I'm home for Christmas

Well guys,

Here I am in my room at home in MN. The past 72 hours have been long and emotional.
I know I haven't told you much about the last few weeks, but I'll try to let you in on those moments later.
Thursday night, we finished our finals, and went to a "ristorante" for a farewell dinner (Three of our guys; Andrew, Beau, and Will had to leave that afternoon to catch their flights to London on the way home). After 4 types of pasta and a light fruit dessert, the speeches and tears began. Not for me though, not yet anyway. Greg and Janine said a few words on how close we've all gotten, and how unforgettable our experiences were. This really got me thinking, absolutely nothing can take away the smiles, the laughs, the sights, and the memories that I've been so very blessed with the past 120+ days. When trying to tell anyone else about how I feel about my experience, word's can't even describe. I am so lucky that I get to come home and back to school with countless pictures and 29 wonderful souvenirs, my new friends.
I got the idea that we should head to the Colosseum right after dinner to take one last picture by the big Christmas tree there. That's when the tears started rolling. The light night air, the Christmas lights and the moon over the brightly lit Colosseum surrounded everyone as we hugged and said goodbye for now. It was so bittersweet. A near-perfect end to a larger-than-life experience.
Me, Judy and both Gretchen's got a hostel for the next day in Rome.

Just our luck, the metro was on strike that day. And just MY luck, I wasn't able to find a replacement for my suitcase handle (it broke off completely on my arrival to Rome) . So I bought a travel belt and dragged that 50 pound godforsaken bag all the way to Termini from our apartment (like, 2.5 miles through crazy Italian vespa and moped traffic- seriously). My near death experience.

I knew that my heavy backpacks in high school were a preparation for something.

We dropped off our stuff at the Hostel and made our way out to the city to enjoy our last day.
We went and say Bocca Della Verita (The Mouth of Truth) together at Santa Maria in Cosmedin, and then split up to spend the day exploring on our own.
I went to Trastevere and the Island to take pictures and walk around.  Then we all met up for dinner at the best pizza place in Rome. (It's Dar Poeta- a hidden hole in the wall place in the neighborhood if anyone makes it there! Get the potato and pesto kind)
After, it was early to bed for us, because we started what was to be the longest day ever (literally) at 4am.

We made it to the bus and the airport in Rome without a hitch. We were stress-free, early, and happy to be on our way. We were so surprised how well it went that we even said "Travel NEVER goes like this, its too good to be true".


We ate our words.

We were half an hour late arriving in Madrid, so we ran across the airport to our terminal- just in time to board. Got on the plane, only to sit on the runway for 3.5 hours before even taking off. I fell asleep for the 1st hour, woke up and looked out the window. Uhhhhhhhhhh. I almost laughed though. The whole plane was filled with college kids who were complaining and swearing loud over the light piano soundtrack of Christmas tunes. Merry Christmas Iberia Airlines.
The flight on that plane was in total 13.5 hours. I sat next to a surfer guy from California who had a bladder the size of a walnut, so sleep wasn't happening.
We knew our connection to MSP was going to be close, but we kept praying that we were going to make it. After we arrived in Chicago, we were given a packet with a hotel and food voucher- they wanted to put us up for the night.
At this point, we'd been travelling for 20 hours, and we were all just done. All on the verge of tears, I called my Dad to tell him we were stuck in Chicago.
Its a good thing he was anxious to get me home too, because he had the computer with my flight info in front of him when I called- our original flight was delayed!


Ran through Customs and the gates at O'Hare Airport just like the McAllister family from Home Alone.


But, we made it. We group hugged in front of the boarding gate and shed a few happy tears.We were going home. We must have looked so dumb in front of all the people waiting to board.

Made it to MSP, and of course they lost my luggage. To this hour, its still being tracked down.

Guess what? I'm so happy to be in my own bed that I don't even care.

Buon Natale, Merry Christmas!

Love always,
Kirsten

The days are winding down!

Ciao guys,

Only a mere 5 days left in Rome, and 6 until I'm at home in MN!

These past weeks have gone so fast, I know that I'm going to get "Rome-sick".

Last weekend, a lot of our group was gone on little weekend adventures to Poland, Ireland, Spain and even Russia. For those of us who were left in the city, we had a little weekend full of excursions in Rome.

Thursday, I spent the evening bouncing from apartment to apartment, as everyone was having a night in and I got a little homework done. Friday, I woke up and my friend Gretchen and I went and toured Castel Sant'Angelo. 

It's a fortress down the way from St. Peter's Square. It used to be the mausoleum of Hadrian, then it was used as a castle and fortress for the Popes from the 1500's to the 1800's. They still have the papal apartments intact for us to view and walk around in, which was very cool. There is a secret walled passage from Castel Sant Angelo to the Vatican and it was used on a few occasions for the Pope's quick getaway. 

Castel Sant Angelo

Beyond that, we found some catapults and some pretty courtyards. It's a museum now, so we viewed the historical battle-gear and weapons on display. 

Lots of great views!

Gretchen heading up to one of the papal apartments

My best mock of the "European smile"

Courtyard with catapults and wells for private oils

Little doors! (And a pretty funny tourist behind Gretchen!)

Not the best photo, but this is where the secret passageway leads in the basement

After the tour, we made our way to Old Bridge- the famous gelato place by the Vatican, and helped ourselves to some black cherry chocolate gelato! Delicious!

(If I stuff myself with Gelato this week and come back 50 pounds heavier----I'm not sorry). It's great! 

Just kidding :) 

We thought we needed to go check out some other churches as long as they were free and we had some time. We made our way to San Clemente- a church near the north side of town, which was built on another chapel, which was built on a set of ruins- rooms for preparing communion or sacrifices or something...I wandered away at that point in the lesson. However, The underground rooms were incredible (We actually didn't go this day, but the next Monday for Theology class).

We topped off our day by finding our way to St. John Lateran- the official cathedral of Rome and one of the 4 papal basilicas (The others are St Peter's at the Vatican, St. Paul outside the Walls, and St. Mary Major--- all which were visited for Theology over the past few weeks). 

St. John Lateran has to be one of the largest churches I've ever been in, with one of the most beautiful altar baldachins too. 

The altar canopy

 Saturday, everyone was still gone and the boys from the London program were hanging out with our guys doing other touristy things, so I decided to go out on my own. 

I  realized that day that I really hadn't done many 'adventures' out on my own. I left my apartment, and there was no looking at my watch and no worrying about anyone else. It was really, really nice.  I just decided to hop on the metro with my map and my list of things I wanted to see and I walked around with my camera. 

I found my way to Santa Maria in Cosmedin, a Gothic styled church where the "Mouth of Truth" is located.  It's a marble disk of an old man's face that sits outside the church. The legend behind the "Bocca Della Verita" is that (short version) you stick your hand into the mouth, and if you lie it snaps your hand off. 

It's a goofy tourist attraction, but I was really amused with all of the Chinese tourists in the line. They kept wanting to take MY picture. 

The Mouth of Truth!

 I found some Christmas presents, and checked out the 50 years of photography exhibit at the Vittorio Emanuel 2 Monument. I've been there 4 times, but the pictures are amazing! It's like the Italian version of "Time" Magazine and National Geographic photos all blown up, and all about Rome and the rest of Italy. 

Outside, I got a little nostalgic for Athens...

Syrian flags and protesters chanting outside the monument

A small protest, and I had no idea what for. Nothing violent, just loud. 

I've been finding some of the street performers here very interesting lately. There was an old man playing away on his violin near piazza del Popolo, so I decided to snap some pictures of him. Before long he noticed and started shaking his angry fist at me like in old movies, but I can't say I was intimidated. He was sure a cute old man before that though!

The past week

Ciao again,

Last week we did a lot of really great things here in Rome.

Monday Morning, I went on the Scavi tour underneath Saint Peter's basilica. I had in mind a huge excavation site with lots to see, paved and well lit.... it was interesting but completely different from my expectations. We arrived and checked in (we had to book this a month in advance), and our tour guide brought us down to the mausoleums. It was very dark, and very humid. The pagan burial ground and the brick mausoleum rooms were cool, but it started out very slow. The last half hour we were brought to the tomb of Saint Peter. Although it wasn't anything magnificent, its an incredible concept and humbling to be in the presence.

Monday night, after school, most of our group went to the Caritas soup kitchen near the train station to volunteer serving dinner for those in need. By and far, one of my favorite activities this semester. I haven't done a lot of volunteering since high school, but this was so great, and to do it here in Rome was an experience.
We arrived at the dining hall about a half hour beforehand, and most of our group got suited up with aprons and gloves to serve food and pour drinks. I got put into the check-in group at the front.
All of the people who came to dinner that night had a Caritas card (a Catholic charity organization), which was given to them upon their first visit to the kitchen. I found their numbers and helped them sign in that night. This was a great job for me because I got to meet and talk with the people, and they helped me practice my Italian. I had a lot of stereotypes busted for me that night. When we arrived, I expected the people to be sad, angry, dressed in dirtier clothes, not speaking English, but I was pleasantly surprised by many of them.
I can't tell you how many smiles, how many times they said hello and good evening (in English and Italian) and how kind the people were to us helping. These people came from several different countries and didn't look or act in one way or another. I can't even imagine the situations some of these people are in, but they were more than thankful for dinner that night.
At the end of the night, no one was turned away, and we helped 500+ people!

Tuesday, I discovered my very favorite place in all of Rome (err, Vatican City?): the top of the Saint Peter's Basilica dome! Our group and Andrea (one of the housing coordinators at our school) took us to climb up to the top of the dome. In short, its a lot of running uphill in circles. By the very top I was in such narrow hallways leaning sideways it felt like Alice in Wonderland. Everyone was having a great time, and I took lots of pictures to prove it :)

Beau and Chris admiring the 1st level of the Dome's interior

1st terrace

Goofing around

Tuesday evening, after the dome climb, we went to a choir concert at Saint Ignazius. I was so tired from  the past weekend and the past few days that I didn't appreciate it like I should have. The choir was from Florida, and they were Catholic, but the director grew up Methodist, so all of the music was in English and sounded a lot like the kind of church music I have at home at my Lutheran church. It was a nice change of pace. 

Wednesday evening, we went to the new modern art museum in Rome: the MAXXI. I especially liked the video installations because I studied that my first year at St. Ben's, but for other modern art I'm totally clueless. I would have absolutely no idea what they were talking about if it weren't for the description. 

Again, it was a nice change of pace to go somewhere new...new to us, and literally, new (All these old churches are starting to look the same). I think my favorite part was the waiting room because it fit all 30 of us comfortably on a big dinosaur tail couch. 

Just kidding, but it was really cool. 

I spent the long weekend here in Rome, doing lots of fun touristy stuff which I will tell you about next time. As for right now, time for bed! 

Arrivederci! Buenosera! 

KP

Thanksgiving in Florence!

Hey everyone,

Its amazing how fast time is flying here. I've had hardly any time to keep up with life here, so sorry for the delay in blog posts.

 Last weekend, our whole group made our way up to Florence (Firenze) for the Thanksgiving holiday. The trip was also for the art class, so they had a few long class sessions during the trip (Every day these poor classmates of mine have art, I try to look sympathetic towards their note-taking and lectures, but inside I'm bursting with joy, constantly giving thanks that I'm not in art).

It was a beautiful thing. I was able to go to all the museums, and just look at everything on my own while they had class.

Thursday morning, we took the Eurostar train from Termini Station and a one hour train ride brought us into Florence. We dropped off our luggage for the morning at our hotel, "Hotel California"... (Oh, the Eagles. Try getting that song out of your head now). It was a running joke in our group all weekend, because no one knew the words beyond the first couple lines of the chorus.

We all split off and took some time to explore the famous Florence leather market, and the Duomo (The Florence Cathedral).

Thursday evening, we had a great Italian version of the American thanksgiving we were all missing from home. 

Actually, the food was terrible, I didn't realize you could make cake with mint toothpaste and vodka, or that turkey could be shaped like a baseball... but the attempt was really touching. Our servers were very into it and they were so sweet, and we all dressed up for the occasion, held hands and shared what we were thankful for.

All in all, I really appreciated the thoughtfulness of our directors Greg and Janine who organized it, and the cooks in back doing all the work. What a great memory. 

I don't say it very often, but I'm really thankful for everyone who supports me here today. Thank you to my parents, my whole family, Andrew's family, my great friends from home and from school, everyone on my program, and all my readers. You are all wonderful and its humbling to know that you are all behind me. For you, I can't be thankful enough. 

Friday was a long day, everyone (minus me!) had a scheduled lecture with the art teacher in the morning.  It was at a museum though, so I tagged along to check out some Michelangelo and Donatello works for myself. As soon as they were done, we got a tip for a great Mexican place, where we could get burritos. 

Let me tell you, I've been missing Mexican food like nobody's business. I can't believe how hard it is to find in Europe. I'm always craving Chipotle, Taco Johns,  Baja, anything... There's not even a Taco Bell here. 

(*side note: all the places I've been to have all had a soft spot for KFC though. Weird. Of all things, Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurants all over Europe). 

My lunch burrito of guac, rice, and chicken was fantastic. So good that I got it for lunch on Saturday too. I might be Scandinavian, but I think my stomach is Mexican :) 

Pinnochio

Cupid!

I spent the day Friday wandering across Ponte Vecchio, the famous Florentine bridge with shops on both sides, and exploring other areas of Florence. 

I tried on some boots, but definitely didn't buy any (sooooo expensive), but I splurged a little on a small leather purse! 

The Saturday and Sunday in Florence were a fun blur. There was a marathon on Sunday morning that was great to watch! We spent a lot of time walking around, and going to the museums with our Florence pass. We made it to the Pitti Palace and the gardens behind. It was a great holiday weekend to be with friends. 

Pizza Dinner!

Me Will, Andrew and Chris- all these crazy boys

The marathon!

The Pitti Palace Gardens

Vineyard in the gardens

All of Florence, the Duomo is hiding behind the trees

Happy Thanksgiving! 

Kirsten

Busy all day, everyday

Ciao everybody,

I just thought it would be a good idea to make a post about some of the cool things I've been up to here in Rome.

Our campus here, College Education Abroad-Rome has been putting together all sorts of great activities for us too. Greg, our adviser for our group has been busy planning fun stuff for us too! Staying busy! 

During our first week, we had a Pizza and Gelato Crawl. We went out together in Campo di Fiori to try a few different pizzas and Gelato flavors. 

There are actually different pizzas for different times of the day. 

For lunch, people buy "Pizza Rosa" or "Pizza Bianco". Pizza Rosa is basically pizza bread with garlic and red sauce. Bianco, is just the bread with olive oil and rosemary. Both were quite good. Then, we moved onto the dinner pizzas. I had a Spicy Pomodori- (peppers and tomatoes) and just a Margherita (a fancy word for 'just cheese'). 

The more adventurous ones in my group had a pumpkin one which was apparently very good, and some  fresh mozzarella. The mozz cheese is really fresh and looks like the white of a hard boiled egg. It doesn't taste much like anything, but people in Rome are crazy about it. 

Also, it comes from water buffalo. That's....kinda weird.

Gelato continues to amaze me. I won't go on forever, but I can't believe the kinds of flavors they have. I tried a pistachio (my new favorite) and some strawberry and chocolate orange. All really good. They have champagne, red pepper, celery, bleu cheese, amaretto, and tiramisu flavors too (among hundreds of others). Part of me wants to try them before I leave, just so I can say I had celery Gelato.

Another event they planned for us was a visit to Cinicetta- one of the largest movie production studios in Europe. We toured a few Saturdays back and they brought us around to many of the sets.

The street from "Gangs of New York"

The set of the HBO series "Rome" 

A movie they are currently working on about St. Fancis of Assisi

One of the editing tables used until the 60's!

We went through their museum too, and I was surprised to find that "Nine" and "The Passion" were filmed here too. What a great way to spend a morning! 

Last week, the school arranged for us to try crepes with Nutella at another restaurant in Camp di Fiori. I had my first crepe ever and it was delicious. For those, like me, who have never had one before, they make a flat pancake right in front of you, and while its still hot, they pour on Nutella and walnuts. 

So good, but so rich. It was a luxury to eat outside in the square and people watch though! 

Yesterday morning, our group had arranged to meet with Father Nick (one of the priests from Saint John's who is in Rome for the next few years working on his masters degree), to hold a mass for our group at Saint Peter's Basilica. Andrew and some of the boys on our trip know him because he was the residential life director and lived on their floor with them last year. Our whole group was up and at the Vatican right at sunrise, and Father Nick took us down below to the Grottoes- 70 chapels below the basilica where there are services being held all the time. 

We walked right by some sisters in white and blue habits, who Fr. Nick pointed our to be some of Mother Teresa's missionaries. We all made our way to a tiny room, the "Irish Chapel". It was small and beautiful, with lots of gold Celtic knots decorating the space. 

Afterwards, we all went out for coffee and hot chocolate and stayed way too long. I think I was an hour late for Greg's class. However, I'm pretty sure it was forgiven and a great start to our morning.

Greg brought us up to Villa Bourghese (the HUGE park in North Rome to watch the sunset and to reflect like an artist on our walk). What a great assignment. I was so happy about this one. 

This was my view of the sunset from Villa Bourghese over St. Peter's Basillica miles away!

Arrevedierci! 

Kirsten

The Problem with Bidets

Sunday night, after returning home from Naples, Judy, Gretchen and I awoke around 4 am to a pleasant little drip of water in our bedroom. Coming from the ceiling was a pretty nice flow of water collecting in a puddle by Judy's bed. We put a pot under the drip and went back to sleep. 

20 minutes later, Judy turns on the light because the water drippage was expanding. The end of her bed was soaked and the puddle was spreading toward her shoes. We put up some towels and some more bowls to catch the mysterious indoor rain, Judy moved to the couch and we tried to fall asleep again. 

20 minutes later, the water was raining from most of the ceiling, Gretchen took her blankets out to the living room. 

Not much longer after, I woke to our whole floor covered in water from the ceiling above. We started our evacuation. Everything including our dry mattresses was moved into the living room because our whole room was wet with the water streams from the apartment above. 

It was about 6 now and the situation was getting desperate. Gretchen and Judy went upstairs to talk to our neighbors, who came to the door to look through the peephole, but didn't answer. I wrote in an emergency maintenance request, and made a phone call to get this taken care of. 

Dealing with all of the water

Three hours later, We could have taken a shallow swim in our room. Gretchen tries to talk to our neightbors again. 

This time, they answered. It was a cute, little, old Italian couple and they didn't speak English. They invited Gretchen in and showed her their overflowing bidet. 

At this point, I'm thinking:

"Oh yay, The water that's all over our room is from the bidet.... "

Awesome. 

They were just as desperate to stop it as we were so there wasn't anything really we could do until our "emergency maintenance crew" finally arrived.  

Eventually the water stopped, and the maintenance guys showed. But we couldn't move back in until it was all dried out. 

So, we made the living room our second bedroom. And it was great :) I think we got a little too comfortable in there, for some reason we all slept like rocks. We stayed an extra night just because it felt like a fun, ten-year-old's sleepover. 

Judy hanging out in our "new" room

All in all, it was quite the adventure. We're moved back in now. We are so lucky that it happened Sunday night instead of Saturday when we were gone! 

Just pray that our lovely little neighbors can remember to shut off their bidet in the middle of the night from now on!  

Love always,

Kirsten

Pompeii, Sorrento and Naples

Ciao everybody,

Last weekend we made it to Pompeii, Sorrento and Naples for our excursion as a big group. We had great weather for walking around. 

Saturday morning we hopped on a bus to Pompeii. As soon as we arrived in the tourist-y base of the ruins, we were greeted by our weekend tour guide.

I'm feeling pretty bad right now because I forgot his name. 

But, he knew a lot about the area and he spoke perfect English. 

We toured the ruins of Pompeii- a 2,000 year old city in ruins because of the neighboring volcano (Mount Vesuvius) erupted and covered the town almost instantly- preserving everything in the end moments. As they uncover it now, it's amazing how much they know about it. We walked through the Roman bath house, the city streets, "restaurants", homes, and gathering places. We saw some ancient Pompeii-ans preserved in the lava rock too. 

I really enjoyed it, and I loved that we were able to see Mount Vesuvius!

The "Piccola Teatro"- the little theater at Pompeii

One of the pillar holders

Mount Vesuvius! 

Some of the items found in the ruins

Preserved in the lava

The Marble/Rock flooring inside an ancient home

Way to brush! The real teeth and bones were still in tact. 

After staying out a little too late the night before, and walking around all day, I was beat. We arrived at our hotel in Sorrento (Which was gorgeous by the way), and my hotel-mates Kate and Ali and I just got to our rooms and passed out for a ridiculously long nap. 

Side note: I seriously need to stop napping. Athens did a number on my sleeping patterns, I feel like taking a siesta daily. 

Unfortunately, I woke up three hours later and it was already dark. Sorrento seemed like a really beautiful little coastal town, and I did go on a walk there later in the evening, but I missed my chance to see it during the daylight. 

Anyway, we had a delicious meal of chicken, rigatoni, and fresh green beans served to us at the hotel that evening. During dinner, we talked about games we used to play as kids, and after someone mentioned "Sardines" the nearly vacant hotel led to a pretty weak round of it. We had to try. I'd be lying if I said it wasn't fun though :) 

The next day we took our bus over to Naples. 

With all the places we've been visiting, I had some pretty high hopes for charm in Naples. And I have to admit, I wasn't super impressed. 

Talking about the ruins in Naples

Taylor and our program leader, Greg. If this doesn't represent the reason why we are late for everything, I don't know what does. We have a lot to see, and unlimited memory cards. 

Old and New

Checking out the famous nativity scenes on  the Christmas decor street

The guys playing Ninja tag- the new pastime

Nuovo Castle = New castle... looks pretty old to me though! 

Naples, Italy is the place that pizza was invented. So I'll give it that. 

But besides the pizza, it was cold, there were lots of shady people, full of business buildings, lots of busy traffic, not a lot to see, and no where to sit.

I'm happy that I can say that I had pizza in the land that it was invented, and that I finally saw a castle in Europe!

 But I'm not a fan. 

We made it back to Rome later that night and all in all, I'd say it was a pretty fun weekend. 

Arrevedierci! 

KP