"Oh Look! It's the Colosseum!"

I've been wanting to do some Italy updates for a couple days now, but WiFi has been spotty for most of our time here. I finally was able to upload my photos and I have some time to relax, so that means that you get a photo dump of Italy! I'm sure that's the one thing you were wanting most in life today, and I am so happy to oblige.

[Ancient Rome. It's not like home.]

[Romulus and Remus]

I've been traveling in Italy with my friend Dani, and it's been really fun. We discovered that we are both "go-getters" when it comes to travel. That means that we are quite efficient in what we see and do in a day--much to the chagrin of our feet. But, we've been making sure to drink lots of water and eat lots of gelato in Italy, so things are going very well.

When Dani and I got into Rome, we dropped our stuff off at the hotel (the receptionist's name was Luigi, which was pretty perfect, imo), and then hit the ground running to find the Colosseum and the Roman Forum.

One of the things I liked most about Rome was how you have ancient Roman ruins alongside 19th-century government buildings, Renaissance churches, and 21st-century shops. It's really cool. And you'll just be walking along the street and then, BAM! There's the Colosseum.

Seeing the Colosseum and the Roman Forum in real life and walking around ancient Roman ruins was a dream come true for me. It was surreal--it still feels surreal. I am so incredibly grateful and humbled that I got to do something that so many people do dream of experiencing. 

[With Dani! One of my favorite photos from the trip.]

[Walking into the Forum]

One of the best things about Rome is that they have public water fountains everywhere and you can drink from them. This is especially good when you are wandering the streets of the city and it's just so hot. The water from the fountains is clear and cold and amazing. 

[Fresh water, courtesy of SPQR]

Dani and I made sure to hit the major tourist spots--the Pantheon, the Trevi Fountain, the Spanish Steps, etc. 

[The Pantheon]

[Look at that dome.]

[We both threw a coin behind our shoulders into the Trevi fountain--means that we'll come back to Rome someday.]

[Another day of sun.]

[Spanish Steps]

And, of course, we made sure we ate plenty of gelato and delicious Italian pasta. 

[My first real Italian gelato. Also. We were exhausted by this point. But then we got gelato and everything looked brighter. But really. Gelato saves the world.]

[Yay for Italian food! And it was so, so good.]

One of my favorite parts of that first day in Rome was getting to see the Borghese Gallery.  We lucked out--all the presale tickets were booked until Friday, but we asked the man at the information desk and there were some tickets still available for the last hour of the day. So we took them. And oh, I was so happy that we did. The Borghese Gallery has become one of my favorite art galleries in the world. 

[That ceiling, though.]

[Um. This is how I stand sometimes.]

[The original man bun]

My main reason for wanting to go to the Borghese Gallery was to see the sculptures by Bernini. I was not disappointed. They are absolutely, positively, stunningly exquisite. The way that Bernini was able to make these sculptures seem alive, full of emotion, and touchable is just incredible.

[The Rape of Persephone] 

[Apollo and Daphne]

[This one was just incredible. It's beautiful how Daphne's fingers turn to branches and her toes to roots--and how her body turns to bark. Apollo thinks he has caught her, but he just touches a tree.]

And now, the real, REAL reason I wanted to come to the Borghese Gallery. Bernini's David. Everyone talks about Michelangelo's David, and rightfully so--but for me, this David is even more striking. I love how he's in the moment of battle--his forehead is furrowed, his sling is taut, his lips are pursed, and every muscle in his body is ready and going in for the kill. It's absolutely fantastic. And I fell a bit in love (or a lot bit in love) with this statue. But it's just a crush, I promise. 

[Isn't he beautiful?]

[Fan-girling.]

[One more look.]

The first day in Rome was exhausting, but also extraordinary. Hooray for great traveling companions like Dani who are willing to take it all on and all in with me. 

Where prayer has been valid

If you came by day not knowing what you came for, 
It would be the same, when you leave the rough road
And turn behind the pig-sty to the dull facade
And the tombstone. And what you thought you came for 
Is only a shell, a husk of meaning
From which the purpose breaks only when it is fulfilled
If at all. Either you had no purpose
Or the purpose is beyond the end you figured
And is altered in fulfillment. There are some places
Which also are the world's end, some at the sea jaws, 
Or over a dark lake, in a desert or a city--
But this is the nearest, in place and time, 
Now and in England. --T.S. Eliot, "Little Gidding"

One of the highlights of this trip was traveling to Little Gidding en route to Cambridge with Sam and Neil.

Little Gidding is a very, very small chapel in a very, very small hamlet in southern England. It was part of the inspiration for the last part of T.S. Eliot's Four Quartets. All of us (Sam, Neil, and I) love "Little Gidding" and Eliot's words for similar and different reasons. So to have a small moment to pray in that tiny chapel and silently read Eliot's words in complete stillness (except for the buzz of junebugs) was very special to me.

You are not here to verify, 
Instruct yourself, or inform curiosity
Or carry report. You are here to kneel 
Where prayer has been valid. 

I love that concept--the idea of places where "prayer has been valid." I don't have the time or energy to write my entire series of thoughts on this idea. I'm still thinking and developing that idea. But that idea has run through my head and heart this trip--"you are here to kneel//where prayer has been valid." And I have thought about places where prayer has been valid and efficacious in my life. Times when I really prayed. Times when I really meant it. In my childhood bed. In a small corner flat in Cambridge, England. In a dirty kitchen floor in Donetsk, Ukraine. On the cigarette butt-littered streets of that same country. Kneeling by my bed in Oxford. On a balcony in Provo, Utah. In the canyons of the Rocky Mountains.

And it is a beautiful experience to go back to where prayer has been valid--both for myself and other people. In chapels, on rivers, in homes.

Like I said. Still have a lot of thoughts percolating about this subject. And sometimes it's just better to get some thoughts out than none at all. So there's a taster. 

[Queens'] is having a festival

"And I like large parties. They're so intimate. At small parties there isn't any privacy." --F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby 

When opportunity calls, and you have the opportunity to attend a May Ball at Cambridge with your boyfriend, you do it:

Getting our fancy on. Because that's how you do it during May Ball week.

Always, always Oxford

Hello, world.

I've been in England for the past few days. I meant to keep this blog semi-updated on my trip--but I'm leaving for Italy tomorrow . . . so I guess I'll just have to photo- and thought-dump away about England. Oops. 

But I'm in England! I'm in Oxford! And it feels so good, as it always does. When I touched down in Heathrow, I almost started crying. (It was a bit embarrassing.) But getting into London (and then getting into Oxford) always swells my heart with joy and nostalgia. Always, always, always. 

And I think it always will. 

[One of my favorite parts of Oxford is finding hidden spots and alleyways. And I love how familiar places become new every season.]

[That British blue sky--it gets me every time]

[Also those British sunsets. Absolutely stunning.]

Obviously, one of the best things this time was seeing friends that are still here. And I got to introduce Sam and his friend Neil to Oxford and show them around. That was also wonderful. It's always beautiful to experience a place that means so much to you with a person who means so much to you. 

[At Christ Church, before Evensong.]

[Afternoon-ing at Vaults and Gardens.]

[Yayyyyyy]

And seeing friends at Oxford was the best. So good. So, so good. Here are a few people I saw whilst here (not all pictured--but each reunion pictured and not pictured was so good for my soul): 

It's been so nice to see familiar faces here. Oxford is timeless, but I change and friends change, but still, Oxford brings us together and reminds us of the times we were good, the times we struggled, and that there is more to life than ivory towers and academic bubbles, but meadows and life and belief and doubt and God. 

I will always be grateful for my time at Oxford. I'm also grateful for time beyond Oxford. But while I was walking to a gathering of friends last night and as I passed the Exam Schools, I was just hit with a deep sense of gratitude. Joy with gratitude. And as I pass in and out of opportunities and places and experience the ebb and flow of friendships and relationships, I hope that's the lesson I can take from everything: humble, grateful joy for all that I experience and love.