Where do I begin...

Any suggestions? Okay lets start with Italy. I apologize in advance for not being able to include anywhere close to everything, not even a fraction, because so much happened and it has been a whirlwind last couple of weeks. Fabrice, Evan and I flew to Rome to start off spring break, or semana santa (holy week). Tyler flew out from Boston to meet up with us and epicness ensued. In Rome we saw the Colosseum, the Forum, the Pantheon, the Vatican Museum (including the Sistine Chapel), St. Peter's Basilica, and, oh yeah, the pope. We randomly decided to go to St. Peter's on Palm Sunday and were wondering why it was so dang crowded. Then we here music and then a speech and realize its the pope speaking in 5 different languages. It was pretty incredible. Not that I'm a huge pope fan or anything, but it was cool to see probably the most important living figure in the world.

Then we hopped on a train to Florence, which is an awesome city. The highlight of the entire trip for me as far as what I saw was the David in Academia. You've all seen pictures of it, but they don't even come close to doing it justice. It is absolutely huge and is really perfect. I stood and looked at it for about an hour. Its easily the best piece of art I've seen, although the Sistine Chapel was pretty impressive.

After Florence we hopped on another train to Venice. It was a little more touristy I think because its just smaller and more crowded. The best part of Venice was the charcoal sketch that we bought. We saw this guy, Marco, doing a charcoal sketch off the top of his head of a image of Venice: building-lined river, bridges, gondola, the whole nine yards. We watched him for about a half hour and then decided that for 20 euros we had to buy it. We'll all be living together next year, so we'll fire it up on the wall in our place.

And, by the way, this entire time we pretty much ate nothing but pizza and gelato. I'm talking each one maybe 3 times a day, with some pasta mixed in once in a while for a change of pace.

Now I'll get to the good stuff. When we returned from Italy (after an overnight train, waking up to the French Riviera, passing through Nice, Monte Carlo...not too bad) we were just in awe of how much God had blessed us and how grateful we were for our experience, and that we could share it with our best friends. Beautiful weather followed us everywhere we went, we met some really cool people, we got lucky with some awesome hostels, and all of the obstacles or kinks that could have inhibited our travels just got worked out. Back in Bilbao it was terrible weather, just pouring rain, but we went for a stroll anyway, and found ourselves under a covering downtown beneath the library. Our separate conversations all led to topics about God, where we're at spiritually, what we want for the future. The three of us ended up chatting together for a couple hours or so. Just passionate, truth-seeking conversation. We were all wowed by the fact that from this day forward, we have the privilege to be life-long seekers of Jesus and His one and only truth. We all expressed how much we want to become the men God wants us to be and seek Him above all else. Then Easter morning we had some time to sit and pray and just be in God's presence more than anything. By the time Tyler left, we were all really bummed to see him go, but were so excited for the place that God has brought us all and our newfound eagerness for letting Him shape us and mold our lives.

After the farewell we went to Madrid and Sevilla, two amazing cities. We had a lot of time to talk, relax and reflect, because Italy pretty much wiped us out. We saw the painting Guernika, in Madrid, the massive cathedral in Sevilla, and had a really great time. We were beat when we finally got back to Bilbao, but so thankful for an incredible two weeks.

In the end, nothing that I saw, no one I met, no city or incredible food came even close to matching the experience I had with those guys following the Lord and hearing His call. The fact alone that I'm able to study abroad is blessing enough. And God has been so faithful to me and has really showed me a lot about the joy of spending time in His Word, spending time in prayer and just being still and knowing that He is God. If I tried to convey to you everything that God has been stirring inside me I'd be here all day, so I won't say much more. But to anyone reading this that wants to chat with me about this stuff, I would love to. Just leave me a comment on this post and we'll get in touch and talk away.

I want to finish with a verse I read today from Phillipians 3:7-11. I would love to be able to speak this from my own lips and have it be 100% true. It's something that I'm striving for and I hope that all of you read this and are encouraged to do the same: 

"But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ--the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow to attain to the resurrection from the dead."