Full of Thanks! And the start of Advent :)

be sure to read the two new posts below this long one...

Wednesday night

Nothing really beats good ol’ American food. We’ve been missing it a lot lately, especially the meat. Simple delights like hamburgers are rare here, unless you frequent McDonald’s or Burger King (which I am somewhat ashamed to say, I think I’ve had more fast food here than I have back in the States!).

Wednesday night we did not have our normal community night because we were celebrating Thanksgiving on Thursday. Since we discovered the Bernardian grill, we decided we definitely need to put it to use more.

After Italian class on Wednesday, four of us divided up and went on mission to buy groceries. Kalynn, Thomas and I went to the nearest grocery store from school and our mission began. Chicken (do we get bones or filets?), ground beef, parmesan, hamburger buns, mustard…wait, there is no mustard ANYWHERE?

After a bit of a zoo trying to find the necessary items, checkout was another adventure. We have this wonderful system of tickets to use, but the problem is the majority of them come in 1 and 2 Euros. Thomas and my total came up pretty high, so the poor cashier lady was stuck recounting our tickets about 5 times and we just felt so awful for making her go through all this work.

Then we trudged the 25 minute walk home carrying all our groceries.

When we walked into Bernardi, the smell of garlic had already permeated the building. Oh joy joy! (simple fact: I am absolutely in love with garlic.)
Joseph was already cutting and washing and heating things up. The grill had started. The fun began!

Since the boys were doing all of the cooking (I seriously feel so much more convicted to work on my cooking skills here with all these men already know all this stuff!) I was able to start studying for Italian.
The minutes ticked by.
My stomach growled.
The smell of garlic krept up under my nose…
Until finally…
DING DING DING!
(Yes we have a dinner bell and YES I love when I hear that noise!)
Fr. Justin was even there (he had brought a football as well for our Thanksgiving festivities-praise the Lord!) and led us in prayer and finally we could feast!
And feast we DID! There was SO MUCH FOOD! It felt so 4th of July…so American…so GOOD!!!! There was about 5 pounds of carbonara (an Italian pasta, with egg, parmesan, and bacon), a multitude of spicy hamburgers, and Joe’s AMAZING soy-something-of-goodness-chicken marinade.
I ate SO much.

(the group breaking out into song...)

Only about twenty minutes into dinner someone broke out into song.
Which broke out into another song.
Which turned into Build Me Up Buttercup, which turned into Disney song marathon (of which Fr. Justin knew EVERY song),
which turned into Piano Man (Alison and I dominated by knowing every verse-good thing we keep that Vosters' wedding tradition!),
which turned into American Pie,
which turned into Bohemian Rhapsody (and Paul’s amazing air-piano and air-guitar skills),
and simmered (I’m not even kidding you) not until about an hour and a half later with Backstreet Boys and Spice Girls (I’m not sure why they weren’t too thrilled about those choices).
Fr. Justin had to get back to the NAC, so of course we led him off by sitting him in a chair and all standing around him singing “Happy Trails” to him and as he walked away “So Long, Farewell” from The Sound of Music. A few songs drifted from there, ending with some Christmas ones, but it was by far the most memorable community night ever.

We basically ARE living in a musical.
**************
Thursday night
Thanksgiving in Italy!!!

We ate a 35 pound turkey! It was the hugest most amazing sight ever. Manuel (our Peruvian chef) is my new hero. He also made riced potatoes. I was SO excited to have a bit of Grandma Eunice there, Italian style.
We sang Albequerque is my Turkey! (mom teaches this song to her preschoolers-it was a hit! Fr. Carola was even a big fan!)

Fr. Carola told Paul, Eamon and I that for our penance for Advent, we couldn’t sit by each other or even at the same table because we were causing such a ruckus. He even joked that I better lay off the wine! (I had hardly drank any-ha).

It was very difficult to focus in class that night…even if it was only 45 minutes long because I missed the naps I usually take on Thanksgiving! Afterwards the girls I’m in class with (Alison, Claire and Katie) made our usual stop at the Irish pub down the road, the Scholar’s Lounge for their happy hour…aka partaking in the goodness that is an English speaking pub, funny Irish accents, drinking Strongbow, and reflecting on the week.

We were excited to be able to end our evening there by watching a little of the Detroit-Tennessee football game! Claire’s family is a die-hard Detroit fan, and their Thanksgiving tradition is to sit around the TV watching the Lions lose! (Ha that is actually HER QUOTE not mine!) We were all SO excited just to see football, especially on Thanksgiving! Also, the rest of our group was able to go out and play a football game, but we couldn’t since we had class. You’d think Fr. Buckles, being American, would cancel class. But alas, he only cut it in half.
*********************

Friday
A Dutch Monsignor and an Italian Dinner
I just studied all day, preparing for our midterm in Martyrdom on Tuesday. In the evening I went to mass at the San Lorenzo youth center. Monsignor Everardus de Jong from the Netherlands was celebrating mass. After mass we were able to talk to him. He was excited to hear I was from Wisconsin. He had studied at Catholic U in DC where he got his PhD, and visited a friend at the Norbertine Abbey in DePere! When I told him I was from a nearby town of Green Bay, he got SUPER excited and exclaimed “AH the dairyland! You are the state of milk, cheese and eggs! Just like Holland!” and was so excited and began pointing at the map showing where he was from. I told him my Grandpa still like to speak Dutch a little, but when I told him my last name, he was disappointed because it didn’t sound Dutch. Haha!

Then my friend Katherine who is from St. Kate’s back in St. Paul invited me over to dinner at her apartment. She’s doing a home stay here and lives with an old Italian woman. It was a super cute cluttered apartment, and Katherine and I enjoyed a lot of mozzarella and tomatoes.

I came back and was able to Skype with my parents because it was my dad’s birthday! It was awesome to talk to him because I’ve been busy studying the past two Sundays and haven’t been able to catch him on the phone when I’ve called mom. Then I stayed up til 2am talking to everyone else in the fam because they all were coming home from Milwaukee to celebrate dad’s birthday. I also was able to be the first to wish Jen a happy birthday because TECHNICALLY it already was her birthday HERE because it was 2am here, even if it was only like 5pm there.
***

Saturday
Saturday morning we had mass here at Bernardi (the joys of having a chapel right here in our house and of knowing priests studying at the North American College! Mass in English praise the Lord!) Afterwards the boys wanted to teach us this game they really like to play. It ended up lasting for almost 3 hours and I hadn’t gotten a lot of sleep so I took a nap, studied a little, Katherine came over, and we got ready to go to St. Peter’s.

The Pope was having first advent vespers! It was beautiful. There weren’t that many people who knew about it, so we were scooted towards the front row, so when Papa came by, we were very close. St. Peter’s was looking very festive and ready for Advent, and the Pope’s vestments were absolutely beautiful. It was a wonderful start to the season!

On the way out I ran into Cosima, a girl I have met a few times who is from Germany as well as the Sisters of Mercy from Alma, Michigan.

*******************

Visits with Old Friends

Afterwards I went to the Pantheon. Stacey Wilson, a friend from high school who has been studying in Florence this semester, and two of her friends were visiting Rome for the weekend. It was SO neat to see her here! We found a cute restaurant right by the Pantheon, which was all decorated for Christmas with pretty lights. Wow it’s so amazing to be able to meet people you spent a good number of your earlier years studying with and just pick up again in a foreign country! We went all out with dinner, wine, desserts for each of us to share, and ended with grappa! (The girls studying in Florence were also studying Italian cuisine so we had to experience the grappa—which is basically what remains of the grapes at the end of making wine. Basically it is the most alcoholic part of the wine making process. This is what I made of all of it anyway.)

Well what the girls had usually had grappa in, because it’s so strong (40% alcohol), was just a little shot glass or some sort of snifter. Well the waitress came out with four champagne flutes full of grappa!!!!!! It was intense! Needless to say, we could NOT finish it! It was quite the experience though. J All in all, it was a nice relaxing long dinner…we spent four hours at the dinner table! It was just a typical Italian dinner, and so enjoyable to be able to catch up with Stacey and show her a bit of Roma.

First Sunday of Advent with the Missionaries of Charity

(Sisters making some sort of cookie)

This morning (Sunday) Kalynn and I woke up bright and early to go to the Missionaries of Charity, since we couldn’t go on Friday. We got there about nine, and started sweeping and mopping. We were worried about finding a mass to go to during the day, but praise be to God they had mass there at 10am!

It was so wonderful to be there for our first mass of the season of Advent! Some of the men were especially making a bigger ‘to do’ about getting ready, putting on the nicest clothes that were around, combing their hair, etc. And what more of a blessing was there when we walked downstairs and found two of the Little Sisters of the Lamb were there as well! One of the sisters told me that she heard my friend Susan Verly was doing very well as a postulant because one of the sisters from Rome went to visit their convent in France where Susan is. Apparently they were at the MC’s because they knew a man that now was living at the house. He used to live on the streets outside of their convent and they ministered to him there. They introduced him to the Missionaries of Charity and the house and he has been happily living here for quite some time and the Little Sisters come to visit him every once in a while.

It was such a blessing to be able to be there on a Sunday, especially on the first Sunday in Advent, to see the men so in love with Jesus and wanting to be at mass and live their faith by celebrating the sacraments. It was a wonderful experience of community, of coming together with a common faith and giving time to praise the Lord for the blessings they have in their life. I was getting so choked up because I was truly seeing the fruit of the sisters’ ministry and vocation. Yes, the sisters work to provide shelter and food and health for the men, but the TRUE fruit of their ministry is the seeds of faith they sow that grows into a true love of Jesus. The men here are brought to life not just physically, but especially spirituality. Here they have regular prayer and mass, and from the nourishment of the sacraments they love and serve each other more. The joy they all had at being there was very evident, and reminded me of the simple yet profound love of Jesus and how I need to be reminded of this beautiful poverty. Especially at the start of Advent, this was a great reminder of how to better prepare for the coming of our Lord at Christmas!

May God bless your Advent season and may you see Him every day, especially by coming to Him in prayer and Thanksgiving for the many gifts He has given you, of life and love!

God love you!