Orvieto

Last weekend was a much needed weekend in Rome.

On Saturday, about 30 students went on a school sponsored day trip to a neighboring town - Orvieto. It wasn't terribly exciting, but we were given a DELICIOUS and FREE lunch.

We drove about 2 hours by bus and then had to get into this tram to take us to the top of the hill/mountain.

View from Orvieto ^ and Brendan tempting fate.

My friends Ryan (LeMoyne) Brendan (John Carroll) and Mike at the top

Sweet Cathedral in Orvieto

(Nick that's the sweatshirt I bought you..)

We were back by dinner time and headed to my first Roma game!

The game was a ton of fun and our section was FULL of JFRC-ers.

(Mike is pictured way top left in blue)

I'm the only one not in a Roma shirt-

(Nick I'm again wearing the blue Italia jersey I bought ya :)

The girl behind me, was wearing a Yesterdog sweatshirt recently,

and I found out she went to City High. Small world.

I go to Rome and meet Grand Rapidians.

VICTORY!

DUBLIN

This is my last Spring Break post - promise.

Dublin had undoubtably the nicest atmosphere and people of the 3 countries we explored. AND they spoke English - but it had to have been the hardest of the 3 accents to understand.

Friday morning Mike and I arrived in Dublin - as RyanAir is based in Dublin we did not have a 2 hour shuttle into the city like we did in Barcelona and Paris. The weather was gorgeous and we were given towels at our hostel - bonus. Took much needed showers and headed to the Guinness Storehouse. Dublin is home to both the Guinness Storehouse and Jameson Distillery.

The Guinness Storehouse is the tallest building in Dublin, and after finding out all about the founding of the Guinness Factory, Arthur Guinness, and how it is made/brewed, we were given a free Guinness on the top floor overlooking the city. Undoubtably the freshest Guinness I'll ever have.

Dublin was in no way the 'prettiest' city that we saw, but I loved it.

Saturday was a Rugby day-

Wales vs. Ireland

Six Nations

The game was awesome. Our seats were incredible.

Both of our first experiences of professional rugby.

And... Ireland won!

Sunday we wandered around before our flight,

bought our souvenirs, and saw Trinity College.

All in all, best. spring break. ever.

This weekend seems to be the J-Force weekend for Dublin.

At least 20+ people headed to Ireland including my room mate and the rugby boys.

I am headed to London, and thanks to the British Airways strike, will not be back until Monday! I watched Harry Potter 1 in preparation as King's Cross will be on my agenda. (embarrassing)

Paris (Belated)

After getting into Paris very very late at night, we found our way to our hostel thanks to Anne Marie and Nick navigating us about the metro system. Here is a picture of our hostel called the "Young and Happy" haha.

Atleast Nick was happy! I wanted some sleep..

We woke up bright and early and Anne Marie and Nick took a water bus tour, and Mike and I went on a free English tour by the same company that gave us our Munich tour. We both saw all the sights and learned a lot about Paris. There was so much to see! My student visa was able to get me into the Louvre for free, and we were told it would get us in free to Versailles, but the workers in Versailles were not as accommodating with our lack of mastery of the French language.

The Mona Lisa was very secure. And SMALL!

These few pictures really do not do Paris justice.

It was awesome.

The next day, we met up at the Hard Rock

and said our good byes as Anne Marie and Nick were off to Venice.

Pictured: Ice Water

Not Pictured: Cherries

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Mike and I spent the afternoon at Versailles - which was awesome.

King Louis became King at the age of 5, and grew up very paranoid.

He moved the whole court out to Versailles - all the nobles.

The palace, grounds and gardens were absolutely huge.

SB Part 2 - Barcelona!

You're supposed to be able to see the Mediterranean from there!

Very early Sunday morning, the four of us headed to Barcelona and arrived around noon. We had our first RyanAir experience - which is one I never want to repeat. 3/4 flights were on time over spring break, but RyanAir is nothing but organized chaos. No seat assignments makes for an interesting free for all. Our hostel was great! Just off the main strip Las Ramblas. We wandered for most of the day and Mike acted as our tour guide as he had been there before. Monday we woke up early to do a hop-on hop-off bus tour. As soon as the tour started, it began to snow! Barcelona sees snow about once every 6 years and we were there that one day. A couple inches ended up sticking to the ground making the bus ride interesting. They eventually cancelled our tour, which was fine because we had seen the two main stops that we were interested in - Gaudi's Park Guell and Familia Segrada.

Tuesday however was beautiful! Sunny with a high of 75. No joke.

We walked to the beach and tried so paella (not a fan..) and explored until our flight Tuesday night to Paris.

Mike and the paella. ^^

Today is a beautiful day in Roma, and I'm headed on a day trip to Orvieto tomorrow.

Calcio news - our star player tore her ACL in our game on Wed. after getting a hattrick.

I have unbelievable bruises from this week's game.

But my team chocolate prevailed over team purple.

Ciao, Lex

Anne Marie and Nick come to Roma!

Spring Break '10 Part 1

To kick off Spring Break, Anne Marie and Nick got into Rome early Saturday morning.

They hit the ground running and we packed in a very full day.

First we started with the Colosseum!

And then we headed to the Trevi Fountain:

The legend is that if you throw a coin

with your right hand over your left shoulder you will return to Rome.

We had some gelato and walked through the Pantheon and up the Spanish Steps.

^^Anne Marie and Nick at the top of the steps^^

And then we made our way over to St. Peter's square

That's all for now.

I'll update soon with tales of our travels to Barcelona, Paris, and Dublin!

Munich, Germany

Taking a break from studying for my midterms, I'll briefly describe this past awesome weekend in Munich. The three boys and Emily waited for me to finish class on Friday (as I was the only to have a make-up class) and then we were off for our 7:00p.m. flight to Germany. It was only and hour and a half before I had some major culture shock. This was the first non-Italian city I had visited and it was completely different from Rome or the other places I have been. Munich was clean, efficient, and looked like a modern city. All I knew upon arrival was Guten Tag! (Hello) and Auf Wiedersehen! (Good Bye, thank you Sound of Music). We checked into our hostel and hung out there for the night and watched some of the Olympics as we planned our big day - Saturday.

Saturday started with what I think was a typical German breakfast - sausages, a huge pretzel, and .. a beer? We went to an open market and ate outside where we saw men and women of all ages drinking beer with breakfast. The couple next to us let their daughter (I'm guessing she was no older than 7 or 8) finish their beers.

Next was the Glockenspiel (pictured above)-

The Rathaus-Glockenspiel of Munich is a tourist attraction in Marienplatz the heart of Munich. Part of the second construction phase of the New Town Hall, it dates from 1908. Every day at 11 a.m. it chimes and re-enacts two stories from the 16th century to the amusement of mass crowds of tourists and locals. It consists of 43 bells and 32 life-sized figures.

Then we took a Free English Tour that our Hostel set us up with - we saw a lot in the 3 hours: The Royal Residence, The National Theater/Opera House, the Church of St. Peter, The Old Town Hall which is actually newer than the New Town Hall, the Hofbräuhaus, and much more.

I knew Pope Benedict was from Germany, but didn't realize he was from Bavaria! It was cool to see the Church where he was the Archbishop, sample his favorite beer etc. It really humanized him and made him seem like a more down-to-earth guy.

(The JFRC kids in front of the Hofbräuhaus)

We also did a tour of some of the most famous beer halls. The Hofbräuhaus being 1st on the list of the 1000 beer halls in Bavaria. The Hofbräuhaus in Munich was one of the beer halls used by the Nazi Party to declare policies and hold functions: On February 24, 1920, Adolf Hitlerproclaimed the twenty-five theses of the National Socialist program at the Hofbräuhaus. Before he turned to politics, one of Hitler's watercolors was of the Hofbräuhaus, which also held a 1889 baby photo of Hitler as recently as 2006.

The tour was interesting as our guide discussed the difficult subject of the rise of National Socialism, telling us about the fantastic job the people of Munich did to restore the inner city from almost complete destruction during WWII and how the Germans deal with their actions throughout this period in history.
Sunday we wandered the city, eating some Haagen Dazs, and exploring the less touristy places as there isn't much activity on Sundays. Emily was able to go back to where her dad grew up, and we made it back to Rome around 10 p.m.

2 more days and then Spring Break is here - Can't wait to see Anne Marie and Nick on Saturday!

Venezia 2/19-2/21

Two weekends ago was my trip to Venice.

We took a high speed train on the way there,

which only took about 3 hours.

Our hostel was on the mainland,

only a 10 minute/1 euro train ride away from Venice proper.

The next day, we headed into Venice and it rained. all. day.

What else is new.

We broke out the umbrellas and

bought 36 hour passes for the vaporetto service. (water bus)

Very weird/strange place. No cars. No roads. Lots of water.

I was stunned at how quickly I became used to

taking boats everywhere instead of a subway or bus,

and every once in a while I had to remind myself

where we were and really appreciate it all.

We went to Murano, and island where all the glass blowing is done -

apparently they were moved there

because their kilns would start fires on the main islands,

there we watched some glass sculpting.

We wandered around more,

and Colin played tour guide while

we took the vaporetto down the grand canal,

reading from his travel book about

what all the different buildings were that we passed.

We headed back and hung out at the hostel,

after searching for a non-existent night life.

The next day we just attempted to get lost in Venice all day,

and somehow wound up seeing the same places several times....

We were some sort of twilight zone

where every turn put us back in the same piazza.

Our train ride back was pretty awful,

we saved money by taking an overnight train,

11:30 pm-7:30amish and didn't buy sleeper cars.

Thankfully I can sleep anywhere.

COOL HATS!

This post doesn't really do Venice the justice it deserves,

because Venice was my coolest trip UNTIL Munich.

I Know You Were Wondering...

WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE

BETWEEN A BASILICA AND A CATHEDRAL?

In the Roman Catholic Church, a basilica is a designation for an important church building. A basilica is designated by the pope to buildings that carry special spiritual, historical, and architectural significance. Once a basilica -- always a basilica. A basilica may or may not also be the cathedral of the diocese. This is the highest permanent designation for a church building.

The word basilica derives from a style of church based on the old roman basilicas which were houses of Law.

A cathedral is a church which holds a bishop's throne (called cathedra). It means it is the central church of his diocese. A cathedral may or may not be a basilica. It is the home church for the bishop or archbishop of a Catholic diocese. A cathedral may not always be a cathedral, depending on the decisions of the bishop. Hierarchally, the cathedral is the most important church of a diocese.

Both of these are churches in that they have a consecrated altar and are used for celebrating the Sacraments.

Sicily

A much belated recap of Valentine's weekend in Sicily. It has been hard to bring myself to write about the rain filled island that I ended up throwing up all over.

4:30 a.m. came way too early Friday morning as Mike, Shane, and I had gone out looking for soccer jerseys that were on sale the night before. We had ended up meeting two couples from the UK and they wanted to hear all about the states, complimenting our straight teeth, and telling us all about Liverpool Football.

A slight delay checking in/getting through security as Mike had forgotten his passport, but 28 students, a priest, and a professor boarded the plane and made it to Palermo safely by 8:00 a.m.

We hit the ground running and drove about an hour each to Monreale-Segesta-Selinunte-Agrigento.

The flight itself was only about 45 minuti. We reached altitude and then landed again. It could have been 5 hours for all I know, I slept the whole time and woke up as we all thought we were for sure landing in the water. Once we arrived in Palermo, we hopped right on the bus. We drove to Monreale, which is still in the province of Palermo. There we went to the Cathedral of Monreale. It was a beautiful church dedicated to the Assumption of the Virgin Mary. We then walked around the courtyard of the cloister, where the nuns still live. We then hopped back on the bus and drove to Segesta. In Segesta, we visited the Doric Temple and the Greek Theater (there is a lot of Greek and Roman history in Sicily because Sicily was conquered by both the Romans and the Greeks).

We got some lunch and got back on the bus. We drove to Selinunte, where we visited more Greek temples! There are five temples situated together. (Notice the Selinunte sweatshirt I purchased, I fit right in...)Side note: I failed to mention the outrageous forms of precipitation we experienced. It poured in Monreale, but remained sunny. It snowed while we were on the bus, it poured again, then was sunny, then it hailed at the Greek theater, and at the temples in Selinunte. At least you can always spy my red jacket.

After the hurricane subsided, we made it to the bus and drove to Agrigento, where we would be staying for the night. Agrigento is on the southern coast of Sicily. We then went to dinner at a local trattoria. It was about 8:30 when we went to dinner. Dinner in Italy is long and late. We had a delicious four course meal of pasta, chicken, salad (you eat salad after your meal before dessert...strange?), and dessert- and of course good wine. We walked back to the hotel stuffed and tired from a long day.

The next day (Saturday 2/13) we packed up and were back on the bus by 10:00am. We drove to the valley of the temples in Agrigento. It was a beautiful, sunny day. We walked around the temples dedicated to Zeus, Hercules, and Hera. In the process we got stuck in the middle of a folk music festival. Many young Italian bambini were dressed in folk outfits, singing and dancing in a parade. We drove to Piazza Armerina, where we saw the richest, largest, and most complex Roman mosaics in the Villa Romana del Casale.

Then we drove, yes, in the bus, to Taormina, where we would be staying for the night. We checked into our hotel, Hotel Andromaco. Our hotel was awesome- much nicer than the first night. We went to dinner, which was even better than the night before. Carnivale was being celebrated in Taormina, so we all went to a local bar. Our professor bought us all a drink (again, strange).The temples all started to look the same after a while...

Sunday (February 14) we ate breakfast, packed up, and walked to the Greek/Roman theater in Taormina. There was some of the most intense rain I have ever experienced. We hopped on the bus and drove to the airport in Catania- I may or may not have thrown up the whole time. We took another 45 minute flight home to Rome.

Bad news: Calcio was cancelled last week because of rain- I'll take rain over snow though... But I will keep the calcio updates coming as tonight - Team Chocolate faces Team Azalea.

Week 4... Already!

This a copy-and-past post -

first an excerpt from my reflection from my service this morning:

This morning 3 of us set out on our 5-hour journey of service.
We arrived much more promptly this week,

finding a more direct route.

(Last week it took us 2 hours both ways)

None of the sisters quite knew what to do with us at first,

but then I was directed to the kitchen,
and Courtney and Jeff were taken upstairs..

Jeff spent the day changing adult diapers..

I spent an hour chopping garlic, peeling bananas,

and helping prepare for lunch.
The second and third hours were spent doing dishes.
Throughout the different tasks, I prayed several mysteries of the rosary with the
only other sister that spoke english.

I have never lead a decade of the rosary before,
or prayed the rosary without a physical rosary.

It was difficult to dice garlic and count Hail Marys...

I was a little ashamed when asked my favorite mystery of the rosary.
The only one I knew was Luminous,

and we had already prayed that one.
Catholic school all my life,

and I could not come up with Joyful... or Glorious.

---------

Calcio update:

The weekly Calcio newsletter was published today filled with trash talk.
Here were some of the main points.

"Technically, Kiwi really did kick some Ash, beating them 7-4,
but Ash stole the show with their uncomfortably tight Italian spandex.
Thanks Colin and Mike for displaying some things we never need to see again."

"As predicted, Navy Blue defeated Chocolate with a score of 4-2.
Unfortunately the pre game stretches didn't turn out so well for
some Chocolate team members. Despite the fact that Nick Handy got
brutally nailed in the groin by a fellow team mate during said warmups,
he was able to recover and score for his team."

John "Fancy Pants" Adorno and Shane "I'M IRISH" McCarthy
were both also mentioned by name.

I'm not going to take responsibility for the injury mentioned above,
but I will admit to being on team Chocolate..

That was last week though.
This week my game ended in a tie-
I did however manage to trip on the ball and knock the wind out of myself
picking up some beautiful turf burns on my knees.
Let's just say blood was involved and I looked pretty tough.

I did get one 'nice move' when I faked a pass during perhaps my only possession of the ball tonight.
So I'll put tonight in the win column again.

We got our shirts tonight - number 10 was taken, so I picked number 5.
(I think is your soccer number, right Nick?)

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KARAOKE

Last night the JFRC held it's first Karaoke night:

I think the picture will tell you all you need to know.

I did embarrassingly join in "Friend in Low Places" with Emily

and a round of "Yellow Submarine"

The hits of the night were Conor's "Hero" - Enrique

and many Backstreet Boys / NSYNC covers by Mike and the guys

"Everybody, yeahhhh"

Soccer/Futbol/Calcio

Week One Calcio: SUCCESS

My team - Team Chocolate - Lost

We had 5 or 6 girls on my team of 12 that had NEVER been on a soccer field before...

I came away with some sore muscles, large bruises, and a huge adrenaline rush.

Calcio at the JFRC is not to be taken lightly.

Weekly newsletters are published- filled with trash talk,

Mensa (the cafeteria) plays pump-up music before the games,

And the professors that play are just as bad as the students.

Our game was very aggressive, I'll take pictures next week.

Just ordered tickets (they're free) to the Vatican's Easter Vigil

and Good Friday services. Should be sweet.

Tonight = exploring downtown and then..

Saturday's a rugby day.

Tomorrow will be filled with watching 2 rugby games supposedly

with everyone that's sticking around this weekend and a couple professors.

The Super Bowl doesn't start here until Midnight,

so rumors are buzzing that the JFRC may play it here.

Boring update so here are a few pictures from the last few weeks:

The group at the top of the Duomo in Florence ^^

In the middle of the Forum

Walking to the Colosseum - you can spot my red jacket a mile away

Two more pics from our Hadrian's Villa day trip

Love from Roma,

LEX

p.s. I definitely purchased fabric softener instead of detergent..

At least my clothes smell good, right?

Florence - Pisa

6:30 Friday morning came too early as 9 of us departed from the Rome Center to a bus to the metro to the 4-hour train ride to Florence. 1:00 we arrived in Florence, we unfortunately got off at the wrong stop, but the extra

half hour of walking allowed us to fully explore the city.

We crossed the famous Ponte Vecchio Bridge to get to our hostel. Our hostel was located directly across from the Palazzo Pitti or the Pitti Palace, so it was easy to find.

The 4 girls shared a 2 bed room and the 5 boys had a luxurious 4 bed room - each with our own bath rooms. A great first hostel experience. We grabbed some pizza and then checked out the sweet palace across the street. Over the years, the palace housed originally Luca Pitti, and later the Medicci family, and Napoleon. However, the palace now serves as a museum after Victor Emanuel III donated the palace and and its contents to the Italian people.We explored an exhibit of Italian stolen art - very interesting. The royal apartments were awesome - it was Hogwarts meets Tudors.

The next day (Saturday) we woke up early to go to the Uffizi. Saw the Birth of Venus, and the largest collection of Italian Art. We walked out in the rain to get some breakfast and cappuccinos and headed to The Basilica Santa Croce. Santa Croce is where Galileo, Michelangelo, Dante, and Machiavelli are buried.

After we checked out the church and the tombs we headed toward the Duomo, or the Basilica Santa Maria del Fiore. We went in the church first, which was, as most basilicas are, huge and beautiful! We then paid to climb to the top of the Duomo (Dome). It was my favorite thing we did in Florence. 650+ stairs that turned into basically a ladder at the end was definitely worth it. We left for the hostel and had some of Florence's famous gelato on the way. We went home, dried up and headed back out to the supermercato to get some sandwich supplies for a low-cost dinner.

Later that night brought... karaoke. Sometimes I forget I don't live in Glee. Don't Stop Believin' was not a crowd pleaser... surprising in a crowd of Americans. We ran into my room mate, Emily and a few other Loyolans around the city and when we were out at night. It seemed as if everyone went to Florence this weekend.

We stopped in Pisa on the way home, and did the classic pictures - we had to. Green man made an appearance, and then it was back to Rome!

This week is full. Wednesday I start my service for my service learning course. I was placed working with the Sisters of Charity - Mother Theresa's order. Sounds like hard manual labor on Wednesday mornings. Then we have a scheduled Papal audience Wednesday afternoon and our first Calcio (soccer) tournament Wed. evening. I was placed on team Chocolate. My brown t-shirt is undoubtably the ugliest of the jerseys.

Florence was definitely put in the Win column, the only thing we didn't see was Michelangelo's David, because there is an exact free replica outside. This weekend I'll be in Rome finalizing Spring Break w/ Anne Marie and Nick and Munich with Emily. Spring Break looks like it's going to be Barcelona and Paris - and then a girl's weekend in Germany while the guys do Brofest Budapest. More on my adventures later. I'll say hi to Pope Benedict for you.

LOVE, LEX