VIVA PAPA!!

*February 2, 2011*

So when Loyola Chicago gets the day off for snow, Loyola Roma gets the day off to see the Pope. How ironic.

Today we all went to the Papal Audience at the Vaticano and were able to see the Pope!! (pics are on my Flickr). It was very cool and there were a TON of people from all over the world, however, the Brazilians were by far the loudest and proudest (everyone kept yelling "VIVA PAPA!!!"). The Cardinal who spoke your language would call out your group (we, of course, were John Felice students from Loyola University Chicago) and then you would stand and cheer, and the Pope would wave (cool!). For almost all of the European groups people would burst out in song, it was great, they sounded so legit. The French sung softly and French-like (you know what I mean), the Germans did a folk song in Amish looking outfits, the Italians waved little red flags and the Polish chanted proudly, but the Brazilians acted like they were at a soccer match, they were crazy! Waving their huge green flag back and forth, one guy was actually running back and forth with it, and not just chanting but screaming and pumping their fists. It was fantastic! So then it was our turn. Loyola was called, we all stood up and cheered (we had no song, no chants, no flags, just lazy Americans, but neither did the British, go figure). And then while Team Brazil was doing their cheering, for the fourth time (at that point I don’t even think we were still on Brazil, I think it was Germany or something) a little Brazilian boy took that opportunity, while everyone was distracted by the cheering, to run up to the Pope. We were all like “Oh my GOD!” and freaking out but thankfully the Swiss Guards didn’t impale him, like we were expecting…we over-dramatize everything (more of that to come later)…they didn’t even flinch. The Pope just threw out his arms in welcome, blessed and kissed the boy, and it was amazing. We all wanted to cry. Bravo little boy, Bravo!! So that’s all that really happened there…

*On-Site Class Number Two (took place on: Feb. 1^st)*

So on Tuesday morning we, Caitlin, Spencer and I, were on our way to our second on-site class (writing Rome) and we got into ANOTHER hot mess. First of all let me further explain the public transit situation over here. Here’s the scoop: when you want to get on a bus, you wait (could be 5 min, could be a lifetime) and then you get on when it arrives, pretty simple. You scan your bus ticket (they cost €1, equivy to about $1.40) inside the bus when you get on, there’s a little yellow box at the front and back to do this. Now, let me make it clear that this is all on the honor system; the driver, unlike in Chicago, doesn’t make sure you do it, he just drives. There are people who work for the bus system (ATAC) who will occasionally get on the bus and check that you’ve scanned your card (I have yet to see one do this on a bus, and probably just jinxed myself), there’s a €50 (nearly $70) fine on the spot if you haven’t stamped your card and if you don’t have the money the worker will take you directly to an ATM and the fine goes up to €100, and if you can’t pay for it at all you get taken ‘downtown’. I’m not really sure what happens then and I never want to find out. This system goes for the train as well.   

So back to Tuesday morning. We all get on the 990 bus to head to the train station and on the way we pick up two more students from our class. We make it to the train station just fine and are soo confident that we’re actually going to be early this time; I even start planning on getting breakfast at the caffé we’re supposed to meet at. Now, at the train station downtown there is a place where you have to scan your card in order to get into the station, they do not have this system at the stop down the street (don’t ask me why, the govt could save big time on the wages they have to pay the ATAC checkers…but it's good for employment I suppose). So we get down to the tracks and there is a scanner on the wall, and we decide not to scan our tickets (don’t ask me why, to save a Euro I guess). We get on the train, it’s nice, we even get seats. Everything is going great; we are comfy, on-time, early even! When we are about 3 stops away from where we need to get off to switch trains an ATAC worker steps into our car, turns right and starts checking tickets. I swear my heart has never beat so fast before in my life. I just turn to Caitlin who has turned white and whisper “oh my God, what do we do!?!”. Now, because we are sitting on the left of the door (and the lady had gone right) we decided to get off at the next stop …if we could. We could, but the girls who we had met up with had sat to the right, so at that point it was every man for themselves, we couldn’t reach them. The train started to slow down at Saint Peter’s station and I’m telling you, if that train would have been going any slower it would have been going backwards. I was freaking out. Well folks, it stopped, we ran out, stamped our cards and had to wait for the next train to come, which was delayed by 30 min. While waiting we kept talking about how sure we were that the other girls had gotten taken ‘downtown’, I even think the phrase ‘taken to the gallows’ was thrown out there at one point (over-dramatize everything).

We found out later that the ATAC woman had just told the two girls where to stamp their cards in the future because she took them for dumb tourists who didn’t know any differently. We were five minutes late to class and I was sans a cornetto. What did I learn? Leave campus even earlier next time so if you have to run from the law at least you will have time to get breakfast later.

Da Roma, con amore.