where you decide it's Home

I have been known to call our Austria campus Home.  Some are surprised at this, others shocked, but I honestly think nothing of it.

As I walked into the vastness of St. Peter's Square, I was at home.  Somehow, being amongst 249,999 other Catholics didn't phase me in the least.  The intimacy and communion between all the faithful was comforting, and I could have sat in the hubbub for hours more.

Kneeling at Blessed John Paul II's tomb in St. Peter's Basilica, I simultaneously felt like an ant and an elephant.  The blessing of being a Catholic in a Catholic Church is that it is familiar.  Despite the tour groups passing through behind me, I might as well have stayed there forever.  Again, I felt at home.

This is Home.  I am finally where I belong.

Yeah, this is Home.  I've been searching for a place of my own.

Now I've found it.

With a hushed heart I approached the door to the Opus Dei chapel.  Silently, I pushed open the door, and entered the room.  I knelt, I reached out, and for several moments, I touched the glass surrounding St. Josemaria's tomb.  His holiness was tangibly present to me.  Now.  Now, at last, I had found my home.

It's not exactly simple for me to understand how I can walk through the streets of Rome, wander through alleyways in Assisi, and feel like I've been there my whole life.  Like I belong there.  This is why I am hesitant to call my home in Virginia my sole home.  I miss people in the States, but I am not homesick in the least.  Because somehow, I find home wherever I am.

I have decided that Home is ultimately where you decide it's Home.

7 Quick Takes Friday (vol 2)

Hosted by Jen at Conversion Diary

--1--

I'm home again!  It's yet another whirlwind trip home late Tuesday night, back again early Sunday morning.  Leaving early Sunday, that is.  Evelyn is driving back with us, so we should have a fun car ride!  And I'm imagining there will be some homework done, as well.  Nothing like productivity!

--2--

Thanksgiving was a little different this year- My brother and sister-in-law hosted, so it was at their new house, but my sister and brother-in-law were hosting his family at their house.  So we had a mere 12 people for dinner instead of 19 :P  We all pitch in to make parts of the meal, so I made the spinach artichoke dip for the football-watching, as well as the cranberry sauce and pumpkin bars. :)

--3--

One of my favorite parts of breaks is seeing friends... Wednesday morning I met a friend from high school for breakfast, and tonight I saw another high school friend for FroYo ;)  Que delicioso! *

--4--

I didn't brave the stores for Black Friday.  Or gray Thursday.  BUT I did go shopping for a couple things that I needed, both for the remainder of the school year and for Austria.  I purchased some quite awesome boots to replace my old ones that are literally falling apart!  I also think I'm going to try the mall tomorrow for new snow boots for overseas.

--5--

You would think that as a college student, I'd be quite adept at finding sales.  But I am just now getting the hang of it.  I've found quite a few handy websites to help with saving money!  And who doesn't love saving money??  Of course, Amazon is a common go-to.  Hukkster is a new website that helps you track sales.  You just find an item on, say, Macys.com and then "hukk it"- the item is added to your hukkster page and you'll be notified if it goes on sale!  Lastly, Coupons.com has coupons for tons of common items, from sausage to shirts at Target to pens.  This week, there are $671.66 in available savings!

--6--

I could happily spend many hours doing many different things- reading, scrapbooking, watching Once Upon a Time... but when I am in an organizational frame of mind, I love to go to blogs like i Heart Organizing and admire people's beautiful houses.  She has some amazing ideas for organization, and they are (mostly) totally do-able!

--7--

Last week, I gave you a video that I couldn't get enough of.  This week, I share one that you will only want to see once.  But it is worth watching.  Prepare to laugh.

I hope you all had a beautiful day with your families!
xoxo,





*I have no idea what that technically says... hopefully it means something like "How delicious!".  My spanish skills are questionable.

7 Quick Takes Friday (vol 1)

"This is the start of something new...."

This Friday (and hopefully every Friday following) I will be joining Jen at Conversion Diary :)

--1--

I am tired of sporadic weather.  Three days ago, it was quite literally 75 degrees outside.  I had a short sleeve shirt on.  Today, I walked out the door to 29 degrees and cold.  Not cool, weather guy, not cool. 

--2--

Getting older is happening to me.  Quickly.  No matter that I'm "only" 19.  When one's niece is applying to the junior/senior high school that you graduated from 2 years ago, one realizes how old one is.  In other words, my super cool niece is applying for 7th grade at my high school!  I'm really excited for her :)

--3--

I am not a fan of this whole 2-breaks-within-one-month thing.  I just got back from All Saints Day Break (also known as Fall Break), and then we have 12 days of classes and "spliies!" ("surprise" for those of you who are not Stephanie.) we have Thanksgiving!  and then oh, look at that, 10 days later we've got finals.  Humph.  In the words of a dear friend, "I'm not a fan". :P

--4--

Last night I room-hosted for the first time... and it went really well!  (room hosting is when someone who is visiting the school stays with me overnight).  I didn't know this girl, so I was worried that it would be super awkward or she wouldn't want to do anything or we'd just stare at each other, but she was really awesome and we had a lot of fun.  I can be an extrovert when I want to be!!

--5--

Austria is becoming more and more of a reality.  Last week we got information about Eurail passes and roommates.  58 days.  1 month and 28 days.  aaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh......

--6--

Who has international travel tips??  I'm looking for tips on how to pack for 4 months abroad, how to pack for weekend trips abroad, what not to bring, things I absolutely must bring, and anything else you think may come in handy.  One of my challenges is that I will be there in the winter and in the warm(er) weather.

--7--

WATCH THIS VIDEO!!  It's beautiful music, and perfect for getting into the Christmas spirit.  ssshhhh!!  Usually I'm all for waiting for anything semi Christmas-related until after Thanksgiving, but this just can't wait.  it's that good.

Have a good weekend, all!

Tell the World I'm (Coming) Home

Yes, it's true.... first semester is over, done, finis, and I am home once again!  Except this time, I'm home for a whole month!

Does life get better?  I submit that it cannot!
(And if you don't get that reference, come talk to me.  I will quickly solve that problem)

Sooo....what's been happening these past couple weeks?  Lots o' stuff.
Last week, I had five exams in six days, which meant very little sleep and lots of hilarious conversations with Evelyn :)  (In case you're dying to know, I did get my scores back, and I am happy :D )

After we were all done with our exams, we piled into a van.  What an amusing car trip!  Picture this: a driver and 6 students, an 8-seater van, 5 suitcases, 3 oversized duffel bags, 6 backpacks, and approximately  10 smaller bags.  I kid you not, we literally could not move.  And when we stopped for a stretch break, we pretty much had to unpack 5 bags before anyone could move.  :P

Oh- saddest moment of my week.... I had bought a CD to listen to after finals, so I finished my last final went back to my room and ripped open the plastic, put it into my disc drive........ and it wouldn't load.  Turns out the CD won't play on macs, but it will on PCs.  Seriously, Apple?  That's just lame.

I can't believe that Christmas is only 5 days away.  Woah.  Where did the year go?  Christmas is going to be so awesome..... Christmas Eve, we'll go to mass then to my sister's house for hors d'oeuvres.  Christmas morning, My parents, aunt and I will open presents, then get ready for all my siblings and nieces and nephews to arrive in the afternoon.  I love spending time with my entire family... we play games after dinner, and that's always tons of fun.

This has been a post full of italics..... wasn't it Anne Shirley who made some comment on italics?  Or was that Rose Brier?  It's so bad when you get book quotes mixed up.....

"And I shall memorize every line in this book and paint it in calligraphy on my living room walls.” 

That is very tempting, honestly.  How interesting would that be, to have a living room with calligraphied walls?  Better yet, to have a library with calligraphied walls!  (Before you go look it up, no- calligraphied isn't a word.  I made it up.)

Last, but not least, I will be changing my background and design once again, so don't be confused when you see my blog next time!!

xoxo,

On the Road Again

My apologies for not posting recently!  Life has been very busy!!

As I mentioned two posts ago, I went home again last weekend.  This trip was..... yeah.  There was much discussion surrounding this trip.  Some members of the family (who shall remain nameless ;) ) were concerned about said bus and its safety.  Basically, it was a great trip home (the bus ride was fine!), the event that I returned for was successful, and the return trip was nice as well.  The only bothersome thing on the bus was the rather loud rap that a lady 3 rows in front of us was playing..... we could hear every word, even though the earbuds were in her ears!  Anywho, I'd recommend the Megabus for return trips home :)
~~~~
In Media class this week, we've been talking about still photography and some of the influential pictures throughout history.  We took a look at some Pulitzer Prize winners and other photos that capture a moment that video couldn't.  It definitely made me want to improve my photography skills.  (Did I tell you all about the amazing deal I got on that photography book?  It was a $48 book and I got it for $3!!)
~~~~
Lately, I've been really into writing poetry.  Perhaps this was spurred on by the fact that I'm in a poetry class in which we write no poetry, and my creative genius was begging to be let out.  We've also been reading quite a bit of free verse in my poetry class, so I got to thinking, Gosh, I can write free verse!  Soooo.... I have forced myself to get away from the structured-ness that I always hold myself to.  It's nice to productively write, for a change!
~~~~
Because I will be receiving a grade for this blog, and because I'd like a good grade, I'm going to be expanding my "repertoire".  Instead of blogging only on daily activities and college life, I'd like to start including some more serious discussion topics (thanks to Evelyn for helping me on that wording!).

So, dear readers, I leave you with these two questions:

~Do you have a favorite photograph?  If so, I'd love to see it!  Comment below with a link to the picture.
~What are some topics that you'd be interested in me covering?  These can range from fun to serious... I'm up for anything!

xoxo,

Home Sweet Home

After a long, 6-and-a-half hour long car ride, we finally made it back home!  It was a fun trip- we talked about school, temperaments, the Myers-Briggs test, books, movies, and snow.

(sidenote- I am baffled by the appearance of snow before November.  Driving home, we looked out the window and saw white fog.  Only, it wasn't fog- it was snow.  Insanity!

It is awesome and somewhat confusing to be home.  The bathroom sink is lower than at college, the bed is wider, my room is darker, and my desk chair is significantly more comfortable. :D  It's a familiar environment, but at the same time, things look different.  Part of that comes from the fact that we redid the kitchen (and put new flooring in the entryway and the living room) right before I left, so while I saw all the changes, I didn't really have time to get used to it all.  And then my room is different too, because most of my things are at college!!  Nevertheless, it's wonderful to be home.  *happy sigh*

Today was a very productive day.  I got my hair cut (by my sister's amazing hair stylist who understands curly hair!!).  Then Mom and I went to the Running Store for some sneakers for me.  The Running Store is mind-blowing.  In a previous post, I recounted my horrible experience of looking for sneakers near college, and how they had no shoes that fit me.  Well, after the lady at the Running Store watched me walk, watched me run, and measured my feet, I had good fitting shoes 15 minutes later!  Wow.  We then had lunch, and headed to the mall for some cold weather clothes..... thank goodness I found what I needed!  It's getting chilly soooo much earlier than normal this year!

So today it was snowing here at home, too.  I mean, it's ok for West Virginia to have snow, but not us!  It's wayyyy too early.  And it didn't even stick!  I just looked at the weather website, and we have a "Freeze Warning" in effect until tomorrow.

Speaking of tomorrow..... It's definitely going to be a very good day. :)  After mass in the morning, my brother and sister-in-law, sister and brother-in-law, and all the kiddos are coming over for brunch.  I haven't seen any of them except my brother in 2 months!  (Not counting Skype....)  And then in the evening I'm going to get together with one of my very good friends who I also haven't seen in 2 months.

I also realized that I didn't post the pictures from the flash mob.  Here are a couple:

Evelyn and I wrote up dozens of post-it notes and put them on people's doorknobs in our dorm, telling them about the flash mob the next morning

The guy on the left is Peter, who came in from Chicago to lead the flash mob.  We were all gathered in really close together, so the balloons formed a sort of tent. :)

We marched up the stairs in a parking garage on our walk through the city!

I'm hoping to possibly get a video I took up soon....... 

Well, I'm off to continue memorizing "La Cigale et la Fourmi" (The Cicada and the Ant) for French.  I never realized how hard it is to memorize something in another language!!

Stay warm, everybody!
xoxo,