Ginormous Pt. 1

     I think my sudo-family is starting to wonder how I’ve not yet gone insane. I’m happy to say that I’m not a high maintenance person, but lately I’ve been wondering if it would benefit me to become one. Ornella and Diego are both very busy with work and the kids all have their various projects and activities to keep them busy and, often, out of the house. I hesitate to make them even busier by asking them for rides into the city (the area we live is about 17 kilometers away from Verona), and though taking the bus is an option, it takes over an hour to even get into the general area of Verona so I like to avoid it when I can- those windy, hilly roads and I aren’t exactly friends. Luckily for me, I love just being home and around the small town we live in. It’s what I had hoped for from the beginning of planning this trip; I never wanted to experience Italy in a tourist-y way, but in a way that I become saturated with what it’s like to LIVE here, like a normal person. Un-luckily for me, however, is that Ornella, Diego, Robby, ect… can’t imagine that I’m any thing but bored out of my mind around here. I think it pains them to hear that all I've done today is walked for a few hours, found a park, and read; but combine that with running a few errands around town with Ornella or the kids, and I think it’s the perfect way to spend my day. I’ve been waiting for the day that they realize I am probably one of the most content people they will ever meet, but alas, I think that day may never come. Which leaves me one option: Become less independent. I took my first step yesterday when I asked Diego to give me a ride to the church, to meet up with a friend who wanted to show me around Verona. I half expected him to jump for joy when I asked, but I was happily surprised when he just said “Okay” and asked how soon we needed to leave. I’m a fan of people not making big deals out of things.

     Now, I know I’m making it sound like the past month and a half (can you believe it?) have been cookie cutter days of me sitting at home, going on a walk, coming home, watching TV with the younger 3, eating lunch/dinner, and then going to bed, but I promise I haven’t been THAT much of a homebody.

     P.S. I hate the word homebody.

     Last Sunday was the last day of a 5 day national Young Single Adult conference. They normally have one of these around the beginning of the new year (New Year?), and then sometime in the early summer- like June, for instance. I signed up for it the week I got here, but didn’t actually have any idea what I was signing up for. The only reason I did is because Robby, Ornella, and all of the other YSAs in my ward told me I HAD to. So yes: The reason I signed up for the conference was because I couldn’t withstand the peer pressure. I hope that doesn’t shatter your opinion of me.

     In the weeks leading up to this national gathering, I slowly received tidbits of information as to what this event had in store for me. There would be roughly 300 in attendance, the theme was Superheroes!, it would be held at a hotel in the Garda Lake area, superhero costumes were encouraged to be worn at a dance occurring on Thursday night, and it was also encouraged for the post-mission men to have an engagement ring handy just incase they found “the one”. No one wants to find “the one” and not be prepared to snatch her up right away, yes? That would indeed be a tragedy… This was essentially all of the knowledge I had before packing my suitcase and heading out the door for this thing, so I was pretty apprehensive. I mean, really? What was I thinking? I was going to be stuck with a few hundred Italians on the hunt for perspective soul mates, who would also be doing their best to get enough partying with their other LDS homies out of their systems to last them the next six months. Oh, and don’t forget that I can’t speak Italian. No big deal, though, right? Speaking with people isn’t THAT important. If The Little Mermaid couldn’t talk to Prince Erik and that somehow still worked out, I could certainly wade my way through the next five days without too many bruises. And no- my reference to The Little Mermaid was not me insinuating that I, too, was looking for an eternal companion.

I arrived at Hotel Jolanda around 3:00p.m. with Robby and our friend Andrea. We checked in, picked up our rooms keys, were handed our tame tags specifying what group we would belong to for the week, and were left to do whatever we pleased for the next 5 hours. Most people hadn’t arrived yet, so things were pretty quiet. I found Davide, a friend who goes to my ward, and started talking to him to pass the time. Gradually, more people showed up, more noticed Davide and I speaking English, and more people joined our little ‘I can speak English’ group. I was relieved that there was at least a handful of people who didn’t mind speaking ditching Italian for a conversation or too and took it as a good sign for the week ahead.

     The opening ceremonies started at 8 o’clock. We started with a fireside given by an area authority from Switzerland. I was excited about this because he spoke English (which was then translated into Italian) and that meant that I could enjoy the meeting rather than strain to decipher what was being said. We were a half an hour into his talk when I started to loose concentration, and after looking around it was obvious I wasn’t the only one. Little did we know he would continue on for another hour before finally stepping down- I think quite a few people were jolted awake when the official opening ceremonies began. That, too, went on much longer than was necessary, however entertaining it was, and I would find that this was to be the way things where for the whole conference: Fun, but long winded.

     Captain Effe, Mr. Fashion, Big Boy, Pink Knight, and a few others whose names I’ve forgotten, were the groups we had all been separated into (we mostly just referred to them by their color so I hope you’ll forgive me for not remembering the other superheroes). I was in the Captain Effe - or green - team. I’m still unclear what his actual powers were and why he had the dollar symbol as a part of his costume… He spoke with a lisp (hence the ‘Effe’), could make his enemies fall in love with him, and I’m pretty sure he had super strength. But, who knows? I sure didn’t.

     The day’s schedule went something along the lines of: Wake up, eat breakfast, scripture thought with your groups, go to assigned activities (swimming, human foosball, volley ball, Jungle Adventure), Superhero’s Got Talent group prep time, lunch, ‘Superhero’ classes of your choice, more prep time, dinner, fireside/dance/Superhero’s Got Talent/Bianca Notte, go to bed. I could write whole blog posts about each, and maybe I will someday, but for now this will have to suffice.

     I ended up really loving my group. The red group was the one that was full of everyone I already knew, so at first I was really disappointed I wasn’t put there. Green had absolutely no one I knew in it- not even the people I had met pre-opening ceremonies so I wasn’t too thrilled with it, but I figured it’d be lame to wimp out or beg to be put in a more familiar group without giving this one a chance first. Best decision I’m made in a long time. Practically everyone spoke or could understand English, which was a bonus for me, and what’s more is that they were all SO willing to speak it and translate without me even asking. In fact, sometimes I would ask them to not translate so they could have a break or so I could try to figure it out on my own, but they usually ignored this request. I actually think my understanding of Italian went way up that week, though you’d think because I was around more English than I have been since I’ve been here the opposite would have happened… Oh well. I guess I’m just glad it happened.

     To be honest, trying to summarize even the highlights will take more time than I have to give to this post. New plan: Pictures and captions. I think that will end up being more interesting/informative than I could be droning on about it.

My only picture of the Hotel. haha. Oh, and the guy in the gray is Scisci.

The view of the lake from the hotel. Yes, this place is BEAUTIFUL.

This is Antonina. She was one of the people I first met and was one of the ‘I Can Speak English Too’ Group. She’s Moldovian, but has been living in Italy with her Mom and sister for almost a year. She speak Italian, Russian, Ukranian, Romanian, and English. Crazy, eh? Oh, this is pre-Superhero Dance, by the way.

 

Yes, I know I looked like Little Red Riding Hood… I think Jonathan had my favorite costume of the night even though technically, you were supposed to be original.

 

Robby and Danielle! Mm… Maybe Danielle had my favorite costume. I know Chicken Joe isn’t a superhero, but most people’s costume weren’t either, actually… There were many a Greek Goddess, princess, or other more Halloween-esque costumed people walking around that night. Oh, Italians….

This is Davide! The one from my ward.

A taste of the madness- This isn’t really a great shot of the dance, but it’s the only one I have. I was pretty excited for the dance, believe it or not. I was so curious to see how different the Italian YSA dances were compared to the ones I was used to back home. Sadly, it was uncanny how similar they were… I’m not even joking! Mormons dance the same EVERYWHERE: Jumping up and down, occasionally putting your hands in the air, forming circles that you hope will eventually become the ‘it’ circle- it was fantastic. And yes, I danced just as enthusiastically as everyone else did. The only big differences were the lack of DJing skills, and how closely the guys danced with you when slow dancing. Heh heh, I think it was more of a hug than a dancing position.

This is after gearing up for the Jungle Adventure. Basically what it was, were obstacle courses raised up among the trees. You’d go from platform to platform hooking on to various cables, and following the instructions of how to get to the next tree, i.e., zip-line, rope swing, walk a highwire, ect… Heights definitely scare me, so I wasn’t too sure how it would go, but I just had to make myself ignore the deadly drop below me and I was fine. Some of it was pretty easy and straightforward, but other portions were probably the reasons behind how sore I was for the next 2 days.

Superhero’s Got Talent night. All I can say about it is that our team should have won. Oh, and that paper is the song we wrote for the singing portion of the talent show. Dare to believe that I sung the English portion all by myself in front of 300ish people. No big deal.

Alright- this post is ginormous. How about we call it good for now and I make a Part 2 later?