Vatican Museums

Ciao, tutti!

Yesterday, we visited the Vatican Museums/Sistine Chapel: wow.  It is full of beauty worthy of the great acclaim that it has garnered over the years!*

No picture taking is allowed in the Sistine Chapel (so every 30 seconds or so, over the loudspeaker: "Silence, please! Silenzio, per favore! No picture! No foto!"), so there's nothing from me; however, it is completely worth googling.  My favorite parts are the first few scenes of creation, through the fall.  It's all amazing, though. :)  Also, Raphael's Theology/Philosophy -- not only beautiful, but I have seen them in so many places that it was fantastic to be there with them!

After the Chapel, we were free to wander, and I did get a couple pictures.  Here's a painting from what I can only assume was an early Borromeo weekend procession:

Davey: this one is called "Rinaldo abandons Armida."  Same story as Lully's opera, perhaps???

And to make it a truly momentous day, I bartered for my first scarf on the way back from evening class (God and the Poets -- still continues to be amazing):

Comparatively, today was not particularly memorable.  Though - in Italian we learned about food and ordering and then went to a bar for coffee.  So that was pretty cool!  The place we went had a St. Paul hipster vibe, and they don't charge extra for sitting down (which, yes, is a real thing), so I will do my best to return with some books.

Have a wonderful night!
 - Emily

P.S.  Finally looked at this blog live and realized how hideous the post title color was.  Mi dispiace!  Hopefully this darker purple will be easier on the eyes.

*Trying to avoid sentences such as "So fantastic!" when possible.  Might still happen on occasion, though. :)

Longer than a Tourist

That is to say, Bekah pointed out yesterday that two weeks is about the longest that we would be here for a vacation, so we're hoping that the reality that we are still going to be in Rome for another 3.5 months kicks in at some point!  I think that having another week of a regular schedule will start solidifying that idea, though.

Since I last posted, we:

 - did outreach to the homeless with members of the Sant'Egidio community.  This was quite the cultural experience, from splitting the group up into cars with no organization whatsoever to being surrounded more fully by the language than ever before (only a couple people really spoke English), being driven by an Italian to walking through sketchy Italian neighborhoods, chatting with them (that is, the guy who spoke English) in a parking lot of trailers where many homeless live.  It was a humbling experience on many levels, as we got to feel what it is like to be the stranger and the one for whom they need to accommodate.  Their mission of befriending the poor was also very cool to see in action, especially since it seemed very unorganized and chaotic at first, but gradually came to make sense -- they got everyone to where they all needed to be; then they just sat and chatted in the parking lot, and that was okay. :)

 - took a day trip to Subiaco and Monte Casino.  This was both a prayerful experience (we had Mass at Subiaco -- so powerful to be praying in the very place that St. Benedict lived and prayed!) and a good community building time, what with all the time spent on the bus, eating lunch, walking around.

Here's the view from Monte Casino (the ride up was rather terrifying, but worth it at the top!):

Original statue of St. Benedict (much of the monastery has been destroyed and rebuilt many times):

(Just to clarify -- St. Benedict is the guy on the pedestal, not the guy on the ground.)

Saturday morning, Thanos and an Italian friend - Claudia - showed us around a nearby food market.  It's basically a glorified farmer's market, and so cool!  Can you spot the boars' heads in this picture?

(No, I did not bear them in hand, nor were they bedecked with rosemary - at least not to my knowledge.)

I hope that you have all had a wonderful weekend and will have a lovely week ahead!

 - Emily

A Week Later

Ciao, tutti!

Wow.  The past week and a half has been one of the most packed of my life.  Mostly in a good way, thankfully!  Here's a highlight/summary from each day so far:

Tues., Feb. 7:  Scavi tours (no pictures allowed inside - but after all, one of my favorite parts was all the Latin inscriptions, so you probably would have just ended up with a lot of those. ;))
So, instead of tombs and bones, here's Katie and I beforehand:

Wed., Feb. 8:  Papal Audience!

Thurs., Feb. 9:  first class with Dr. Naughton.  It's CATH 401: Church and Culture, and we've already had readings from Pope Benedict, Pope Francis, and St. JPII, so it promises to be a pretty great class.  Also, we had a telling experience of Italian time: we needed to get books for another class, but the Angelicum bookstore was closed with this sign, which a passing seminarian translated as "Will I return soon?"  (Basically, things here are often late and unpredictable.  This is my natural tendency, so I've totally been appreciating it! :))

Fri., Feb. 10: Catacombs of Priscilla.  Felt such a connection to the community of the early Church!  (Also, played my first game of ultimate frisbee in the afternoon: pretty fun; pretty sore.)

Sat., Feb. 11:  Lunch at the Irish College w/some of the SJV seminarians.  It's such a lovely building and location!  (Sorry - should have taken a picture.... :/)  Then we walked around, got gelato, and went to St. John Lateran.  Wow!  It's enormous, and the statues of the apostles inside have so much energy to them.

Here are Grace, Emily Monson, Bekah, Margaret B. and I, trying to get a selfie way too close:

And a more successful one for scale:

Sun., Feb. 12:  Back to the Irish college, this time for Mass, after which I simply enjoyed a leisurely afternoon.  (Okay, leisurely with a ton of reading for Dr. Lev's class...)

Mon., Feb. 13:  First day of classes!  I mean, we had had 401 already, but now that they've all started  it feels real.  Art history with Dr. Lev is going to be intense but also super interesting.  God and the Poets is beautiful and inspiring, and probably a good breather in the midst of the rest of them.

Tues., Feb. 14:  More classes - including Italian!  It was fun. :)  We also had our first class of Fundamental Moral Theology with Fr. Giertych: my brain has never had to work so hard.  He simply reads his super deep notes and we all take notes breathlessly, hoping that it will be more clear if we simply write enough down.  Fascinating material, so I think it will be good overall.

Wed., Feb. 15 (today):  First official / fancy community dinner; Msgr. Schlag, a soon-to-be Catholic Studies' professor (currently teaching at Santa Croce) was the guest.  He is both down-to-earth and impressive at the same time, and we're excited to have him at UST!

To finish up, some pictures from Chiesa del Gesu:

One of the prettiest churches so far.  The ceiling is fantastic; this doesn't come close to doing it justice.  (But it proves that I was there, and I'm sure you can google a better picture if you so desire. ;))

Okay, this is the end for real: pistachio ice cream!

Arrivederci!

Buonasera from Roma!

Buonasera, amici --

After about 11 hrs split over two plane rides (with a partially successful attempt at sleep on the second flight), I am in the Eternal City!  Our time here has already been exciting; we've had gelato (my first!), espresso (also a first, and something that, if I continue, may make it difficult to return to American coffee), orientation, Mass, and finally some down time.  We've got an organ in the chapel!  Bernardi (where we are staying) is beautiful.  Here's my room and lovely roommate, pre-unpacking:

Can you see the molding around the ceiling?

We also took a walk along the Tiber.  The water is green and kind of disgusting, but the buildings along it are lovely.

These trees are all over:

 Well, I think that's all I've got for now.  Or maybe there's more, but it's a lot to take in, so that's all that I've absorbed to this point. :)  So, arrivederci!

Full Tuesday

Today has been one of those long but good days.  Classes - CATH and CISC - went fairly well; we read some of King Lear aloud, which is really the best way to read Shakespeare, and I took a file containing the complete works of Jane Austen and made a new file, still with the same words, but one word per line and all punctuation (except hyphens and apostrophes) removed.  (Bonus points for whoever can match the activity with the correct class! ;))  Piano Performance Class, practice, choir, more practice, work - in the computer lab, a Latin assignment, and home again 13 hours later. So. yeah!  Goodnight!

Back to Blogging

Salvete, omnes qui me sequimini!  I have to apologize: I had planned to switch to Twitter updates this semester, but never really got into a routine with it.  Looking back on the semester, which is just a blur, and, realizing how nice it was last year to have the blog to keep track of what I'd been doing, I'm going to try to pick it up again (using as many -ing words as possible, preferably putting in one in each clause).  Might not be daily posts, but it will be better than nothing. :)

This weekend has been full: it was Borromeo Weekend (St. Charles Borromeo's feast day was sometime this past week, and the seminaries go all-out in commemoration), which on Fri. night consisted of Mass and a candlelight procession across campus (and there were, if I estimate correctly, about a million seminarians, so it was a pretty impressive procession), and ended with Cor Jesu.  Here Emily G., Anne W. (both new Lit Music Majors), Margaret H., and myself got to sing the Litany of the Sacred Heart with four of the Handmaids; I'd say it went well and beautifully!

Saturday: Katie and I biked to Whole Women's to shadow the sidewalk counselors.  It was colder than we had anticipated, our tires were pretty flat, and one of the ladies had pity on us and drove us back to UST. :)  That evening, after MMCing for Mass, "The Squad" came over to watch the Two Towers!  I was greatly disappointed by the Ents, but the rest of the movie was fantastic (and enhanced by commentary on Theodin's tactical choices, Aragorn's failure to guard hearts, etc).

Sunday: Holy Hour to celebrate the Year of Consecrated Life = Handmaids again!

And finally, hodie - Dies Lunae: the adjustment back to student life after all that excitement has been a little rough.  However, I got cranberries at Whole Foods the other day, and ate them with pumpkin pancakes for dinner, which was pretty exciting. :)

Now, to King Lear.  Valete, et dormite bene!

Last day as a Freshman

This morning:  did some studying; moved lots of things from Burgundy (the women's house on Summit) to our house for next year.

This afternoon:  Calc final, which went fine, and means that I am done with school for the year!  Then baking, for the Sisterhood dinner held...

This evening:  so we had the aforementioned Sisterhood dinner, with both present and past members of the Sisterhood; it was a great time with wonderful food (sandwiches by and lots of laughs.

Being done with finals means that Michaela and I both have time on our hands, and it turns out that Lit Music Majors and free time can be a dangerous combination!  Here's a preview of our night's work - for our choir direction, Mr. Aaron Brown:

 (It comes complete with a page of choir warm-ups set to all the syllables in the book - "moo-moo-moo-moo-moo-moo-moo-moo-moo" (ascending do-so, then descending), "tick-a-tock-a-tick-a-tock-a-tick-tock-tick-tock," etc. :))

The beginning of the end

Almost everything from this room ...

... is going into this room:

... for the time being. :)

First Day of Finals/Music Details from the Weekend

Computer Science and Latin finals finished today!  So 3 down, 1 to go.

The past few days have been very music-y (sometimes more successfuly than others):

• Saturday: MMC and cantor for Mass, but I gave the pianist the book with the old translation... and my music had the new translation... you know how they talk about "going out with a bang"?  Well, this was one way to do that.
• Sunday: last Lit Choir Sunday of the year -- thankfully, this one went much more smoothly than the previous night!
• Monday: in-house scholarship audition, which I think went well overall, then leading music for the Study Monday Mass at night.  From piano, and with a guitarist and cantor (but we nixed the raise-your-arm-to-bring-the-people-in thing ;)): more like St. Paul's than anything I've done all year, and it was great!  (With the exception of the Gospel acclamation where I panicked as to what key we were in and threw the cantor off, but it wouldn't be music if there wasn't something like that, right?)

Enjoying the slower pace, but trying not to totally peter out.  Just a few more days!

Semi-Productive Study Weekend

It's been such a relief to have Music History finished that I haven't been as motivated to study for everything else as I perhaps should have been... well, I shall see as the week progresses!

Family, on the last day of Music History, we looked at some examples of modern notation (pictured below) that I think you would all enjoy playing -- so prepare the boomwackers! :)

Last day of classes, cont.

Well, there it is: Freshman-year classes are finished!  I also had my piano jury this morning and my Music History final this afternoon -- it was a full day.  I'm kind of tired, but also so relieved to have made it through. :)

My week has mostly been full of crazy studying, but here's a few other tidbits:

Lilacs are out!

Digging up the road in front of the next-door women's house this morning.  We're not exactly sure what's going on, but it has something to do with the water line... just in time for finals...

A typical pre-finals women's-house pile: 

And, last but not least, I'm trying my best to stay hydrated and not get sick, for just one more week:

Congratulations to those who have finished, non modo classes, sed quoque finals, today (ea est pulchra soror mea Amanda :D <3 get="" nbsp="" ow="" p="" sleep="" some="" to="">

Last Day of Classes!

Dies Veneris est!

(Don't know why I'm on such a Latin kick, but since I started, I feel obligated to finish, so that you can learn all the days of the week.  And it makes the title so easy. :))

No pictures from today, but here's me getting drenched on the way back from Mass yesterday:

I guess you can't quite tell how wet I am in this picture -- but it was wet enough that we had to sing "Sixteen Going on Seventeen." :D  Grateful for the lack of rain today!

Choir Concert

Not mine -- Concert Choir and Chamber Singers -- and it was fabulous!!!  Loved every minute of it, especially a beautiful, modern and harmonically cool "Salve Regina," which started with ... tone clusters? or whatever the choral equivalent is.  Started with two clashing notes, then added more... and more... higher and higher... the effect was a wave of sound that just - oh - goose-bumps - I guess this is where the expression "words fail me" comes in.  (It's so hard to describe music, because if our words about it were really all that it was, then there would be no point in making music.)  And they closed with a really fun arrangement of "Down to The River to Pray": perfect ending. :D

Guess I kind of like music...

Dies Mercurii: Philosophy Symposium

Salvete, omnes!

Volo scribere totum Latine, sed hodie nimis fessa sum, et lente scribeo, et ille tempum longum ante dormientem facit.

(Or something like that... :))

Tonight was the Philosophy Club's Symposium, which was really quite interesting.  We've been debating about aesthetics this semester, and it was great to get an actual definition of beauty and art!  The ideas are still up for debate, of course, but this helps. :)  Maybe I will include more details later -- on a night when I don't spend time beginning in Latin... ;)

Also, I'm feeling quite satisfied right now because all my array functions are working!  So if you ever need to sort the values in a two-dimensional array from least to greatest, just let me know.

Finally, I discovered the English Lit section of the library:

Well, that's all for tonight.  Valete, et dormite bene!

First Communions/Recitals

This morning, since I was not MMC-ing or singing for UST, I went with some of my neighbors and housemates to Mass at St. Mark's, where they were having first communions.  The first communicants were all darling (and even served as lectors, which I found impressive!), and it served as a good reminder of the importance of Mass and Holy Communion.

This afternoon was one of recitals: first, a senior recital by a Piano Performance major (it was amazing!), and then a level 1 recital by two piano majors, a voice major (tenor, in case you're wondering :)), and violinist: also all amazing!  Not only that, but between recitals I also went to the Binz, a cafeteria at which I have been intending to eat all year, with a couple other students, so that was fun. :)

I hope that you've all had a refreshing weekend!

It's May!

Hard to believe that it's already May!  But it is, as proven by the results of the recent April showers:

So far, the month is off to a good start.  Yesterday night was Cor Jesu, to which Amanda came and afterwards slept over. :) (Not sure if that mix of phrases actually makes a grammatically correct sentence...)  Thanks, Pandy, for all the fun talking; it was great to spend time with you! <3 p="">

Today was mostly a day of quiet productivity, but this evening, Jessica, Stephanie, and I brought a picnic dinner down to the river, which was a good break.  Here's our view of the beautiful St. Mary's Chapel on our way back:

Only two more weeks of classes!

Prison Ministry/House Dinner

Last night, I was privileged to visit the Lino Lakes Correctional Facility with the University of St. Thomas Liturgical Choir (i.e., go sing at the prison).  I wasn't at all sure what to expect, but the friendliness and joy of the inmates blew me away.  They were so appreciative -- honestly, just like when singing at a nursing home, but coming from a group of bearded, tattooed, "Amen!"-ing guys, it was a whole new experience.  "Soon and Very Soon" was by far the biggest hit, but I was most touched by their response to "Amazing Grace."  I used to think that that was just another over-played hymn, but singing it with a bunch of prisoners who are in love with the Lord was so humbling!

And tonight, I cooked for house dinner (perhaps I should have clarified: the title of this post refers to two separate evenings :)).

It won't let me post a pic of my pizzas in progress (quick, siblings et alii homeschooled children: what literary technique did I just [accidentally] use??), but that's probably for the best, as we really ought to tackle the oven next house cleaning.  But the pizzas were tasty, and there are leftovers; yay! :)

Frustrating evening study sessions + fresh baked cookies...

= a dangerous combination (but a slightly less frustrated Emily ;)).

A few pictures for you:

Pansies, because they reminded me of Granny. :)

Minneapolis, because I was there making a Target run, all by myself!

So I guess someone decided to keep one end of the practice room area all to themselves?

(The doors are both open in this picture -- when they are closed, it's an open hallway.)

Sunny Monday

Greetings, everyone;

I hope that you have all been appreciating the sun today!  Mama, you will be pleased to hear that I ate both lunch and dinner outside -- hard to tell in this picture, but here's my little spread:

Okay, so I was rather desperate for a picture... :)  And I needn't have been, since I just made this:

It's not actually functional right now, but by Wed. morning it should be a little drawing program!  Doesn't it look nice? ;)

Now, time for bed.  Goodnight!