Ciao!!

Ready to go see the Pope!!!

Hi everyone!!!

All is going well over here! And a lot has happened in the last few days!

This week, Loyola gave us Wednesday off to take out time to go to a papal audience. Having never been to one before, before going, I pictured it as the Pope coming out for a minute, saying a few things, then blessing people's religious belongings, but it was NOTHING like that haha! We left the JFRC (John Felice Rome Center, where I'm living) at 7am and got to the Vatican (the third country I've been to now!) and had to go through security, which I was surprised about, but then I remembered the crazy lady in the red sweater hahaha! After waiting three hours for him to make his rock-star entrance, Joey finally showed up! He said a long speech in Italian which I understood not a word of and then he started talking to all of the different groups of people there (including us Loyolans!) When every group had their own speech, before he would talk, the group of people would sing a song in their language. I wish we would have known that! I'm sure we could have rehearsed Miley Cyrus' "Party in the USA" or Loyola's fight song!! But, instead, we just cheered! After speaking to all the groups in a million different languages, a group of Chinese acrobats performed on stage for him! I honestly felt as if I was at a taping of "America's Got Talent"! After that, we were expecting Benny to invite us out for lunch or something, but of course, he was too busy, so we left and headed back to the good 'ole JFRC.

The next day was back to classes, which have been going well. I am working on my Italian, but my professor is more of a German Nazi if you ask me then a small Italian woman born and raised in Rome! Our first quiz is next Thursday, so hopefully I will do well!

Oh! I almost forgot about calcio (soccer)! To be honest, when I retired my cleats back in '97 I thought I'd never play again, but here I am, starting player for Loyola University Chicago's Rome Center Arancione (orange, not my color!) team! I mostly defended on Wednesday night, but I pushed, elbowed, and kicked my way through the field! Maybe next Wednesday I will make an appearance on offense! After calcio, most of the teams went out for beer and pizza, which was a lot of fun!

Thursday night's highlight was going to my first Roman club. We ended up there because Anna's philosophy professor held class in this modern club in Trestevere on Thursday night rather than in his classroom in the JFRC. Maybe I'll do that one day with my class of 3rd graders...hahaha! Before going there, I thought we were headed out to more of a restaurant type place, but once we got there and realized it was a full out club, I felt a little funny in my blue raincoat, but at least I was dry! So my first club experience in Rome was not how I pictured it (or at least my outfit wasn't) but, it was fun!

The next day, I had my on site architecture class, which is turning out to be interesting... I can't draw a straight line, let alone the Pantheon! But, I think my teacher will understand that none of us are architect majors...or at least I hope! On Friday, our teacher even attempted to rip Kory's drawing out of his sketch book because it was too detailed! And he is probably the best artist out of all of us!!! Hopefully I will soon be able to draw to scale and maybe even a straight line. But, at least after this class I will have my own drawings to help me remember what some of the most famous buildings in Rome looked like!

But, as you can see, all is going well! Today we are headed out to downtown Rome to shop and check out some island on the Tiber River and to Piazza Campo di Fouri! I'll bring my blue raincoat to keep me dry in this rainy weather we've been having! Love and miss you all!