How does this count as school??

Seriously.

Right now, I'm laying out in the front courtyard, it's beautiful, and life couldn't be any better (except if I didn't have two midterms on Friday, but who cares? All I have to get is a C!!)

My life the last few weeks has been a huge roller-coaster. I came back from Venice (high!) only to get sick (low!). I have wonderful friends (HIGH!) but then the cold I got a lot worse (low!). Finally, my parents came (HIGH!!!!) but then I was told I had to go to class Friday to take those darn midterms in the 2 classes I don't like (low....).

What more could a person ask for? I have a family that loves me as much as I love them. I have awesome friends both at JForce (John Felice Rome Center) and in MKE and GB. There's barely a cloud in the sky and the courtyard is covered in what I'm choosing to believe are daisies.

It's days like this when I'm truly surrounded by God. Sure, I've had my struggles (who hasn't?), but if you told me a year ago that I would be sitting outside in Rome on my laptop with plans to go to Tunisia in a week (!), I would have thought you were on drugs. Never did I think I'd end up here. Those who know me well know how indecisive I am and how much I struggled choosing a study abroad option: South Africa, Ireland, England, Spain, El Salvador and then finally Rome. 

I wish I could describe this moment better, but in this one moment, in this one place, everything is perfect in the world.

Carnevale- Days 2 & 3

We, of course, slept in on Saturday and went to Murano, which is a separate island. We finally found a ferry and after only getting a little confused as to which one to take (think a complicated bus system, but in a different language, and not buses, but ferries), we managed to get to the island.

We wandered for a bit, did some shopping, which of course was a huge priority. Murano is well-known for their glass-blowing, so we simply had to get some authentic Murano glass jewelry!!! My favorite part was that in every shop window there was a sign that said, "This store sells only Murano products. Whoever buys goods imported from China kills Murano." That's a bit harsh... After making our way down the main street, and by street I mean on one side of the large river that divides the island in two, we found a factory, but lo and behold the factory was closed on Saturdays, including the weekend of Carnevale, which I would assume is one of the busiest weekends. We made our way back the way we came from, only on the other side as to not miss those stores. A nice man told us where we could find a demonstration and we saw them blow glass! At first, I was thinking, "Okay. That's great. I don't understand what the big deal is, though." Then he made a gorgeous mustang statue with about 4 quick movements and then I was impressed.

We went back to the apartment, had our second family dinner, and got ready for night 2. Night 2 was awesome, but somehow I don't really want to explain the details, as I'm sure it would make all of you very nervous and concerned... Ask me again in 10 years and I'll give you the deets. Everyone ended up fine.

Sunday, we slept in, met up with the other JFRC (or J-Force) kids and split up. Some went to check out of the hostel and get the deposit back while the rest of us waited for the other group who were leaving their luggage at our place for the day. We went back to San Marco's and got some more awesome pics. Definitely my favorite part of the day was when this huge group of guys (think of 10 frat guys, only Italian) dressed up as cows attacked me and yelled "MOO!!!" Gosh, I miss Wisconsin...

We went back, had our last family dinner, chilled, and went out for gelato before we left for the train station, which was a good 20 minute walk from our apartments. We got there with 1 1/2 hours to spare, though, but by then we were so tired we just didn't care.

Then came the ride home.

Words cannot describe how awful it truly was. We were supposed to have a cabin to ourselves, but when we got there, 2 African men, who smelled horribly of urine and alcohol, were sprawled out on our seats. They didn't understand that it was our cabin and didn't speak English. After a mild freak out by one girl, we found a man who explained that they had to leave, which they eventually did. Unfortunately, they left their horrible odor behind. Luckily, that same girl came prepared with Febreeze. After 2 good sprayings, we were able to suck it up and go in. I still couldn't fall asleep, though. Those of you who have had the pleasure of living with me know that I tend to freak out if I can't fall asleep. That, coupled with the odor, the cramped space, the creepy guy drumming his nails on the other side of the door, and the fact that I knew I had a long day of classes ahead of me, kept me from sleeping. I think I finally dozed off for a grand total of 2 hours, though!!!

Looking back on all the experiences I had, Venezia. Was. Epic.
End of story.

Farewell, Meat! Carnevale 2010- Day 1

Gosh, you guys sure get antsy when I don't post... I guess it's a sign of love! <3

Speaking of love, last weekend was Valentine's and I WENT TO VENICE! (You see that flawless transition???)

Words. Cannot. Describe. It.

We left thursday night at 10:30, which was our first mistake. If you ever are in Italy, never, under any circumstances, take the night train. Out of my entire trip, being sick, hurting my foot, and the cold showers, the night train is still the worst experience I've ever had. Normally, I'm able to just pass out and sleep the entire time. Nope. Didn't happen. I think I got about 2 hours and then we pulled into Venice at 5:45 am. Oh, and we couldn't check into our hostel until 9. My first impression was, boy, Venice is cold! A normal person would have looked at a map and realized, hey, Venice is in northern Italy and is surrounded by water. Nope. Not this girl. 

We we able, thankfully, to drop off our bags at the hostel and then just wandered the streets of Venice. It was so weird. At first, our only priority was to get warm and hopefully sit down, but nothing was open so on we went. By this time, it was 6:30 and the sun was beginning to peak out so we wanted to find a place to watch the sunrise, something I have yet to do in Italy...

After some more wandering and my sad attempts at asking for directions, we somehow found San Marco's. If you get the chance to go to Venice, take it if for no other reason to go to San Marco's. St Mark is the patron saint of Venice and is buried in the church that bears his name. As huge and impressive as the church is, the views are even better.

I feel like I should do a little backtracking. This weekend was the end of Carnevale, a 12 (?) day party/ festival celebrating the start of Lent. Traditionally, it was when everyone would eat all the meat they had, thus "Carne" ("meat") "Vale" ("go away"). It was expanded into a huge 2 week long party where people from all over the world come to party and show off the most extravagant costumes I've ever seen. Think Halloween on steroids mixed with Phantom of the Opera.

It turns out that the best dressed come out to San Marco's to have their pictures professionally done at sunrise for magazines, ads, TV... Guess who happened to be there at the same time??? THIS GIRL!!! I got SO many incredible pics that Halloween will be a huge letdown this year.

We checked into our apartments. Yes, that's right: plural. I traveled with 7 other girls; 10 if you count the girls we met up with. We were given the first floor of a building that has 3 separate apartments. Apartment is the wrong word. Penthouse is more like it. Please refer to the picture. That is just my and one other girl's bed.

We took a well-deserved nap, had lunch at a pizzeria right outside our apartment, and, being the girls we are, immediately started our searches for the perfect masks. I decided on a subtle purple and gold mask, with jewels, edging, and huge feathers. I love that mask... We all met back at made pasta for dinner and totally ate family style. We got ready and went out to celebrate one girl's 21st bday!!! We heard of some stuff going on at San Marcos, but it turned out to be kind of a bust. We went back to the apartments to change and stumbled upon a huge party in a piazza near us. We met up with some more JFRC kids, but nothing much happened and we were back home by 1:45.

Just another day....

Hello all.

Haven't blogged in a few days, but that's just because nothing major has happened.
I'm trying to put together a trip to Austria to Salzburg and Vienna to do the Sound of Music tour, which if you know me, is one of the coolest things I can imagine.

I did go to St. Peter's for mass on Sunday, which was pretty surreal. The mass was in Italian, but again, I was able to figure out that the Gospel was about Simon the fisherman and once again, I was pretty proud of myself.

I came back after and did some reading for my Roman Catholicism and Christian/Jewish classes. Unfortunately, I then discovered ch131.com, where I can get seasons 4 and 5 of Bones online, so you can bet I wasn't too productive afterward. I did end up going to mass at school again that night because I missed what the first 2 reading were about at St. Peter's.

I stayed up and watched the 1st quarter of the Superbowl, which we streamed here, but it started at 12:30 am so needless to say I was pretty out of it.

Monday, I'm not sure why, but I just felt really down. My italian class was really confusing, in my RC class, my desk top was broke and clattered to the floor and in my C/J class, the prof. thought I was falling asleep even though I wasn't. Disclaimer: even if I was, it would have been understandable: I had that prof for 5 hours that day, it was 9:15, and the Superbowl was the night before. I still maintain I didn't fall asleep, though.

Now, it's 12:30 Tuesday morning and I'm technically supposed to be in my Italian class, but I finished the quiz in about 6 minutes, including double-checking my answers, so I have 20 minutes to kill.

Ciao all!

Lesson Learned: Don't Mess with the Orangutans.

I went to the zoo today and almost wet myself. Not because it was wet outside or because I couldn't find a bathroom. No, it was because I thought I'd have a sweet moment when I would put my hand on the glass of the orangutans display and then he would slowly put his hand up like they do in movies. No, it doesn't work that way. I held up my end of the deal and squatted down to his eye-level and slowly put up my hand. You know what that little monster did? He smacked his big ol' orangutan hand right in my face, given that I was on the other side of the glass, but still: not exactly cinematic. There was some heavy swearing involved, along with what people have told me was a very impressive jump.

We had plans to go to the zoo all week and not rain nor wet socks was going to stop us. What almost stopped us was our lack of directions. We didn't realize that the #19 bus first of all was actually a tram, not a bus. Secondly, we didn't realize that the #19 took you all the way to the entrance of the zoo. We got off 3 stops before, which here is a good 2 miles. Oh, did I mention it was raining? On the plus side, I got to use my "Jacket in a Packet" for the first time, which is a rain coat that folded up nicely into the pocket but now just barely fits...

Once we got into the zoo, found the guy we were meeting up with, who, the poor guy, had thought we ditched him and had started heading back after waiting for 1 1/4 hours for us, we had a lot of fun. We accepted the fact that the weather sucked and was grateful there wasn't any crowds.

You already heard about my orangutan fiasco, which apparently was the highlight of the trip for my friends. We also saw the usual zebras, lions, tigers, chimps, apes, wallabies, and seals. I realized that I had not been to a zoo probably since I was 8, so I had a blast making a complete fool out of myself with my friend making animal noises.

Estimated time getting there: 2+ hours
Estimated time getting back: 45 min...

What you are, we once were; what we are now, you will be.

If anyone knows (without looking it up!) what this is referencing, you are seriously disturbed. Just throwing that out there.

Today (Friday) has been an eventful day: I had a make-up Art in Rome class because on Wednesday, we went to the Papal Audience. First off, every night before this class I wonder why the heck I'm taking it: it's tons of reading, I have to get up early, museum fees are already adding up, and it takes at least an hour to get anywhere on public transportation. That being said, today rocked.

We met at the Pantheon (NOT the the Parthenon, which I learned is completely different) and toured it. I know I've said this before, but my prof knows everything about everything. This class I actually took notes, which was a big step for me, because I usually just tell myself I'm just absorbing everything he's saying w/o writing anything down. We learned about the sentence on top of the Pantheon, the columns, the dome, the recesses, the history of Caesar, Hadrian, Marcus Agrippa and everyone else who lived or breathed at that time in history.

Then we walked about 10 minutes to the Ara Pacis, which is the Altar of Augustan Peace. It was constructed when Augustus Caesar was returning home from a 3 year-long battle and was created as a symbol of the peace he had restored to Rome.

Class was technically over, but my friend Julia and I went and grabbed lunch at a Tabacchi, and then got the best gelato yet. Seriously, this place must have had over 60 different flavors. It had pastries, cakes, cannoli, tiramisu, candy, and, my personal favorite, huge suckers with the pope's face on them. After picking out our gelato (8 flavors, 2 girls, no regrets), we walked around for a bit and met up with some people and went to the Church of the Immaculate Conception, aka the Really Creepy Cappuccin Monk Skull Church.

I have never been scared by a church. Actually I normally find them very comforting, but this place was just trippy. We asked the woman working there and she said there was over 3000 skeletons there. Google image it, and do it during the day. I'm not sure if it was the actual skulls and bones that freaked me out or the fact that I will one day be one. That's what the title is, by the way. At the very end, there's a sign that says, "What you are now, we once were; what we are now, you will be."

We took the long way back to the bus line we needed so we could stop at the Spanish Steps. The views there are amazing! I got a bunch of great pictures I'll try to put up soon!

Highlights/ Random Tidbits:
* The Pantheon is the best preserved ancient Roman building because it was handed over to the church in the 7th century.
* The famous phrase "M. Agrippa, son of Lucius, on the counsel for the third time built this" is a total lie. Agrippa originally built it, but it was destroyed by a fire and rebuilt by the Emperor Hadrian.
* When the crazy woman who works in the creepy monk church says no pictures, she means it.
* Jumping out and saying "boo!" to your friends in the creepy monk church is frowned upon.
* There's a store off of Via del Corso that sells boxers that have pictures of the David's, um, manhood.
* The art historians at the Ara Pacis are crazy strict. They yelled when my friend put down her folder on a 2-year old model of the Ara Pacis. I swear it's because they don't want to have to clean it...

Ciao, famiglia e amici!

VIVE IL PAPA!!! Part II

=-)
Today was Papal Audience Day and we had the day off from classes. First of all, you got to love that we get off for something like this! Second of all, WE GOT TO SEE THE FREAKIN' POPE!

We got out tickets last night at dinner which was basically a green 1/4 sheet of paper that said, according to Fr. Bohr, "you are cordially invited to tea with the Pope," along with 1100 of your closest fellow Christians. We really weren't given any other instructions, but decided that we would just follow the masses (get it? masses? church? oh, I need sleep...) the next morning.

Some people were absolutely crazy and left by 6:00 in the morning. I got up at six and left at the much more reasonable time of 6:45 and was there along w/ the rest of Loyola at 7:15. No one told us that we couldn't even get in until 8:30, so we chilled (literally, it was cold!) outside until then. I was a little disappointed we didn't have to elbow our way through the nuns, like I was told.

After security (of course) we were ushered into the audience hall and got great seats and waited for another two hours, but we were inside, sitting, with access to a free bathroom, so no complaining here.

Then, he came.

It was so surreal. He was probably 200 meters away. I say 200 meters because I have absolutely no idea and don't want to think about how the actual distance. He was flanked by the Swiss Guards, looking as sharp as always in their "costumes," as one friend said.

First was an opening blessing only in Italian. Then someone read a Scripture passage from Psalms in French, the next one read in English, the next in Spanish, German, Portuguese, and Russian.

Then came Roll Call. The priest who read in Italian would come back to the mic and announce who was there from French-speaking countries. Each group would stand and either cheer or sing and then the Pope would give a very short homily on the reading in French. The JFRC kids were panicking because we didn't have a song! It was so obvious that everyone else had been preparing for weeks to sing for His Holiness and we just stood up and looked at each other and cheered. Yay!!!! But really, it was awesome. He gave us a special blessing, and said he was praying for us and our loved ones, which is you guys! So you all were there in spirit!

After Roll Call, we sang the Our Father together in Latin while the Pope did his blessing over the objects (I brought my rosary Kate gave me from Kenya (Kenya? Belize? Peru?)) and we were done!

We headed to Old Bridge, the best gelato place in the city and then back to campus for lunch. I napped, obviously, and then here I am telling you all about my great adventures!

Highlights:
* My friends getting gitty with the cold and started to yell stuff like, "Look! Papal Pigeons!" while we were waiting outside
* The Austrians sitting in the section in front of us wearing what I liked to call "Von Trap hats" and yes. They sang.
* The Irish grade schoolers who apparently thought it would be a good idea to bring huge balloons than when they eventually popped, sounded like gunshots.
***** The. Traveling. Jugglers. Think Oceans 11 when they went to go get the Chinese guy. The face on the Pope was awesome after they were done. It was a combination of surprise and "what the heck was that?"

VIVE IL PAPA!!!

Oh, hey.
Saw the Pope today. He says hi.

The end.

Class, Class, What a Pain in the--- Butt.

I'm finally giving in to family pressure in two ways: I'm letting my family friend me on Facebook and I'm blogging about my classes. Sigh.

Here's a little bit about my school life:
~My classes normally don't start until noon, except Art In Rome, which I'll explain in a bit.
~ Everything at the JFRC is in the same building, an old convent.
~ I can be on facebook until 3 minutes before my class begins, go to my room, grab my stuff and still be on time for class

Italian 101:
Sadly, my one day of Italian freshman year did not fulfill my Italian requirement here. Italian is one of my favorite classes actually because the class is so small and we're really encouraged to ask questions and make mistakes. Whoever said Italian would be easy because I have so much Spanish experience is a moron. Spanish just makes everything so much harder! You think you know how to say something in Italian, but then the person looks at you like your crazy because apparently, you're speaking Spanish. Gr. Still, I'm improving.

Roman Catholicism:
Is a lot harder than I thought. We're still in the abstract phase: what is theology? What is faith?
The professor, though, is really interesting. He's from Germany, lives in Rome, teaches "Faith" at the Gregorian Institute in Italian, and teaches 2 classes at the JFRC in English. We asked him just how many languages he spoke and he said 10, 13 if you count ancient Greek, Hebrew, and Latin...

Christian/Jewish Encounter:
I have the same professor as for Roman Catholicism and it is a lot more interesting than my Roman Catholicism class, which is a little disconcerting. :/

Art in Rome:
This is the class that you all love. It's the one where we meet each Wednesday at a different site and get a tour of it from our professor. I've only had it once and we went to the Forum, Colesseum, and the Palatine Hill. Very cool, but I heard his tests are impossible.

Immigrant Experience:
MY FAVORITE! The book is really interesting and the professor's adorable. We watch clips from movies that really show what it was like back then. Oh, and our big homework assignment was a 2 page paper on a Charlie Chaplin movie we watched in class.

That's all for now!! =-)