Holy Weekend

I spent Holy Thursday with my super-cool room mate Kristen. She is awesome, I don't think I could have lucked out any more with my living situation.

On Good Friday (now known as Great Friday), I went to the Stations of the Cross at the Colosseum and was able to get my first peak at Pope Benedict. We were very close and the weather was beautiful.

Lots of people out and about. We were there about 3 hours early and met up with a bunch of people from the JFRC.

Where Pope Benedict stood and spoke, I don't have a great picture of him.

A bunch of JFRC-ers in the crowd.

Then on Saturday we joined the line at 3:00 p.m. for the Easter Vigil mass having already reserved tickets back in January. We went in a big group and were some of the first people there which was nice. The following picture is my room mate Kristen and I taking a gelato break in front of the Vatican doors.

As the doors opened at 7:30 it was madness. Thousands of people were running, screaming and pushing to get into St. Peter's. Nuns, priests, deacons, and hundreds of sneaky seminarians were cutting ME in line. You would think a bunch of honest Catholics would honor a line on EASTER. No. We ended up being in the back of St. Peter's, but at least we were able to get seats. It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience I do not ever need to repeat. Very frustrating.

10,000 people were let in for the 4 hour Latin Easter Vigil. Here is my last picture of the seats outside - they probably had a better view of the Pope than I did, but he walked right past us up and down the isle!

Saturday was a beautiful day to be outside. The school gave students tickets for the 10:30 a.m. mass Easter Sunday... it poured the whole 3 hours that they waited. As nothing was open yesterday, I ate my Easter Feast at a local Chinese restaurant. It was definitely an Easter to remember. Last night we screened Angels and Demons in one of the classrooms which was very exciting to recognize all of the streets, monuments, and churches right here in Rome.

Today has been a rainy sweatpants/laundry/homework kind of day. 3 more weeks in Rome.

Hope you all had a Buona Pasqua - Happy Easter.

I definitely missed the Shireys/Denhofs yesterday.

Side note: The girl I volunteer with had her wallet stolen on her way to the Vatican Saturday. I have never been happier about my steal strapped theft-proof purse! (Seen in all of my pictures)