bonjour...au revoir!

Sorry I haven't posted in awhile, it has been crazy busy with school work and traveling it's hard to set aside enough time to update on what's been going on over here in Europe!

This past weekend me and Alyson and 5 other students from our group packed up and went to Paris!  It was a MUCH smoother trip to and from Paris than Greece was two weeks ago, we are practically experts at this traveling business nowadays :)  We got to Paris and once again ran into a couple that was from Canada who was studying in France that told us exactly what we needed to do and where we needed to go and what metro we needed to get on and how to buy our tickets, etc etc etc.  Let me just reiterate the obvious fact that Jesus has blessed us all with some amazing guardian angels, and we were definitely saying a few extra prayers that night!

We got to the hostel very easily, and got all set up and situated.  Mind you, this was our first time staying in a hostel, it was called St. Christopher's hostel and was ran by mostly English speaking people, and the people staying at this hostel were mostly our age and traveling from America as well.  The atmosphere was fun and relaxed, they had a restaurant and bar on the first floor and even a night club atmosphere in the basement (however we did not check that part of it out on our weekend stay) butt he option was there!

There were 7 of us and I had booked all of us to stay in one room, which happened to be an 8 person room.  So as we walked in our room we noticed that the eighth bed had clothes laying out on the bed, so it turned out that we did have an 8th roommate!  However we never actually saw or met him because the first night he came back very late and we got up and left for the city super early the next morning, and the second night he didn't come back at all.  So it turned out great anyways!  We did have a community bathroom (yuck!) whose odor resembled very old, moldy, urine that has been covered with rotten eggs, all in a very moist tiny space whose temperature was that of a sauna...just not the relaxing aspect of a sauna.  So needless to say, we avoided having to use that restroom at all costs and remember to go in the public restrooms in the city before returning to the hostel for the nights.

SO...we arrived in Paris late Friday night, so we wanted to get an early start on Saturday to get as much exploring in as possible.  We got up and were out of the hostel by 7am the next morning and immediately head into the city to find the infamous Eiffel Tower...and we found it.  Absolutely beautiful and breathtaking, it was hard to take in that I was actually looking at this landmark that I have seen in countless number of films and read about in tons of books and seen hundreds upon hundreds of pictures of all over the world.  It was amazing.  I stayed with Alyson and Danny the whole day and we explored the entire city, from 8am-9pm we were out walking around the city of Paris...sounds cool, right??  We saw the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, the Pantheon, the Palace of Luxenburg, the Louve (however didn't go inside the Louve), a couple churches, some boutiques, a cute restaurant in the park, and so many other random places that we just stumbled upon.  I was in love with this city, the buildings, the parks, the weather...it was absolutely amazing.  Everything seemed so clean and organized, the streets weren't overwhelming, the metro system was manageable, and the city was just flat out gorgeous.

We returned back to Castel Gandolfo on Sunday around noon and were able to get settled back and do some homework and go to mass at 5 up on the hill.  So that was really nice, the mass was pretty interesting as well.  It was all spoken in Italian (of course) and Alyson and I got there about a half hour early and were sitting with our Italian teacher (she's American, but she teaches Italian at this campus in Italy for Walsh).. anyways, an Italian man came up to us and spoke some Italian (Alyson and I just sat there and looked at Laura for a translation)...turns out he needed readers for the mass that evening...and so he asked Alyson if she would do it.  Alyson didn't know how to respond, seeing as we have had about 3 weeks of Italian, but Laura answered for her and said yes, of course Alyson would do the reading!  So...she did...and although she stumbled over a few words, and maybe forgot the last line that translated "the word of the Lord", she still did an amazing job!! I was shocked because I know how she gets beyond anxious saying the reading back in America, speaking English...so I was extremely proud she was able to go in front of entire congregation of Italians and read from the Bible in a language she is very unfamiliar to, so props to her!

This week has been filled with class and homework and sprinting through the streets of Rome trying to catch trains and buses and every other public transportation out there.  One thing I am not going to miss when I leave here is public transportation, I absolutely hate it.  I might even sleep in my car a few nights when I return home because I will be so much more appreciative on just having the capability of driving myself anywhere I'd like whenever I'd like and not have to sprint in pouring down rain across the city of Rome trying to get to termini and to the correct train station by 4:23pm so we can catch the train and not have to sit in termini for another hour until the next train.  Why did we have to run (literally) across the city to get to termini?  I'm glad you asked!  It's because Roman people enjoy having strikes about anything and everything and at the most inconvenient times and places, so basically anytime that it will inhibit convenience for us a strike occurs.  So the buses were not running that would take us to termini, therefore we had to fall back on running...or sprinting...to the station.  It was an adventure...to say the least.

This weekend we are packing up again (the whole group this time with our teachers) and heading into Florence for the weekend!! Should be an awesome time, maybe do a little more shopping :)  gotta finish that Christmas shopping!!! We are definitely going to need to ship stuff home...it's been quite the expensive trip-but all so worth it!

I miss you all and get homesick a lot at night, but I'm having an amazing time here and can't wait to see everyone come December!! I'll try to post more often now, and share pictures with you all :) love you and miss you!!