Studying Across the Hey Seas: From Serving Food to the Needy to Serving Food to Guys for Gelato

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