FUS Austira has got Talent!

My whole body hurts from laughing so hard. The talent show just got over. I was to the point of tears almost at times. You woouldn't get most of it. But trust me, hilarious.
Sorry, the pictures are pretty dark I didn't want to use my flash. Sr. Monica, Dr. Cassidy, Sr. Grace Ann and Sr. Faustina

Some of the Cassidy kids

Cassidy boys

My violin has talent...in Eva's talented hands.

Bob, John Hummel, and Horatio in an eat-off competition

Tierney and Danny and Grace doing a really funny original compostion/skit

Bethany and Katie probably were the funniest of all. A catholic spoof on that girl your hair is ridiculous youtube clip that went around last semester.

Josh, Mitch doing a yoda-ling song of their own

a well-studied Prof. Asci, played by Willie. Brain and Braun.

Vince and Dr. Minto

Fr. Ron, Mark, and Prof. Siefert

Cory and Doug, MC's

Laura, getting lost while trying to put her duvet cover back on her bed.....

Ellie did an incredibly good impression of Fr. Ron

This was cheating a little. Kalpakgians shouldn't be allowed to do impressions of other Kalpakgians....it is too perfect.

RD's Vince the ever fashionable man of many scarves, Diana as joyful Katie Hess, and JP as coffee slurping cynical Dr. Minto. Bravo.

Running around Rome like we own the place

Castel San Angelo

The most beautiful mosaic I have ever seen. I think. That might be just because I am so in love with the Pieta of which it is a copy.

I freaking love the pantheon.

Does that strike anyone else as just a little ironic? Pantheon, McDonalds: 50 meters.

This was one of life's finest moments. I was standing in front of the Pantheon, eating a huge italian sandwhich that I got for a euro and a half, enjoying the music of a three-generation band (don't know where the other two generations got to in this picture) playing some of my favorite classical peices, enjoying the day with 3 of the best girls in the world, and knowing I have a place to sleep and dinner tonight (not always a given when travelling). Caitlin and I looked at each other and heaved a big sigh...we were both realizing how golden the moment was.

No comment necessary.

And just in case that nutella was making you hungry...

St. Peter's Basilica

Benedict XVI's Papal coat of arms in the private papal gardens below. The explanation of it is really cool . I will save it for some other time.

That's me....400ft above Rome, enjoying the early morning sunshine of a Sunday morning on the Dome of St. Peter's.

Caitlin and Andrea and I

This was really funny. There was some 60 or so FUS students that got up early and headed into Rome. I got off the metro and looked behind me to see this endless stream of them....all of them girls. As we went past this open gate to the west of the Vatican, every girl at once, as if on a cue whipped out their camera and took a picture of these 3 Swiss Guards. I was laughing hysterically at the sight, and even the well-practiced Swiss Guard's shoulders were shaking a bit.

The Jubilee Doors

I think there ought to be a sign like this outside every church in the world. What a cute way to get the point across! Modesty for dummies.

Caitlin getting a glimse at the world from the Vatican

Ahh. Rome.

Step over step, step over step, about 500 of them, all the way to the top of the highest dome in Rome. Not for the weak-hearted or claustrophobic

The Sistine chapel that I am saving for the next trip to Rome. I can't believe I spent 6 days in Rome and never saw Michelangelo's ceiling! That's just how much there is to do in Rome!

That is masses of angels painted on that dome.

For all the Saints.... Some of the 140 some saints that look over the square. These things are massive, though they don't look so big from the square.

I went to Mass, actually two, in the very front row in St. Peter's Basilica on Sunday morning.

Bernini's Bronze Baldaccino (sp?)

The Chair of St. Peter!

Three guesses. Was my favorite hunk of marble in the world before I saw it...after seeing it, my opinion still stands

There have been only two saints with glasses, it seems, and every time I see a statue of them it cracks me up. Josemaria Escriva and Maxmillian Kolbe. Something about marble glasses on a statue just 'tickles my fancy' as Prof. Cassidy says.