One week down...

We arrived in Puyallap (Pew-all-up) one week ago... and it has been an interesting week! I am now starting to feel as if we are settled in. (It is much easier to clean this apartment than to clean up the house.) We found a church a few miles away (and have managed to locate it twice now!) We have also located a grocery store with reasonable prices, and I have put in a few shifts at work! Corey has gotten the internet, cable and a land line up and running (which is a life saver with all of our phone calls since our cell phones don't work in the apartment very well.) The only problem is that I am struggling with my HGTV addiction... I might be able to get the outside of the house and yard designed by the time we get back home again!

I have only worked two shifts at the hospital. I am doing 8 hour evenings (which is what I am used to), but I am working 5 days a week (instead of the original 12 hr shifts 3 days a week)... which is going to cut into our travel time. I am working on a surgical unit and I can already tell that I will be gaining quite a bit of experience with new things. The staff is very friendly and helpful... and my anxiety level is starting to taper off! I will post more pics and info on what we are up to later. Take care!

Mt Rushmore

We made it to Mount Rushmore. It is a very beautiful and large monument! Gutzon Borglum started carving it when he was 60 (along with help from many unskilled local men.) He died before it was completed and his son Lincoln worked a meare six more months before deaming it done (even though his father intended it to be bigger). It was started in the 1920's and completed 14 years later in 1941 (with the start of the war funding could not be found). We went to the visitor center/museum before we headed to Mt Rushmore where we learned quite a bit about the Borglum story. It was quite fascinating.

 

The union of these four presidents carved on the face of the everlasting hills of South Dakota will consitute a distinctly national monument. It will be decidedly American in its conception, in its magnitude, in its meaning and altogether worthy of our country. From dedication address by President Calivin Coolidge - 1927

 

A monument's dimensions should be determined by the importance to civilization of the events commemorated....let us place there, carved high, as close to heaven as we can....our leaders, their faces, to show posterity what manner of men they were. Then breathe a prayer that these records will endure until the wind and the rain alone shall wear them away. Gutzon Borglum -1930

 

 

Rapid City, SD

We have made it over 700 miles today, and are resting our heads in Rapid City, South Dakota! Today's adventures included a trip to Owatonna to visit Corey's grandparents... and a long trek across South Dakota. Tomorrow we will head down to Mt. Rushmore and then over thru Wyoming and spending the night in Montana (even though Corey is not so found of that state...) After spending way too much time trying to get this internet up and running (we finally had to get another room)... I am ready to hit the sack... We are hoping to be in our apartment by Saturday night, as I report to work Monday morning. The good news is that we gain a few hours on our trek west. The not so fun news is remembering on our long car ride today all of things that we forgot! Thankfully many of them can be picked up at Target when we get there... the rest we will have to either get in October on our weekend visit home, or do without!

Papal Pics

Here are a few pics from our day with the Holy Father... we have the pics of us with him (but atlas I do not have a scanner with me... so they will have to be posted later.) I will be adding more later also. Hope you enjoy a few photos of our trip. We are able to use our laptop at this point, but the server is coming up in German... so it is still a challenge! Oh, the joys of going over seas.

Papal Blessing...

Today we got up extra early (5:30 to be exact), to get dressed for our audience with the Holy Father. When we went to get the tickets yesterday we were told that he does not greet each couple individualy as JPII did, and the time has been extended to one year instead of two months. So we got a taxi this morning and arrived at St. Peters at 7:15... the gates were to open at 8, with the audience starting at 10. It was cool and windy this morning and my veil went flying through the crowd... someone caught it and Corey had to go running after it to get it back. I paid a little more attention to it after that. Getting in was a mad rush (like it usually is when going to see the Pope... everyone wants to be close.) We were seated in a special section on the stage for the newly weds. I think there were about 40 couples. We were in the third row (so I figured there was no chance that we would get close enough to Pope Benedict). Thankfully Corey is tall enough to get some good pictures... and he is getting very good at using our camera also! The weekly catechesis was from the Gospel of Matthew talking about loving our enemies. Of course the Gospel reading and Catechesis took over an hour as it was done in about 6 different languages. (And we had some German bands playing short songs for the Pope.) Afterwards he did the Papal Blessing... extending it to those family members not present (especially the sick and children.) He then started to go through a row of important people before he headed to the newly wed section. We were trying to get close (but for those who have been there before, you will remember all of the guards that are watching your every move... so I was not having much success, plus I did not want to be close if Corey was not there with me.) We got some great pictures being in the next row back (we managed to get a little closer...) Then the guard moved so we could get against the side barricade. I was going to take a picture since I thought Pope Benedict was leaving once he got to the end of the row, but the guard signalled me to get the camera down... and there he was. In front of us. I think we are still both shaking a little. We had maybe 30 seconds each, to look at him, and kiss his Papal Ring... and then he moved on. It was awesome! And really too much to put into words. Definately the highlight of our trip. We were the seventh couple... he met three more, and then was gone again. Tomorrow we are going to look at the professional pictures that were taken and order some of them. From there we took the bus back to the hotel to take a nap for awhile (this getting up early stuff is hard on us!) Then it was off to Mc Donalds again... and the internet. I think I have had more fast food, pizza and pop on this trip then I have had in the last year!

My internet time will be much more sparse the rest of the trip... it at all. I will add the pictures and the missing days when we return. Please continue to keep us in your prayers, as you are in ours. God Bless, and take care.

St. Mary Major

Sunday... a day of rest. After getting up for breakfast, we took the Metro to St. Mary Majors for Mass. We went at noon so we could check out the church afterwards. It is very beautiful (lots of Gold)! We spent some time at St. Peters square where a bird pooped on Coreys school notes and the computer bag. I got some postcards written for our grandparents and parents.... but I will have to wait until tomorrow to send them. Many things are closed here on Sunday (which is good that they observe the Sabath... but gets annoying as an American who is used to everything being open.) We did get some Gelati for lunch (more concerned about the school work than eating right now.) I am starting to realize how many things at home I take for granted.... AC, internet, car, cell phone, food, things being open, 24 hour service. These blog entries may start to slow down now that Corey is done with school for a few weeks (this last week has been more than a pain in the neck... but at least he has been able to get the next two weeks off.)

The Time Elevator...

Todays goal was to check out the internet place (get Coreys school work done) and then go to the Time Elevator. After breakfast we took the bus to St. Peters and sat in the shade of the arms surrounding the square for while. The lines were very long (making us grateful that we are here long enough to wait out the weekend crowds. When we got to the internet place we realized how nice it would be to be able to read the signs (to know when they would be open). A police officer told us 1500, so we decided to head to the time machine. Walking by the Vatican musuem we saw even longer lines (it was about 10am), & for those who have been to Rome the line for the museum was almost to the entrance point of Vatican city (where the Swiss guards in blue guard the gate). I was shocked, and very grateful that we are going next week when people are working. We did a little window shopping on the way, got a few postcards and made mental notes of what we might want later. We are getting better at this metro thing and managed to find our way back to the Trevi Fountain (I did have to chuckle when I realized that the skeleton church and Hard Rock are pretty close to the Metro!) We did find the North American College and US Bishops Office (which of course was closed). However, now we know where to pick up our tickets to see the Pope next week. When we got close to the Time Elevator I realized how close we were to Victor Emmanual II monument (seems the map makes things look farther away then they really are...) The Time Elevator presentation was really cool and gave us a little more history about Rome. It started with Romulas and Remas, then went to Julius Cesar, Emperor Nero burning down Rome to build more monuments, the Coliseum, Christianity coming to Rome and a few more interesting things. It lasted about 45 minutes and was on one of those rides where you sit in the chairs, and it moves you around (reminded me of Walt Disney World.) We were so close to the Pantheon that we kept on going. It is now a beautiful Basilica. From there we stoped at San Maria in Minerva where much to my surprise was the body of St. Catherine is kept (her head is on display in Sienna). She was responsible for bringing the Pope back to Rome from Avigna, France... and is also the patron Saint of Nurses. While her body is incorupt... it is not on display (as they have split her relic in peices... part in Rome and part in Sienna. From there we walk back to Metro and back to the internet place only to discover that it was not open (even though the sign said so), we waited for an hour and decided to take the bus back... So Corey got on the internet by Mc Donalds, while I attempted to find a flash drive (unfortunately mine are all in my other computer bag on a chair in the dining room at home). I did not have any luck finding a flash drive, but I did find the Grocery Store! With all of that excitement we went back to hotel to admire the empty pool (too bad it does not have water in it!) One thing is for sure, we are definately getting a work out on this trip with all of the walking! Corey made the comment a few days ago that while camp made it difficult to prepare in terms of packing (and we are paying for that now...) it did prepare us in terms of walking. Although we are still very tired when we get back to the hotel at night. Corey thought we could try another way back to the internet place and restaurants tonight... turned out to be longer (but we found another internet site if we need one!) For supper we went to the Pizzaria down the street from the internet, the food was great... but they did not speak English, and that made Corey pretty frustrated.