Praying with Papa Benedict

Pope Benedict greets the crowd when he appears to lead them in praying the angelus on Sunday, February 17, the second to last angelus he will lead in St. Peter's
(yes, I stole this picture off the internet)

+JMJ+

Hello!
It's the beginning of another week here in Roma.  I've already had an exam today, a coffee outing, and I have a paper due in a few hours.  I'm hoping to get a group together to go out somewhere tonight, but we'll see what happens.

Sunday, Sunday, Sunday...what did I do on Sunday?  Well, let me tell you.

The day started off with breakfast at 8:30, a half an hour later than usual, which means I got to sleep in!  Then, we all were spoiled with French toast, eggs, and fried salami (imagine salami bacon...that's what it was like).

I went to Mass at...I don't know the name of the church for sure, but it was something that ended in "...of the Immaculate Conception."  This church is right down the main road that leads to St. Peter's, where the Pope says the angelus with everyone in the square at noon every Sunday.  I really wanted to go; Mass ran over, so I had to run (wearing a dress and my boots) from the church "...of the Immaculate Conception" to St. Peter's.  I made it in time, thanks be to God!  It was so incredibly crowded!!!  I read that even an hour before, thousands of people had already gathered and by noon there were between 50,000 (says the Vatican) and 100,000 (say the local authorities) people gathered in the square to pray with Pope Benedict!  I (charitably) pushed my way close to the front where I could get a good view of him in his window.  Everyone was so happy to see Pope Benedict!  He kept saying "Thank you, thank you!" over and over again.  It truly is an amazing time to be here in Rome, to share with the Pope and the Church here in the heart of the Church.

My view for during the Angelus

Crowd gathered to pray the angelus with Pope Benedict
(I also stole this picture from the internet...)

After praying the angelus with Pope Benedict, I headed to the market!  "The market" is a giant, well, market, where tons of vendors that sell everything from scarves to kitchenware to antiques gather every Sunday to try to make people pay too much for whatever they're selling.  It's also where customers go to try out their haggling skills.  Haggling is much more intimidating when you don't speak the language...I was certainly no pro and didn't do too much shopping, mostly just walked around and observed.  I'm sure I'll get my courage up eventually to agressively get some deals.  After all, every girl that goes to Rome can't come home without at least two or three new scarves, right?

A very small section of the Sunday market

Well, I am off to Mass and then to class, then hopefully some sort of adventure out in the city tonight!  Ciao!