Weeks of Nov 23-Dec5

Hi everyone,

Sean-Patrick and Dylan here reporting from Porto San Giorgio…

These past few weeks have been extraordinary. We’ve seen the Pope, travelled to Assisi and Urbino and best of all have finished our classes at school. Aside from exams and one more ISU we have no more homework left for the remainder of the trip! Our trip to see the Pope was something a little different than we had all expected. We think that most people expected something a little more private than we got. When we first got into the room we were a little taken a back by the fact that the room we were entering already had about thousand people in it already and could fit upward of about 5000. The experience however was amazing being able to get as close as we did to the Pope and have the opportunity to be in the same room as the Pope. The room we were in was called Salla Minerva and it’s where the Pope says his mass to the public almost every Wednesday. Every week people on pilgrimages come from around the world to have the opportunity that we did, even though most of us were probably expected to have a private audience with the Pope where we would be able to meet the Pope one on one. As well we got to meet the other group from the York board for the first time and we got to converse with them and find out what their life is like living in the same conditions were in, but in a different part of the country. Fortunately for us we found out that we in PSG have it very lucky compared to them. They have to go to school from 8AM-3:30PM and then have study right after school until 5PM everyday with only one break for lunch, so we are very fortunate here for the living conditions we have. Assisi was also a pretty amazing experience. I guess Tuohy had a reason when he said it was his favourite city from last year’s trip! The views were incredible and seeing the actual tomb of St. Francis was quite interesting. The shopping wasn’t really the best but it isn’t necessary in a beautiful city like that. Urbino was also involved this week but it was a bit different because the Italian students from our school joined us. We didn’t get to talk to them much (we were on a different tour of the city because we had to have an English speaking guide) but it was nice spending time with some friends. Much like Assisi the views were phenomenal from the high hills. We can only hope we get the chance to see some more amazing scenery like we saw on those days.

Well with exams coming up this week we best be going now.

Dylan and Sean outttt!!!

Don't forget to take a lok at our photos from the past two weeks at www.flickr.com/photos/tcdsbinitalia