Forza Roma!!

Last weekend was relatively quiet for us. We stayed in Rome while others traveled around Europe to Ireland, Paris, Scicily, Siena, etc., but it was nice to be on campus with only about 15 other people for a few days. On Thursday after class we missed dinner and quickly headed to the nearby town of Albano to get some cheap pizza. On Friday we went into Rome and walked around the Travestere region to see where Nick's brother Luke lived when we was here for a year, stopped in the church of St. Dorothy, and then went to "the best pizzaria in Rome". We're not sure yet if it actually is, but that's what some of the other Romer's claim. It was pretty yummy and Nico really liked it. He often complains about the lack of pizza in the cafeteria, so whenever we find good or cheap pizza, we always remember where to go back to get it. Then we went to the piazza outside the Pantheon which is usually hopping later on a Friday night. We went to our Art and Architecture professor's favorite gelato place and sat in the piazza and listened to the street musicians who were serenading the restaurant goers eating outside in the piazza. Saturday was really quiet. We just studied and relaxed. At Nico's refusal to play any game in the game chest, I spearheaded an effort to do a 1000 piece puzzle of the Colesseum, which got a little bit more fun for me after Theresa got back from her outing and helped. We're determined to finish it, but it may take us awhile. Then on Sunday, we got up and went to breakfast on campus, scarfed it down and hurried to catch the 10:30 bus to the metro to make 12:15 mass at St. Peter's. I'm hoping that my diligent attention at these Italian masses makes up for the fact that I have no idea what the readings are or what the priest is saying in his homily. It's really hard not to be distracted in St. Peter's though, it's so big!! Before mass, Nico and I accidentally wandered down under the floor of the church and walked past the tombs of many deceased popes, including Pope John Paul II. His tomb is the most beautifully decorated one after St. Peter's and is probably constantly being venerated. There was a whole group of people around him just when we passed by. We'll have to go back sometime and make a better visit. After mass we donned our Roma apparel and went to meet Dr. Roper at a certain metro station so he could take us to the Roma vs. Genoa soccer game. Dr. Roper is our English professor who also teaches a new elective class called Contemperary Italian Culture, which I'm auditing. As an outing for this class, and being an avid soccer fan, he wanted us to get a taste of Roman soccer culture. So, we packed onto a crowded bus and made our way down the dirty sidewalks to the olympic stadium where the 1960 Olympics were held. We quickly found some seats in the Curva (the end zone or the curve), which was lucky because seats are pretty much first come first serve. The game was really fun and it was both nice but disappointing that we ended up in the less rowdy section. It was nice because we actually got to watch the game in relative peace, but we didn't get to participate fully in the excitement of the Italian obsession. Actually, looking back, I suppose I'm more grateful for this. It's not as fun if you have to constantly deal with rowdy fans. Then we booked it out of the stadium a couple minutes early and made it back to campus for dinner where we got to hear the stories of all the people who went traveling.

This weekend should be really fun. We're planning on going to Barcelona with Nick and his girlfriend Hannah. I guess, other than that we're going, we haven't planned much, but there will be plenty to do there and the weekend will go by really fast.

School has been ok. I'm a little frustrated because I'm already already behind and have the further pressure to get ahead before Thursday so I won't have to work on anything in Spain. Flusche also sprung a quiz on the major monuments of Rome on us today, which I was not ready for. But when I say monuments, I mean hills, areas of land, walls, and roads, not even really buildings. We're kinda hoping everyone failed and she'll take pity on us, but she's probably just trying to remind us to constantly study and review.
Theresa and I plan to volunteer with Msgr. Fucinaro at a soup kitchen near the Vatican one of these Tuesdays coming up. We would help with serving dinner and taking care of those in the hospice there. I can't remember which order runs it, but it's sure to be a good experience and I can't remember the last time I did a volunteer project like that, actually I probably never have.
The girls in my suite are brainstorming going to France the weekend that the boys are on retreat in March to visit Lisieux and Orleans and maybe Chartres and Tours. We thought it would be a nice little pilgrimage to visit the famous cities of a couple great saints (St. Therese of Lisieux and St. Joan of Arc, well Joan wasn't from Orleans, but she fought there and has a museum dedicated to her there) and we may possibly stay in a convent first to save money, and second to bolster the trip as more of a religious experience. It will also be interesting to see the small towns of France that are a little outside Paris; it's easier to get a sense of what French people are really like by talking to those in small towns and to get away from the noise of the huge capital of Paris. We'll have to see how the planning works out, but right now all of us six are really excited about it.
I'm working on getting more pictures up. All of my web browsers have decided lately that they don't like facebook's uploading option, but once I get some spare time, I'll figure it all out.

I love you all! Please keep praying for our safety and our studies.

Ange

PS a video of the Roma song that they sing before every game
Theresa has the words down and we often break out into it when we're feeling particularly Roman