Van Wert Reunion, Bowling, and Fabio :)

Boy, where did February go? Here is where some of the end of it went!----

Adam Ries is studying abroad in Italy this semester, and he came to visit Rome one weekend with his classmates. As I saw a strange cell phone number on my cell phone (my Italian cell phone) I figured it was an Italian friend, so I summoned up the courage to speak in Italian and answered my phone in the typical Italian way--- "Pronto!" But instead of an Italian on the other end, it was Adam! Who would have ever thought that two kids from Van Wert would meet up at the Pantheon, walk to Piazza Navona, see the fountains, then walk to Campo di Fiori, eat pizza in an Italian restaurant, and grab some gelato together! It was SO fun to get pizza with someone who knows about Klosterman's and gelato with someone who knows about Rocky Top! Such a great evening of meshing Rome with one of my favorite other cities in the world: Van Wert. :)

On Wednesday (Feb. 25th), the STINTers went to "Bowling Roma" and bowled 2 games.
The best bowler: Kanda, with a total of 289 or so.
The worst bowler: me, of course, with a total score of.... mehhh who's keeping score, anyway? :)

Thursday (Feb. 26th) was our last morning of Italian language lessons with our tutor, Fabio. Brian, April, and I cooked a pasta bolognese lunch for him, complete with oatmeal chocolate chip cookies for dessert. :)

Fabio, Brian, me, and April -- after a lunch of great food and conversation. :) I pray that we can still keep up with Fabio and see him often even though we are done with language lessons. (Even though the last day of school type things always make me sad... let's be real-- it will be so nice not to have to do homework anymore!) :)

Fabio is also connected with a lot of Agape Roma staff (you can see Fabio, April, Brian and I here, along with Steve & Alyssa Dueck & Debbie Iannetti). A couple weeks ago, we had an American food fest with him. :) After hearing about "Kraft dinner" on an episode of South Park a few years ago, he really wanted to try some/didn't know what it was until we showed him a box of Kraft Macaroni & Cheese. So we busted out a couple boxes of the blue stuff that we have stored here from America, along with meatloaf and a cheesy zucchini casserole, and chocolate chip cookies for dessert. SO delicious, and such a FUN time with Fabio!