Sad News!

Today I am sorry to bring some sad new that has just taken place in our small ISU Design community. On Saturday October 17th, one of the art history professors, Terry Kirk, committed suicide. His body was found in the mountains just outside of Roma, a place that Terry loved to hike often. Terry was a colleague and friend to many and he will be missed. It may never be made clear why Terry took such drastic measures to solve his problems, but hopefully peace will come to all who cared for him through thoughts and prayer.

I did not personally know professor Kirk, but his friends and family are in my prayers.

Best weekend of my life!!

So I have been very inconsistent with my blogs and I am sorry for that.

BUT I would like to say that a week and a half ago I had the most enlightening experience of my entire life, I go to see the pope, TWICE.

The first time I saw his holiness was on saturday night at a rosary reading for University Students of Roma in the Papal Audience Hall. Myself and two of my classmates decided we wanted to go earlier in the week. The problem with this of course is that we needed tickets to get in. Now the tickets are free yes, but I mean it's the Pope, which means the vatican had not had tickets to give out for at least a week and a half. So we figured, well what the heck, lets just show up and hope for the best.

So we show up to the entrance, just outside the south colonnade of Piazza del San Pietro, and are trying to think of a way to get tickets. Then out of nowhere, our prayers were answered. A group of older american college students see us looking a bit distraught, they come over to us and ask us if we need tickets. I was in shock at this point and had forgotten to say the all important word, "yes." So while I was looking like an idiot, one of the girls next to me answers the question rather enthusiastically, "yes, yes we do!" The man hands us three tickets as we thank him rather emphatically! It turns out he and his classmates are just regular good old cathlics from the one and only University of Notre Dame! hahaha yeah that was great finding that out!

Once inside I began to realize that my cloud 9 high was not going to ware off because we were sitting only a few hundred feet from the stage where the pope was going to be lead the rosary! Seeing Pope Benedict XVI in front of us was just utterly amazing, red Prada shoes and all!

The next day needs no preclude like the night before because I did not sleep much that night, due to the realization that I had just seen the pope! Sunday morning however is much of the same story as we get to the piazza 2.5 hours prior to mass without tickets and only a hope and a prayer of getting any. As we approach the tens of thousands of people already waiting in line we start to think, this is not gunna be as easy as last night. That was until one of the quieter girls in the group walks over to a tour group and simply asks if they had extra tickets, GENIUS!! The little old lady tour guide comes out of the crowd wth a big smile on her face and opens up an envelope full of tickets, WE DID IT AGAIN! WE GOT TICKETS ON A HOPE AND A PRAYER!

It only got more surreal as time went on, because it was once we started moving in line that we again realized something amazing. We were one of the first ones in the piazza and could get completely inside San Pietro for mass. Oh and I forgot to mention, it was a canonization mass! HA! We got inside San Pitro, on a day Pope Benedict was leading mass, for a canonization mass! Down right amazing!

I have now truly experienced everything that a catholic can possibly dream of while in the vatican. I have seen the Sistine Chapel, seen the Vaticani Musei, seen Michelangelo's Pietá, and have seen the pope, twice.

San Pietro truly is the most holy place on earth and I can honestly say that I have since been truly enlightened after such a wonderful holy pilgrimage. I can now say that the reason I am in Roma is not for school or for travel. It is to come full circle in my faith, and be reborn in my personal relationship with christ and the holy roman catholic faith!

I light you.

so i forgot i never posted final pictures of my first project. let me know what you think...

Bored

Yeah i got bored so i switched the template to throw everyone off a little bit! haha

Scholars! = VICTORY!!

Ok so it's October right? And I'm in Europe right?

So aside from the obvious fact that I absolutely love it here

and am laughing at the weather back home because

it's still 80 degrees here everyday and its starting to

get out of control cold there haha.

I am starting to FREAK out!

It's football season!!!!!

It's Baseball Playoffs!!!!!!

AND I CAN'T WATCH A SINGLE GAME!

Do you know what that that does to a man such as myself!?!

It drives me NUTS!

That is......until I found my new best friend. The local "Irish" American Pub

down the street with all of americas great sports. Scholars Irish Lounge and Pub.

Oh how good it is to see sports again!

I just wanted to proclaim my finding,

because for those who really know me, know i cant go a day without

checking all the stats, stories, and articles on my favorite teams,

even if it means getting ridiculously mad at the talking heads!

SOOO.....

GO IRISH! Beat the only paid athletes in College sports! Oops, I mean BEAT USC!

(ok so i really did mean that. tehe!)

and

GO SOX! Beat the Angels.....AGAIN!

Hahaha that is all, ttfn!

Faith in Professors is a Must

So as many of you know, bright and early thursday morning I set off

on a trip to southern Italy with my classmates.

Destination: Napoli, Sorrento, and Ercolano.

This trip was interesting to say the least.

We more or less had no organization from our professors.

They made travel plans on the fly, which is fine in a small group,

but in a group of 60, this is not recommended.

The most important reference i can make is

shoving 30+ bodies on 2 different public buses in Napoli.

This was made even more interesting when some classmates

forgot to validate their tickets, resulting in a fine, OOPS!

Luckily one of our professors came to the rescue and was able

to weasel the "ticket nazi" down to only one ticket, instead on 20+.

Even with all the unorganized chaos and frustration,

we still got where we needed to be and were all alive and kicking.

In reality, we were in Southern Italy,

one of the greatest places in the world!

This realization forced me to be able to just sit back and laugh

and to have faith in the professors.

So the moral of this brief overview is don't stress out

and trust your professors will get you where you need....Eventually!

Oh, I forgot to mention that the day prior

our class took a trip to Ostia Antica and Mike and I were left behind.

We got there eventually though, fashionably late.

San Pietro

On Sunday I went to Citta del Vaticano and experienced

one of the most amazing sundays in my life.

The Basilica Papale di San Pietro is the single most beautiful

and awe inspiring piece of architecture on this earth!

I started my sunday by visiting the Vatican Museum with a few classmates.

Afterwards I decided to go inside San Pietro and photograph

the masterpiece that has been the center

of the christian catholic world for the better part

of the past 400 years!

When I entered San Pietro, I payed my respects

in the Vatican Grotto to the past Popes, prayed,

and then sat in on a mass in one of the many side chapels!

This experienced opened my eyes to the catholic faith

more so than any other experience in my lifetime.

When I exited San Pietro I was left with a certain feeling of holiness.

The kind of feeling that gives a person a new sense of direction and reasoning.