June 17, 2013

Today was my last day in Europe and also the day that I got home. We woke up early and went to the Roma Airport to board Delta flight 245 bound for JFK in New York City. As with any other travel day we had our bumpy places and our moments of fun but this trip was special because we were going home. During the flight I watched four movies; Yes Man, Bruce Almighty, Wreck it Ralph, and The Hangover Part II. It was quite an interesting plane ride but the time went by very quickly and I never left my seat except to let a friend out of theirs to use the restroom. Once we landed in JFK it took 30 minutes to get to customs, 10 minutes to get through, and 2 hours to get our luggage off the belt. If it wouldn't have been for that wait I would have been home much sooner. Then we got on the bus to Bloomsburg, a three hour ride. And last but not least we said our goodbyes and I drove the whole way home just to fall asleep. It was almost a complete 24 hours of travel but it was fun and I enjoyed the trip that we had had. I cannot wait to go back and see it all again!

June 16, 2013

Today was the day I had been waiting for, for a very long time. I woke up today around 6:30 am and got showered and dressed up in my black slacks, shoes, and red dress shirt. I left Diana Hotel by 7:00 am and headed to the Republicca Metro station. Once on the Metro, I headed for the Ottavian (forgive spelling) station. Once I got off the train with my bag full of rosaries, crucifixes, and medals, I headed for San Pietra Piazza, St. Peter's Square. I was surprised to find a huge line at security this morning to enter the square. I waited very patiently to get to the front where I showed the guard my green ticket and he let me enter the square. Today was Sunday after all and they were preparing for a rather large audience because the Pope was saying mass today. I was there early enough to get a seat by the railing and I sat and waited for two and a half hours before the holy father came out into the crowd. I got a great video of him passing by and he got the same of me. (i have provided links to both of the videos, I appear on the right side at 11 minutes in his video)

If you missed me in his video here is a picture of it. I can say that it was a great experience, and was definitely something that makes you realize the universality of the church. The rest of my day was spent investigating the burial place of St. Ignatius of Loyola and St. Francis Xavier. I would not have picked any other way to end the wonderful trip.

A visit with an old Friend

6/15/13

Well today is a very special day for me. It was my 100% free day in the city of Rome. Knowing what was going to happen tomorrow I went around to see the big sights of Rome to make sure I didn't miss them. I saw the Coloseum, Constantine Arch, John Keats grave stone, the Spanish Steps, the Trevi Fountain, the metro, and a few more who's names I don't recall. Of course I stopped back at the hotel once or twice to rest my legs because I think I walked over 10 miles today alone. But at around 11 am I made my way back to the Vatican and went back into St. Peter's Basilica to pray. After that I met my old friend Fr. Lohse at the obelisk in the square. We went to a restaurant and I had the most fantastic Pizza, even better than last night's dinner. We talked about good old PA and what was happening in the little town I call home, which he was once placed at. We also talked about life and the church and how things were going for both him and I along with our plans for the summer and this coming school year. Well that is all I have to tell you for now ... check back in for my next post to see where the salad goes next :)

Father's House

Today was a very special day for me. We woke up at 630 am and got ready, ate breakfast, and loaded on the bus. We traveled across the city of Rome to the Vatican City. Today was our scheduled tours of Musei Vaticani and Vatican Radio along with a visit to St. Peters Basilica. Let me tell you, when you walk into St. Peters Basilica its not the same person who walks out. It is an amazing space and the shear size of it alone leaves you in awe. Then you start seeing famous paintings, sculptures, people, and images and you are just floored. There are no words to describe what you see and feel in a place like that, the center place of your faith. It left me with a feeling of the actual universality of the church and how big things actually are. The hardest struggle while there was dealing with the disrespect of some of my peers. I can understand jokes here and there in churches but you are in a religious center of the biggest faith world wide, show a little more reverence. Anyway, after a half hour of site seeing in the basilica we attended mass in the left wing chapel. The father there spoke in Italian and when he started his homily he asked how many spoke Italian. One person in the entire sitting nodded the approval he was looking for. From what I gathered he spoke about how even though we are all from different places and may not understand each other or our lives that we all love god and should follow in his ways. (homily in one sentence) After this mass we proceeded to our tour of the museum and Sistine chapel. The famous things I saw were innumerable and I got pictures of all that I was allowed to, and if the Sistine chapel doesn't make you pray instantly I don't know what will. After that we had some free time which I spent with the tour guide and our catholic professor exploring the basilica and talking about some of the monuments. Then of course to the only "souvenir" shop inside the square to get some gifts for the family and myself. After that we went to the Vatican Radio's old HQ near the Vatican City. There we learned about its history, programs, and very diverse staff. After that stop we went back to the hotel to crash until dinner. We left for dinner at 630 and it was amazing. Bruschetta, Pizza, and some creamy dessert .... i could have eaten for forever. This now landed me back at the hotel to prepare for the beginning of my two day exploration of Rome on my own....

The Travelers Nightmare

June 13, 2013 ....

This morning was just like any other morning with an early wake up call at 630. We all got up, showered, and ate in preperation for another normal day in Europe. Well this ordinary day would not stay so for long. Our travel guide had us leave our checked luggage bags at the hotel as we traveled out into Venezia for our quick tours. Our tours were to be San Marco, the Doges Palace, and a few other land marks. Well because of the bags that one little thing one whole day turned upside down. We were supposed to take the bags on the bus with us to put in storage for our train. Because of that we had to travel back to the hotel to get our bags and then we were supposed to jump on our train at that station instead. Well once we discovered there was only a two minute stop there the entire plan died. We got through San Marco and then ran to get our bags instead of finishing our tours. The plan at the time was to catch our train in that two minute window. Well we argued that task because we knew we wouldn't make it on the train quickly enough. So this fight exploded with the travel company about these things and we ended up with a new train later in the day. So we got several free hours in Venezia to compensate the lost time in that city. And now we are on the train to Roma. What a day ....

June 12, 2013

Well here I am now having all public transportation under my belt. Bus, taxi, Subway, train, airplane, boat .... all of them. It is interesting experiencing so many new things all in one trip, it almost makes you feel like a completely different person. Today we woke up early to catch a train from Vienna to Villah and then hop on a bus from Villah to Venice, or Mestre rather. When we got here we had about an hour to settle in and then we went to our first italian dinner and let me tell you what. There was so much food I couldn't eat it all. We had noodles with bacon, half a chicken, potatos, green beens, and cake all in one meal and these were no small portions. After dinner a few groups of us traveled into Venizia via train and walked around the tangled streets looking at all the vendors and getting things like the famous Melano glass. When we finally got back we all had to pack because tomorrow we are already going to be traveling to Rome.

June 11, 2013

Today was an eye opening experience for all of us. We went to "tour" the facilities of the Wiener Zeitung daily newspaper in Austria. We ended up speaking with two editors and a marketing leader of the paper in their conference room about their publication. Much of our discussion dealt directly with social media and the rise of technology's affect on the world of printed paper and the tactics used in writing. It was interesting to hear the things we learned in class spilling out of someones mouth who worked in the real world media realm. The visit to the paper seemed so short lived though. After this we had free time in which I visited St. Stephens Cathedral. It is a great place and quite expansive. It cost 4 euros to enter the main church just to walk around. Whilst there I did some praying and quiet time for myself in thought. After this we got back together as a group and toured the Opera House. We got to see the original parts that were left after WWII and what was rebuilt, which is most of it. The back stage was the best part though. The stage is about three times as large as the auditorium itself and is outfitted with the best equipment I have seen on a stage yet. After the tour we returned to the hotel to eat and prepare for our travels to venice tomorrow.

June 10, 2013

Today was a free day for us which all of us took to our advantage and slept in. I would say we were all awake by 10 though. Once I got up I began to roam the city as far as my feet would carry me. To be honest there isn't a whole lot in the area that we are staying at. I did find that Euro Spur, a chain grocery store, has some pretty decent prices though. I then returned to the hotel to work on some homework and get in contact with some people from home. After which I got dressed up and went to dinner followed by the Vienna State Opera where we saw Barber of Seville. This opera is the only one that I had seen up to this point so I could compare it to the last time that I saw it. However, there is no way I could compare these performances because the one in Vienna was molto benne. I had a great time and now i think it shall be time to go back to the land of dreams. Cya all tomorrow

June 9, 2013

Today was a very busy day for us. We started off early with a two and half hour bus trip into vienna, which most of us slept through. Then as we arrived in the city we immediately went to the koncerhaus for the performance of Concert for Violin, Vionlincello, and Orchestra Op. 102 by Johannes Brahms and Symphonie Fantastique by Berlioz by the world renowned Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. The performance was stunning and there were no mistakes that I could speak of. One change in the stage practice though was that the concert master came on with the entire orchestra instead of alone and simply stood to tune, I found this odd. The next thing I learned was that the Viennese like to clap ... a lot ... in fact the applause at intermission lasted 15 minutes, after the show I stopped counting. To go along with that observation they did not stand for this performance, which also perplexed me. Anyway, after the performance we traveled to the houses of Beethoven, Haydn, and Shubert. They were all very nice but the comparison between each spoke greatly to their individual wealth or lack there of. By the time we got to the Haydn house all of us were pretty well fried and could no longer gather the information that was being so eagerly fed to us. I did my best to take in all I could but I am afraid I missed much of the information at the Haydn house. Then we finally went to the hotel where we ate dinner and I crashed.

June 8, 2013

Today was a very different day along the course of our journey. We started off the day with the usual hotel breakfast which is a sandwich here basically. They we did a tour of the city by foot with the history of salzburg, a tour of the mozart house and a few finishing touches with the sound of music. While at the mozart house our group got a private concert from one of the famous musicians that salzburg has kept hidden. He is one of the three people allowed to play the pianoforte in either of the mozart residences and he played this instrument (that mozart used) specifically for us. The performance was spectacular and I got to see a real pianoforte in action and not just that but Mozart's. Then we finished our walking tour by another church within the city. At that point the rest of our day was free to do as we would. I swear most of our group became zombies today because they all weant back to the hotel and slept. I can't say I didnt go back for an hour or so but I went to the Cathedral just to sit and enjoy the silence and beauty of the place along with some prayer. I was happily surprised that the choir began to practice while i was there and I got to hear the sounds of the cathedral come alive infront of me with their 7 ... yes SEVEN pipe organs. The we went to dinner at St. Peters, the oldest restraunt in europe. It was ok but a little to posch for their britches I think. It was a great experience though and now we all prepare for our travel to Vienna..

June 7, 2013

Today of all days I wish i could share photos from my trip with you. Today was the day that we did the very quick and exciting Sound of Music tour. We got to see things like the Gazaebo, the Bridge, the church where they married, the lake, the house ... but it is all for naught because you find out it really isnt that much. The native tour guide that we have actually started the tour by telling us that she was there to shatter all our hopes and dreams that day. However, it was still a great tour and we saw so much. This was followed by a 15 minute on our own lunch break. And no there was no fast food where we were so guess what most of us got. Ice cream. Then we traveled to Red Bull stadium for the media part of our course to see what kind of advertisements were up around the stadium and how they were presented. Well all they were were Red Bull things everywhere. Then we traveled back to the hotel and the rest of the day was free. I took a short rest then went to our provided dinner at the hotel at which point me and several others walked to the fortress and OH MY GOD. the views from that place are amazing and I would have stayed up there if I could have. This trip is so amazing, thx to everyone who was part of sending me.

June 6, 2013

Today was a day of travel for us. We woke up at 3 am to prepare for travel to Salzburg. This travel consisted of a flight on a puddle jumper air plane to Dusseldorf, Germany and then the same plane to Salzburg. After we arrived in Salzburg it was just a short bus ride to the Hotel we are to be staying at. At that point we had the rest of the day free except for the dinner provided by our hotel. Many of us took this time to catch up on some much needed rest and to explore the near by city. This is when we had some great food at our hotel and went out on the town for more exploring. And now we wait for our touring experiences in the city.

June 4, 2013

Today felt like a rather uneventful day even though it was very fun. Our day started by traveling to the riverside of the Thames. Guess what we got to do when we were there? That's right we started with a tour of the Globe Theater. The tour starts in the exhibit hall where you read and learn about the history of the theater and things they use to do plays including the instruments. After that a guide took us around the theater so we could see the stage from all the levels and we even got to see part of a rehearsal. After the visit to the globe we went back to the hotel and had time to eat our own lunch and have some time to rest. Then we traveled back to the riverside to eat our diner at The Anchor. I had some wonderful chicken and chips because i am not much good with fish. After that guess where we ended up .... well if you said the Globe theater you were right. Yes we went to the Globe twice except this time we were there for the show of the night. We saw a Midsummer Night's Dream. This was the best performance of this Shakespeare work that I have seen to this day. And to add to it I saw the show as a Groundling yes a groundling, one of the people who stand on the dirt floor in the middle. It was truly a great experience that we all enjoyed. I hope I get the opportunity to go see another show there some time. Well that is all we did today so I will see you all tomorrow :)

June 5, 2013

Today was our  last day in London. This was the day that was given to us to have free time in London. Well our plans were changed by the unexpected celebration of the Queen's 60th year of being queen in Westminster. See what happened was that yesterday we were actually supposed to see Westminster abbey but the queen was there being recorinadted so we ended up getting some free time then and we had to go today. While at westminster I saw some graves of famous musicians including Handel, Vaughan Williams, Britten, and even Purcell. This is very odd these days because "musicians row" has been closed to the public for quite some time but they got us in.

This morning I spent my free time with a group of others at the National Portrait Gallery just off Trafalgar Square. I saw paintings by Van Gogh, da vinci, and some other famous artists. After the gallery we ate at Pret a Manger once again lol. From there is when we all met up at Westminster Abbey. After the Abbey visit we split up into our own free time for the rest of the day.  I chose to travel to Westminster Chapel to see famous mosaics and tower. The byzantine building style is something very different from what I am used to in a large church. but it was awesome and since then i have been in my room repacking my stuff for the trip to Salzburg.  Ill talk to you then :)

June 3, 2013

Today was our panoramic tour given by the lovely Sue Gil. We Drove around London in a bus getting pictures and seeing the major sites of the city of London. One of the things she told us was that the London Eye was a pointless waste of money and is a tourist trap. We also shared stories about the london bridge, tower bridge, tower of london, changing of the guard, buckingham palace, westminster abbey, St. Pauls Cathedral, the catholic byzantium style church, we walked on the millenium bridge, saw the shard and most importantly saw the crown jewels. It was a great experience and we shared many laughs as a group today. We are moving further and further away from our tour escort though with her very disrespectful behavior. However, we deal with what we have and have the best time that we can.

I got my first salad picture today though I cannot share it with you until I get an actual computer so it may not be until I am home. Our last stop today was to Wicked at the Victoria Palace Theater. It was a great performance and I can now say I have my 2nd broadway musical under my belt. The only thing I wish for was that I didn't know music so well when I see musicals. I tend to be way too over-analitical and so I have a hard time enjoying something I incidentally analyze. But it was a great show and I really did quite enjoy it! I can't wait to share pictures with all of you when I can.

June 2, 2013

Well my day today started off three hours into my first flight ever. I still had four hours to go and I could not get to sleep so what do I do? watch movies. I watch Die Hard and The incredible Burt Wonderstone, both of which are very good movies. Then I began to listen to classical music in a gross attempt to sleep but I just sat there unable to keep the eyes shut. Our arrival came without issue and we crossed over into the UK without one problem. That is when the fun started. We met our tour guide at the air port who is a very french lady who has no idea where we are going and what is relevant to us as college honors students. Well now that my rant about that is done I can say that we had a good time today.

First we went to the hotel and had to deal with checking in before the check in time.  I do not recommend trying to do this ever. After that fiasco we went to tour BBC which was not part of our itinterary in the first place. So at this point we are all confused and feel like we have no idea what is going on. We go back to the hotel to eat a quick dinner, which was quite good. Then we went to a concert titled "Coronation Classics" which was presented by the Royal orchesta, choral society, and herald trumpeters. It was a great concert and I hope that this is the beginning of many great experiences here in London.

June 1, 2013

Today was our first travel day. In a nutshell it was a huge test for someone who has never flown, let alone outside the Country. Well the day started out with some much needed shut eye until about 9 am. At that point we all got to work making sure our bags were packed and ready for our travel abroad. As soon as all of this was done we went and ate our last meal at Bloomsburg University. They served the best pizza today, and we ate all their Ice Cream sandwiches lol. After lunch we all got locked out of our rooms and had to get public safety to come let us in to get our things to go. They came and we still had enough time to sit around for a bit.

By 2 oclock we were boarding our coach bus to be traveling toward JFK airport in NY, NY. The three hour bus ride was nothing in terms of what was to come. When we arived at terminal 4 of JFK we poured out of the bus and into the bag drop and boarding pass pick up. After some great confusion we finally got through that step and then moved onto security. This is not actually as scary as people make it out to be. All you have to do is follow their rules and you are good to go. Once past security we had to walk about a mile to our Gate to wait for our flight. Our plane was late and we ended up being delayed by almost an hour. Then we finally got on the plane .... that take off what a rush. It was great, I was excited and all of a sudden I was 33000 feet above water into the night. And that was my day.

Our Time at the Bloom is drawing to a close

Dear Followers,

Well today is Thursday and it is becoming more and more apparent that our time together here in Bloomsburg is all too short. In just two days we will be packing our bags and heading for the land across the Atlantic Ocean. Our classes have been great and there has even been some great inside jokes that have begun to settle amongst the group. The greatest of these is actually finding itself in the world of meme's. One of our peers fell asleep in class today just long enough for someone to snap a quick shot of him. Now, the chats have come alive with his photo and funny sayings based on the topics we were learning in class.

I am interested to see how things turn out with my classes since we were just informed about a form that has to be filled out to transfer credits. What sucks is that they give it to us and our Home university staff and registrar must sign it. Why didn't they think of this like three weeks ago? Well, too late now I suppose. That being said I must fill this out and send it by fax to my school to get signatures. I hope that it all works out.

Today is one of our close friend's, Chris Silvia, birthday. So we traveled to WalMart to get him some cupcakes and make sure we had what we needed for our excursions outside the country. Everything is shaping up to be a great trip. I also got in contact with an old friend who resides in the North American Pontifical College and am planning on meeting with him while I am in Rome. It will be exciting to see him again and talk about life over an authentic Italian meal.

But ttfn ... and don't forget the bacon bits!

Salad

Day 2 Complete

Well here it is the end of day two. Everyone is settling in to their living arrangements and are getting past the small pleasantries of new people and moving on to actually learning about each other. So now that we are stopping, slowing down, and smelling the roses we can finally see how people truly are. Today I was presented with a challenge that I am not so sure I am going to fulfill but if you would like to see me do it all you have to do is comment and tell me to. The challenge is to take a picture of a salad at every place that we travel for the entirety of the trip.

Well, I suppose you want to know what sort of silly things we did today. In our experiences today not much exciting actually happened at least until classes were over. After classes today we all got together to watch The Sound of Music. Let me just say, watching that movie will never be the same after the jokes that were made today. So what were the jokes? Well what happens in bloomsburg stays in bloomsburg or at least for now it does :) However the highlight is always making plans for awesome pictures based off of the film you just watched so we will see what happens.

But for now ... ttfn and don't forget the croutons :)

Late Night Excursions

Well hello again everybody! It is very interesting to see how each and every honors student interacts with each other here in Bloomsburg, PA. For once I can say that I don't see any cliques amongst a group of honors students minus the girls vs guys normal groupings. Of course being a leader and a musician, I consider myself to be very much a people watcher. Now, I need to remember that these are honors students and nothing is every as it originally seems. I can definitely say this is a very cohesive group who works well together, atleast when called to do so.

This morning we started our first day of classes off with a Quest team building session in which we started to try to learn all of our groups names along with working to complete some rather difficult tasks. The first activity was the normal go around the circle, say your name, your major, and something interesting about yourself. Then we moved onto more difficult tasks such as putting ourselves in order of birth month without speaking, followed by order of day of the month without speaking understandable words or using your hands to communicate. We also did activities including getting groups to stand on small boxes, leading blindfolded people through a minefield, and playing with mousetraps .... yes mousetraps. After successfully completing all of their challenges we moved on to enjoy Husky Lounge Dining and the beginning of our two honors courses. We will be studying western music and media during our excursions within and outside the great country of the United States.

Well now that you know what we did today, I am sure you are wondering why I titled this post Late Night Excursions. Well first of all we are honors students so its never actually as late as you think. Most of our "fun" is sitting in the lounge area of our dorm and watching what I believe is called Top Gear or some sort of British comedy show about American things. It is actually quite entertaining to see how they are viewing Americans. All in all I can see that this trip is going to be a very interesting chance to be able to people watch both my peers and those people outside of my country and how they interact with each other. I am looking forward to starting this journey and will definitely keep you all updated as to what happens and what I encounter on my ventures with the honors students of Pennsylvania.

May 28

Dear Followers,

Well, I am a Senior Music Education Major from Clarion University who is an honors student. I am a Tuba player with great expectation for myself and the groups that I am a part of. This being said I applied for the PASSHE Summer Honors Program for 2013. To be honest, I did not have any inkling of an idea that I would get in. Well, I did, and now this is where my blog begins.

Today is the first day of classes in the PASSHE Summer Honors Program 2013. All the students here are having a great time and can't wait for our travel abroad. I cannot wait to get to know my peers better and erect the shrine to "Ms. Hopsalot."

The itinerary for our trip has gone around the block like six times but we finally have a set schedule. I can't wait for our trip outside of the country and I will update you to where we go every day after we have been there. Hopefully I will also get you pictures and cool info that I gather along the way. 

Salad