Angela Correll [00:00:03]:
My heart was longing for this place that I will not have until heaven. The fact that we had this deep longing is such a wonderful reminder that it’s real and it’s there for a reason, and that’s not a bad thing.
Introduction
Kim Moeller [00:00:22]:
Well, grab your cappuccino or your espresso for this podcast episode. You are going to be just in for such a treat to hear from Angela Carrell who is actually doing this live recording from Tuscany. What a gifted writer, gifted speaker, woman who chases after beauty and reflects gifted author. So thanks for being here and you are gonna be so excited that you put those AirPods in today to listen to Angela’s story. Welcome to the Generous Girl podcast. It’s wonderful to have you all here. And I am so excited to introduce you to my guest today, Angela Carrell. And if you’ve been in bookstores recently or seen her book on Amazon, you’ll recognize her.
Kim Moeller [00:01:16]:
Her book is called Restored in Tuscany, a true story of facing loss, finding beauty, and moving forward with hope. It’s a travel memoir. So I can’t wait to unpack with you all listeners how she wrote the story, why she wrote the story. And she is a busy woman. She’s a cofounder of Kentucky Soaps and Such and the Stanford Inn, the Bluebird restaurant, Esther’s Wellhouse Spa, and other businesses that are included in Wilderness Road Hospitality. So we’re gonna also talk about why she’s so passionate with hospitality and how generosity is such a component of hospitality. Welcome, Angela.
Meet Angela Correll
Angela Correll [00:01:56]:
Thank you, Kim. I’m so happy to be here.
Kim Moeller [00:01:59]:
Well, if you’re watching on YouTube, you can kinda see the background of the old stone wall that Angela is sitting against in Tuscany right now, so I love that. Great. So thank you, and I’d love for you to just actually start with this concept of generosity being so deeply tied together with hospitality because I know that’s so woven throughout your story.
Angela Correll [00:02:24]:
Yeah, so I’ve been thinking a lot about that lately because we do do a lot of hospitality. We love hospitality. We’ve been on the receiving end of hospitality, and hospitality costs somebody something. I mean you can’t if you have someone in your home, there’s time involved. There’s maybe some expense or something involved when you really truly do it for the other person. And so I do feel like that generosity is actually the core of that. It’s almost like in my opinion, generosity is kind of the trunk of the tree and hospitality is one of the branches or a big branch and and so I just think that you really can’t you can hardly even have one without the other.
Kim Moeller [00:03:11]:
Right. Right. That’s beautiful. Well, you remind me of the podcast I did with your friend also, Ash Marsh, and yes, her belief in the power of hospitality as well and how they’re building that whole center in Alabama to help people who’ve kind of been burned in the hospitality industry and allow them to be restored and poured into so they can go back out and continue to serve. And I I remember her phrase of hospitality is thinking of the person before they got there and just kind of anticipating what that person might need to be blessed and showing that you really put that thought ahead of time into their business.
Anticipation
Angela Correll [00:03:53]:
Yes. Anticipation is a big one. In fact, there’s a saying here in Italy, if you call a restaurant and make a reservation they’ll say especialmo and that means we wait and I find that so fascinating because it’s like they’re just waiting for our arrival and obviously we know they’re busy doing lots of things but just the idea of it’s the idea of anticipation the idea of preparation of and then of course generosity and just thinking about how can you serve the other person.
Kim Moeller [00:04:29]:
Oh, so beautiful. Well, your book is called Restored in Tuscany. So I want to unpack how you got to that point of actually buying a place in Italy, restoring it, and and offering that as a place, like you’re saying, for beautiful purposes, what your family’s been doing in these for these years in Kentucky (where is really your home base.) Okay.
Kentucky Roots
Angela Correll [00:05:02]:
It is our home base. Jess and I, my husband and I are both 7th generation Kentuckian so we have deep roots there and I met Jess on a blind date when I was single and 32 never been married. Jess had been married and his marriage had dissolved and he had 3 teenage children and so I am a friend set us up and of course when you’re single it wasn’t exactly what I had in mind I thought. So I would probably meet somebody, you know, never been married, didn’t have children, but it’s just amazing how the Lord works through creating a path that may not be what you think it is or should be but yet is so much more beautiful than you could imagine and so we married and the 3 teenagers have a very involved and active mother so I get to be the 2nd mom which has been really fun and Love them. I can’t imagine loving them anymore. They you know, I can’t imagine that and then now I’ve got 5 grandchildren and they’re it’s just a joy. So it’s been a real joy for me to experience that I don’t I’ve not had any of my own but I feel like I have been able to biologically I should say but I probably have been able to embrace my kids and my grandkids even more in some ways. So that’s been just a joy just pure joy and we have my husband’s in banking and insurance and kind of real estate he’s just an entrepreneur and he’s also on the board of the National Christian Foundation NCF and we been involved in generous giving for many many years and it’s been very impactful in our lives and our generous journey I would say generosity journey.
Ties to Italy
Angela Correll [00:06:57]:
We’ve loved all the people that we’ve met through that process and one of the things we’ve done is do the revitalization of a small Kentucky town so we spent some time doing that kind of working on that together. Yeah, so that’s kind of what sort of brought us to the point we always have loved to travel have traveled to Italy for 25, 6 years on our honeymoon was the first time that I came to Italy. So it’s been a special place for us really from the very beginning and brought our family here several times even before we ever considered buying a place. It’s just been a special place for us.
Kim Moeller [00:07:38]:
So beautiful. And I was able to watch the Generous Giving video with you the story with you and your husband, and I remember him talking about, you know, the close relationship he had with his brother who passed away at a really young age. And and through that friendship and sibling relationship, understanding just the power that generosity in your business and how he really wanted to put God first and be as successful as possible, but then lead with faith and family. And it was actually John and Ash Marsh who reached out to me so grateful for their connection. But John said, I really think you should have Angela, you know, on the podcast. And it’s just such a blessing, I think, when you you are so gifted, you know, as an entrepreneur and, you know, God’s given you the ability to start these different businesses and things, but you’re putting him at the helm and allowing him to write that story. And looking at how, like you said, you went to Italy on your honeymoon, and now fast forward all these years later, you are now doing a podcast about the place that you purchased and you wrote a book about it, but that’s just the beauty of God. And, you know, He captures these little things in our hearts where we never know how that seed is going to take sprout, but it does.
Beauty in the Details
Kim Moeller [00:08:56]:
Feel like we look back and we go, oh, yeah. I remember that. I didn’t know if anything would come from that. And 20 years later, you’re looking at this entire beauty that emerges.
Angela Correll [00:09:05]:
It’s crazy. It’s crazy good.
Kim Moeller [00:09:08]:
Crazy good. I know. Yeah. There’s crazy good. I’ve heard another phrase, messy, beautiful, and I think that’s also nice.
Angela Correll [00:09:15]:
Organized chaos.
Kim Moeller [00:09:16]:
Organized chaos. Yes. Or addicted to chaos. So Yeah. So tell the story which, the I want the reader to obviously purchase your book, which is available on all platforms, but, of course, Amazon. But I love the story how when you were you went to this village, you kept visiting, you loved being there. And then when when you actually walked into this one place, you just felt as if those walls were speaking to you that this was your place.
A Fictional Writer
Angela Correll [00:09:46]:
Yes, it was such a strange experience that we had found the village I’m a you know a writer a fiction writer originally and so found this place to set a story and like you said kept coming back and just fell in love with the village started thinking about We should look around and see you is there something out there that might be easy? We looked at 2 or 3 places and just did not feel anything. I mean they were nice and but then we walked into this house and I don’t know it was such a powerful experience. This is a silly little thing but there were these horse medallions terracotta horse medallions on the wall in the other room in here and we’re from Kentucky I mean we obviously it’s a horse capital of the world we all grew up around horses my mother was a big horsewoman and me I grew up in a den with horse stuff all over the place. So it just that’s just natural and this building was an old horse stables and so when we walked in there was just something immediately that felt so comfortable and so homelike even though it was not livable it wasn’t any it was basically just a glorified barn but it felt so much like home and then I thought okay maybe it’s me and we kept walking around the view is just stunning and then Jess and I went up stairs and just looked at this little apartment and we you know how you’re not supposed to show emotion from the realtor, right?
Kim Moeller [00:11:22]:
You’re not supposed to act like that.
Angela Correll [00:11:23]:
It’s not that great. Yeah. So we’re trying to refrain ourselves and we pass each other in the hall and we just locked eyes and we both of us were like wow you know I mean I could just tell that what I was feeling he was feeling so it was just kind of neat to know that we were definitely on the same page and we would need that for what was coming down the road. It’s like when people say that they adopt you know they saw their adopted child the first time they knew that that was their child and thank God you do because you’re going to have such struggles down the road
Angela Correll [00:12:00]:
It’s going to be hard. And it that’s kind of how we felt with this house. It’s like we just knew even though it was going to be a struggle later.
Kim Moeller [00:12:09]:
And then you went ahead and purchased it and did the renovations kind of from Kentucky going back and forth. And it’s I do love the side of just the history, like you said, with having it probably smells like horses like you’re used to also deep in the walls. Yes.
Angela Correll [00:12:29]:
Oh, yes, I do think I just yes, the smell I mean the whole place it just felt very comfortable but also different in such a exciting and new way and even the trying to learn Italian. It just I feel like it’s been such a fun challenge to learn all of these new things Yes. In midlife, really.
Kim Moeller [00:12:54]:
Mhmm. And then you talked about just having a sweet relationship with the pastor and his wife. Tell a little bit about that friendship.
Angela Correll [00:13:03]:
Yeah, that was surprising. We actually when we started looking we decided to be a part of a church plant here. And there were 2 churches in Italy through the organization we were looking at and one was in Rome and it was already taken the other one was in Prussia which is about 45 minutes from us. And so we jumped on that with the help of our church And so when we came I said to Jess I said, well, let’s we’re only 45 minutes. Let’s try and meet this pastor and his wife. So we did we met them for dinner young couple just sold out to the Lord and really committed to helping this church grow fell in love with them and that then led to meeting his father who is also a pastor in Sienna and his father is an ex well, he had formally done some building contracting work, you know, project managing and so that was a crazy thing when we realized we did buy the house and thought we could move right in and then realized oh no we need a whole we need to restore the entire house it’s going to take a year. And then God just restore the entire house it’s going to take a year and then God just provided this pastor who could help us with this project and the most beautiful thing is not just that oh he helped us do this and we you know it’s more about the friendship that came from that and the relationship that came from that. And Giacomo, his son has since gone on with his wife to Paraguay to plant another church, but we’re still working with Rocco because we’re so crazy.
Angela Correll [00:14:46]:
We’ve actually have you know, bitten off a couple of other projects. So we’re now we continue to work together on some more things.
Kim Moeller [00:14:54]:
It’s so neat though. Just it’s never those relationships are never a mistake, and God knew from the beginning of time, you know, that you would meet Rocco and be connected in Italy even though you’re from Kentucky. So I just love that we we serve a big God, and we all have the opportunity to live a really big story, which is so exciting. Yes. Mhmm.
Angela Correll [00:15:16]:
Yeah, it’s just such a blessing to be a part of something like that. And, yeah, it it makes you excited for what’s around the corner.
Joy and Sorrow
Kim Moeller [00:15:25]:
Right. Right. Exactly. Well, I know in the pre part of this conversation, you know, we were talking about the pillars that we would emphasize and and those being faith and then friendships. And I I do think those are woven throughout your book and your story. And I loved how you really did a beautiful job in your book of, weaving grief and how just, you know, we go through life and we have these beautiful experiences, like you’re, you know, restoring this place in Tuscany, but it wasn’t without other things in life that were happening simultaneously as happened to everybody. And you you mentioned just, you know, the loss of a dear friend’s child and then your mother and just how you were able to kind of be restored in your own heart through that process. Can you unpack a little bit about that? Yes. I think that that process of just having this great excitement and great I mean just I mean you want to pinch yourself when you even travel to a place like Italy that you get to stand in this ancient land and participate even for a few days in this incredible beauty and then to actually buy a house. I mean that is an incredible opportunity and so exciting. And then at the same time you’re witnessing these tragedies and then the sadness of a parent declining and it just is such a reminder. It was just it was a lesson for me that we just are not I think our hearts are always seeking Eden I think and I think I put this quote in the book by Tim Keller our hearts are seeking home we’re seeking the Garden of Eden we’re seeking this perfect place that we can either create try to create ourselves and I’m an artist basically at heart a writer and some, you know, and a designer so I’m always trying to create this beautiful space or create some beautiful picture through words and details. And it was it was this major recognition that my heart was longing for this place that I will not have until heaven. And and but yet the fact that we had this deep longing is such a wonderful reminder that it’s real and it is it’s there for a reason and that’s not a bad thing that in this life we’re always going to have it’s joy and sadness is always going to be this tension balance always going to be juxtaposed with each other. And we just don’t need to question well why is this happening now which I tend to want to do.
Angela Correll [00:18:26]:
I think oh my goodness I want to just enjoy this moment and why is this other thing happening? But that’s just how life is.
Kim Moeller [00:18:35]:
Yes, Very, very true. You remind me of one time we were traveling in and we were in Florida, and we were so excited because my daughter’s wedding was just around the corner, and we had flown out and put the clothing in the the house in California. And it has, like, a separate, you know, studio that we converted in the garage. So I happened to see this guy that lived right in our neighborhood, and I don’t know why, but I thought to give him my phone number. Like, if you see any problems, you know, when we’re gone, let me know. And I see his number when I was in Florida. And, you know, again, we’re so excited about this beautiful wedding that’s around the corner. And he’s like, hi.
Kim Moeller [00:19:13]:
Oh, yes. Thanks for picking up. I just didn’t know if you wanted to have the water running from your house into the street. I’m seeing it come from the studio, like, under the gate in the vest. And I was like, no. That wasn’t really the plan. Can I give you the code to go inside and tell me, you know, what is happening? And so fortunately, you know, I answered the call. Fortunately, he called me and he goes in and the, we had been renting that main house out as an Airbnb and, and the cleaner had like stuffed the washer in the studio super full.
Kim Moeller [00:19:46]:
And so it was just streaming water. I mean, it was, like, 3 feet deep in the studio. Oh. But the great part was all the wedding clothes were in the room next to that, and nothing was touched. And, you know, we had to tear out the drywall, put it on new flooring, do all the things. And, you know, it is the same thought. You’re just like, why like, why right now?
Angela Correll [00:20:10]:
I remember a woman told me, she was one of my readers. She reached out and she was telling me, which I just this breaks my heart, but she said that, I mean it’s kind of funny but it’s not funny but she had her daughter’s wedding. She was so looking forward to it. She, you know, everything was just she was so excited. She had her gorgeous dress and she was gonna dance all night. And then she got there and she was taking her father and really trying to make sure he would well he got COVID and then she got COVID So the night of the wedding, she is laid up in the bed just so sick and she and it just broke my heart. I mean, poor thing.
Kim Moeller [00:20:53]:
I mean,
Angela Correll [00:20:53]:
there’s this joyful thing. And then this awful things happen.
Kim Moeller [00:20:57]:
Right. And I know and just like every year, we get better at dealing with adversity. We get, you know, by surrendering, obviously. But I think I’m better now than when I was 30. I hope I am.
Angela Correll [00:21:10]:
Yes.
Trusting God
Kim Moeller [00:21:11]:
It doesn’t surprise me as much anymore. It’s sort of like, okay. Here’s now the latest challenge, and what am I supposed to learn from this? And and how are you gonna provide, Lord? And just giving it all all back to him instead of, like you said, you know, I think our natural tendency is to just expect it to be the Garden of Eden here and no mosquitoes. Everything is perfect, but it’s not gonna be that way.
Angela Correll [00:21:36]:
And it’s not gonna be that way.
Kim Moeller [00:21:38]:
Right. Okay. Well, the other piece that I think that ties to that I loved in your book was you kind of mentioned about demolition and how you needed the Lord to sort of tear you down in some ways as he was tearing down the the place you were restoring in order to effectively rebuild a place of beauty. So let’s talk about that.
Angela Correll [00:22:01]:
Yeah. So at that point in my life, I well, first of all, I am a driven person. I’m a bit performance based and I wasn’t like a I wasn’t one that was like a straight a student. I mean, I was a good student, but I wasn’t one that I’ll have to have to be perfect in grades or anything like that. But I just like to do I wanna always have been intentional with my life. I wanna do do lots of things. I’m interested in lots of things. I love to travel, I love to create, I love to start this start that and so I’ve always just been kind of always busy but in a you know, in a way that I liked as long as it kind of stays here.
Angela Correll [00:22:46]:
But then frequently, you know, you’re always you’re like this and so at that point in my life we bought this house and then basically bid off this massive renovation in 4,000 miles away in a different language currency metric system I mean measurement system everything was different And so I did not have that margin in my schedule. And at the same time, I was also in the middle of really in the weeds on a lot of the businesses we had started and I learned about myself I am I’m a creator I’m a starter I’m not a manager and I really am much more of the artist versus the entrepreneur that my husband is and so I I think for me, it was more about just the starting of these things. But then it was I would just get down into the weeds on all this stuff wouldn’t feel so overwhelmed with all of these things I was not at doing. So I was kind of in the middle of all that when we bit off this huge project. And so I was just so overwhelmed which is a state that I lived in part of the time and most of the time and realizing that this why do I do this myself? I never had really taken the time to kind of chase that down until we got in the middle of this project. And I started and my father had died a few years before so I started kind of peeling a few layers back after you know when you lose a parent I think you start revisiting your childhood and maybe why did I do this why did I do that what’s motivating me Is it something that goes back to your family of origin? I think as we started on this project I remember walking in one day and I had already started the process of trying to peel off the layers a bit and the way I’d always dealt with it is just, oh let me just have another goal I’ll just okay I’m just gonna power through this I just need to do yeah need to do better I’ll just work harder and just push through. Well one day I walked in and I saw that the house was just a wreck we had started the demolition it was dirty dusty huge pile of rubble on the floor you could hardly walk you twist your ankle on the rocks and all the junk. But I looked over and there’s this gorgeous 15th century wall and then you see it this is not the actual arch but you see a little bit of arch here.
Angela Correll [00:25:26]:
Yeah, just bigger and it was beautiful and I thought oh my goodness that was underneath all that junk.
Kim Moeller [00:25:34]:
Wow.
You Can’t Restore Until You Demolish
Angela Correll [00:25:35]:
And it just hit me that you cannot restore until you do the demolition. I know that as having restored multiple properties you cannot slather new mortar on old junk. You’ve got to tear off the old you know fix what needs to be fixed and put new on. And it’s a simple it’s a simple rule and it’s not rocket science, but at the same time I just started realizing it just hit me that that’s exactly what I’ve been doing to myself all these years with my performance is let me just let me just make a new goal. Let me make a new plan. Let me just, if I can just do better in this one area then I can get over this hurdle. Or if I can just get to the end of this busy period, then I’ll have rest. There’s always if I can just, if I can do this, if I can do that.
Angela Correll [00:26:29]:
And I realized that I needed to stop doing that. And just like this wall and this house here, I need to start peeling off that that old plaster that old dust and dirt and get what is my identity based on? Who am I? Why am I feeling the need to do these things and so that sent me on just an even like I said I already really had started the process process but that sent me on a deeper journey to just get to the bottom of that and find out and through prayer, through scripture, through asking the Lord to reveal to me and that process is what really brought about my restoration as we were restoring the house.
Kim Moeller [00:27:17]:
Wow. That that is beautiful because you’re so right. I mean, if you’re going to, you know, restore a house and the foundation is not solid, you’ve got to make restore a house and the foundation is not solid, you’ve got to make those repairs. If you’re going to try to show the beautiful beams that were covered by drywall all the years later, it’s going to take hard work to get to that, but the beauty is there and uncovered once you do that. And I think you’re right. Like, in the busyness of the western society lifestyle, we are just racing from here to there. And and, again, it’s always honored that you’re what are you how are you? I’m busy. Oh, that’s so great.
Kim Moeller [00:27:52]:
You don’t know. Well, it’s really not that great. And and and just knowing, you know, we have this one life to live and how taking that time to uncover, you know, why do we do what we do and why what’s motivating us so that we can, you know, honor the Lord with our lives. He tells us to take a Sabbath once a week, and there’s good reason when we’re able to honor that and choose to honor that, then it does feel like he, you know, maximizes the time of that week going forward. You gave him one day and he takes the those hours, and it always feels like the next week is so much more productive. Whenever I fly back on a Sunday, and then I just kinda feel like I missed that rhythm, I I don’t enjoy it as much. I’m starting the race, you know, early on a Monday going, wait, wait, wait. I didn’t have that time to just sort of slow down before the next week.
Kim Moeller [00:28:51]:
So we we do it to ourselves, but it’s good that you could recognize that and see the parallels. And I think you are such a gifted writer to be able to weave those the spiritual truths through your story. And you’re also a fiction writer and tell the the listener about your trilogy.
Angela Correll [00:29:10]:
Yes. So I started, the first three books I wrote before restored, is trilogy called Grounded, Guarded, and Granted. And, grounded is about it’s about a flight attendant from New York City who loses her job and basically is forced to move back home to the farm in Kentucky with her grandmother. And it’s two women, different generations, learning to navigate life with one another because their grandfather had passed away 2 years before he was kind of the buffer so it was just this figuring all of that out and that really leads its humor, mystery, romance, there’s some faith in it of course I mean that’s the backbone of everything Yeah so there was a little family mystery involved and then the guard takes you to Montefollonico, Italy which is where we are now and then it wraps up and also in granted with it’s a little Kentucky and a little Italy
Angela Correll [00:30:07]:
It’s fun. I miss my characters. I wanna get back to them one of these days. I do miss them.
Kim Moeller [00:30:12]:
That’s so true. I so I finished your first book Grounded, but I haven’t read the the other 2, but really enjoyed how you wove, you know, the Kentucky piece. And then it sounds like this character is getting ready to go to Italy. So I’m excited to see how Yes. That is woven in as you because you said in your restored in Tuscany book that you were trying to write that while you were there visiting the village before
Angela Correll [00:30:37]:
you visited.
Kim Moeller [00:30:38]:
So so beautiful. Exactly. Yes. So gifted.
Angela Correll [00:30:42]:
Well, there’s a little World War 2 piece which is very timely. I don’t know when the podcast will air but we’re just celebrating the 80th anniversary of the d day invasion and so that’s there’s a little bit of that in there as well, which is a time period that’s always fascinated me.
Kim Moeller [00:31:00]:
Yes. So so true. I have a friend that is there right now for the Normandy, yeah, commemoration. Yes. Okay. One other piece I wanna pull out with the, the pillars of the family and faith, is just how you mentioned in your your video with your husband that you always thought you might be a missionary, and God had other plans, but you have financially generously supported a number of missionaries around the world and even talking about being involved with this church plant in Italy. So I would love for you to share just how God has laid on your heart to be generous to these other groups and how it it definitely was not what you thought, but it’s been much bigger and greater and better than you could have imagined.
Italy and Ethiopia
Angela Correll [00:31:49]:
Yes. It’s been such a joy. So through and I’m thankful to for Jess and his heart for the same things and that we are very joined in our love for giving and and for other cultures. But we have a couple of key overseas ministry partners currently and one’s in India and the other’s Ethiopia and I actually chair the board of the small it’s a small 501c3 called Ethiopian Impact. And so, I traveled to Ethiopia probably well COVID has kind of messed things up but usually once every other year for sure and sometimes once a year depending on what’s going on. And then we try to travel to Italy I mean to India as well. My husband is more takes a lead on that one. The really funny thing about Ethiopia is that out of all the African countries, Ethiopia is the only one with that was never colonized, but they were occupied twice by the Italians.
Kim Moeller [00:32:52]:
Really? So I can’t get away from Italy. Yes. And so in Ethiopia is you may know, you may have traveled there, but there is this there’s this Italian influence with food. There’s a traditional injera and all of the wats and the stews. And then they also have pizza and pasta and excellent they have excellent coffee. That’s where coffee was supposedly invented was in Ethiopia. Not invented, but discovered by the dancing goat who was eating the little coffee berries. And then they had these great macchiatos cappuccinos and espresso so so it’s just kind of funny again how God has woven all this together for me and there’s just this common theme and so yeah, so we love we love so that’s been great to be able to have that overseas experience in various places but especially Ethiopia for quite a few years now and to take be able to take people on vision trips and enjoy and being a part and a partner with ministries they are on the ground and doing various things and it’s just such a joy such a joy so that they’re very blessed and again it’s kind of that whole thing I talked about earlier to bring that full circle is with my marriage, it did my marriage did not look like what I thought, you know, as far as when I met a man who’d been divorced and 3 teenage kids.
Angela Correll [00:34:20]:
I did not know my mission life would look like this,
Kim Moeller [00:34:23]:
Right?
Angela Correll [00:34:24]:
But it’s been even better and more wonderful. So again, just being open to how God places things in your heart, but yet allowing him to make it what he wants it to be.
Kim Moeller [00:34:36]:
Right. Right. So wonderful and so true because I think if we hold on tightly to our own picture or those expectations that are not necessarily God’s expectations. For for some reason, in our mind, we think it should be a certain way, and then he’s like, no. Just trust me. I’m gonna blow that vision out of the water. But but it’s gonna be way, way better, and I think that’s so great. I did not know that about Ethiopian.
Kim Moeller [00:35:09]:
I have not visited there, so that’s fascinating to me with the Italian influence. I was mentioning to you on the pre call that I lived in Sweden during college, and I am half Swedish, but I did not know Swedish until I went to college. One of the reasons I chose to go to UCLA was a lot easier to get in then, so you can actually choose where you wanted to go. But they offer Swedish, and so I thought, that’s perfect. Let me go. Really? Yes. And so I took 2 years every day, 8 in the morning. I don’t know what I was thinking with that, but finished the 2 years and then there were, like, 20 of us from the UC system.
Kim Moeller [00:35:46]:
So all the UC schools like UC Berkeley, Riverside, Davis, UCLA, we all went to Sweden together the day after our sophomore year finished. And a third of us had taken Swedish for 2 years, a third had taken it 1 year, and a third had no Swedish. And then we had intensive Swedish that summer, and we migrated down to southern Sweden, which was directly across from Copenhagen. And for those of us that third group, the third of us who had the 2 years of Swedish, we were literally just thrust into the university there in Lund. And everything was in Swedish. Our transcripts, our grades were all counted by these classes. And, you know, I was feeling like, okay. I’m getting there.
Kim Moeller [00:36:29]:
I’m understanding things, but we were up in the northern part or, like, mid Sweden in Stockholm, and they have what they call Stockholm Ska, which is, like, the perfect Swedish. It’s so lovely and clear to understand. But then down in Lund, it is like the Bronx. So it’s got this very thick, you know, it’s guttural. It’s closer to Germany, and then it’s got the Danish influence. So it’s super hard to understand. And I remember when I moved on my dorm floor, they called it a corridor. So we each had our own, like, bathroom, bedroom, but shared a common living room.
Kim Moeller [00:37:02]:
And these guys were making wine, and they were explaining it to me in Swedish with words I’d never heard of, you know, how to make wine with their Skoda accent. And I did not know what they were talking about. I thought this is so scary. And then the next week, you know, my first class was art history, And I thought, this is so exciting. I’m in Europe. I can’t wait to take this class. And so, usually, you know, you’re learning Italian, so you know how you’re watching the person’s mouth, then you’re kinda reading their lips and trying to figure out what they’re saying. So that went out the window because all of a sudden she the professor turned off all the lights.
Kim Moeller [00:37:39]:
It was completely dark, and I couldn’t read anybody’s lips. And so I you know, we’re looking at these beautiful pictures of art, and then she’s lecturing. So I turned to the guy next to me with his notes to think that’ll help me to understand what he’s writing down, but he’s Italian. So he’s taking his notes in Italian. And I thought, oh, boy. This is really gonna be, like, sink or swim. That it did force me to then really, you know, work on learning the language, and, eventually, I felt much more comfortable to the point of once it was the beginning of that last summer before I was going back from my senior year of college, I said to my parents, I wanna stay. You know, now I know the language pretty much, and I wanna stay.
Kim Moeller [00:38:18]:
They said, “Well, you need to, make money for college. So I said, okay. So I got a job as a waitress back up in Stockholm, at the oldest steakhouse there in what they call Normoms Torrey that is still there today. We visited there last summer. Had not been back in many, many years. It was so Wow. So fun. But that was the real, like, I love Lucy.
Kim Moeller [00:38:39]:
I thought I’d be fired every day. I’m so sorry that I, you know, did this and that. And but, you know, it caused me to start dreaming in Swedish and really, really made it possible. And so you talked about, like, the demolition, the breaking down that I am so humbled. I don’t even know what I’m doing or saying, but I’m doing my best with the Lord.
Angela Correll [00:39:03]:
Yes. No, that is so good, though. But yeah, and I feel I mean, I’m still in that stage here. Because we’re, you know, I’m writing, like, I’m working on a book, another book now, and I’m writing in English. And, of course, we have guests. I’m talking in English, but then we go out. We had dinner with Italian friends 2 nights ago and lunch with Italian friends yesterday. And so I’m trying to have feet in both worlds that it’s like it’s better I’m improving all the time but you just still have this moments of total humiliation.
Angela Correll [00:39:36]:
Yes. And I mean, I I don’t I actually introduced my brother-in-law, which is cognato in Italian. I actually introduced him as my cannellio, which means this is I said his name and I said, this is Earl, my rabbit.
Kim Moeller [00:39:54]:
Exactly. Things like that. Yes.
Angela Correll [00:39:57]:
Oh, all the time. Something.
Kim Moeller [00:39:59]:
Yes. Yes. Well and it gives you such a huge appreciation for someone who lives here in America who speaks our language. In fact, I just I just had an Uber driver from the San Diego airport just 2 days ago, and he was from Iran. And he was so cute. He was 32, and every word he chose in English was so just, you know, careful as he had perfect grammar. And I said, how long have you been here? He said, oh, 4 years. I said, your English is absolutely amazing.
Kim Moeller [00:40:29]:
He said, oh, I’m just I don’t think it is. And, you know, he was so hard on himself. And I’m thinking, I I don’t know anything about how you would speak Persian. So, you know, I have so much respect for you. Yes.
Angela Correll [00:40:44]:
It is I mean it does gives you great compassion because it is really hard.
Kim Moeller [00:40:50]:
So so challenging. Yes. But but I do feel the world, you know, especially with tech, it’s so much more global accessible. The fact that we can even be doing this podcast with you in Tuscany, we’re looking at each other as if we’re in the same room. It’s it’s wonderful, and it does it makes that world feel very flat and interconnected and gives us all a bigger picture of what God is doing in in and around the world and how blessed we are that we get to get to be, you know, a part of it with our our lives. Well, I have loved, loved, loved this time with you. I feel like we can talk for many, many more hours because I just love how you weave in the spiritual things that you’re learning through the everyday life in Italy and and in Kentucky. But before we wrap up, how about if you share with the listener your your favorite bible verse, current book that you’re reading as an author, and then a recent bargain.
Conclusion
Angela Correll [00:41:46]:
Okay. Well, I love my favorite life verse has been Jeremiah 2911. I know the plans I have for you, Sizzle, are plans to prosper you and not harm you, to give you a future and a hope. So that’s always been probably a life verse for me even though there are many others that I also rely on like cast all your anxiety upon him because that’s another one I struggle with. But this one has been sort of that backbone for me. And then let’s see what I’m reading now currently is Corrie 10 Boom’s devotional God is a hiding place. And I adore her and these little devotionals every day from her time and most of it from her time in a concentration camp during World War 2. Just so motivating and really grows your faith.
Angela Correll [00:42:39]:
I mean just how she lives so moment by moment literally not knowing what the next moment was gonna bring and so I’ve enjoyed that so much it’s been a beautiful little book. Then my bargain is it’s not inexpensive. So but it is a bargain in that realm. So I love coffee. And I love cappuccino. There are a lot of if you look into like buying a cappuccino maker for your home there’s so many out there it’s overwhelming and you can spend literally a couple $1,000 on such a machine But I have found one that I think is an excellent value. It’s called the Delonghi La Specialista And you can get it for, I think, around 6.50, which is not cheap. Mhmm.
Angela Correll [00:43:34]:
But if you’re in that market, it’s a very, very good price. And I think it’s like the best out there because it’s a it’s a bit it’s a mix of manual and automation. Okay. So you don’t have to be a real high end barista, but you do have to do you do feel like you’re doing a little bit for your coffee. So anyway, highly recommend it.
Kim Moeller [00:43:55]:
Well, speaking from the the Kentucky Italian, I’m gonna I’m gonna go with that suggestion because you know good coffee now. Oh, that’s so fun. Well, Angela, just such a treat to be together with you, and thank you for living the generous life and trusting the Lord for what he has for you and the beautiful plans, the Jeremiah 2911. You’re you’re a blessing to all who know you, and I’m really grateful for the the connection from the marshes and to have had this conversation with you and bless just the listener to get to hear your story. So thank you so much.
Angela Correll [00:44:33]:
Well, thank you, Kim. It’s been absolute pleasure. The time has flown by.
Kim Moeller [00:44:37]:
I know. I know. Well, ciao ciao, Bella, and thanks again. Bye.
Angela Correll [00:44:44]:
Thank you, Kim. Bye bye.
Kim Moeller [00:44:51]:
Thanks so much for joining us today on the Generous Grill podcast. We’re so glad that you’re here. And if you know of someone that you think needs to be a guest on this podcast, please reach out to us. New episodes are released every other week, and you can follow us on YouTube and on all platforms. Thanks for being here, and we’ll see you next time.
