a much needed update.

"i've smuggled myself into new nationalities...think you'd be proud of me."

-- the get up kids

Ok ok ok ok. ok! i'm sorry. i failed to post a blog before our departure for Rome and Assissi, probably leaving some of you scratching your heads and wondering whether or not i was still alive.

but no worries, for i have returned. Rome and Assissi proved to be depots of remarkable grace, mental clarity, and growth for me.

first, let me explain why i vanished. i had originally planned to simply travel via bus with the school to Rome on friday. but a 11am on thursday, Richard Flourmont, Sam Sharpe, and Dan Devine invited me to Florence with them. my Eurrail was yet to be activated, so it would be an expensive trip. not letting money distract me from an opportunity to see the world, i agreed to join them and we set off thursday night.

Florence was absolutely my favorite city in Italy (er, so far). It was pure beauty. We stepped off of the train into 60 degree sunshine, quite the contrast from the never-ending blizzard we had just experienced. Floreance is Artsy with a capital ART. you see it in the design of the city, in the Churches, in the museums, in the people's clothing (you thought MY pants were tight...). We saw the original statue of David, which was strikingly an emotional event for me. i still laugh at myself when i think back to that moment, but seriously, i had no clue how awesome that statue was. i just stood there for 10 minutes, then spent 10 more minutes trying to pick my jaw up off of the floor.

Rome was, obviously, awesome. I could write for hours about it. highlights: mass at St. Pete's, the food, seeing the Vatican for the first time, spending time with my friend Heidi who i thought i would never see again, going to see a major Italian League soccer match, seeing all the major basilica's, the food, the wine, the food, seeing the Sistine Chapel, the wine, the Scavi Tour (seeing st. pete's bones!), the Angelus with the Pope out of his bedroom window. and the wine. in no particular order.

I got to spend a quite a bit of a lone time in Rome, once i figured out the metro system. it was much needed. One day i just walked around the city for a good 2 hours, alongside the Flume river, the sun shining on my back, my headphones in, and nothing to do but see the world. never in my life did i think i'd have the opportunity to simply walk around Rome by myself for an afternoon. no agenda. perfect. before i get too sappy, i'll just move on.

Assissi was. quaint. sacred. uphill. awesome. it made me miss Fr. Conrad and his rambling homilies/talks. highlights: mass at st. francis' tomb, walking up the mountainside to his hermitage, the food, the wine. ...yea. there wasn't a lot going on there, it was just an amazingly prayerful and peaceful little city. on the walk up to the hermitage, me and Christian Bobak worked our way all the way up to the very top ofthe mountain. i'm talking the snow capped tippy top. the air was thinner and the world looked tinier. we sat there in silence for a good 20 minutes before saying a prayer and descending.

for those 20 minutes, i had a small idea of what the world looks like to God. the entire city of assissi took up about an inch of our panoramic view. the people were nowhere to be found because they are so dang small.. their problems, struggles, and anxieties were infinitely smaller compared to the world i was seeing.

and yet Christ still cares.

i'll be trying to wrap my mind around that one for a while.

Out with a bang. Prague '09. Part 3 of 3.

Well, it's officially been a week since the events i'm gonna write about here occurred. i've been too lazy to sit down and do it, but alas, here i am.

--

Day 2 started off on the right foot. elliot and christian went back to the grocery store and bought enough bread, cheese, and meat for all of us -- for 6 dollars. awesome.

we met up with dominiKa (dominika, now a devoted fan to this blog, was sure to tell me i've been misspelling her name) and tomas yet again and headed out. the first half of this day turned out to be the 'walk around and see everything you possibly can' portion of the trip. we rode a lift to the highest point in Prague, and then climbed this massive steel tower where we could overlook the entire city. though certainly an impressive view, the tower didn't have nearly as much of the charm that the castle in Salzburg did (see entry, 'snow covered prophets').

some more walking around and oooo-ing and awwwee-ing led us to a tiny little cafe, where me and tim experienced turkish coffee for the first time. it was like getting kicked in the mouth by a caffinated (definitely misspelled that) boot.

i think you get the drift. we walked. and saw. and it was awesome.

night time proved to be the best night of our semester yet. we bar hopped, although we only drank Velko at each bar we visited anyway. we ended up staying out past the time when the tram's stopped running, so we walked about 2 hours back to the hostel. on the way, we somehow ended up in what we thought would be a shady dance club, but it was actually kinda pathetic. we danced for like 2 minutes as we tried to find a bathroom, then immediately left and carried on the rest of the way home.

much like the way the Gospel according to John ends with "there were many other things Jesus did...but i don't think all the books in the world could contain them" (or something along those lines), so too are the endless stories of Prague, most of which will only survive from now on through word of mouth alone.

I'm going to hesitate on remarking about how Prague was the best trip ever blah blah blah. because for all i know, these next 3 months may bring many more spectacular occurences my way.

End.

It's all about the benjamins. Prague '09. Part 2 of 3.

"Prague, prague prague prague prague, prague praggy praggy prauge"

-- Tim Glemkowski, to the tune of Salt n' Peppa's "push it"

If i were to tell you that i would make you a full pork roast dinner, complete with 2 different kinds of dumplings etc., for just over 5 dollars, you would most likely:

a) laugh
b) ask me to repeat myself, assuming i had misspoke
c) refuse the offer, assuming it was too good to be true.

Now, if i were to then say that you could get a pint of beer as well for just around $1.15, and that your friend who accidentally ordered water would then end up paying more than you for it (Christian Bobak), you would start looking for video cameras. 'this is a joke, right?'

If you haven't caught on already, this is precisely the deal we received in this tiny restaurant right by our hostel, and it was just what we needed to get over our cranky selves. We spent most of the meal laughing over how good it tasted and how little we paid for it.

It got even better when we went to a tiny little bakery/convenience store and realized that everything was gloriously cheap. Bread? like 15 cents. red bull? dollar. 6-packs of beer? dollar plus.

We eventually met back up with dominica and tomas, and they took us around the city. we spent most of the night wandering around going, "we're in PRAGUE dude haha what the hellll". looking back, it was kind of pathetic. The only landmark worth mentioning by name is St. Charles Bridge, which is absolutely gorgeous. this doesn't mean, though, that nothing else is worth mentioning. the entire "old town" part of the city is a captivating sight, completely inexpressible through such a measly medium like a blog. I hate to say this, and in fact my hands are trembling as i begin to type this, but...i finally found a city i enjoyed more than Boston. maybe. Maybe!

I've been saving the best for last: throughout the night we discovered the beauty of THE. THE. THE. best beer in the world (and i pray i spell this correctly): Velkopopovicky Kolser Dark. We proceeded to discover that, in fact, Czech beer dominates everything, and that we've been lied to our entire lives about German and Austrian beer reigning supreme.

(ok ok so one last story worth re-telling: Elliot's mom and dad had been to Prague 3 years previous, and his dad has reminded him repeatedly since about Velkopopovicky and this random jazz club behind some church. Finding the beer was easy -- it's all over the city. Far more exciting was when we accidentally stumbled upon the jazz club. Elliot didn't even know the name, but as soon as he saw the outside he (claims to have) "sensed it". sure enough, we went inside and it matched the description his dad gave perfectly.)

sunny and 75.

a great weekend ahead.

leaving at 3:45 am (yes, a-period-m-period) with Elliot, Tim, Erin Fitzpatrick, Christian Boback, and a European student, Dominica, for Vienna, where we're hopping on a bus to Prague (Czech Republic) for the weekend.  

i'll be back Sunday night...where i may or may not be able to watch the superbowl because ResLife here doesn't want to show us the game until TUESDAY. TUESDAY. 

TUESDAYYYYYY.

do they realize that my homepage is espn.com?  or that half of my fbook friends' status will read either "OMFG THE CARDINALZZZZ RLY?!?!?" or "i hate the steeelerrsssssss"?  

regardless, i'll see you monday. peace.