una settimana bianca

tonight we had our closing banquet. mmmmm... (from the menu):

~rice timbales w/ porcini mushrooms

~home-made ravioli stuffed with fresh ricotta cheese and spinach, in Pachino tomato sauce

~Roast of rolled turkey breast stuffed with chestnuts and herbs

~buttered Brussel sprouts

~Baked potatoes with home-made creamy dressing

~Assorted bread and fresh creamery butter

~Tiramisu

The Christmas banquet was quite the little affair, complete with candlelit tables, fresh flowers and pine branches, our decorated little xmas tree with secret santa presents under it, and most all the teachers, seminarians, and students. we sung two christmas carols before the meal began. kind of weird. but better than when at the thanksgiving banquet where we had to sing the national anthems of the US and of Italia. Our philosophy teacher fr. dugan suddenly came up from the basement office during dessert dressed as santa :) He read a little and then asked for some elves to hand out the secret santa gifts. hten of course everyone went into a picture-taking frenzy because it was the last time all of us (except 4 who left early) would be together. two of the girls surprised all of us by having prepared a little song in memory of the fall semester rome group, "for good" from wicked. then we all sung along to a particular original Roma '08 song courtesy of Kelly, fondly known as "The Fr. Mark Song"... unfortunately our favorite teacher wasn't there to hear it :(

Tommorrow most of the girls are leaving at 6:30am for the airport. The ones staying a little later are planning to hang out at Pascuccis all day. at night me, brett, anne, and mt leave on a 12 hr train (!) overnight to austria. we're skiing and hanging out there for the week with other smc and nd study abroad students. im so excited! after that im taking the train back to rome to meet my mom, dad, and scott to explore rome and florence for the week. then... who knows where ill go! i have about a week before classes start again where im gonna travel by myself. any suggestions? i'll figure something out. i love not having plans!   :)