HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

Happy Thanksgiving!! 

I celebrated this afternoon Italian style, and it was awesome! Even though I miss my green beans and mashed potatoes, it was delicious. We are treated so well here....i

t was a sit down dinner with all of our professors, the director of the program, the deacons & priests who work with us, our tour guides, all of the girls, and

 more. Here's a brief summary of our menu: Saffron rice timbales, squash ravioli with spicy fresh tomato sauce, Roman turkey with chestnut stuffing, potatoes, peas, and apple cake. I have not been that full in a very long time, and that's a lot to say considering what we eat here every day. Another thing the Italians forget is that Americans take a nice nap after a huge meal like that. Instead of laying down, I had to walk to the top of the Esquiline Hill, the highest hill in Rome, for a tour with my art history class. We saw two beautiful churches, but everyone was ready to sit down. Later I took a really long nap to make up for it. 

It was a wonderful afternoon/evening, but I will definitely miss being at home for the holidays. I would love to be able to tell you this in person tomorrow, but I have to settle for this....

I sincerely thank you ALL for all of your support. I cannot put into words how much I appreciate how much God has blessed me with such amazing friends and family. I continuously ask myself why I get to have this amazing experience, and my only prayer is that I will be able to share what I have gained with you. Tomorrow, try and 

be aware of God's presence in every person. We really are made in God's image and the holidays is one of the best times to see that. Also, know that I will be praying for you and thanking God for giving me such wonderful people to help me be a better person. 

One more thing....

Can you do a favor for me?

Anyone who is going to see my parents tomorrow......give them the best hug you can. No side hug that Rita Kesterson would give you a hard time for! I owe them so much, and since I can't show them in person, I would love it if you helped me thank them for being such incredible parents. 

Mom and Dad--- THANK YOU. You are one of the best examples of true selfless love, and I hope I can give that back to you somehow.

I'm off to pack for England, and I leave in the morning!

Love you all,

Anne

an update on my travels the last couple weeks and what's to come...

When I looked at my blog and realized I hadn't posted in a couple weeks, I couldn't believe it. Which is scary, because I'm sure I will be wondering where the time went after the next 5-6 weeks. Since I'm always short on time these days, I will just tell you about the most exciting parts of my past couple weeks. November 7-9 I was in Ireland with all of my roommates!! My roomie Maire's aunt and uncle live in Raheny, a small town right outside of Dublin, so we stayed with them. It was wonderful being able to stay with them, and they were firm believers Irish hospitality, so we were treated extremely well. On Friday, we went into Dublin, had some traditional Irish stew, then saw the main attractions including Trinity College, St. Patrick's Cathedral, and of course the Guinness brewery. Saturday we did some shopping in Dublin then we went to the beach near Raheny and to the small town of Howth. I think Ireland is the only place that can still be beautiful when it is rainy, cold, and windy! This past weekend we had our last "Lectures and Tours" on Friday and Saturday around Rome. Friday we went to Palestrina and visited the museum and site of a huge ancient Roman temple, then after that we went to Tivoli and visited Hadrian's Villa and Villa d'Este. Hadrian's Villa was probably my favorite...it was huge and it was so fun to imagine how incredible it looked at its height. And today I went to the Vatican Museums and saw a whole collection of Egyptian and Roman statues from the villa, and it was really neat to be able to think of the exact area where they would have stood. Villa d'Este has these huge gardens that are filled with beautiful fountains. Saturday we went to Ostia Antica, the ancient port city of Rome. I had a really good tour guide, the archeology professor who happens to have his doctorate in the study of Ostia, so I definitely learned a lot. It was really neat to imagine that I was in the center of the place where goods from all around the world came into Rome. Saturday afternoon I went on a long walk around Rome with one of my roommates. This is my favorite way to see Rome....just heading out in a general direction and getting lost. We went to this park that has an incredible view of Rome and found some other neat places. Sunday I left at 6 am for Florence! It was really a perfect day. We didn't wait in line for the Academia to see the David, barely waited to get into the Uffizi Gallery, which holds the greatest collection of Italian paintings, then shopped on the famous bridge called the Ponte Vecchio. After that we went to this small town called Fiesole, which has the best view of Florence. It was breathtaking, and we made it right at sunset so it was a great end to the day. Now I leave for Frankfurt, Germany on Friday for the weekend!! The next week should be great because we have a Thanksgiving banquet at the hotel, then I am going with my roommate Jillian to stay with her relatives in England and maybe Scotland. It's all downhill from there: one free weekend staying in Rome, finals (on the wknd too! ), then the Christmas banquet to end the semester. After that, I am heading to Austria from December 20-26! Everything is planned by Notre Dame and Saint Mary's students who are currently studying in Austria. There are more details on that coming soon! 

Here's a link to some recent pictures: Ireland, Roma, Florence

Ciao!

PICTURES!!!

I have been trying to get my pictures up, and I have finally caught up!

Here are links to my albums:

Roma (1)

Roma (2)

Roma (3)

Cinque Terre & Pisa

Pompeii, Amalfi, & Paestum

Archaeological Museum of Naples, Cuma, Capodimonte Museum, and the coast of Naples

Capri

Sorry to overwhelm you with all of these at once! Enjoy! Time is flying here as usual....Our whole group was in southern Italy from Tuesday the 28th to Saturday the 2nd. I was able to spend time with my friends who are studying in Spain this semester because they were visiting Rome this weekend. This week I had a couple midterms, so that was a lot of my week, and now I have to pack because I fly out tomorrow morning for IRELAND!!! I'm soooo anxious and excited today has gone by so slowly! I'm off to another one of our wonderful dinners at our hotel. Ciao!