from where we were supposed to be. Carrying a lot of luggage through a crowded train with stubborn Italian people isn’t a particularly uplifting experience. Several miles down the tracks, we finally got situated. We arrived in Venice and found our hotel with relative ease. It was the cheapest hotel that Alonna could find, and it was €90/night. For those of you that don’t know how much that is, it’s around $130. I’ve stayed in Motel 6’s that were nicer than that place, but it wasn’t too bad. It had nice soft beds, toilets, and warm showers, so there’s nothing to complain about. Ooohh, and it had wireless too, so we were pretty babied. The wireless was €2 for one hour, which is about $3.50 or so. So it wasn’t too bad. I was able to check my email and see how the sports world is doing, so I was happy. There was an AWESOME huge thunderstorm basically as soon as we arrived. Man, that was some of the LOUDEST thunder I’ve ever heard. It was so cool, and quite funny when Allie squeaked and huddled down into a little ball. We walked down the road (we were still in the part of Venice on the mainland, so there weren’t any canals yet) to a little Italian restaurant for supper, and I ordered (betcha can’t guess!) a pizza. It was pretty good. It had real Italian olives, onions, and tuna. I’d never had a pizza with tuna, so I figured I’d give a try. It was actually pretty good, though all these goofy vegans didn’t really like my fish breath later.

The next day, Sabbath morning, dawned sunny and kinda warm. After some breakfast consisting of crackers with peanut butter and Nutella, or crackers with pesto and tomatoes, and after worship, we headed out to see the sights of Venice. The first leg of our little trip involved our first real experience with European bus travel. We had to take a bus out to the islands, so we waited for it at the bus stop. When it pulled up, we realized that it was already basically full (by American standards), and there was more than just our group of 14 wanting to get on. So we just packed in. I was standing next to the back doors, smashed face-to-face with Mitch. Fortunately we both had our backpacks on the front of us, so we weren’t getting TOO intimate. But every time the door tried to open, it created more and more of an impression on my hips and tailbone. We stopped a couple more times and even MORE people got on. One guy came towards our door, reached in and grabbed the bar and pulled his body right into Yvette, pushing the pile of people back a few inches further and enabling the doors to force themselves closed. After about 15 minutes or so, we arrived in downtown Venice, right next to the ferries. We found the ferry we were looking for and, when the time was right, we piled aboard in similar fashion to the bus trip. We tootled along through the canals until we reached the island we wanted, and we all clambered out. We walked the sidewalks for awhile, just admiring the sights and shops, most of which were full of various glass designs. We stood and watched a guy taking glass out of a furnace and shaping it into little horses. At another spot we took some group pictures while waiting for another ferry. Then we finally made it to the MAJOR tourist area that was PACKED with people. By then the sun had long since disappeared and it was now raining. We split up into groups with radios, and headed to see the sights. I was in a group with Ricky, Shannon, and Allie, and we had a great time. We started out in the main square that contains most of the famous Venetian landmarks, San Marcos Square. There was a huge cathedral with some really cool mosaics, and tons and tons and tons of little alleys (the puns flew about Allie and the alleys) filled with little gondoliers steering their little vessels packed with tourists.

It was pretty cool to see, but after a couple of hours my body was on sensory overload. It really opened my eyes to what Solomon talks about in Ecclesiastes, “vanity and chasing after the wind”. Pilgrim’s Progress talks about the city of Vanity Fair, and Venice fit perfectly the pictures I had always had of that city. So around mid-afternoon, those of us that were ready to head back to the hotel (Ricky, Vange, Chrissy, Alex, Yvette, and I) split from the group and headed back, and the rest of group came back a few hours later. We had some relax and hang-out time in the evening, and hit the sack a little while before midnight. Mitch had some weird health thing that came on really fast, totally wasting him and leaving him with a headache and really upset stomach. He lost most of his senses for awhile, and nearly passed out. It seemed kinda like a severe hypoglycemia, and he seems better this morning. Scott and I talked for a long time about visions that we have for training and raising up the army of youth that Ellen White talks about. It’s nice to see that I’m not the only one that has big visions that seem sometimes too big for me.

I got up a little after 7 this morning as usual. After a shower, breakfast (consisting of a bit of trail mix and some crackers and spread), and worship, we all packed up and headed for the train station. Our train left at a quarter after nine, and we’ve now been on it for 4 hours. We will be arriving in Rome in about two hours. We’ll be heading to a restaurant right away for a much-needed lunch, then we’ll get settled in our hostel. There is supposed to be a laundromat nearby, so we can do some also much-needed laundry. I can’t wait!

More later...