A Broad Abroad

Hello, it's Tan speaking.  Yes, I exist.  Wifi, however, has not existed the past couple of weeks.  Here's some proof I'm alive...

I began typing this bad boy up about a week ago exactly, but then orientation happened.  More to come on that.  Michelle and Nick did a great job of kicking off the blog.  Atta way, friends.  Hopefully they keep sharin' more about what's going on in their lives.  They don't need to be abroad to make life interesting, that's for darn sure.

Since I've been MIA for awhile I'll do a brief (ha, realizing now it is not brief-- bear with me, or not, do what you will) recap on all that has been "Tanner" the past few weeks.  Ready?  Okay.  On January 7th I left Iowa for Sicily with a group of my classmates for our January term class (you take only 1 class for 3 weeks), "Philosophy and the Rise of Christianity", but the class actually began on campus on the 3rd so we could gain some pre-Italy knowledge.  Being a philosophy class a lot of the information was too lofty for my already overwhelmed mind.  My class would be in Italy until January 20th and then I would fly to Lisbon, Portugal to study abroad for the Spring semester.  I was leaving for 5 1/2 months and my mind was twisting and twisting.  On January 4th, before the big depart, I wrote in my journal "It is so close, it is building or it may even be built by now.  This reality.  It is here.  I want to suppress reality, but the world ticks on even if I pretend it's not."  Sometimes I don't quite know what I mean either...but basically I had my heels in the dirt, my insides were begging "just give me one more moment here, in this place and with these people".  I just wanted to pause life temporarily and frolic around like I had no obligations.  Well, you can't always get what you want (Stones..) and I left...emotionally...

On the eight hour flight from Chicago to Zurich I was pleased to have an aisle seat and was comforted to be sitting next to a very kind man, about my age, who studies Computer Science in Phoenix, Arizona, but was flying home to see his parents in India for a couple of weeks.  I hope he's doing well now, maybe he's already flown back to the States, suppose I'll never know.  I also got wine on the plane since it was complimentary, duh right?  Yes, duh.  Plus it helped me sleep...for three straight hours!!  Yea, that was pretty shocking for me too. 

Our first week in Italy was spent in Sicily...

Catania's square locals casually stroll around in their high end attire
and Jen takes candid photos of Tanner.

McDonalds in Italy have beer on the menu.
Bud or Birra Moretti...tough choice, but went with the Italian original.

Right on the sea

Ruins galore

Instead of taking more pictures of ruins I took a picture of this.

HUGE Byzantine basilica in Monreale.  Did a lot of reflecting on this guy--
built because of a king's desire for power over the bishop, but it is stunning
and tells the story of Christianity on it's walls and ceiling.

Monreale's view of Sicily's capital, Palermo

Islamic patterns all throughout many of the Christian churches we saw

Taormina, Sicily  <3 Stayed there a night, should have been a week

Found Greek Mythology's fallen Daedalus who James Joyce used as a metaphor
throughout my favorite book, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.  T'was excited.  
Nudity shmoodity. 

This picture sums up Sicily...and all of Italy to be quite honest.

A little reflection on Sicily after I left...

When I think of Sicily I think of a pilgrimage and traveling across the beautiful rolling hills, standing next to the Mediterranean, and watching the sun set over Mt. Etna.  I also think of the placement of the churches we saw especially the Byzantine church in Palermo.  Although the church is beautiful it is hard for me to accept it's beauty because it was built out of politics.  God's creation always out does what man can do, but man tries.  Man creates the best he can to be reverent and to share this beauty of God with others.  Whether or not the reason behind the building of these many churches was political or not something beautiful was build and today that directs our thoughts to something greater and larger than us.  Christians display sacrifice and justice and acceptance in their churches and use the most radiant paints and tiles to do so because it's the best they have.

 On January 14th we left Sicily. At the time I didn't realize how much I was going to miss the simplicity of its people and its incredibly gorgeous landscapes...ugh, how spoiled I am. I'll share part of my journal entry from that day.

Well...heading from Sicily to Rome today. I had an Italian man in Taormina ask me what Native Americans are from Iowa and because I responded with "mm..I don't know.." he said, "So, you come to Italy to study its history when you do not even know your own?!" Ha-- well I suppose that's true to a certain extent, but I'd say he made quite the assumption about me with only asking me one question.  That kind of stung.  Now I am in the airport in Catania, boarding in a little over 10 minutes, but I managed to lose my phone somewhere between getting off the bus and getting into the airport. "Ha" again, how swell. Seems to be typical Tanner fashion, but that's okay. Here, Sicily, take my phone-- do with it what you will. I shall get another one in Lisbon and do without until then.

I may have gotten a bit dramatic in there, but hey it's my journal, and now you have the story.  I was definitely repeating "it'll be okay, it'll be okay, it'll be okay..." that day.

Rome...no pics of my own from Rome due to the phone-less-ness.  It was kind of nice to not have to worry about taking pictures though, I had all of my classmates to do that for me.  Score.

Colosseum, nbd

At the ruins of the ancient city, photo cred to Allison Klimesh

My Breitbach class in front of St. Peter's Basilica.  I love these people.

That's Italy, kind of, it was actually so much more.  It was such a wonderful springboard for my semester in Lisbon.  Speaking of which, that's where I currently am...here...

Yea, it's my new home for 5 more months.  It's beautiful.  I've been here for a week and two days already, that means 23 days up and gone now.  This past week I've had orientation for ISCTE (my school, no I do not know what that stands for, but you pronounce it ish-kuh-tay) and also for Erasmus.  It's been quite the week.  Much busier than my first days here, but I can share some of my stories from Lisbon in my next post.  This has been a long one so I'll wrap it up.  This place and these people here are really going to impress on who I am and who I long to be, I feel this very much.  This is the beginning of a great leap.  Hopefully I will be able to share some of this with you and grow through my sharing as well.

For now-- just know Leigha and I are doing very very well.

Talk soon.  Your reading is appreciated.

Tan