Home sweet home :)

Boy oh boy has this semester flown by. When I arrived in the Philadelphia airport this morning it seemed as though I had never even left it 3 months ago. It is a bittersweet ending to one of the most exciting chapters in my life so far. While I am so sad to be leaving Italy and all of the friends I have made this semester I could not be happier to be home with my family, friends, and a freezer full of green chile! 

Here are a few things I learned on my study abroad experience:

My parents blessed me with the genes to be able to be mistaken for any person of any race. Seriously, from being mistaken as a local in Greece and Turkey to random strangers taking pictures of me at the canonization because they thought I looked like St. Kateri Tekakwitha, I learned that I look like I could be from many countries and American usually isn’t among one of the first guesses. My first week in Italy one of the men who works at the Villa where we lived came up to me and said “If you are American, why do you look like this?”... That was awkward.

Pope Benedict XVI is a stinkin’ genius. Taking a class on his writings was awesome. That man is so smart - but really, sometimes I would have to read and reread sentences 7-8 times just to gain a little understanding of what he was even talking about. We are so blessed to have such a fabulous shepherd and we must remember to pray for him every day.

I love Albuquerque. Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely loved every city that I got to visit on this trip. So much culture and beauty and I truly loved being able to see so much of the world but the more I saw and the more time I spent away from home the more I realized how much I love Albuquerque and it will always be home.

The Catholic Church is one of the most beautiful things in the world. I have been to Mass in English, Greek, Turkish, Italian, Spanish, French, Polish, and Latin during this trip and it has given me a whole new understanding and appreciation for the universality of the Catholic Church. Being able to spend time in Rome also helped me grow in love for the Church. Everywhere you  look there you find seminarians, priests, bishops, and sisters and they each truly radiate Christ’s love. Although we may feel discouraged about where things are headed it was so encouraging to see the Church so alive and it gave me a new sense of hope. 

This semester has been such a blessing to my life and I would do it again in a heart beat. It was a scary thought to leave my family and head out to a country where I don’t speak the language at all but it was totally worth it and I grew so much in these last three months. 

“Have no fear of moving into the unknown. Simply step out fearlessly knowing that I am with you, therefore no harm can befall you; all is very, very well. Do this in complete faith and confidence.” -Blessed Pope John Paul II

Bologna

On Thursday I made a short trip to Bologna with three of my friends to visit the Tomb of St. Dominic. I was excited to learn a few weeks ago that such a great saint was buried so close to where I am living so I decided to make a day trip to visit. The little town itself was so great! We arrived in the morning and started to make our way in the direction of Basilica di San Domenico. There were cute little shops everywhere and it was a pretty peaceful city - definitely not as busy as Rome or Florence or a lot of the other cities that we have spent time in. On our way to see St. Dominic we stopped into the Parrocchia di San Benedetto and the Cattedrale di San Pietro and both were very beautiful. We finally arrived at the Church where St. Dominic's tomb is and made our way inside. It was so beautiful and such a blessing to be able to pray in front of the tomb of such a great saint. We spent the rest of our time there having a picnic in a park and playing with the pigeons. We made it to the airport on time and boarded a flight to Krakow!

Parrocchia di San Benedetto.

St. Benedict & Our Lady of Guadalupe.

Cattedrale di San Pietro.

St. Peter and those keys again!

Basilica di San Domenico.

Our Lady.

San Domenico.

Beautiful painting at the entrance.

Inside the Church.

Crucifix.

Tomb of St. Dominic.

Lit a candle for and said lots of prayers for my favorite Dominican friar :)

Another beautiful painting.

Rosary Chapel.

The chapel of St. Dominic.

Paris, Disneyland, & Versailles

Ahhh, Fall break! On Saturday the 27th I boarded my first RyanAir flight (not quite like Southwest Airlines) and headed off to Paris! We arrived in the late evening, had dinner, and turned in early to prepare for the long weekend ahead of us! We got up early Sunday morning and went to Mass at Notre Dame - it is SO beautiful there! Senior year of high school in yearbook class our teacher who was French taught us how to pray the Hail Mary in French. I distinctly remember one day in class turning to my friend Ashley and saying "When am I EVER going to be in a situation where I will want to pray the Hail Mary in French? I can pray it in English, Spanish, and Latin and I'm pretty sure that's plenty of languages for one prayer." Welp, I was sure excited when the priest began Mass with three Hail Marys and I knew all the words! Thanks, Madame Godret! That was the only part of the Mass that I understood. Anyways, after Mass we had a few hours before our walking tour began so we walked around in Notre Dame and then made our way to the outside to check it out from there. While we were walking around some nice strangers came up to us and asked me to take a picture of them so I did and we started making some small talk and I asked them where they were from and guess what they said... New Mexico! What are the odds! After that we made our way over to meet our walking tour. The tour lasted about 4 hours and we saw so much! Notre Dame, the Eiffel Tower, Napoleon's tomb, Tuileries Gardens, Pont Neuf, the Arc de Triomphe, the Louvre, and so much more! Our tour guide Billy was great and I learned a lot from the tour! After the tour we explored and made our way over to the Eiffel Tower to get a closer look - I took an obscene amount of pictures of that thing. That evening we did a walking tour of the Montmarte District with our same great guide! The highlight of that tour was definitely the Basilica Sacré Coeur. It was such a beautiful church and there is perpetual Adoration which added to its beauty! When you walk out of the Basilica you are at the highest natural point in Paris and there is a beautiful view of the city. On the tour we also saw the Artists' Square, the last windmill in Paris, the last vineyard in Paris, Picasso's studio, Van Gogh's house, the Moulin Rouge, and lots of other little things along the way. After a long 14 hour day, we finally made it back to our hostel to recharge for the next day...DISNEYLAND! Monica and I spent the day filled with the joy of a 5 year old in Disneyland! We had so much fun and it was a really really great day! I kind of forgot that we were in France until the Disney characters would speak in French or I would see a Snow White poster that said "Blanche Neige et les Sept Nains". We were there from open to close and enjoyed every single one of the 600 minutes we spent there! Tuesday morning we got up early again to make it to morning Mass at Notre Dame. Mass was on the other side of the altar in the choir stalls and there were only about 15 people at Mass. It was neat to be at such an intimate Mass in this beautiful Basilica. The homily seemed really great and people kept laughing at things the priest said - I wish I knew what was so funny. It was great though! After an Adoration hour at Notre Dame I embarked on a final tour to Versailles! We saw the Château and the beautiful Gardens there! It is already really cold in Paris and everything was still green and beautiful - I cannot imagine how beautiful that place is in the summertime. I learned a lot on that tour but I was so thankful to have learned so much about the things I was seeing in high school - thanks Coach Hillsey! We heard lots of stories about King Louis XIV, the "Sun King". We saw the Hall of Mirrors, the Grand Canal, the fountains, Marie Antoinette's estate, and lots more. After the tour I made my way back to Paris and we boarded our flight back to fair Italia. I could not believe it when we landed in Pisa and the flight attendants played a happy little tune and everyone started cheering... Oh Italians! After nearly 7 hours of travel I was thankful to be back at our lovely little villa! Also in case you were wondering, here is the Hail Mary in French :)

Je vous salue, Marie, pleine de grâce. Le Seigneur est avec vous. Vous êtes bénie entre toutes les femmes, et Jésus, le fruit de vos entrailles, est béni. 

Saint Marie, Mère de Dieu, priest pour nous, pauvres pécheurs, maintenant et à l'heure de notre mort. Amen.

On the airplane to Paris!

Lovely Notre Dame.

Our Lady of Guadalupe.

Crucifix in Notre Dame.

The nice random strangers I met from Cedar Crest!

Ohhh Johnny pretending to be the hunchback.

We found this great little park by Notre Dame!

Notre Dame from the back.

Love this place.

One of the stops on the tour... Starbucks! Hooray for a Pumpkin Spice Latte on a cold, cold day!

The first of many Eiffel Tower pictures I took.

So around the area of the Eiffel Tower they have these "Buddy Bears" and there is a bear representing just about every country. Some how they left out the United States but they did have Lebanon!

Moulin Rouge!

Basilica Sacré Coeur.

DISNEYLAND!

We were so excited! (And SO cold!)

Love this place!

I seriously felt like a little kid. It was great.

Ok, I don't remember what ride this was but it must have been a pretty scary one.

Toy story!

With Monica and Buzz :)

Woody is my favorite!

Practically at home :)

Oh how I wish I coud stay.

Getting ready for the parade!

Pooh Bear!

Seriously magical.

Beautiful Gardens of Versailles.

Versailles.

Château of Versailles.

Rome and a Canonization

This weekend I went to Rome for the Canonization of Kateri Tekakwitha and 6 other beautiful new saints! We were in Rome from Thursday until Sunday and the trip was amazing! Thursday was such a beautiful day. We got up early to take a train to Rome where some lovely Felician Franciscan sisters picked us up and brought us to their home which they are graciously letting us stay in for a few days. As it turns out, one of the sisters who was just moved to Rome, Sister Margaret, is from New Mexico and I knew her before we got here! Such a small world. Their home is beautiful and peaceful and they are so hospitable. As soon as we walked in the door all of the sisters came to greet us (I still haven't mastered the whole kiss each cheek Italian greeting thing - Heck, sometimes I struggle with the awkward handshake/hug greeting in America, so this has been interesting!) Anyways, after getting settled and having lunch Anne and I set out on a quest to retrieve our tickets for the Canonization on Sunday from the U.S. Bishop's Office for Visitors to the Vatican. We got more than a little lost trying to find our way to St. Peter's but luckily we ran into a precious nun from Madagascar! (Who knew there were actually people from there?!?) She didn't speak a word of English but I was surprised to find out that I knew enough Italian to talk with her for the entire 10 minute walk! After a quick stop at St. Peter's Basilica we made our way towards the Trevi Fountain to find this office that had our tickets. As we were getting close  we ran into Michael Niemczak! The greatest of unexpected surprises! We said hello and he went on his way to class. So Anne and I find the huge door that has the sign outside to indicate that this is where we want to be. Unfortunately, we rang the doorbell and nobody answered. We found some super great American seminarians close by, Andrew and Brian, and they were so gracious to help us try to find our way in. Talk about a small world, Andrew is Byzantine Catholic and knows Fr. Chrisopher and Fr. Kurt from Our Lady of Perpetual Help in ABQ really well! Alas, we weren't able to get our tickets that day but we made some great new friends while we tried to! On our way back to the Sister's home we ran into Chris Bernabe! How can this be?!? I only know two people that live in Rome and I ran into both of them in one afternoon! God is so good! Once we were on the bus a little priest got on and I remembered my parents telling me about Fr. Oscar who was assigned at Annunciation for a few months earlier this Fall and now he is studying in Rome. Maybe because I was still so excited about running into my friends in Rome, I thought it would be acceptable to do this (In hindsight, not so much). Anyways, I really thought this guy was Fr. Oscar so I just asked him, "Excuse me, are you Fr. Oscar?" And he looked at me surprised and said in his accent "Yes, I am." "Wait really?!?", I replied. He said "Yes, this is something strange." So I asked him if he had been at Annunciation in Albuquerque earlier this year and it turns out that it was simply an unfortunate coincidence - He just happens to also be named Fr. Oscar. Oh well, it was worth a shot. I kept a tally that day, we saw 13 bishops and 76 priests (Although I suppose some of the men we counted as priests could have been seminarians, but still). It was so great to see the Catholic Church so alive! We made it back to the Sister's home and ate supper with them that evening. We woke up early again on Friday - Seriously, I had not seen 5:30 am in months. We went to Mass with the sisters and spent the day exploring in Rome. First, we went over to the Bishop's office to get our tickets for Sunday. It is beautiful there and everyone speaks English! We even got to go to confession in English while we were there. It was great! After some lunch, gelato, and exploring we made our way towards the NAC where we would meet up with Chris and Michael. When we got there I saw Bishop Kicanas (Bishop of Tucson and my grandma's cousin). I went up and introduced myself and it was so great! He was very nice and it was awesome to actually meet him. Anyways, we spent some time with the guys walking around the area of the NAC, which is always super great, and then made our way back to the Sister's home again. On Saturday we spent the entire morning inside of St. Peter's Basilica adoring our Lord and exploring - It is such an incredibly beautiful place! I just cannot get enough of it! After that we wandered into a Bulgarian Orthodox Church right next to the Trevi Fountain, it was interesting and very beautiful! When we finished there we made our way over to Santa Maria Maggiore. It was so beautiful - There were Masses going on in each of the side chapels in all different languages! It was awesome. Then we went to some little Indian restaurant for dinner. It was delicious! We got a very early start this morning to make it to the canonization as early as we could. We said goodbye to the beautiful sisters who have been so great to us the last few days! When we arrived at St. Peter's two and a half hours early we realized that it wasn't early enough. In the huge mob of people I spotted some lovely New Mexico flags being waved in the air. Boy, do I love the sight of that red Zia symbol! I squeezed through the crowd to say hello and met a nice lady from St. Jude Thaddeus in Rio Rancho. I made my way back to my place in the line where the man next to me was trying to nonchalantly take a picture of me on his phone while he awkwardly whispered to the woman next to him that he thought I looked like Kateri Tekakwitha. I suppose I'd rather have a saint doppleganger than a celebrity. Once we got into the square we weren't able to get seats but it was an incredibly beautiful experience nonetheless. It was so great to see all of the different cultures and people uniting to witness the canonization of these 7 new saints. And how beautiful is it that the Church honors the saints so that we can look to their lives as examples of how to live ours in a way that points people towards Christ! I love the Catholic Church. After the mass I ran into Fr. Clement Niggel - That was a great surprise! Rome, so big and beautiful, seems to get smaller and smaller each time I visit. It was an incredibly blessed trip and Rome is surely becoming one of my favorite places! Saint Kateri Tekakwitha - Pray for us!

Our precious little rooms with the sisters.

St. Peter's!

St. Peter's again - this time with the banners up of the new saints!

I love this place!

A bishop just sitting outside of St. Peter's Basilica praying a rosary in the middle of the day - I thought it was so beautiful!

Mom and Dad - Coming soon to a mailbox near you!

The Vatican at night!

The Land of Enchantment was well represented.

Thousands and thousands of people came to the canonization.

Check it out! Look at all those priests, bishops, and cardinals on the altar!