the right decision

Two weekends ago (yes, it's been a while since I updated my blog) I was faced with a really petty decision that actually made me very anxious because it was choosing between two very good things. Within a couple hours of each other I had made to overlapping commitments for Saturday because I didn't want to miss out! Eventually I had to choose:

Option 1: Day trip to Verona with a Diego, a good Peruvian friend, and four other mutual female friends. While there I would have soaked in one of the more traditional of Italy's many beautiful cities, enjoyed the company of good friends, and gained the good fortune that only befalls those men who grope Juliet's right breast. While I definitely can go to Verona anytime, there was no promising I would, and it's always good to go with friends, and Diego was really hoping I'd come.

Option 2: Excursion with ICM (International Church of Milan) Young Adults (YA) to a ropes course in Lake Como. Awaiting me there was an exhilarating and challenging adventure activity, a great opportunity to invest more time into new friends in an awesome fellowship, and a cozy autumn respite at a young couple's beautiful country villa for pizza, drinks, and hanging out. While I have been on many ropes courses before, this was YA's only retreat for the season, and I my involvement in the fellowship is way too spotty as it is. I had already told two people I was coming, but canceling wouldn't have caused any logistical detriment.

The verdict...





It was the best ropes I'd ever been on, but more importantly, it was one of the best days I've had in Italy (and I've had a lot of fun here)! It's ironic how I'm learning 5000 miles away from my home how important fellowship - in any form - is not only to your faith, but to your general fun in life.

Not that you can't have fun outside of a faith group, Lord no! (lol) You need both. Sometimes I feel that often when I have the choice, I give up the Christian fellowship. And sometimes not even when I must choose.

On a side note, I feel so spread thin here. When I first arrived, it seemed that I needed a lot more than four months to do everything/meet everybody/go everywhere I wanted. One month later, I feel that the problem isn't so much months in a trip. It's smaller, maybe weeks in a month, days in a week, hours in a day. I feel like I could get so much out of singular attention to school, or work, or church, or weekend travel, or friends from school, or cultural immersion, or properly disciplined blogging. Instead, I feel like I'm just getting a taste, a morsel of everything, and somehow all these fractions don't add up to one, leaving me hungry still for something more complete than my "complete abroad experience".

On a note even further to the side, I got a transportation fine which was wrong on every level and that I don't want to or plan on paying. Add that to my outstanding rent payments and the fact that I still haven't even registered for - let alone received - my permit of stay, and that makes me about as illegal as you can be in a country. As fed up as I am with the Italian bureaucracy, you gotta love how slow things move here. I'll be back in American before they ever find me! :)