My Roman Holiday

I suppose I should update yous all on group before my trip to Rome. It was supposed to be Jose's last group, but two days before it began he got this full body rash and sore throat. The poor guy spent the three days of the group alone in the Swords house! He was able to stop by to see the members before they left Friday afternoon. We went from having eight volunteers and members to six members and five volunteers because Erin was leading the group and Jose was quarantined. :P I was paired with Maura Noctor. Maura is truly amazing. She's a fifty year old woman with schizophrenia. She also has no teeth and literally talks non-stop. We can understand about 15% of what she says. Mostly she talks about her husband, Joseph Noctor and how he'll beat up any boy who flirts with her. The funny part about that is that she is constantly flirtatiously waving and blowing kisses to every man who passes her by! She takes naps and sleeps well, and the only logical reason for this is that she exhausts herself by talking. She came in the house at two in the afternoon on Wednesday and requested for a nap at three. I didn't know what to do with myself! Everyone made Valentines before dinner. Stephen (one of my favorites!) made me one. It says, "Dear Claire, I hope you are well. I want you to visit Monaghan and see the cattle. We have a new baby calf. Love, Stephen." So cute!! He told me to put it on my wall to which I happily agreed. He also kept telling me to come near him and then he would tell me that he loved me and that I'm good looking. I could hang out with Stephen all day. :) We had dinner at the house that night, followed by drinks at a local pub. Mary, another member, was talking so much that Maura actually commented on it. She sat in silence for a while. It was so crazy! Two constant talkers together forces one of them to step down, and I was surprised that it was Maura. After dinner, we had birthday cake for Maura. She LOVED it! While eating the cake, Kate and I heard her murmuring, "The cake is crazy, too. The cake is crazy, too." Oh my gosh! So funny! She also was talking to me about the cat that comes by our house and the part that I caught was, "And he says to me, 'Meow, I'm crazy, too!'"

On Thursday we had breakfast and then left for the museum at half eleven. I wasn't sure if Maura would have any interest in the museum, but I knew she'd be up for walking around with Lennart and Stephen. We saw the dead zoo first. With every animal we passed Maura posed me this question, "Is he dead, too?" When we moved on to the war exhibit, she asked me the same question regarding the mannequins! It was so funny! When we got to the end of the room there was a guard sitting on a chair. I had to inform her, "No, Maura, he's not dead, too." We had a quick lunch at the cafe and then went on our way to Henry Street downtown for shopping. Going shopping with Maura is an adventure! She loves to talk to everyone, and I enjoyed watching them scramble to think of a response to her chatter. They would look to me to ask what she was saying and I'd respond with a look that said, "I have no idea, but I love it anyways!" We bought loads of things, with the exception of a mobile phone. We're not allowed to make big purchases like that with the members. It was really hard for Maura to accept, and I saw a glimpse of sadness in her when she realized that she's not quite as independent as she thinks she is or wants to be. For me, those moments with the members are the hardest. She was upset about it and after I tried to cheer her up I asked for a hug and she refused. But then, while still looking away from me, she extended her hand out for a handshake and I knew I had won the battle. :) The rest of the day was wonderful. We had dinner again at the house and then Maura wanted to go to bed. It was a long day!

Friday morning was lovely. I had to force Maura out of bed after a while 12 hours of sleep! After breakfast we all settled in the sitting room for Mass. Paddy Murray's brother Fr. Frank came from down country to say the Mass for us. Because of this, Sr. Mary was ordering her PA around the house (and backyard to cut fresh branches) to make up the "altar" that is really just our coffee table. (Mary is in a wheelchair and has limited use of her arms. She has a personal assistant here at all times to help her with daily tasks.) It was actually very comical to see it all happening. She would make sure that Omina put everything in the exact way that she wanted it. Normally for Mass we have a simple cloth and a few candles, but that day we had loads of candles, tree branches, a jug of Lourdes water, and several crosses. When Frank arrived we all sort of stared at him in awe of his likeness to Paddy. Really he is like Paddy from 10 years ago. He's also the sweetest and most tenderhearted person I've ever met! I wanted him to live here instead of Paddy, as much as I like him. :P Maura told me before the Mass, "Oh the priest is coming. I better behave!" During the homily she went into one of her babbling streaks and I know she was telling him that Joseph Noctor would beat him up. But Frank didn't understand her, thankfully, and went on with his homily. haha The Mass was centered around Lourdes because it was the day after it's feast day. He also blessed us with oil and said a prayer of healing. It was a really nice service. We had lunch afterward and then everyone made there way home.

The rest of the day was spent packing and resting before my trip. We got up at half three the next morning to get a taxi at four to take us to the airport. We arrived in Rome around ten but had to wait a half hour for the bus. We got into the city around eleven and walked to our hostel. A man was waiting for us outside the door to inform us that the hostel was shut down due to bathroom problems. Luckily they have a sister hostel a few blocks away. So we wandered over there feeling disappointed, tired, and starving. We dropped off our bags in the very dirty hostel and walked into the first restaurant we saw. :) Now I could talk all day long about the amazing food we encountered during our four days in Rome. Everything was incredibly cheap compared to Ireland and the quality was outstanding. No matter where we went we found affordable and delicious food! But this specific meal was pizza. We each got our own and they were amazing! They were very big, but the crust was paper thin so we were able to eat them all!

After we had our lunch, we began our exploring of the beautiful city. The first stop was to see the ruins of the three forums: Foro Traiano, Foro di Augusto, and Foro di Cesare. It is hard to describe what it was like, but basically it was a few blocks of open ground with broken pillars and pieces of buildings. After getting many pictures, we moved on to the Monument to the Unknown Soldier. It was MASSIVE! We didn't want to take the time to walk up the steps or go inside, but the outside was interesting enough for us. We made our way to the Pantheon, but we stopped first at Saint Ignazio's Church. I suppose I will fore go the descriptions of all of the churches we saw because I'm sure none of it will do justice to their beauty. But what made this church special was the painting on the ceiling. Oh course nothing compares to the Sistine Chapel, but this was close! After our necks began to hurt from looking up, we moved on to experience our first taste of gelato! We were all so excited! (You should see the pictures of us while we were eating it. I don't think my smile gets any bigger...) I had coffee and tiramisu flavor. Mmmm... After doing all but lick the paper cups that held the precious dessert, we were off again. The Pantheon is an ancient pagan temple that the Catholic Church converted to a cathedral. The inside is a round room with a geometrically designed ceiling. Inside lies the body of the artist Raphael under a statue created by one of his apprentice. Two trivial, but funny things happened during our time at the Pantheon. The first was that while we were walking inside there were two men dressed up in very silly Roman guard costumes. One of them lifted his ear flap to answer his cell phone! When inside, Jose noticed a man of 60 or so with a red McDonald's balloon sticking out of his backpack. He said, "Oh this man is having a great day. First McDonald's and then...the Pantheon!" It was really funny. We captured both moments on film. :) Our next stop was the Piazza Navona. We had wonderful timing! We traveled to Rome during Carnivale. There were street performers and little kids in costumes throwing confetti everywhere! The piazza was lovely and had three large fountains within its borders. We wandered into a church there, but I can't remember the name. We walked on and stopped at another square called Campo de Fiori. We were not as impressed with this one, but they did have a few fresh flower stands that were lovely! We then walked along the waterfront and crossed a bridge to take us into a very nice neighborhood where we hopped to find more delicious food and wine. We stopped into one for brushetta and wine. The waitress seemed annoyed that it was all we wanted to order, but I thought it was perfectly acceptable! The wine was so cheap and so satisfying! Being in Ireland makes me appreciate good and affordable wine! We explored the neighborhood a bit more and then went inside Saint Maria Trastevere, the oldest Catholic church in Rome. It was made in the 3rd century! The exquisite nature of this church is indescribably, but I did capture a small percentage of that with my camera. I am very partial to mosaics, and I remember that the wall behind the alter was completely covered from floor to ceiling in intricate and shining mosaic. I was in love! We were all getting hungry again at this point, so we found a great little place to settle in for a few hours. The girls and I shared gnocci (potato pancakes) and pizza. Kate and I shared more wine. Jose had a four course meal that looked amazing! Kate had tiramisu that I tried a bit of. So good! We were all very tired at this point so we walked back towards our hostel, making sure to walk past the Colosseum on the way to get a view of it in the evening.

We woke up early the next morning to have a two euro breakfast at the hostel. In retrospect, we all should have left and bought a pastry and espresso somewhere. What they considered a full breakfast was shreds of bread, nutella, jam, butter, half a box of cereal, and hard boiled eggs that were burned to the pan. The water had evaporated out of the pan, but the burner was still on and one of the eggs literally exploded onto Jose's back. The man working at the hostel told us that there was Mass at the Vatican at eleven so if we left at that moment (10:15) we would make it in time. The Vatican is all the way across town from us, so we booked it all the way there without stopping for pictures. Once we got there they told us that there was no Mass, and the Pope was speaking at noon. I was so disappointed. How could I go to Rome and not go to Mass? So we waited in line to get into St. Peter's Basilica while waiting for Pope Benedict to come out. The line moved much faster than we had thought and we ended up making it past security and into the basilica a few minutes before he came out. We couldn't see him from where we were. I decided it was ok if I just heard him. But then Canada told me that she knew what it meant to me to be there and she would go out with me to see him and stand in line with me again when it was over. It was so sweet of her to do this! So I decided I really did want to see him and all three of them came with me. It was SO cool! He was very tiny because he came from a window in the building where he lives. Most of his speech was in Italian, but he addressed the audience in several other languages, including English. After he was done, we got straight back into the line and made it through in just 15 minutes. Totally worth it! The basilica itself was perfection. I couldn't believe I was there! I won't write about everything inside, but I'll tell you my favorite things. The first was the Pieta, a sculpture done by Michelangelo of Mary holding Jesus after his death. It is behind bulletproof glass because someone shot at it some years back! Along the sides of the church there are huge paintings that weren't really paintings at all. They were mosaics made to recreate the original paintings that once lived there. I think they have the originals in storage somewhere. But at first you can't tell that the beautiful art is not made of paint! The tiles of the mosaics are so tiny and articulately placed. The bronze alter was also one of my favorite things to see there. Under the alter lies the body of St. Peter. How strange to be standing there! As we were walking through it, I noticed, in a small chapel on the side of the church, a Mass just beginning. I told my friends that I wanted to sit in for it and that they could meet me after. They left to go to the top of the basilica and I got to stay for an actual Mass inside St. Peter's Basilica!!! It was SOOOO cool!!! Afterwards I wandered into where the bookshop and sacristy were. I later met up with the gang and we left for lunch. It was three or so at this point and we were all starving! We had a sandwich and espresso there. It was the best espresso I had the entire trip! And so cheap! It was about 80 cents to one euro for espresso there. If I wanted to buy it here it would be at least two euro, and it wouldn't be half as good. Stupid Ireland! :P We walked back towards the center of Rome passing the castle along the way. Our next stop was the Piazza del Popolo. We weren't able to go in the churches there, but we did get to see nuns riding on horses to a medley of Sister Act songs! A fair trade, I thought. :) Down the street waiting for us was the Spanish Steps. We sat among many other people on those crowded steps while enjoying our second dose of gelato. No need to say how amazing it was... From there we made our way back to our hostel while stopping at San Carlo Quattro Fontane, the Piazza della Republica, and and Santa Maria degli Angeli. San Carlo Quattro Fontane is an intersection that has four fountains on each corner. One of the fountains is part of a church. We spent a bit of time in that one because it was exceptionally beautiful. The Republic wasn't anything to write home about, but the basilica was! It was also very old, and so big inside! It was dimly lit, so my pictures didn't turn out well. We left because there was a Spanish Mass beginning. Along the way we stopped in Santa Maria Maggiore. It is one of the more famous churches in Rome. We didn't stay too long because there was a service going on, followed by a concert. The most memorable part of that church for me was how much gold there was everywhere. The alter had a four-post canopy above it and it was painted a shining gold. The concert was lovely, so we sat in for a few songs. at this point we were all starving and after searching for the perfect place, Kate chose "Robin Hood," an "American" style restaurant. It had the strangest decorations! The walls were covered in magazine clippings and there was a big Statue of Liberty painted the colors of the American flag in the corner. I was worried that the food would not be very good, but it was a lesson in not judging things by appearances! It was the best pizza I had there! Our waiter was slightly dorky, and when we didn't have a smaller bill than a 50, his mother chased him out the door to go find change. He came back with a handful of 20 cent pieces that made up seven euro! Kate was like, "Are you kidding me?" It was pretty funny. I walked out with Jose while the girls got ready to leave. He was sick before we left and still had a bit of a rash. He was itching his upper leg when I noticed two people walking up behind him. I told him about the couple. He said to me, "I know. They are thinking, 'Who is this boy, itching his leg without reason?' But there is a reason. The reason is inside my pants." I am still laughing right now about that comment! After dinner we went back to the hostel for some much needed rest.

The next morning we opted out of the hostel breakfast and went to an espresso shop on the corner. It became our favorite little place! There was a father and son behind the counter. While we sipped our coffee and ate our snacks we began to talk about the adorable men working there. Us girls agreed that the son was very good looking. Jose then pointed to the father and said, "Sure the son is cute but you can see his future right there!" The father was about two feet shorter than his son. (Earlier I said that someone was so cute that I wanted to put in him my pocket.) When talking about the father he said, "Another man for the pocket." I don't know if you can tell, but we all love Jose! Our first stop was the Colosseum. We walked all over the inside and listened to our audio guide with information on what we were seeing. There really isn't much to say except that it was stunning! I really enjoyed spending the morning inside the ruins. Our ticket included entry into the Palentine. I don't want to write too much about this because I don't really know many details about it. We didn't have any pamphlets or tours. But basically it was beginning of Rome, even older than the Colosseum! There were ruins of homes, churches, and a stadium. After a few hours of walking around the grounds, we were very hungry! We stopped for pasta in a close by restaurant. I had ravioli, which was good, but I was eyeing Jose's pizza. Apparently I hadn't had enough of it yet! After our meal we went to Saint Maria in Cosmedin. This church holds two special things. The first is the Bocca della Veritas- The Mouth of Truth. For anyone who has seen Roman Holiday you should know what this is! It is what we assume to be a tribute to a Roman god. The legend is that if you put your hand in its mouth while telling a lie, it will bite down on you! I have always wanted to stick my hand in its mouth!!! I was so excited to get there, but I was hit with anxiety right away because they were closing the line ten minutes after we arrived!!! But luckily we made it through and I got my picture of me and Canada with our hands in the Mouth of Truth. :) The second special possession of Saint Maria is the skull of Saint Valentine. It was so cool to see it the day after St. Valentine's Day because they decorated it with roses. Very interesting! When we were finished there, we walked up to see the Fountain of Trevi. This is the famous fountain that holds the legend that if you throw a coin in on your last night in Rome, you are surely to return again someday. We threw in our coins and had some gelato. :) At this point we decided just to walk around and see if we could find some churches to wander into. We found ourselves near our hostel and we tried to find a good place for drinks. Most places didn't want us unless we wanted dinner. Finally we walked into a little place with a big, burly Italian man with suspenders that were thankfully doing their job. Kate and I ordered lemon cello. Then she asked what their house wine was. He told us that it was Chianti and that it was four euro for a glass. I was so excited because Chianti is my favorite wine, but it is usually too expensive. And God bless that man...he filled that glass to the point where any more would surely spill out! It was amazing! We walked around the corner to the same place we had our first meal and had more pizza and pasta. We sat and talked and really enjoyed our evening. It was a really great last night.

The next day us girls left Jose to go to see the Sistine Chapel. Jose had been before so he wandered around Rome without us. We stood in line for a good while, but it was worth it! The tour began with the Vatican Museum which contained so many beautiful things! My eyes were so overstimulated! It was just a straight line through the rooms and it ended in the Chapel, which helped with the overstimulation. Nothing to do but walk on the designated path. Even the hallways were painted floor to ceiling in art! It took an hour or so to get to the Sistine Chapel. It is everything that anyone says it is!!! Michalangelo was a true genius. My camera was dead at this point, but I know my pictures would not do. It was a great way to end our trip! On the way back to the hostel to check out, we stopped for lunch. Kate and I shared a pizza and tortilini. Friends, let me tell you. I will never eat anything that will taste better than that tortilini. We were all depressed when it was over. Fresh pasta covering a ricotta and asparagus filling and coated in a butter sage sauce. Really it's impossible to explain how amazing this pasta was. Nine euro for five medium sized tortilinis, and it was worth every penny! We met up with Jose and picked up our bags before stopping for one last gelato. The rest of the day was dreary with delays and lots of waiting before we could finally reach our beds at after midnight.

My trip to Rome was everything I wanted it to be. I had great company, delicious food, and beautiful sights. What more could I want? I am one lucky girl. :)

Since our trip we've had a group but I'll write about it later. This is enough for one sitting!!! I hope all is well with you.
Love,
Claire

My Perfection

I suppose I've neglected this blog for the past two weeks. I'm not really sure why except that I was floating through them trying not to reflect on my thoughts because Kaitlyn was leaving. Now that she's gone the effort is no longer needed.

We had a kids group two weekends ago. I was with a little five year old girl named Perfect. I've spoken about her before because I was supposed to be with her in the last childrens group. She arrived on time that Friday afternoon with her father. I instantly fell in love with her. She is very small...the size of a normal three or four year old. Her disability is delayed development, both physically and intellectually. She doesn't have much speech, but she was still able to express herself well. Mostly Perfect just wanted to cuddle or to play with my hands and face. The first night was a little rocky because she scratched me a lot with her little kitten like razor nails. But we cut them and then it was much better! She had a way to connect with people (or get their attention) by putting her hand under her chin in an adorable pose. When anyone copied that pose she would then move her hand to the top of her head, and then to the side, etc. It became her game, and it really never got old! Because she was so mellow, I was able to enjoy watching the other kids being crazy. Billy and Darren were up to their usual shenanigans, including taking turns marrying Kate and Kaitlyn. Luke was treating Lennart like a set of monkey bars. We took them swimming on Saturday. Perfect was scared of the water and I didn't want to push her. Khadija kept pushing though, which annoyed me at first. But then we realized that as long as I held her in my arms she was okay floating in the water. I was glad because walking her around the aquatic center would not have been nearly as much fun as floating around the pool with her in my arms. Every once in a while she'd get splashed at and she really didn't enjoy that. Overall it was a fun day. Sunday was kind of a struggle for me for reasons I won't get into. But Perfect was great. :) We went to see Astro Boy (yikes...) and I was happy that she sat through it with me. We came back to the Malahide house for lunch and send the kids on their way. Perfect's father came early, which was sad. We all could have spent a lot more time with her! After she left I sat with Kaitlyn on the couch. Darren came up and sat between us. He looked back and forth between the two of us and said, "Sexy my ladies! Two sexy ladies!" I probably should have told him that it was inappropriate, but it was hard to do so when I was laughing as much as I was. :P Then Kate came and he pulled her on the couch. He yelled, "Hey Luke! I got TWEE!!!" ("Three" with his little Darren lisp.) Probably the funniest thing I've seen him do.

I don't think that any of us didn't anything interesting during our Monday and Tuesday off. Wednesday was a full day of meetings, and Thursday was filled with visits. Kate and I got stood up by Mairaid who was supposed to meet us for lunch. I went to Baldoyle afterwards to visit the regular St. Michael's gang. Sharon (our big boss from Cork) came up on Friday for a meeting regarding the long group. We all said the same things. We think that the four days work okay as long as there is a lot of planning involved to make sure that the right people are brought in and that we have enough activities to provide a good group. Jose and Kaitlyn made closing comments on their time here. Jose began by saying that he had good times and not so good times here. He then when into a speech about the management's attitude about us volunteers and how it could be improved. I though Sharon's eyes were going to explode out of her head. I thoroughly enjoyed his speech, and I couldn't hold that in. I was beaming with a smile. When he was done there was at least 30 seconds of painful silence. Then Sharon slid her intense eyes at me and asked if I had something to add, presumably because of my big smile. I just told her that I was surprised by Jose's comments, but that I completely agreed. He deserved to have someone else back him up on what he said because we all feel the same way.

Friday night was the first party of the three we had for Kaitlyn. We all went to Kathleen's (our office manager) house for dinner. She made us a wonderful meal and always made sure our wine glasses were full. :) We had a great time! The next day we took it easy and played pictionary before heading over to Gibney's for a bit of craic. Sunday night we went to O'Neill's for Blondie's last night with us. She wanted to hear our favorite band one last time. It was a quiet start because Kaitlyn was trying to cover up her sadness with bitchiness. Eventually Lisa yelled at her to stop being mean to everyone and just enjoy her last few hours. Then she started to cry! But after that she was much nicer and really did enjoy the rest of the night. We were all in full support of Lisa's attack. :P We went to The Temple Bar after that, but soon got bored with the crowd there. It was one in the morning at this point, so we were ok with heading home. The taxi ride was awesome! Lennart told the driver that he was from Oklahoma. His hometown in Germany is Wuppertal. So he told him that he was from Wuppertal, Oklahoma. Then Kaitlyn called him a dumb redneck to which he replied, "Why would you call me a redneck!? That's so offensive!" Then Kaitlyn said, "Oklahoma is the seventh circle of HELL!" Without skipping a beat Lennart came back with, "Your MOM is from the seventh circle of hell!" I realize that this might not be funny to sober people who were also not there in that moment, but I still can't think of it without giggling. :) Our taxi driver also got stopped to take a breathalyzer test, but passed with flying colors. We went straight for the kitchen when we got home and devoured the left overs from our meal earlier that night. We ended the night at three because we were all going to get up at seven to say goodbye. Kate and I went to the airport with Blondie, feeling sleep deprived, hung over, and incredibly sad. I came home and went back to sleep for a little while. We all had a full day of visits again. I went with Erin and Jose to see Tony. He is in his 60s and had a stroke a few years ago. He talks a little bit, but mostly he likes to play dominos and drink Guinness. (My kind of man!) It was a rocky start because we got lost due to the lack of street signs overly friendly elderly that will gladly give you directions even if they have no idea if they are right. After 45 minutes of walking in the cold, we finally made it to the Dowling's home. Tony was ready to go and knew the way to the shopping center. We sat down for lunch at a cafe, but as soon as he was done with his coffee and scone he looked up and said, "Pub." :) So we took him downstairs to his pub and we played some dominos. It definitely brightened my bleak day. After we took him home we ventured on the DART again, this time heading to Monkstown. Going to Monkstown is my favorite visit! There, I get to spend time with Paul Lockery, my number one favorite member. Paul is the one who likes to arm wrestle a million times in one sitting. I had a lovely time chatting with him and beating him (twice!) at arm wrestling. I even got my favorite response, "You're VERY strong!" When we left he gave me an extra long hug and a kiss on the cheek! A very happy ending to what could have been a very hard day. Another reason why I tell people that this job is so rewarding for us volunteers, not just for our members.

Today was just a regular group prep day. We have a mid-week group that starts tomorrow at two. I am with a woman named Maura. She has schizophrenia and literally talks non-stop. She is awesome. :) The morning after the group I fly to Rome with both Kates and Jose. I'm so excited! My two dream destinations for the longest time before I moved here was Ireland and Italy. My dreams are coming true for me this year! :)