Cf. Blog title

I'd just like to share this graffito that I saw outside of the Basilica di Sant'Agostino, where St. Monica's relics are venerated (Some friends and I paid her a visit on her feast day).

Now there's a cause I can support!

Basilica Sancti Pauli extra Moenia

Here are some pictures from St. Paul's, where we had Mass on Saturday evening. I didn't know it at the time, but this was my first foray onto Vatican territory! The statue of St. Paul out front, with the main facade in the background:

 

Here's the side chapel where we had Mass, dedicated to St. Benedict. The columns on either side are said to date to the 5th century BC. As a fun side note, recent renovation of this chapel was paid for by Daimler-Chrysler.

And here's an awesome image on one of the doors, showing Paul's martyrdom:

Mmmmmm. Juicy.

Second post!

Alright, I'm going to try to give a quick recap of all the craziness I've encountered here in Roma over the last few days. The first weekend was our orientation, which, though boring at times, was completely worth it due to the program-provided meals every night. On our adventures around the city I managed to see in the span of a couple of days the Pantheon, Trevi fountain, the Colosseum, St. Paul Outside the Walls (including paying Paul himself a visit), and a bunch of other places I'm sure I've forgotten. For most of the weekend we stayed at a hotel a few blocks from the Castel Sant'Angelo, which could be seen from the roof garden:

On the other side, I could see the dome of St. Peter's! Needless to say, it's super awesome being this close to everything.

First Post!!!

Hi everyone and welcome to Ad Orientem, my travel blog! (wheeee....) I'll be using this blog to recount my travels in Italy and Germany over the next two semesters. Before we really get started, I'm going to share some stuff I wrote about a week ago when making my grand transatlantic voyage. I'll then try to get y'all caught up with the past few days.

From last Thursday:

As I'm writing this, I'm sitting by the gate in Newark with my good friend Maggie (and before you ask, no, we're not dating) whom I've been going to school with for nine (!) years now. We're waiting for our flight on TAP Portugal to Lisbon, and have about 45 minutes til boarding. I would be using this time to start up my blog for real, but I don't want to pay $10 for wifi (every dollar I don't spend on that is one dollar more I can use to buy something awesome and Popey in the Æternal City! By now, you've probably figured out that my blog posts will tend to be rambling, but don't let that put you off! I promise lots (hopefully) of good pictures and every once in a while, if you're lucky, I'll decide to ramble in another language! Anyways, that's all that's on my mind right now; I plan on writing another post tomorrow morning when we have our layover in Portugal. Hopefully I'll have internet by tomorrow evening, and these will go online! And if they don't, well, I guess you'll never know....... (*insert Twilight Zone music here*)

From last Friday morning:

Now I'm in Portugal! The flight went quite well: I knew it was going to be good once we got on the plane and they were playing a Mozart horn concerto, which made me very very happy. On the downside, I only ended up sleeping for about 45 minutes. Hopefully this will make me tired enough to sleep the whole way to Rome. On the bright side, when we landed we had to take a bus from the tarmac to the terminal. This meant that I was able to stick my finger in one of the joints in the concrete and officially say that I touched Portuguese soil. Ah, the things that bring me joy.......

From Friday evening:

Well, I didn't quite sleep the whole way to Rome – flying over Europe was a bit too exciting for me to sleep the whole time. But then I realized that sunlight was making both my eyes and my brain hurt and it was a good idea to get some sleep.