Kelsey is a freshman at Gonzaga University and is having a blast. Her dorm competed with other freshman dorms and won the championships in freshman intramural sports. She also loves going to the basketball games, which often involves camping out a few nights for the best seats.  Over spring break she will be volunteering with other GU students in Montana through a community service trip called Mission Possible.

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Story of Rome:
 Had an amazing time in Rome. We had opening tour there from Thursday  thru Sunday with roughly 130 new semester students on 3 buses. The  first day we got there we toured the Vatican Museum and St. Peters  Basilica. Thousands of sculptures and fresco paintings on every  ceiling. We went through the Sistine Chapel of Michelangelo and the  Vatican garden. There is so much hidden knowledge within these places.  In each pillar holding up the dome of St. Peters is a small chapel  holding various relics. One contains the spear they believe pierced  Jesus on the cross. They also showed us a small opening in the floor  where all past popes were buried below.

That night we had a group  dinner at ristorante canova which we walked to under a 1.2 mile lit up  flag (seen on fb).They had a older guy as dj and pianist who had a  great voice. They served unlimited wine throughout. We went to a pub  after where they sang irish music. They celebrate the epiphany on  january 6th and the day after is like black friday. The streets were  incredibly packed with thousands of people for the time we were there.
 
 The second day we visited Villa Borghese which had another amazing  museum. The sculptures were incredible with amazing detail such as the  indent of a mans hand graping a girls leg just how it would look in  real life. The surrounding area had umbrella pines which looked like  they were imported from Africa. Funny enough, we ate at Hard Rock Cafe  for lunch. It was interesting to see all the Europeans come into the  back area where we were eating and taking pictures of guitars and  other famous pieces from American musicians that were displayed all  over the walls. Trophies that we didnt think twice about capturing on  camera. That night we had a tour of Rome. We walked by the national  monument, the place where Caesar was killed, the trevi fountain, a  large area of ancient Roman ruins, with the colosseum lit up in the distance. Near the monument they had angels lit up going up the  stairs. It was a great night tour and my group had a hilarious tour  guide.

 The third day we had more flexibility in schedule. Some friends and I  decided to go to mass at the Church of St. Ignatius. We saw the tomb  where St. Aloysius Gonzaga was buried. Afterwards we headed to the  colosseum. Men and women lined the streets selling the same types of  objects. We were told it was illegal to buy from them and could be  fined a few thousand euros if purchasing from them. We saw people  selling those balls that splat and then reform everywhere as well as  camera stands and glass blocks right next to eachother. The colosseum  was enormous, it was crazy to imagine more people died here per area  in the world in these fights. I never knew before going about the  underground area below the battle area that they used to transport  people as well as animals. That night we climbed to the top of the Spanish steps and looked out at some of the streets lined with lights  and the many people waiting in lines extending outside stores for some  of the biggest brands like gucchi and prada.
 
 On Sunday we waited in St. Peters Square for the popes weekly  blessing. He showed himself out his window and climbed a ladder so  people could see him. He did his blessing in a few different languages  and a few different countries waved their flags. Who knew the Vatican  had its own channel on tv which showed him give the blessing at that  time. Afterwards we ate paninis with pesto and headed back to  Florence.
 
 Now Im back at Florence and started my second day of classes. So far  great classes with english, philosophy, and italian. Have two night  classes this week for religion and drawing. I might do an internship  in the florence high school teaching biology to italian students in  english, its kind of intimidating. Also Im hoping to do english for  pasta where I meet with an italian family one night a week playing  with their kids and eating dinner with them, or another volunteer opportunity such as a halfway house or elderly home. We’ll see.
 
 Ciao!
 Kelsey