Eiffel Tower

Bonjour! For Thanksgiving this year, we went to Paris, France. On Friday morning, the day after Thanksgiving, we went to climb the Eiffel Tower. We waited in line for about a half hour and we finally got into a really big elevator. It went to the second level of the tower. At that level, we would have taken a second elevator to go all the way to the top, but the top was closed, unfortunately, due to the wind. Even so, we got an amazing view. Here is a picture of my mom and my Aunt Shelly and Uncle Garett on the second level.

Also from this level, I took a picture looking up to the top of the Eiffel Tower. Do you see all the steel that was used to put this thing together? The Eiffel Tower was built for the World's Fair in 1889 and was designed by Gustave Eiffel. It is nearly 1000 feet tall! At the time it was built, it was the tallest structure in the world. Originally, it was supposed to be knocked down after the World's Fair, but enough people liked it that it was not demolished. Unfortunately, some people didn't like it. One of those people was a writer, who ate lunch in it so that he wouldn't have to look at it!

Here is a silly picture of us with my cousin, Ryan.

At night, the Eiffel Tower is all lit up. Beautiful, isn't it?

At the top of each hour, the Eiffel Tower has a light show that lasts five minutes. My mom took a video of it. While she was taking the video, someone came up to us to try to get us to buy small models of the Eiffel Tower. In the video, you can hear my mom say, "Non. Merci." This means, "No, thank you", in French.

What an impressive landmark, huh?

-Paul

Yes, I am thankful

I asked Paul and Elizabeth to sit down and write essays about being thankful. I figured that I had a lot to be thankful for as well, and I should model good behavior, right? Well, yes, I am thankful!

This Thanksgiving, I have so much to be thankful for, but I've narrowed it down to three things: pasta, pastries, and pizza. Now, you are really probably thinking that I am crazy, or just hungry, but read on.

I am thankful for pasta because it represents opportunity. When you boil a pot of water to cook pasta, you have endless opportunities. Lots of different pasta shapes and sizes and tons of different sauces and things to add to the sauce. You could have pasta every night for months (and we have!) and never have the same meal. Pasta represents all the opportunities to learn that I have had in the last few months. I've learned a lot of Italian and though I cannot speak fluently, I can get around just fine here in Rome. I have had the opportunity to navigate all over the city and I've mastered the buses. I've learned that I like anchovies, and how to survive without peanut butter. I've had the opportunity to home-school my children and have learned that teaching my own children is much harder than I thought it would be! I'm thankful for all these opportunities and am thankful for pasta!

I am thankful for pastries because they are beautiful and make me happy. Making pastries in Italy is considered an art and pastry makers are artists. The pastries are small, delicious works of art that are to be savored. This represents all the beauty in this city. I've had time these last few months to sit and look, really look, at beautiful things. Now I know that we have complained that Rome is so very dirty, which it really is. However, that is only on the outside. On the inside, Romans are proud of and take very good care of the beautiful works of art around them. The churches, courtyards, and museums are immaculate. I've sat in churches, in museums, and in piazzas and absorbed these beautiful things. I've been able to admire the love that artists had that inspired their work. With over 300 churches here in Rome, I've even had a few times to soak in the light, stillness, and quiet of a church. I've had time to admire the beautiful art as well as enjoy the delicious pastries.

Finally, I'm thankful for pizza because you can always count on it. No matter where you are, you can almost always find a pizza place. This represents family and friends, who I know I can always count on. Without everyone at home supporting us with encouraging e-mails, reading our blog entries, and taking care of business, we would never have been able to take advantage of this time overseas as a family. I'm thankful for Paul, Elizabeth, and Grace who have enthusiastically (most of the time) agreed to my adventurous daily itineraries and who have managed to learn a lot along the way. I'm thankful for John who gave us this opportunity and who struggles daily to make time for everything and everyone without ever lowering his standards. I'm thankful that we've become closer as a family and that we know that we can always count on one another. Everyone needs something they can always count on - even if it is just pizza.

Grazie a tutti!
-Terri

Our Thanksgiving Dinner in 2009

This year we spent Thanksgiving in Paris. We also had our Thanksgiving dinner as usual. But, our dinner was a bit unusual. Here's what we had: Paul and Grace had a hamburger and my cousin, Ryan, and I had chicken nuggets. Mom and Aunt Shelly had hamburgers with Roquefort cheese on them, and my Uncle Garett had a steak. The restaurant was called Hippopotamus and we all received plastic hippo toothpicks poked in our food. We had chocolate mousse or hot fudge sundaes for dessert. Here is a picture of all of us at our Thanksgiving feast.

I am wondering what all of you had for Thanksgiving. Was yours as unusual as mine or did you have turkey like always?

-Elizabeth

What I'm Thankful For

This Thanksgiving I'm thankful for many things. I'm giving you three examples of those many things.

My first example is I'm grateful for my family and friends. I'm glad I have friends at home to look forward to when I get home. I'm glad I have my family here with me to have fun with one another. I'm glad that I have my family to come and visit me here in Rome. And I hope that if anyone visits a different country, their family and friends will do the same.

My second example is I'm thankful for my food and shelter. I'm thankful for our apartment. I'm glad I don't have to live on the streets like the beggars do. I'm thankful for the fresh pizza and the gelato here in Rome. I hope that everyone had a nice Thanksgiving dinner to be thankful for.

My third example is I'm thankful for my education and books. I miss going to Holy Cross so much and I am so thankful I have it to go back to. Books are one of my favorite activities. Without books I would be as unhappy as gray clouds. School is one of my favorite places because that's where you learn and I love to learn!

I have many more things to be write about and if I could I would. I'm glad I have all these things to be thankful for and I hope you are too! What are you thankful for?

Ciao!
Elizabeth

Thank the World!

Here in Rome, I have quite a bit to be thankful for. To start, I'm thankful for being in Rome. With all these tourist attractions, who wouldn't want to be here? I also find the different cars interesting because they're so tiny and compact. And I really like the Colosseum. Imagine if you could visit it all the time!

I'm also thankful for having modern technology. I would have a hard time if there weren't cool things like cars and flying machines and electricity. I find machines really interesting and I want to know how they work. It's cool to know that your home is powered by something once unknown!

And finally, I'm thankful for my family and friends. Isn't it good to know somebody cares for you, knows you, is friends with you? I think so. I'm glad to have all these things!

Ciao!
Paul

Rome, Italy from my point of view

Life in Rome Italy from my point of view, well, it has two sides, The first, it's really cool here. I mean with all the ancient stuff. It's cool because we get to be in a place where people actually were over 2000 years ago! What's also cool is I'm in a different country. I get to have experiences that not very many people in America get to have. And it's really cool to go to all the different places in the country! I have been to Florence, Venice, Pompeii, Siena, Viterbo, and Pisa in Italy, and I'm going to Paris, France on Thursday.

The other side of it is I'm still so homesick! And I miss home so much and I can't wait to get back home! And I guess I've learned that I don't like big city life. I only have a few weeks left and I'm going to try to forget about being homesick and enjoy the rest of my time here. I am going to miss Rome when I come home. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity!


-Elizabeth

The Berlin Wall in Rome?

On November 9, 1989 the Berlin Wall came down. The Berlin Wall was an 87 mile long concrete wall that separated the city of West Berlin from East Berlin and from the country of East Germany. This wall was built beginning in 1961 to keep people from going from East Berlin into West Berlin. It was 12 feet tall, 3 feet wide and had guards watching 24 hours a day. This is a very complicated story - too much for me to write about here. Feel free to ask someone about it or do some research on your own.

So, November 9, 2009 was the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. There were celebrations all over the world, including here in Rome. The Romans put up a temporary exhibit on the Spanish Steps which included information and a model of the Berlin Wall. I took some pictures so that you could see what it looked like.

We visited the Spanish Steps and the Berlin Wall exhibit with John's brother, Brian, and his wife, Ogi. Here is a picture of all of us on the Spanish Steps. The Berlin Wall exhibit is not in this picture. Behind us you can see some of the steps, and there is an overlook in the piazza at the top. This piazza is right in front of the church, Trinita del Monti. Here is a photo that I took in September that shows the whole set of stairs, from the Piazza de Spagna at the bottom, to the towers of the church at the top. The staircase is apparently the longest and widest in Europe with 138 stairs. (Golly! Our Glorioso stairs that we climb every day have only 126 stairs!)

Pope John Paul II

We visited St. Peter's the other day and heard a really neat story.

On 13 May 1981, Pope John Paul II was in his "Pope Mobile" riding through the piazza. May 13th is the feast day of Our Lady of Fatima and he was holding a picture of Mary in his hands. As Pope John Paul II leaned over to look at the picture, Mehmet Ali Agca shot the Pope several times, hitting him four times. The Pope was critically injured.

According to the story we heard from a priest in the piazza, immediately after the assassination attempt, a small nun tackled the much larger Agca, and together with other bystanders, restrained him until the police arrived. The Pope was rushed into the Vatican complex, and then to the hospital. He underwent several hours of surgery, but survived. The doctors reported that the bullets missed major arteries by mere millimeters. The path the bullets took swerved.

Once Pope John Paul II recovered, he returned to the Vatican and credited his survival to the help from Mary. He noted that of all the hundreds of saints that are represented in the Piazza San Pietro, Mary is not there anywhere. Thanks to Pope John Paul II, Mary is now represented on one of the buildings in the Vatican complex that faces the piazza.

There is a marble marker that marks the spot where the assassination attempt took place. Notice the roman numerals that represent the date: XIII V MCMLXXXI = 13 May 1981 The seal of Pope John Paul II is also on the marker.

Neat story, huh?

-Terri

An Amazing View Through a Keyhole?

On Monday, Nov. 16 we went for a walk on Aventine Hill. Up on the hill we saw 2 churches. One was called Santa Sabina and the other called San Alessio. Santa Sabina was a very strange church, unlike other churches in Rome. It was very colorless, and plain. The other church, San Alessio, was a standard church full of color and decoration. One of the side chapels contained the stairs that a saint hid underneath to prevent his execution.

In between those 2 churches, we found a nice garden with an amazing view of the city. Here is a video of it and a photo of St. Peters.


But that isn't the best part! As we were walking, (my mom intended for us to see it) we came into a Piazza. In the piazza and there were people staring through a keyhole. It looked kinda funny. Here is a photo.

When I got to look through the hole, do you know what I saw? I saw a path lined with vines and bushes and at the end of the path was St. Peters! The trees made a perfect frame for the dome. I tried to take a picture, but it was too bright. When I took the picture, the flash went off! It turns out that the flash actually made the photo darker. So now I had a really good photo! Here it is:

Cool, huh? A photo through a keyhole!

I'm impressed with the picture myself.

-Paul

Ponte Sant'Angelo

This is the Ponte Sant'Angelo, the bridge over the Tiber River in front of the Castel Sant'Angelo. There are ten angel statues designed by Bernini along this bridge. Each one of the angels holds something from the Passion of Jesus Christ. See how well you know the story. Can you figure out what each angel is holding? Answers at the bottom.

1. Angel with nails

2. Angel with lance

3. Angel with crown of thorns

4. Angel with the garment
5. Angel with the whip

6. Angel with cross

7. Angel with column

8. Angel with the inscription INRI

9. Angel with the sponge

10. Angel with Veronica's veil