Cosenza, Italy

Well, this morning when I woke up, I had an email...one regarding where I will be living.  As with the previous big email from them, I was pretty calm.  However, this time I did have an excitement fluttering through my heart.  When I opened the email, on my phone of course, I had NO IDEA where Cosenza, Italy was.  So I jumped to get my computer and then I somehow marked the email as important or something and it disappeared from my inbox and that about gave me a heart attack! :/

Once my computer was turned on and I could pull up google I found it.  It is in the southern part of Italy...in the toe of the boot pretty much!  I was excited and tried to tell my momma, but she was not answering her desk phone, so I ran to tell my daddy!  Then finally as I was making my oatmeal (something I am sure I will be taking with me...at least a little bit), my momma called and I told her and we immediately started searching for where it was, information about it, and is there a train station in the city.  I do not know much about the area yet, but I am looking.  It does seem like it will be easy to visit Greece and of coursed the southern areas of Italy.  The only thing I am concerned about it people coming to visit.  I am going to be pretty far away from the touristy places like Rome, Florence, Venice, etc.

God is so good and in my patience He has given me time to adjust to the idea of Italy and now I have a location.  Now, let some of the dreaming and fantasizing about travel begin.  The fact that it is a smaller town may make it hard to find a group of Christians to have Bible study with, etc. may be hard, but there is a University there, so maybe?!?!?! We'll see.  God has gone before me and He will go with me.

What I am seeing is that it will be a little more expensive than I'd hoped to get around Europe.  THere is only a tiny airport even remotely nearby and the trains to Rome and such are a little more expensive than I'd thought...and time consuming!!  It also appears as though I will need to rent a car every now and then to get around southern Italy and see some things.  Hopefully I can figure out the bus system though!! 

I found this quote just now in an essay by John Steinbeck about his trip to Positano, Italy (yes, the city where the woman in Under the Tuscan Sun goes to visit her Marcello and finds that he has moved on)!I think this quote is SOOOO true:
Now an American living long abroad may become completely expatriate. He may speak foreign, think foreign, eat foreign, but let Christmas or Fourth of July or Thanksgiving come around and something begins to squirm inside him and he finds he has to do something about it. -John Steinbeck


I just looked at Cosenza with google maps and the little man that you can put on the streets and I went to one of the bridges and the picture that came up brought tears to my eyes! It was so beautiful!!!

Found this on a website: Italy has more than its share of beaches. The best, arguably, are found in the Calabria region (that’s the toe of this boot-shaped country). The mild, dry weather, warm waters, and exotic seaside landscapes draw visitors from around the world. This is also a favorite spot for vacationing Italians. The spicy cuisine, high-quality local wines, and laid back population make this coastal area attractive for more than its beaches.

I spent most of my day researching and I am a little nervous about how far it is away from major cities/airports, but God has a purpose and I WILL trust in that purpose!!!