Studying Across the Hey Seas: December 2011

I have been staring at the computer screen for like, 10 minutes now. I have no idea how to even begin wrapping things up in the form of words.

I am currently sitting on my bed. It is almost 1 in the morning, and we are leaving for the airport at 7 AM. I find myself thinking back to the very beginning...having Jen convince me to talk to my advisor to see if I could fit study abroad into my 4-year plan, applying, getting accepted into the program in February, meeting my group at the end of the school year (and maybe knowing like 10 out of 30), and sitting on my bed, typing my first blog ever. It truthfully didn't feel like I reality at that point...it wasn't until I was sitting on the plane that I was like, whaaaat am I doing?? Living across the seas for 4 months?? Traveling with many people I hardly knew at the time? Honestly, at the beginning of it all, I never imagined I would have such a hard time facing the reality that it is done. It is so sad to think that something you've been planning for a year, places you've been pumped to see your whole life, and now it's all over. I knew that I would have an incredible experience, learn a lot, and see some awesome sights, but I had no idea that I was going to fall in love with two amazingly different places, as well as fall in love with the random group of people that I was put together with.

This evening, we had a delicious farewell dinner that lasted over 3 hours, and as I looked around the room at each person from our group, I honestly got tears in my eyes. I can remember looking around the room at our group at orientation and seeing so many faces I had never seen before. But now I look at each face, and I know a piece of their story. I got to share an incredible experience with them, and I couldn't have picked a better group. One of my favorite parts of this whole experience has been getting to know such amazing people. I had no idea that our group was going to become this close by the end. I can already tell that we will still spend time together when we are back at school, and I'm so thankful for the special bond that I have with them. It's definitely true that God sends people into your life for a purpose, and never forget how much you can learn by getting to know someone new. You can never anticipate how they will touch your life, and it's something beautiful to watch.

In the past 4 months (August 16th - December 16...right on the dot!) I've seen Madrid, Barcelona, Nice, Monaco, Lyon, Paris, Athens, Sounion, Aegina, Santorini, Napflio, Olympia, Meteora, Corinth, Delphi, Munich, Salzburg, Dachau, Venice, Siena, Rome, Vatican City, Subiaco, Pompeii, Naples, Sorrento, Assisi, Florence, Tivoli, Ostia Antica, plus maybe even more cities and towns that I forgot to mention. I've bungee jumped, parasailed, learned a little Greek and Italian, met many new people, flew on planes, rode on trains, enjoyed the bus rides that you should get an olympic medal for trying to hold on with out flying all over the place, went swimming in the ocean, cliff jumped, read a book on our terrace, enjoyed authentic foods, was sung to at a soup kitchen, sprinted to the grocery store to buy tortellini for supper before it closed, sang at a karaoke bar, and so many other incredible memories that I have embedded in this blog forever. It saddens my heart very much that I will never be in this situation ever again. Living somewhere truly makes you become a part of it. I'm really going to miss living here...I've learned how to work the bus system and metro, where things are in the city, and so on. These places that I've seen will hold a special place in my heart forever. Before I left in August, I remember thinking that I would be so ready to leave at the end, and that it wouldn't be hard at all. I have NO idea what I was thinking! It's honestly going to be so hard to leave here, and I'm not ready to leave and for this to end.

I know studying abroad has changed me, but I probably won't know the complete effects of that until I get home. It's going to take some getting used to! Being in my houses again, seeing my family and friends, driving a car, having a phone, US money, etc. It's changed my outlook on the world, but it has also made me appreciate so many things much more. I'm truly thankful for my family. I miss them so much, and they are very important to me. They are an important part of my life, and I can't wait for them to be a primary part of it again. I can't wait to see all of my friends as well...I've really learned to appreciate how much they mean to me and how lucky I am to have them. Also, I've learned that I am in the right field in studying to be a Dentist...it was wonderful having a break and taking classes like history and art in Greece and Rome, but believe it or not, I actually miss science classes! That's a pretty good indication I'd say. I have fallen in love with Europe, but I definitely embrace the fact that I am an American. I love my country, and it will always be number one in my heart. As you can see, I have a lot of conflicting emotions these days!

I wish so much that I had the words to explain to you all how incredible this truly was. Just give me like a day to talk to you, and that should be enough time to talk to you about everything :). I'm so incredibly thankful to Jen for advising me to do all I could to make this possible, and to my parents, family, and friends for being so supportive. I'm thankful to my teachers and staff here in Europe, and my amazing group...I'm so so blessed to have met each and every one of them. I will never forget this amazing experience and every little magical detail it had. It breaks my heart to leave, but know that I am looking forward to seeing everyone and hearing about the 4 months of their lives that I've missed! If anyone who is reading this is thinking about studying abroad, I HIGHLY recommend it...you will never regret it for a second, and it's something you will never ever forget for the rest of your life. Take care everyone, thank you so much for tuning in the past semester :) and see you all soon!

Ciao Roma!

Peace and Blessings,
Laura

Ostia Antica - just some of many ancient ruins we saw

Oh I will miss the beautiful city of Rome

Simply exploring is one of the best ways to spend your time

Christmas time at the Colosseum

View of the Vatican from St. Peter's Dome

The Dome of St. Peter's

Oh yeah, we did climb 320 steps!

The river Tiber

Yes indeed, I have decided to tune back in to my blog. The delay is not because I don't want to write, I just seem to be getting more and more busy here. I have 8 days left currently, so the rest of my time here will be spent studying for finals, taking finals, but primarily doing everything I can before my time is up here. Here come the highlights of this past week:

Last Monday, we had the incredible opportunity to volunteer at a soup kitchen here in Rome. As I think I've mentioned before, our school arranges events for our group to sign up for throughout the semester. This is one that they put on for us this week, and I was excited to see that almost our whole group signed up. As we got there and got assigned jobs, I noticed that this soup kitchen was very different than the ones that I've helped out at at home. I worked at the registration desk, so I quickly learned how everything worked. The people who came to eat had an ID badge that had a certain number on it. We had big binders at the registration desk with loads of numbers in them and we would flip to their page. It had all of the days of the month on it, and then they would sign their name and get a ticket. Then they proceeded to go through the line to get their food, which I was surprised to see they had all different kinds of dishes that they switched out. Many of the guests would stay around the entire time it was open, talking to everyone there. Of course, many of the Italian men did their fair share of wooing all of the girls in our group. I was working with two other girls, Kirsten and Judy, at the desk, and many of the men came back to the desk to chat with us. One guy even sang to me as he signed his name. It was pretty humorous watching this occur all across the dining room. An older Italian man worked at the registration desk, and he was so incredibly kind to us. We had a great time talking to him and getting to know him. Overall, I really enjoyed the experience, and had a blast doing it!

Before I studied abroad, I had heard from my brother Alex and a few others to do the Scavi Tour at the Vatican - this tour takes you underneath St. Peter's Basilica and allows you to see the years of excavations they have done down there. So while we were in Greece, each apartment did their best to sign up for a tour, because they are extremely popular. Last Tuesday, my old apartment got to go, and it was incredible! Again, we felt like we were members of the Vatican - the Swiss guard let us pass through blocked gates with our reservation sheet. We had a really excellent tour guide, who knew his information extremely well and wasn't forceful or opinionated. Underneath St. Peter's, you will find all kinds of ancient funeral rooms where pagans from the 1st century AD had buried their dead...crazy that it looked so well-preserved for being over 2000 years old! We also saw the spot where St. Peter is thought to be buried. Archeologists are pretty sure for a couple reasons - first of all, it was tradition that when a church was buried over a saint, it would be named after that saint. Also, the skeleton found in the grave was a 1st century Palatine man. The remains contained bones from every single bone group except for one: the feet. St. Peter did not feel worthy to be Crucified as the Lord was, so he was crucified upside down. When they removed a body on a cross that was upside down, they would cut them off by their feet and the body would swing down for them to bury. Hmmm...sounds like St. Peter to me! I found the tour very much worthwhile, so if you are ever at the Vatican, make sure to do that tour!

This past weekend we had free, and many of us stayed in Rome since we don't have that much time left. A few of us spent an evening seeing a couple churches and going out to dinner. The first church we saw was called "Scala Sancta" or "Holy Stairs". This church contained the steps that led up to Pontious Pilate's residence, where he condemned Jesus to death. Jesus walked up those stairs many times that day. They are made of marble, but got covered in wood to preserve the marble. There are even spots on the stairs that are covered in glass instead of wood, because the blood of Jesus is actually spilled on those spots - pretty incredible! What you are supposed to do is go up the stairs on your knees, praying continuously as you go up. So a few of us did this, and let me tell you, my knees killed the whole time - 28 steps! As I was going up, I realized this pain was very symbolic. Jesus endured so much more pain the day he died than I ever have my entire life - so I should be able to kneel up a staircase! I really liked it a lot. We then proceeded to see St. John the Lateran church, which was huge but also beautiful. To end the night, we had a delicious dinner in Trastevere - the neighborhood that has a huge Sunday market. We found the cutest restaurant called "Le Fate," and it was decked out in Christmas decoration, soft jazz playing in the background. Such a perfect Italian night!

To end that weekend, we spent a morning at the Tivoli Gardens. Yes, Becca Lais, I was Lizzie McGuire for the day :). These gardens are contained in a Villa, so there is a huge residence that we walked through first. Then, it took us a couple of hours to go through the garden because it was so huge. Fountain after fountain. We ate a nice packed lunch there, and even saw a fountain that opened up and had an organ play. It was a nice, peaceful morning.

This week, we had our last week of classes. Our Theology final was on Tuesday, so we spend some time preparing for that. On Monday night, our friend Nick decided he wanted to come over and cook for us. His apartment got mad at us for stealing their cook but hey, he offered! He made us pesto and pasta, which we ate outside on our terrace. Yep, that's right - we ate dinner OUTSIDE in December...I'm really going to miss this nice weather. It is in the low 60s everyday, and we have been blessed with little rain. Going home next week is going to be a rude awakening...I'm going to be a wimp! After our Theo final, we had a wine tasting at our school. A professional came and explained to us how they make wine, plus let us try a red, white, rose, and sweet wine. It was very fun and interesting! Then that evening, we made a chicken parmesan dinner for a few boys in exchange for them taking us to their favorite gelato place. Kate is truly an excellent cook, and we had a wonderful time. Today (December 8th) is the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, which is a holiday here in Italy. We have the entire day to ourselves, so a few of us went to Mass at the Vatican this morning. That's twice I've been to Mass at the Vatican on a feast day - pretty cool. After Mass, we leisurely walked out to St. Peter's square, and quickly noticed that it was packed with people. We looked up to the apartment building where the Pope lives and sure enough, his window was open! We waited like 2 minutes and all of a sudden, there he is in his window! It's up high, so he looked pretty tiny, but it was pretty incredible how we didn't even plan on it but saw the Pope today. Pretty successful day I must say.

I'm filled with very mixed emotions at the moment, because I'm so excited to see family and friends at home, but seeing this experience come to an end is really tough. I'm really going to miss it here, and the time keeps going faster and faster! I know for sure I will have one more post, maybe two if I can so hang in there!

Peace and Blessings,
Laura