New School, New Adventure

This fall semester I begin a new chapter in my life. Two years at Franciscan University, a semester in Austria, and a year at home later... you find me now at Aquinas College in Nashville, TN. I've been here almost two weeks and there are already so many things to talk about! Let me start at the beginning...

Day 1 (August 18, 5:45am): Mom, Dad and I leave for SeaTac Airport.

This day didn't exactly turn out as planned... After arriving at the airport, we stood in a short line at the delta terminal where we were told my flight was actually through Alaska Airlines... even though the ticket was purchased through delta, and confirmed by delta. Very misleading and confusing since I'd not previously had anything like this occur. Sooo dad and I walked to the Alaska Airlines bag check while Mom stayed with the car. We stood in line there for much longer, and when we finally reached the front of the line, we were told that I had missed checking my bag onto my flight by 10 minutes :( which required me to reschedule my flight. We then stood in line for about 30 minutes to get the flight rescheduled. Thankfully, they took the blame and didn’t charge me for a change fee. My flight was rescheduled for 10:20am. This was a long enough time that I was able to go home and eat breakfast with my family; definitely the best part about the whole crazy day! 10:20am I was headed for Houston, Texas. However, thunderstorms in Houston kept us from landing on time, so we landed in Austin to fuel up. This brought us to Houston around 6pm (about an hour and a half delay).

Thankfully, my layover in Houston was supposed to be 3 hours, so no worries there, in fact now it was only going to be an hour layover... right?

Actually, the thunderstorms didn't go away completely so delays continued and we boarded our 8:05 flight… at 10:15. Arrival in Nashville went from 10pm to midnight. Thank you Pamela (RA) who patiently waited to come pick me up and patiently waited when I found out the airline lost my big duffel bag…

In all honesty though, the whole outrageous day went really well for being so crazy. The airline gave me a little toiletries bag to hold me off for the night and promptly returned my bag to me the next morning J

I am happy to report that after a relatively emotional morning (I was quite in shock and a bit frustrated at first), God gave me the grace to be calm and patient the rest of the day. I also had a slight advantage having flown many times before (including traveling Europe), and having been to college far away already before.

Orientation Week (August 20^th-24^th):

First, let me welcome you to the second floor of Seton Lodge and into mine and my roommate, Maria’s, dorm room J

First, you'll need to walk down the "outdoor hallway"

And enter my room ...Please disregard the misplaced nightstand in the middle of the room, that will be leaving soon ;)

Roommate :)

This year is Aquinas College’s first year offering on-campus housing to students. Our small group of 11 girls and 3 guys made history this fall semester as we are Aquinas College's first class of residential life. We're already posted all over the website including our (now famous) jumping picture on the homepage, found below J

You can also find more residence life pictures on the Aquinas website: http://www.aquinascollege.edu/. Under “51^st Year Begins with Residential Students,” click on “learn more…” Scroll to the bottom of the page and take a look at Aquinas College’s Flikr page for more fun pictures!

Below are some more pictures of orientation week.

Above is our kitchen and common area

First downtown Nashville excursion. Left to right: Francesca, Mary, Lauren, Abbey, and Maria

Downtown Nashville! My first night spent in the city :)

Cowboy boots... a whole store for it.

Out for dinner

St. Thomas Hospital and Seton Lodge (where we live) is there in the distance. This is the path we walk to get to the college. Aquinas is located behind me in this picture.

St. Thomas Hospital chapel within walking distance of Seton Lodge :)

Playing Quelf (crazy board game). I might be a weirdo but the napkin around my neck doesn't count. It was part of the game :P

I don't have pictures yet of the last three days of orientation activities, but we're hoping to get them soon! Here's the overview of those events:

Thursday: Y-camp - team building activities

Friday: service work and tours of 1.) Room in the Inn (http://www.roomintheinn.org/) - an agency that helps the homeless not only to meet their daily needs, but to help them get back on their feet so that they can live new, independent and healthy lives, and 2.) Hope Clinic (http://hopeclinicforwomen.org/) - assisting women who are dealing with unplanned pregnancies and providing services and alternatives to abortion.

Saturday: White Water Rafting on the Ocoee River in Southeast Tennessee! A fun-filled day that began at 3:30 in the morning when most of us got out of bed, and departing at 5am for a three hour drive south :)

Coming Soon:

1. More orientation pictures (hopefully), and

2. First week of classes

Stay tuned!

Day 7: Ilave

Goodness, I am so bad at updating my blog! Yes, I am still on Peru… but I’m determined to document it all, because I am planning to put together a scrapbook of the past three years and the places I’ve traveled. And to make my life easy, I’m just going to print out the blog… easy schmeazy

January 1^st 2012: Happy New Year! Some breakfast in our tummies, and a little hot juice with a tint of liquor to help with digestion, we loaded ourselves into the van for about an hour drive to the small town of Ilave.

It was a relaxing drive. Listening to music and looking out at the passing countryside. I was in Peru.... over 5,000 miles from home... crazy...


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Ilave is the third largest town in the area; Juliaca being the first and Puno the second.
Ilave was also the town that Fr. Bloom served as a missionary for seven years. Sunday mass was at 11 o’clock at the Catholic Church where Father lived and worked during his seven missionary years. The Church was packed full! There were a lot of elderly residents dressed in traditional garb. No one was very clean and there were a hand full with clear physical ailments. It was also clear by the fervor and devotion they exhibited at mass, that their deepest heart’s desires were being met. It was so beautiful to see.

After mass, we met the parish priest in the rectory and went on a little stroll around town while lunch was being prepared.

There were some people who recognized Father :)

This little walk around town was quite an experience. Ilave is not on the tourist map, so tourists are seldom seen in the town. I could have sworn these people had never seen white people in their lives because when we walked by… their eyes were fixed on us. Then to make things more hysterical, little Sarah decided she wanted one of the traditional skirts worn by many of the Ilave inhabitants… well, she ended up getting the entire outfit. Here she is wearing traditional Peruvian garb:

And boy was it a sight when SHE walked by. She instantly became the life of the party and people thought it was hysterical! And so did we!

And we have spectators:

And the final look with Father Bloom :)

We returned back to the parish rectory for lunch, and we received llama gifts.

(Sarah is holding hers in the above picture)
Say "llama!" :D

About 4:00 we got back on the bus and had a heck of a time getting to this poor country home with a mud house where an elderly Peruvian couple were living. We didn’t really know why we were going there, but we kept getting lost and had to turn around like three times. We were crazy confused. Well, we found out later that Father had met this couple awhile ago and was finding ways to help pay for the woman’s failing colon. It was amazing the conditions these people were living in.

Well, almost as soon as we arrived it started to rain and it was quite a challenge getting out of the countryside on muddy, uneven roads. We arrived back in Puno about late dinner time, went and got some Chinese food and returning to the orphanage in the evening.

But when we got back, we remembered that the orphanage owns a number of dogs trained to attack strangers. This is of course to keep thieves away. Well, when we got back the dogs had already been let out, so we had to go a different route led by a Sister carrying a broom stick. This scared us so much we found ourselves running from Father’s room back to ours… which was literally two steps away!

Day 6: The Floating Islands

Today we went to the Floating Islands on Lake Titicaca. These islands are a must-see for tourists. Look up “Puno” on Google and you’ll see what I mean ;) We traveled to the islands with about 35 kids, most from the Mary Bloom tutoring program and a few from the orphanage, so it was a huge group.

A picture speaks a thousand words so I’ll just let you scroll through the pictures, then I’ll give you a history of the islands :)

Our group:

Here's the special corn treat they gave us. It was such interesting and different looking corn, I had to take a picture.

The islands are man-made with totora reeds. Totora is a cattail type of plant which grows native in the lake. The dense roots of the reed support the top layer, which rots and is regularly replaced by stacking more reeds on top. According to South America Travel on About.com, “The surface of the islands is uneven, thin, and some liken walking on it to walking on a waterbed. The unwary might not notice a thin spot and sink a leg or more into the frigid waters of the lake.” I second the waterbed part… thankfully I was not victim to thin spots!

The people living on the islands are of the Uros Tribe, which pre-date the Incan civilization. They speak Spanish and their native language of Aymara. They make everything with these reeds, most notably those incredible boats! Approximately 2,000 Uros live on the various islands. The homes are created with reeds as well, and the residents wear layers of clothing to combat the cold, mostly wool which protects from cold, wind and sun which burns dangerously at that altitude. They live by fishing, weaving and now, tourism. Women still wear colorful outfits including full skirts and the popular derby type hat. source

After returning by boat to the mainland, we hopped on buses with all the kids and traveled with them to their different homes to drop them off. This was an eye-opening experience, as we saw the kids exit the bus to their homes, located in the really rundown part of Puno. We passed over bumpy dirt/mud roads through an area filled with people making bricks. It was basically like a brick factory. This isn’t a picture from this particular area of town (I wish I had pictures of it), but this gives you an idea of the poor living conditions of the Peruvians:

We arrived back at the orphanage around 2 o’clock and relaxed the rest of the afternoon until the New Years Mass at 8pm. After Mass we had New Years dinner which we saw the preparations for earlier in the day (roast pig), along with potatoes, rice, tea and grapes. Twelve grapes were served to us in a little bowl which represent the upcoming months of the new year. The tradition is to make a wish for each month as you eat the grape. They also gave us big yellow party hats which I don’t know if there’s a tradition or story for. The grape wishing is actually supposed to be done at midnight but we were too tired and went to bed at 11. We were so tired the fireworks didn’t even wake us up.