Wandering or Homecoming. Or, Luke Skywalker vs Odysseus

Like lots of Internet conversations nowadays, it all started with something Pope Francis said. If you use a Magnificat, you might have read it in the "Day by Day" for October 13.

"There is a phenomenology of nostalgia, nóstos algos, feeling called home, the experience of feeling attracted to what is most proper for us, most consonant with our being...." - Jorge Bergoglio

Weekend Thoughts: Odyssey in Greece

It is truly a tragedy that Greece has been in such bad shape for the last four years. The country still has so much to give in natural beauty, the study of our mother civilization, and (of course) food! Hopefully they'll soon realize that with tourism as their number one industry, rioting will not solve their economic problems. Here is my tribute to that wonderful country, which I hope will find peace again so that you can all make your own Odyssey!

October 2

The school kicked off our class trip to Greece with our very own Olympics. Dressed as gods with wreaths on their heads, the professors looked down as we ran in races, came up with group chants and songs, and made human sculptures with shaving cream. Apparently 2008 is "too soon" to make jokes about the Vesuvius eruption in 79 AD.

October 3

By late afternoon, buses had brought us to Bari, on the eastern coast of Italy. St. Nicholas is buried there in a grand basilica. At twilight we headed onto the ferry Piraeus that would take us to Greece. My friends and I had a blast wandering the corridors, getting lost, and sitting in the darkness of the stern deck, watching the waves churning and leaping in our wake. We danced late into the night at the ship's disco, ordering kamikazes and arguing about who came from the best state. Plenty of smokers lounged in the bar, which probably contributed to me having a bad cold for the rest of the trip (As I said when I started this half a year, sickness is definitely a theme of my Rome Semester).

Rome Week

What happened to September??? Honestly, I can't remember a month ever passing that fast. And whatever happened to Rome posts every day? Well, a week ago I was asked a big question, and all thoughts turned to this:

Siena: City of Surprises, Part 2

Back to Siena! Talking about that little town will seem so peaceful after a busy weekend.

Here's what happened:

Friday. My brothers and sister and I went out for our quarterly Nick's-home-from-college lunch at Pei Wei. Then we stopped at a Halloween Warehouse (yessssss) where we tried on just about every hat they had. The boys dragged us to some video game store next door, but fortunately Claire and I found this.

It kept us very entertained.