Prayer

Today was going to be a lovely, exciting, friend-filled day. I got online to write about it, but I read a couple of other blogs before beginning, and I was (am) extremely saddened to hear that another blogger, Margaret in Minnesota, lost her baby. She had written from the beginning that there was a possibility of miscarrige, but I saw all the comments people had left for her, and they said they were all praying. There must have been at least 50 of us praying for Margaret and her baby, probably more. I was sure that with all that prayer power, everything would be fine.

But I guess God already had His plan worked out. It still makes me sad, though. I'll continue to pray for Margaret and her family, and I hope you will too.

Before getting on to describing my plans for the day, I have to say that Wednesday was Julia's birthday!! Happy belated birthday, my now 17 year old friend! I called her Wednesday night (Wednesday afternoon, east coast time) and we talked for quite a while. She tells me I'm not missing much in PWC, but I don't believe her!

The Milan Rotary club hosts a Christmas concert in the Duomo every year. All of the foreign exchangees are going, and we have to wear our lovely blue jackets, and sit in the front row. It should be fun, but I've heard from several people that the Duomo around Christmas is about as warm as the North Pole. Afterwards, I'm not sure, but I think we're all going out for dinner. I'm skipping the last two hours of school today to go home and pack my things, make lunch, and catch a train. I'll be staying with Kristen, as usual, which is always fun!

Saturday, Kristen's parents told her she could skip school. We'll probably sleep in, have a lazy breakfast, and go shopping in Milan. Kristen told me she knows a supermarket that sells Brownie mix, American style, and I'm psyched to go buy some! I'm also going to see if I can find ingredients to make some Christmas cookies.. the only Christmas sweet northern Italians have is Panetone (not sure on the spelling, there), which is essentially dry raisin bread. It's tasty, but what is Christmas without a variety of cookies?

Saturday night I'll be staying with Kristen again, because Sunday, all of the exchangees that live in Milan are catching a train to Monza (or thereabouts) because another Rotary club has invited all of the exchangees to their Christmas party. That should be fun, too. Rotary meetings always have really good food! And it's always fun when we get all of the exchangees together. Although Misko did say something about having to sing Christmas carols..

Monday I have my hosting Rotary club's Christmas party, and Thursday I have a Rotaract Club party to go to!

Yesterday was a good day, too. I had gym after school, but I sat on the floor the whole time. They were playing volleyball, with assigned places, and I wasn't assigned a place. Oh well, I don't much like volleyball anyway. After gym, I came home and had lunch. I had a typical Italian meal, called toast. Toast is a prosciutto and cheese sandwhich, toasted. After lunch, I lazed about for a while, then decided to go to the gym. I went to the gym, walked on a treadmill for a little while, got bored, and left. Instead of going home, I went to a store to buy my host mom's Christmas present. I got in the store, and starting looking around.. and didn't see what she hinted she wanted (which is a Raclette grill). I was starting to get worried, because I have no idea what else I would get her, when I spotted one! It was the last one, and I walked over and grabbed it. There was an older man standing sort of near to me, and he stepped over and asked what it was. I told him it was a grill, and he asked if it was the last one. I got the feeling he wanted it, even though he didn't know what it was. I got out of the store pretty quickly, and walked home, the box for the grill balancing precariously on my bike basket.

When I got home, nobody else was there. I watched some TV, and my host mom called me to tell me she and her husband were in Milan, and were staying there for dinner. My host sister was going to spend the night at the grandparents house, so I was on my own for dinner. That was fine by me, there was some leftover tomato sauce, and I've gotten really good at making pasta. I made myself a huge bowl of farfalle, and had a few Lindor balls for dessert. I cleaned the kitchen, watched a movie, and went to bed relatively early.

The bell just rang, and I have to get to math class! Have a good weekend!