Siena, the Beach, and Hail

-St. Catherine of Siena's church in her house

Backtracking two weeks ago...I went to Siena with our group! We venerated the relics of St. Catherine Of Siena (only her head...Rome has the rest of her body) ;) and were able to celebrate mass in the chapel of her house! What a blessing. :)

Sunday we went to the beach in Ostia. What an amazing time. And I'm pretty sure it was snowing in Fargo and some of Minnesota that same day. We all had a good laugh at that.
We also built a sand basilica to "study" our art and architecture skills. Bryant managed to throw it into our slideshow at the end of class, and our professor had a good laugh and was glad she was there in spirit.

That night I got to talk on Skype with my parents and my grandpa Art which was such a joy and absolutly HISTERICAL. Skype is a way to talk to people on the internet. You use a microphone and a camera so you can see and hear each other. Grandpa could not grasp the fact that he could see and hear me and that I could tell he was wearing his Simon's Cheese hat when I was an ocean away. And then to hear that I had been at the beach that day-well that was something else! Everyone here who was in teh computer lab had a good laugh and thought it was pretty cute.

Last weekend was a wonderful relaxing time. Thursday (October 30th) we went to the Colosseum for our Martyrdom class. In the evening, Thomas, Katherine and I ventured out to go to mass at St. Peter's. The Pope was going to make an appearance after mass and address and welcome in the new school year for all the Pontifical Universities. (That includes the Ang where I go).
Needless to say we were pretty excited about that! But not minutes after having left Bernardi there was a CRACK and it started to rain...ten minutes later that turned into a downpour, followed by antoher CRACK nad HAIL!!!!!!!!! Yes we trudged to St. Peter's in the hail! The best/worst was that the rain was coming more horizontally so that every INCH of my pants were soaking wet. Thomas' poor cassock was drenched and luckily Katherine had wrapped her Bible etc. in a plastic bag otherwise they would have also been drenched. Needless to say we were shivering and a pool of water quickly formed around our feet beneath our seats. We shivered with cold...but then again, we saw the Pope! :)
Later that night we watched Gladiator-we all felt pretty sweet about having visited that site earlier that day.
Friday Besides serving with the Missionaries of Charity, I took a wonderfully long nap and at night went to the Youth Center again for mass. Afterwards I was able to meet a lot of wonderful people from all over the world again. A missionary group is here studying for 9 months with the Emmanuel community. I happened to meet a guy from Australia who worked with a girl I know from St. Thomas this summer on stuff for World Youth Day. Small world!
After mass and fellowship, we had a time of praise and worship, adoration and confession. It reminded me of Cor Jesu and an SPO prayer meeting put together. It was beautiful! :)
Saturday was the Solemnity of All Saints! We went to mass at a church nearby, then Joe, Hannah, lizzie and I cooked a feast for lunch! We even made bruschetta--YUM!

Sunday morning Katherine and I went to the flea markets in Trastevere which you can get so much for so cheap! It's crazy. It was quite the experience. Katherine got boots for 5 Euro!
We went to mass then came back so I could work on my first paper I've done since the spring!

It was really strange being here for the election. A lot of people stayed up to keep updates on what was going on. It'll be weird with changes going on and me not being home until June. I keep praying though that the Lord will have His hand in this time for our country.
Keep praying for the respect for life.

This morning we went to the Mamertime Prison, which is where Peter and Paul were imprisoned, and where Peter baptised many prisoners, and where an angel led him out so he could escape. But while he was walking, he met Jesus on the road, and asked Him "Lord, where are you going?" (Quo Vadis?) Christ said he was going to Rome to be crucified a second time. Peter knew this meant he had to turn back. He went back into Rome, and was crucified upside down.

Tonight I think I'm going to watch Power Rangers in Italian :) Thomas found a DVD for 1 Euro, and a lot of us were reminiscing about how much we loved that show. It should be interesting!
Friday we'll serve at the Missionaries of Charity (MC's) again, and Saturday there is a trip with the Angelicum to Assisi!

I pray all is well for you!
God love you,
Sam

Hill outside an Abbey we visited after Siena