Lunch on the Rooftop

+JMJ+
Happy day!!  Finished up finals and had lunch on a rooftop.  Yes, you read that correctly.

I had my last final this morning.  It was both extensive and comprehensive, but good.  Afterwards, I packed a Nutella and banana sandwich and bolted off with a couple of my classmates to meet their priest friend at the NAC (American seminary).  Let me tell you, if you are a twenty year old girl and you ever want to feel out of place, go to the NAC.  I will also tell you, if you are a young man and you feel inclined to check out the priesthood, go to the NAC.  It is awesome.  Our priest friend brought us up to a rooftop balcony deck sort of area where we ate our lunches enjoying a view of the whole city.  From there, we could also see the seminarians on the NAC soccer team practicing for their upcoming game against the Brazilian seminary in Rome.  They're part of the Roman seminary soccer league.  Then, he gave us a little tour of the NAC.  There's 250 seminarians and priests living and studying at the NAC.  It was such a gift to be able to see a little bit of the beautiful future of the Church in the States being formed in such a good place in Roma!

These guys are seriously good.

A roof with a view. 

Not a bad deal...

After spending the remainder of the afternoon wandering around the St. Peter's area, I met up with a few of my classmates for Mass at the Polish church here in Rome.  After Mass, and after everyone else had left the church, we sang a song in Polish, which we learned while we were in Poland, to the Blessed Mother.  A Polish sister heard us singing, came out of the sacristy and said some stuff in Polish, and then, "Come with me."  She proceeded to take us to a papal cassock and relic of Blessed John Paul II that had been given to the church.  Thank you, Blessed Mother!!  And I only found out that it was the feast of St. Stanislaus, a Polish saint, after Mass, haha.  So that's why we planned to go to the Polish church today.  Happy feast day!

After Mass, we wondered back to the St. Peter's area and somehow ended up getting gelato too.  Our program director brought us back to the campus, so we didn't even have to wait for the bus at the end of the day!