Ciao a tutti!
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| The pope, welcoming you to my blog, obviously |
Today, the pope waved to me! No, really. He did! Alright, I'll start at the beginning. This was a trip organized by the school. My theology teacher works for the pope, and he got a bunch of tickets for the students. It's kind of a once in a lifetime opportunity, so obviously I went. I felt a little awkward about it, because I'm SO not religious, but the pope is far more than just a religious leader. He's one of the most well-respected people in the world, he's a world leader, the head of his own country, and he's a celebrity! So I went to see him. Mostly I wanted to experience the papal audience.
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| The pope |
So I woke up at the crack of dawn and got slightly dressed up, but not too much because they say you don't have to, but enough so that my knees and shoulders and such were covered. Anyways. We got there like an hour and a half before the pope started, so we got pretty good seats... like 20 rows back or so from the stage. People filed in for the next hour and a half or so, and basically we discussed the architecture of St. Peter's Basilica and played hangman while we waited for "il pappa" to arrive. He flew by the back of the piazza in his helicopter (pope-copter?) and everyone got excited. Then he hopped in his pope-mobile and rode around the crowd in circles for a few minutes. He was pretty darn close. It was a little overwhelming. Finally the pope-mobile brought him to the stage, and he got off and said a few words in Latin (I think it was Latin...). Then a cardinal came up and translated to French, then English, then Spanish, then German, then Polish, then Italian. Then he welcomed groups individually. He gave a shoutout to St. John's and we all stood up and cheered. It was amazing seeing all the people from all over the world, literally. There was a large group from Nigeria there that were really enthusiastic, and quite a few Polish people. We were sitting near a bunch of German people. Literally, everywhere. Some of the groups sang songs for the pope (note to self: next time you go see the pope, sing him a song!). Then he told us a story, and that was translated into a million languages. Finally, he sang the "Our Father" in Latin and blessed all the religious items people had brought with them. Then it was over. Pretty amazing experience, but fortunately for me, not a once in a lifetime experience, because I'm here all semester and the school goes 3 times, once for each discover the world module, so I can (and will) go again!
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| Still the pope. |
After that, Domenico brought us to Old Bridge to eat gelato. yummmmmmmmmmmmm. Old Bridge Gelato is certainly something everyone should experience in their lives. This time, I had half mint and half chocolate... like mint chocolate chip! It was absolutely delicious. I was almost licking my cup clean. I can't capture the taste in words, but trust me, definitely something you want to taste. Then I came home and watched Glee, which was AMAZING. But has nothing to do with studying abroad. So now I'm working on my Italian homework (since the post's title) and not enjoying it! School trip to Naples/Pompeii/Capri/Paestum this weekend! I'll let you know how it goes... Ciao!
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