Hey everyone! Im so sorry I haven't posted in forever. Things got a little... well a lot crazy. But it makes a good story I guess. Last Saturday President Bush was in Rome. We had planned on that weekend being our one weekend in Rome, but we were advised not to go anywhere near the city, and especially not to use public transportation. A few years ago, the last time Bush was in Rome, some students from our school were beaten up pretty badly. There were at least two different organized war protests downtown with thousands of people. Somewhere I heard 30,000? So it wasn't a good time to be an American tourist in Rome. We even had military guards outside of our school since we are known as an American university. We were pretty much stuck in our building all day watching movies. At least we got out to have a pretty nice dinner.
Sunday we decided to go to the beach nearby. Its about 2 hours away, and people were telling us how beautiful it is. The weather was nice so we went...and so did the rest of Rome. The public beach was insanely crowded. We barely had room to put our towels down. But the water was

beautiful and not too cold. I didnt go swimming at all since I didnt bring a bathing suit, but I walked in the water a little bit. We got amazing shaved ice from a stand. He actually shaved the block of ice with a metal scoop right there. It was kinda neat. Since it was so crowded we always made sure there was someone at the towels to watch our stuff. Everything was fine until I was reading and wanted to check the time. I had put my watch in my purse so that it wouldnt get sand and water in it. But I couldn't find my purse. Someone had taken it while I was sitting right there reading. I have no idea how I didnt notice. I swear it was even touching my leg. I had EVERYTHING in my purse. Usually I keep all of my important things in a little pouch in the front of my pants, but since I was wearing shorts at the beach I put it in my purse. Which means I lost my passport, my credit card, my debit card, about 100 euro in cash, my camera, my cellphone that I was renting...you name it, it was in my purse.
We left immediately, and when I got back to school I cancelled my cards - they hadn't charged anything. The next day I knew I had to go to the Embassy to start the process to get a new passport. I didnt know how long it would take, and I was leaving in 13 days. So I got up really early, skipped my classes, and was at the embassy by 8:00 when it opened. I put all of my copies of important papers in my backpack since I didnt have my purse anymore. So when it was my turn in line to go in the guard pointed to my backpack and said in Italian "Too big, impossible". Apparently you can take purses the size of duffle bags in, but you cant take a backpack in. I asked where I could put it, if they had lockers and he just rambled in Italian. You'd think they could get someone who speaks English to work the American Embassy. Some people in line translated him for me, I had to go to a cafe and ask them to hold it for me. At this point Im crying again. So I go walking around going into every little business, trying to ask in English and Italian if someone could hold my bag and I kept getting the same response: "Impossible". Now Im not crying, I'm bawling, uncontrollably with hiccups and everything. Im sure it was very attractive. Finally someone pointed me in the direction of the police station. I go in and the woman was sooo incredibly nice, and she spoke perfect English. She told me that it was a good thing I went there first because I need to fill out a police report before I could go to the embassy. But they couldnt hold my bag. So I go upstairs and fill out the form of everything I lost. When I kept checking off all of the different boxes of things I lost, it looked like sooo much, and I just broke down in tears again. There was a British couple also filling out a report. They had only been in Rome 20 minutes when his wallet was stolen on the metro from the train station. So I took the police report and went back downstairs, and the nice lady told me I could try the flower stand down the street to hold my bag because the man who owns it was very nice.
I went to the flower stand and asked in broken Italian pointing to my bag and the stand and the embassy, and the man took it and put in on a chair in his stand. I was so relieved. It didnt even matter if something happened to it because I didnt have anything left to get stolen. So I go back to the embassy, get inside, fill out my forms no problem. The lady at the counter told me that I just have to pay and my passport will be ready within an hour. Perfect! So I go to the pay window, and realize that I have no cash, no credit cards, just a checkbook, and they dont take personal checks. The man at the counter said I could call my parents and ask them to wire me money, but I would need some form of ID to pick it up, and I had none. Then he said I could go back to my school, get money there, and as long as I was back before 12:30 they could process it. It was 11:00. I run to the flower shop to get my bag, and the man had surrounded the chair with tall plants so no one could see it! So cute! If I had money I would have tipped him.
My school is only 30 minutes away my metro and bus. So I run to the metro, hop on, and am at the bustop within 5 minutes. I wait for the bus 25 minutes. The bus comes, but its the end of line where bus drivers get off for their 10 minute break. Our driver decided to have a 15 minute break, then sat on our bus talking to another busdriver for 5 minutes. Its now 11:45. We finally pulled away after enough people yelled at him, and the bus goes literally 5 miles an hour. Cars were beeping behind us and we were crawling. The bus driver kept missing stops, forgetting to open the back doors, it was terrible. At one point the driver even got off of the bus to yell at someone. This is all in Italian so I have no idea whats going on. Then, halway up the huge hill my school is on, the bus just stops. It just broke down. But instead of telling us, the driver just sits down in the seats and gets out a bottle of water. People are crazy mad now, and yelling in Italian, it was insane. So we all get off the bus, and jump on the next one going up the hill. The walk to my school from the bus stop is a little over 5 minutes. I get to school at 1:10. I spent over an hour on that bus, and now its waaay too late to go back to the embassy. So I find the director of the school and she gives me a loan for the money, replaces my room key, and calls the embassy. They said everything would be ready for me the next morning.
So the next morning I'm up bright and early again, I miss my classes and Im the first person in line at the embassy. I was smart enough this time to have my money and not my backpack. After I pay it took about an hour and I got a temporary passport which I have to send back when I get home to receive my permanent one. I realized that I forgot to include the cell phone I'm renting on my police report, and I figured that the company would want a report so I go back to the police station to either add it on or fill out a new one. But the nice people who spoke English weren't there. Only one person there spoke English, and very poorly. I ended up adding something on the bottom of the report that made no sense in English, but whatever, it worked. He even complemented my Italian, just because I was saying about 2 words in Italian.
The bottom line is that everything worked out. I got a new passport, a new cell phone, my friends are letting me borrow a purse, watch, camera, and lots of money. Since theres only a short time left its not worth it to try to send a new debit card over, and there are fees for wiring money, so my friends are helping me out and at the end of the trip I'll write them all checks to pay them back. It actually worked out well because I put the train tickets to Florence on my credit card so they owed me money anyway. They're such nice girls!!
Now that I have my life back together and a camera, I can start putting pictures of from last week and this weekend. I might have to write some entries once I get back home, but at least it will all be on here. We saw a lot of neat stuff last week, so I'll put it up soon!!

I got to see the Pope two days in a row!! On Wednesday we went to the Papal audience. If you saw on the news about the man jumping on the popemobile, I was about 50 feet away! It happened and was over so quickly we didnt think it was a big deal until we saw it on the international news. But the audience was great! We got there 3 hours early, so we were only 10 rows from the front.





Il Papa!













The priest that introduced the English speaking groups present forgot to say our schools name...boo! They had a priest introduce the groups from English, Spanish, German, Russian or Polish? and French countries, then the Pope would wave to them and read his talk to them in that language. It was pretty neat. His accent was so thick it was hard to understand his English.






The Pope leaving in the popemobile.













At this point most of the people left and we moved up to the front, so we were very close to him! He waved to us!!











The Piazza Vittorio Emanuele.













Santa Croce in Gerusalemme.













The inside. It houses the Passion relics found by St. Helena of Constantinople, the mother of Constantine: The panel that hung on the cross, pieces of the cross, a nail, and thorns from the crown. It was pretty interesting.









In the evening on Thursday I went to the Corpus Christi mass and procession from St. John Lateran to St. Maria Maggiore. I had to go by myself because my friends had classes. But it was the most beautiful experience I've had in Rome so far. I peeked at St. Maria Maggiore first and the front was decorated with flowers, like this one of the papal crest.

St. Giovanni Laterno. There were sooo many people filling the whole area in front of the church. I got there 2 hours early so I was right up front!

The Pope using incense at the beginning of mass.

The Holy Father during mass. They passed out Italian mass books so I could follow along.

At the beginning of the Eucharistic Prayer. I had communion blessed by the Pope!!

Beginning the procession. The Pope on a popemobile kneeing in front of the Blessed Sacrament. When he passed in front of us I was sooo close! Amazing!

Following the procession. It was probably half a mile to St Maria Maggiore.

Everyone had candles which were soo pretty as we walked. We were all singing hymns in Italian too. I had a book so I could follow along.

At the end (I was pretty far from the Pope at this point...those little old nuns can push right in front of you when it comes to the Pope haha). Everyone held up their candles and shouted "Viva Il Papa!" It was beautiful! You can kinda make out the steeple of the church in the background.

Yesterday we all had a lot of homework, so we didnt do too much. I saw the Mausoleum of Augustus...very cool











The Sant'Ambrogio e Carlo basilica. It was soo pretty!












Sorry the picture is blurry...


















The heart of Saint Charles Borromeo (Patron saint of Catechists!!!) is kept here behind the main altar.












Piazza del Popolo! The obelisk is from Egpyt, made for Rameses II.












The two churches facing the piazza, Santa Maria dei Miracoli and Santa Maria in Montesanto. They seperate the three roads leading to the piazza (that have really good shopping haha)










The fountain of Neptune on the left side of the piazza.













The fountain and steps on the right side that lead up to the Villa Borghese gardens.
















Today I tagged along with Jen, Jennifer and Steph's class again because they were visiting three really important churches. First is Santa Maria Maggiore. It is one of the five Patriarchal basilicas, which the Pope often uses and is one of the oldest churches in rome dating back to the fourth? century!







The inside of the church! So beautiful! The frescoes on the walls all depicted events in the life of Mary. There was actually Euchatristic Adoration going on! Im surprised they even let people in to look around. But it was awesome spending some time with the Sacrament in such a beautiful setting.







The doors that only the Pope can open. Mary and Jesus' hands stick out to be the handles on the door.

















The back of Santa Maria Maggiore. I think its prettier than the front!












The second church we visited was Saint Peter in Chains (San Pietro in Vincoli). From the fifth century.












The inside was beautiful. So open and peaceful.













the church houses the relics of the chains that bound Peter when he was a prisoner in Jerusalem.












It is also the burial place of Pope Julius II (who began the building of St Peter's basilica). The monument in front of the tomb depicts Moses, carved by Michaelangelo. Moses is depicted with horns coming out of his forehead because the Latin words for "horns" and "beams of light" are similar and you cant carve radiance. So the horns are symbolic for the way Moses glowed with the radiance of the Lord.











The last church was Santa Maria della Vittoria. I couldnt really get a picture from the front because the street was narrow, but heres one from the side.










The inside. It was really small, but so ornate and beautiful!












This church is home to the famous statue "Saint Theresa in Ecstasy". My picture turned out really bad, but my friends got better ones. It was designed by Bernini and depicts on of Saint Theresa of Avila's visions.









The church gets its name (Saint Mary of the victory) because of an icon of Mary that apparently helped Catholics win a battle somewhere? The icon is enshrined in this beautiful gold fram over the altar.

After the class we realized we were close to the Santa Maria della Concezione dei Cappuccini (Saint Mary of the Conception of the Capuchins) which has a crypt decorated entirely with bones from Capuchin monks!

You werent allowed to take pictures inside, so I put up a picture I got from the internet. It was incredible! Really creepy, but at the same time strangely beautiful because the bones made such beautiful symmetrical patterns. It was really neat.

On our way home we stumbled on the corner of the four fountains. It was an intersection of two roads, and on each corner was a really pretty fountain, and looking down each road from the center was a perfectly centered obelisk! It was really neat!