Monday, November 28, 2011
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Our Thanksgiving Dinner!
Sunday, November 13, 2011
The Holy House of Loreto
According to Catholic tradition, the Holy House came under threat during the turmoil of the Crusades, so in 1291, angels miraculously translated the house from its original location to a site in modern-day Croatia. An empty space was left in Nazareth and a small house suddenly appeared in a field in Croatia. The bewildered parish priest, brought to the scene by shepherds who discovered it, had a vision in which the Virgin Mary revealed it was her former house.
On December 10, 1294, the house was again moved by angels because of the Muslim invasion of Albania. It landed first in Recanti, Italy, but was shortly thereafter moved for a third time to its present location in Loreto.
The Holy House of Loreto, or Santa Casa di Loreto in Italian, has been venerated by pilgrims great and small, including many popes and saints, and numerous miracles and healings have been reported. Scientists are said to have confirmed the materials to be the same as those found in Nazareth and the house lacks normal foundations.
(www.sacred-destinations.com)
I was not able to take pictures inside of the marble shrine of the actual Holy House, but if you are interested in seeing what it looked like, I'm sure if you google it, you will find it :)
Tolentino frescos
Sunday, November 6, 2011
London and Paris!
Okay, I FINALLY have time to blog J
London and Paris!!
London:
On October 22, I woke up bright and early to catch a bus leaving for Ancona. After several bus switches, we finally made it to the airport with plenty of time until our flight. We flew with the airline Ryan Air, I don’t know if any of you have flown with them before, but let me just tell you it is an experience! Your cabin baggage has to be a certain weight and size and trying to stuff 12 days worth of clothes into a small carry-on that can only weigh 20lbs and keeping in mind I will probably be purchasing souvenirs is a bit of a challenge! Surprisingly I did it! On Ryan Air you don’t have assigned seats so basically when they call for you to board the plane everyone pushes to get to the front of the line, and once your passport is checked people sprint to the plane to get their “window” seats! It was crazy!
When we finally landed my ears were filled with British accents and my eyes were filled with signs I could actually read!! The first thing we did when we got to London was eat McDonalds… I don’t even eat McDonalds when I am in the states, but after eating pasta for two months, nothing sounds better than a cheeseburger and French fries. We made it to our hostel with ease and it was in a great location! We were given our keys and made our way up into the room. I stayed in a room with 21 other people (boys and girls)… the room is filled with bunk beds and underneath there are little crates where you can lock up your stuff. Praise the Lord I got a top bunk so I could sleep without the feeling of people looking at me! Well, you get it all in a hostel…the guy next to me snored, the other guy next to me had his stuff EVERYWHERE, the people on the other side of me spoke no English, and the Spanish guys that were there left me a creepy note addressing me as “Indiana Girl.” All in all, it was probably one of my favorite memories of the whole trip because we met so many people there!
While we were in London we did a pub crawl, met some awesome people from Germany who were studying abroad in London, went to a pub to watch the soccer game, walked through the Camden market, walked everywhere, went to Little Venice, went on a free walking tour, saw the soldiers, drooled over how BEAUTIFUL Big Ben is in person, went to mass at Westminster Abbey, tried fish and chips, took a tour of Shakespeare’s Globe theatre, rode a double-decker bus, mastered the underground subway, walked across London bridge singing “London bridge is falling down falling down falling down,” walked across Tower Bridge, ate in the Queens Gardens, walked through Hyde Park, saw Buckingham Palace, ate more French fries (I may have eaten them for lunch and dinner every day….), saw St. Paul’s cathedral, and my German friends threw me a “German birthday party” at a German Pub! It was SOOOO nice to be able to speak English to everyone around… who knew you could miss a language so much? I fell in love with London right away and it is definitely a city I would love to go back to!
Then on Wednesday, we took the train from London to Paris! When we arrived in Paris my friend Jessyme was waiting for us at our gate with two of his friends! They helped us figure out the metro and took us to our hotel! Our hotel was really cute and it was in a great location! That night, we walked to the Eiffel Tower and my dream of seeing the Eiffel tower finally came true! You know when you are little and you go to Disney world, and when you turn the corner Cinderella’s Castle is gleaming in the distance and you are overcome with pure joy? (Okay well maybe that was just me… but I had the same exact feeling when I saw the Eiffel Tower). In one week I went from Italy to London to Paris… so my brain was a little confused on which language I should speak. I didn’t realize that I knew NO French AT ALL until I tried to figure out how to order a sandwich at Subway, and had to have Jessyme translate everything for me. When someone would ask me a yes or no question I would say, “Yes, I mean Si, shoot I mean OUI (wee).” Same with “thank you, grazie, MERCI.”
The next day I woke up to a BEAUTIFUL sunrise and it was also my BIRTHDAY! (20…I feel old). Then we went to the Luxemburg gardens which were beautiful and I had my first crepe J Yum! Then Jessyme met us at the hotel and took us to the Eiffel tower. I got to climb the Eiffel tower on my birthday! It was so incredible! It view was amazing and when the tower glitters on the hour I almost died. It was a dream come true! I took a billion pictures. Then we met up with Theo (Jessyme’s friend) and had dinner at a really nice restaurant! It was such a great birthday!
In Paris I saw: The Eiffel tower (every day…I made it my goal), the bridge Adele walks on during her music video “someone like you”, The Arc de Triumph, the place where all the artists and musicians are, saw mass at Notre Dame, went to the Louvre and saw the Mona Lisa, explored a beautiful cemetery (on Halloween…how appropriate), saw the wall with “I love you” in all different languages, overlooked the city in many different spots, met some amazing people from France, Jessyme’s Mom made lunch for us and I met some of his friends (the food was DELICIOUS), and enjoyed my time just relaxing and enjoying the beautiful weather we were blessed with!
On November 2nd, we had to leave L We flew from Paris to Rome and took the train from Rome to Macerata. It was an amazing trip and an amazing experience…one that I will never forget! It was weird not having my Dad there to plan everything, but I think he taught me well! This trip is really making me want to see the world…what are my odds of wining the lottery?...
Friday, November 4, 2011
Thursday, November 3, 2011
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