...Matthew 28:20

Ciao ciao, friends! This is my new favorite way to greet people since I've returned from Rome. I left for Italy on Thursday morning and returned veryyyyyyy early Monday morning. In many, many, MANY ways Rome is an experience I will never forget. Warning: this post will get lengthy (but it's a great story- I promise!) :)

So, I need to start with some background on how I decided to go to Rome in the first place. When I was accepted to the Madrid campus back in September, I knew that Rome would definitely be a city I would want to visit. And, because I knew I was coming during the Spring semester, I wanted to try as hard as I could to go over my Easter break, so I could spend the holiest weekend of the year in a city that embraces my faith in God. I found out that my friend Andy wanted to go to Rome, and our mutual friend Michelle was going with her family. We all booked flights for the same weekend and had kind of (but not really) decided that we would hang out together and Michelle's family would show us around (she has family that lives in Italy). Andy and I knew we couldn't stay with the family, so we made plans to book our own hostel seperately.

Andy gave me the names of a few places that were close to the Vatican and gave me a form to fill out and fax in. He faxed his in over Spring break (back in March) and told me to gt mine in quickly because space was filling up. By the time I got back from traveling and faxed my reservation form, I received an email saying that there were no more rooms available for that weekend. I then had to quickly find other alternatives for housing, since I had already booked my flight. I chose a hostel that had rooms available all four nights that I needed them.

Time passed and Easter break was soon approaching. Andy changed his flight so that he could be in Rome for all of Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. I still had plans to travel with Michelle's family. However, this proved a slight problem as to how Andy and I were going to meet up once we both were in Rome. He gave me the number of his friend that was studying there for the semester and told me to call him once my flight arrived, because they had lunch plans. His cell phone doesn't work outside of Spain.

Easter break finally arrives. On Wednesday night (the 8th) I was a complete nervous wreck: so many things might work but they might not. I could get ahold of Andy once I get to Italy, but he could have left Beatrice by the time I call. I could hang out with Michelle and her family, but they might be alone. I could be stranded in a country where I don't speak the language by myself but I'm not sure. All of these questions plus more swirled around in my head as I tried to go to sleep on Wednesday night. I finally fell asleep at around 2am, but was woken up when my roommate came in from a night out with her friends. Normally I'm able to ignore this and turn over and go back to bed, but she had partied a little too hard and, according to her boyfriend, was possibly showing signs of alcohol poisoning. So I woke up, made sure she was settled, let Greg out of our apartment, and tried to go back to sleep. By this time it was about 5am, and I had to get up at 6:30. I woke up again later, grabbed a banana for breakfast and headed to the airport.

I had another decision to make once I got to the airport: two of my friends and sorority sisters from school had spent the past week in Barcelona and were flying into Madrid that day at around 8am. If their flight was ontime, I could meet them and then go and check in for my flight which left at 10:10. RyanAir lines are horrendously long, and I knew that I would be cutting it close but I REALLY wanted to see Megan and Lauren. So I waited for them, and we did go and hang out while I waited to check in. And there of course was a ridiculously long line to check in. I eventually got my boarding pass, quickly said good bye to Megan and Lauren, ran through the airport, ran through security and made it to my gate. My flight was delayed awhile because so many people faced the same problem as me.

I finally arrived in Rome, and Michelle and her family decide to take a taxi from the Ciampino airport to wherever they were staying. I have directions to my hostel that was sent with my reservation, and the first thing I need to do is take a bus to Termini, the point where the two metro lines meet in Rome. While I'm waiting for my bus to come, I try calling Andy's friend Beatrice: she doesn't answer. My heart sinks. The message said my phone was unable to make the call, and I have no idea what I'm going to do. I have no way of getting in contact with Andy unless he decides to visit an internet cafe somewhere close to him.

My bus finally shows up, and by this time it is about 1pm. I am running on very little sleep and have had only a banana to eat since 6:30 that morning. All of this added together on top of the fact that I can't get ahold of Andy led to a complete breakdown on the bus to Termini. It was so frustrating, because everyone was staring at me but there was no way I could communicate with anyone- I don't speak Italian! Anyways, I finally reach the Termini station about 45 minutes later. Once I get there, I need to take the B metro line 8 stops, and then get on a second train for 7 stops. I follow these instructions (thankfully with no complications) and get to the town that my hostel's in. I then have to take a bus 5 stops and walk 1 block to my hostel.

I get to the bus station and it is literally 4pm- it had taken me 3 hours to get there from the airport. I ask my bus driver if this is the right bus, he says yes and I get on. I am so exhausted by this point I don't really know what to do, and start fervrently praying for God to give me some kind of sign that I made the right choice to be here. I see two people on the bus who I think are Americans, and we eventually start talking. As I'm looking at them, they are wearing black dress pants, a white dress shirt, a tie, and a name tag- and my first thought is "oh my gosh, these guys are Mormon missionaries." Turns out my instincts were correct...and I wasn't exactly thrilled about being there with them. For the next 20 minutes we talked (one of them was from Cincinatti and knows a lot of my friends from SLU) and I was avoiding the question "what are you doing here" at all possible costs. Well, as hard as I tried, they still managed to ask me if I knew the Gospel. When I said yes, they then followed that with a 10 minute speech about the book of Mormon. I tried to stay nuetral (don't worry, I wasn't converted) :) They also happened to be getting off at my same stop, so they helped me find my hostel, which I was very grateful for. I considered it a half sign from God that I was where I was suppossed to be :)

I check into my hostel, and start talking with my roommate Kristin who is really sweet and very, very nice. We are both completely famished by now (its closer to 5pm, I hadn't eaten since 6:30) and we go to this little pizza place by our hostel. Kristin is leaving to go see the Spanish steps and Trevi Fountain, but I decide to stay back and try to rest. I get back to my room, but can't fall asleep. After about an hour, I decide to try to use that bathroom and see if that will help.

I get to the bathroom and start vomitting profusely. The pizza I ate gave me (at least for Thursday) severe food poisoning. I crawl back up to my bed and manage to finally fall asleep for a few hours. When I wake up, I call Michelle and tell her the situation and find out that she has plans to meet up with her cousins tomorrow and try to take a bus tour of Rome. They also had tickets for the Vatican on Saturday, but she wasn't sure what time they were going to get started. I asked her to call me when they were about an hour and a half away from going anywhere because that's how long it took me to get into the city from my hostel.

I woke up the next morning (feeling much better) and didn't really connect with Michelle, so I decided to go to the Coloseeum, thinking that every major tour bus has to go there. Once I arrive, I call Michelle and she tells me that they toured the Coloseeum last night. Frustrated, I decided to stay there and see it, with a tour because I wasn't sure if i would be able to come back. After the tour I headed up to the Vatican to try to buy tickets for Saturday with Michelle's family. It turns out that you cannot buy advance tickets, the tickets you buy must be used that same day. So I was stuck: should I stay and tour the Vatican now, or try to come back and get in on Saturday (note: the Saturday between Good Friday and Easter is the Vatican's busiest day of the year. Michelle's family had tickets for 2pm, meaning I would probably have to get there around noon to ensure that I would make it in ontime). I decided to wait and see it tomorrow: I thought that if I did the Vatican on Friday I wouldn't have much to look forward to on Saturday.

Utterlly frustrated with my current life situation, I left the Vatican museum to get something to eat. There was a stand selling pizza and various drink right outside, so I bought some lunch and sat down. I didn't know what to do: I was alone in a city where I didn't speak the language and had no idea what I should do travel wise. Finally, I prayed "Lord, I'll go where you want me to go- just show me where you want me to be!" Not 10 minutes later I look up and see two of my very good friends from SLU, Mike and Josh, standing in front of me! I find out that they are planning on going to St. Peter's Bascilica next and I go with them. But the best part of finding them was what Mike said to me on the way over to St. Peter's: "We had been staring at you for like 10 minutes wondering if you were going to notice us."

It was the first of many, many times that weekend where God showed me that he was totally in control. Throughout the next two days, we hung out together and saw everything that Rome had to offer. One of Mike's friends Amelia was studying at the Loyola Chicago Rome center for the semester, so we got a personalized tour about this history of everything we saw. It was incredible.

Saturday we had the chance to go back to the Rome center and visit with the Priest who had picked up Mike and Josh from the airport. He was also able to get me tickets to Easter mass on Sunday! All of us (me, Josh, Mike, Amelia, and Fr. Al) ended up going out to dinner on Saturday night. Once we arrived at the restaurant, Fr Al said "order whatever you want: you are in Rome and I need to make sure that you have at least one decent meal before you leave!" Mind you, we ordered two bottles of wine, two appitizers, and all 5 of us got a huge entreé. It was such a generous and thoughtful act of Fr. Al, and once again showed me how God can use a seemingly dismal situation and turn it into something beautiful.

Sunday was Easter, and one of the coolest experiences of my life. Being able to celebrate Easter mass in Rome with the Pope is an experience I will never forget. For the rest of my life I'll be able to say that when I was 20 years old I celebrated Easter with the Pope. It was so incredible to see how many people where there and to hear and celebrate a mass together. After the mass, the Pope does somethign (although I forget what it's called) but he basically says "Happy Easter and peace be with you" in about 20 different languages. It was so cool...when he spoke in German, all the Germans cheered, when he spoke in Chinese, all the Chinese cheered, and when he spoke in English, everyone who spoke English cheered. It was an amazing experience.

We left mass, grabbed some lunch, and the boys headed out to the airport. My flight didn't leave until the next day, so I went back to my hostel, changed, checked out, and then headed to the airport to spend the night there. I hung out for awhile, read some books, and played Sudoku. I woke up around 4:30 to check in again for my flight that left at 6:30, eventually came back to Madrid and promptly fell asleep as soon as I got back.

So, that was my trip to Rome. Crazy, exciting, eventful, and faith-affirming, in more ways than one. It's funny, because I spent the first 24 hours of my time in Rome figuring out how I could leave sooner than Monday morning and the last few figuring out if there was any way I could stay longer! It's so funny how God works. I'll forever remember this weekend as one where God stood by me the entire step of the way, even when I wasn't sure of it.

Finally, some of you might be wondering what the Bible verser refers to in the title of this post. It is one of my absolute favorites, that I memorized early in my Christian walk...

"...for I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

Kind of the theme of my life last weekend :) Don't worry, I'll be sure to post pictures soon (and I promise the captions won't be as detailed as this post was) :)

all my love--