...Continued

Assisi: Assis was so much fun. Regina (my household sister, Austria roommate) and I played a game of guess the song by lipsycing a song in our heads and Mary Castner (another Austria roommate), Rebecca LeBlanc, and Chris March tried to guess. We each took turns doing this and Mary's team won. It was fun though. Assis was peaceful and beautiful. We saw Francis's Church and the Portiuncula, St. Clare's tomb, and various other churches and a castle! everyway you turned was some beautiful sight of cool old building. On the way back, we were all dead, but we were on a bus so almost no one slept...except me. Oh, you have to see the picture. I was shoved under two small seats and curled in a ball. It was quite a sight.

St. Patrick's day was sadly not as exciting as past years, but we did have a talent show. two guys did a very hilarious dance to the Titanic song. I was the only one however to perform a song in Gaelic. I was so nervous, but at least it sounded half decent. Mary sang a song too, and she sounds sooo beautiful!!!!! She has truly been an amazing roommate! One girl, though did a beatbox! It was great!!!

4-day: After Assisi, I went with Michelle Korte the next weekend back to Salzburg and Munich. We met up with Paul in Munich, which was funny because we had arranged to meet at the train station, but neither of us had our glasses with us. We just literally bumped into each other. He took us both out to eat and we talked for almost two hours! It was fun. The next day, Michele and I wandered around the city. Each of us got watches, posters and earings and all of it cost under 10 euro each! We went also to the Deutches Museum, as Paul had recommened it, and we could have spent all day in there. There were about 5 floors, and the bottom floor had all these submarines while the top floor had space equipment. It was soo cool!!! There was even a windmill outside. When we left, We went to the beautiful town of Salzburg and was thoroughly surprised to find that one of our friends, Ari Lopez was in our youth hostel and in our room!!!! Her stuff was on the bed so we left her a note and headed out. We got to see the castle and just messed around all day pretty much. At night, we went back to shower and have dinner at the hostel, and kept a lookout for Ari. We met up woth her and she convinced sucessfully only me to go with her on the Saltmine Tour, which included seeing Hitler's "Eagle's Nest" or summer home. We also had a ton of fun on the tour b/c we went with Mark Englemeyer, Patrick Dougherty, and Sean Monger! It was amazing!!! Then we headed home for some sleep.

The next trip was our last: 10 day!!!!! Me, Luke Beauregard, Sean, Kirstin Kleb, and Mark all went to Belgium for the 1st International March for Life in Bruxelles, which was one of the greatest moments of my life. We got to hang out with my cousins, the Kings, before and after for a few days and got to see Waterloo, then headed to Barcelona!!! Luke lefts us b/c he wanted to go to Rome for the Triduum, so he headed back early. On Mon night, the rest of us headed to Paris to take a night train to Barcelona. We bumped into another American here, whose name was Sal. He traveled with us all the way to Barcelona before we got seperated from him. We found our hostel, which was very beach themed and classy, and fairly priced. We headed straight to the beach where the sun was warm, but the water was freezing. We also got to see La Sagrada Familia, which is a famous modern Church that's been worked on for the past 100+ years and won't be finished for 16 more years. On our way back, it started getting super windy, so we found a place to have dinner and then went back to our hostel. The next day, we checked out and went out to the marina via La Rambla, a street in Barcelona, famous for its living statues. We also saw the Olympic Park and had a quick lunch there before grabbing our bags and getting on a train to Paris. It was rather gloomy when we arrived, but only because the sun wasn't there. We had breakfast and headed to our hotel. We didn't exactly know where to go, but we asked at a local pharmacy and they pointed the way.  We dropped out stuff off, grabbed a light lunch and headed to Notre Dame. We got there in time for the Thursday mass, so we were able to skip the line and go right on inside. It was gorgeous!!!! The mass was in French with some latin, so I was able to understand alot because I've had both French and Latin growing up. We took a detour to see the Eiffel Tower and headed home. The Tower was all lit up and we saw it sparkle. ON the way back, Mark had a close call crossing the street while the walksign was red, so from then on he wouldn't cross, even if there were no cars in sight for miles. We all went back and slept soundly until about 10 the next day. We saw the Crown of Thorns at Notre Dame, walked through the Louvre (which is huge and we got in for free w/ our visas!), walked down to the Arc De Triomphe past a disney store (we went in for 15 min, I'm ashamed to say ;P), then hopped on a metro and went home. Holy Saturday, we went to the Statue of Liberty, but it started raining again and we were soaking and cold, so we went back to play more cards (speed and rummy mostly with a bit of OHIO, which we learned from the kings and A. Mary Tim). We thn packed everything up as we'd be leaving early the next morning, then we headed out for the vigil at Notre Dame. It was one of the most beautiful vigils I've ever been to. We got back, slept and woke up early to get to our train on time. We got back safely Sun night around 10:30, just as the Rome people (Regina, Luke, and Chris had all gone for the vigil) got back. We did laundry and rested up.

The rest of the semester was freaking out about finals, studying, enjoying the beautiful weather, hiking to the waterfall, jumping in creeks fully clothed or in bathing suits (I did both!), and just loving Gaming. Honestly, the main reason I will miss Gaming is the people. The community they have there is not something you experience everyday. Firstly, you get to live in an old Karthusian Monastery, then you learn some German from the Austrians nearby, you get to say hi to every Austrian you pass (they are so friendly), and you live in a valley completely surrounded by mountains. The beautiful trees, the bubbling brooks, the pure water, the friendly natives, the strong Catholic community. The combination of it all is so overpowering that it's almost not even real. The complex was huge and every room had some unique feature. Other places, the rooms are fairly even, but here they made each room however they wanted. The Church, the bell tower, the secret chapel, the secret staircase, the Sacred Heart Chapel: each one so beautiful and so different. Also, the people were so nice. There are nearly 10 families who are "attached" with the Kartause or who hang with the sisters and Fr. Brad and the students. Each family is young yet big. And all the little ones are so beautiful and adorable. Every day was truly a gift from God, and you knew it. Golly did you ever know it. The teachers especially are people I will miss. They were not just teachers; they were people, and they interacted with you outside class. They cared about your wellbeing. They were there for you if you needed. You could be completely honest with them and they trusted you. That seems to be a European idea: trust. Even at stores, you could give them a chunk of change and they trusted you. Oh, another nice thing was that the town completely shut down on Sundays. Even the local bar (URS) closed Saturday night. Only a restaurant or two would be open. It was wonderful! So, basically that's why I loved Gaming and will miss it. But one thing I won't do is live in the past. I just won't forget it.