Dear all,

           

            When I posted the pictures last night, the paragraph I wrote didn’t get posted with it.  So, I’m sitting in my room writing a new one, which I’ll post later once I get internet it my room.  The hotel allows us one hour of free Internet service per day, and I don’t want to use it now, so I’m writing this in a Word Document first.  But that’s not exciting.  Anyway, I’ll get started talking about my last two days.

            Friday and Saturday are blended in my memory into one long, ceaseless day, which I like to refer to as Friturday.  At one o’clock on Friday afternoon, we boarded buses and headed for Logan International Airport in Boston.  From there, we went through all the standard airport procedures (including eating Sbarro) and got on our 5:55 p.m. flight to Rome, Italy.  The flight was longer than any other flight I’ve been on, which was interesting.  I made a new friend because we had assigned seating, and we watched a movie on my laptop.  Good times.  The flight landed at 7:40 a.m. CET, or 1:40 a.m. EST.  I barely slept at all on the plane.  From there, we took buses to the hotel, where we dropped our luggage off.  Then we went to lunch at a Restaurant down the block.  I ate salad and pasta and drank a coke, which tasted drastically different.  I learned it’s because in Europe, Coke uses real sugar, rather than corn syrup.  That was probably the most exciting thing I learned (not really). 

After lunch we went back to the hotel, and I took a nap for a bout an hour and a half to help get me through the day.  From there, we boarded our buses in full concert attire and headed San Ignazio Church (similar to the St. Ignatius Chapel that we sang at in Chestnut Hill, MA only a week before).  This church was the second Jesuit church in the world, and it was absolutely stunning.  Most remarkable was a ceiling painting that created the optical illusion of a dome, because the Jesuits had ran out of money on the project.  I forgot my camera, naturally, but I’ll get pictures from someone else and post them.  We sang a mass at the church, and then went back to the hotel for dinner and some much needed sleep.  At midnight, in the University Chorale’s tradition, we gathered in a public place outside the hotel, and sang Tollite Hostia for our own enjoyment and for the enjoyment of some surprised Italian spectators.  It was incredible.  It’s 10 a.m. now, and we’re about to go to the Vatican to attend the Pope’s papal blessing.  I won’t forget my camera.

 

Much love and so many thanks,

            Danny