Routine

....I actually have one! I know, crazy! Today's post is all about "that hum-drum" life, because I'm too lazy to finish the Slovakia post right now.

For the weekdays, general routine:

I set my alarm for 6:45, and snooze it about five times before I actually get up around 7:25. Then I take a shower, and either eat a quick breakfast and stop in at church real quick before class, or I stop in at church first and then eat breakfast. I had an even better schedule when they had 7:30 Mass for a couple weeks in September! But alas, alack, they have that no longer, to the woe and misery of many people.

After lunch, I don’t have a set plan for what to do until 5:30 supper – I either do school, go to the Spar, or piddle. After supper, I either do school, go to the Spar, or, piddle. At 5:30, they have Rosary in the church, so I usually go to that.

Anyways, I have two classes each day – one at 8:40 which ends at 10:10, then another one at 10:20-11:50.
In all of these classes, we’re supposed to get a little break during the class itself, but only Dr. Hass in Western Civilization II actually gives us a decent break. He doesn't give us on in Medieval World because that’s his specialty and he loves talking about it. Cassidy I think just forgets to give us breaks, and MacNamara technically gives us a break, but it is a three minute break that is strictly enforced, so there’s not really a whole lot you can do with it. These classes are divided into A days (usually Monday and Wednesday) and B days (usually Tuesday and Thursday), so I’ll just go through the days of the week to give you the general outline.

Monday: morning routine. History of Civilization II class with Dr. Hass first – we technically have a ten minute break between the first and second class, but he usually goes over time, so I have just enough time to get to Philosophy of the Human Person class. I’m okay that he goes over, because I don’t do anything during the little break anyways aside from sit in class and wait for it to begin. 

After Philosophy class, I go back to the room and piddle for half hour until lunch begins at 12:30.

Tuesday: morning routine. Medieval World class with Dr. Hass, then Christian Marriage with Professor Cassidy. I have these classes with Krista, which was why I liked them most at the beginning of the semester – I could actually talk to someone between breaks. But now I actually like my A day classes themselves better than B days, plus there are a couple people I can talk to anyways.
After class, I go to noon Mass and try to sit in the back. Fr. Shell said if Mass is so distracting for me, then I should just close my eyes during Mass, so I sit in the back so no one thinks I’m ignoring them. After Mass, it’s the Mass rush to the Mensa for lunch and it’s super crowded and depending on what mood I’m in, it can either be tiring to have to sit with other people, or just kind of like “hm, whatever.”

Wednesday: morning routine. A day classes. Lunch. At 2, I have Holy Hour.

Thursday: morning routine. B day classes. In Medieval World, half the class comes at the normal time, and the other half comes later. I come at the usual time, and we have “discussion”, which is where we put all our chairs in a circle, ask Dr. Hass questions, and he answers them. We don’t actually really discuss anything. I wish we could use this plan with philosophy, because we have so many people in it and I’d rather discuss it more. Oh well, ce la vie! Enjoy your crown! Mass. Lunch.
At 2, I go to the Newtons for Ministry to Moms until 3:30. I don’t really have a routine of what I do with them, as it depends on what kids are at home. Mrs. Newton is trying to have me teach Allie (youngest) and Hannah May (second youngest) Latin, but it's kind of a laugh so far - the girls get really distracted by the little mouse that "teaches" Latin in the book Mrs. Newton gave me to use. 

The rest of the weekend is totally up for grabs!

Slovakia Mission Trip - Part One

The Slovakia mission trip was "born" out of the Romania mission trip, something the University puts together every semester. I signed up for the Romania trip because a) I wanted to do something worthwhile during my ten day, b) it was cheaper and, c) I liked the air of mystery it had about it.

However, a lot more people than usual signed up to do it this year, so the director, Dr. Healy, found some more places in Romania to send people, and then also two places in Slovakia.

The entire process, Dr. Healy kept asking people for their preferences (though no guarantees) and I kept telling her "I don't care where you put me."
Honestly, I was worried that if I tried going to a particular place or go with a particular group, I would have expectations and if those were frustrated, I would spend my mission trip being a big ol' baby.

God really worked things out well though - I was in one of the two groups that went to Slovakia, and I was not in the group that got sent to the parish that was apparently veryyyyy charismatic, while we had a small, quiet Byzantine Mass on Sunday in Kosice.
In the most reverent way possible, God really is swell.

Anywho, most people left to begin travelling on Thursday, right after classes, but the Slovakian teams didn't leave till early Saturday morning. Basically, that gave me a lot of time to 'kill' and honestly, I don't remember how I wasted it, except that I am now seriously regretting that I didn't get more work done on my philosophy paper that is due THIS THURSDAY. (I'm not panicking - do you see me panicking?! Nope, NOT panicking.
At.
ALL.)

I hardly got any sleep the night/morning before we left, because of talking with Sister Maria, but I was able to get a lot of sleep on the trains.

It was kind of funny, because I woke up in a bit of a daze, and was basically following the other group around the Kartuase and then the train station, and at one point, one of the girls in my group started asking people if they had their passports. I was sitting on the bus bench and was so out of it, and when she asked me, I just smiled, shrugged and said "I think I have it, but I'm not sure." Then the girl, Allison, and a couple other girls freaked out a bit on me, telling me I should check, and since I was too tired to argue, I checked, and sure enough, I had it.

Basically, that describes how I've traveled in Europe - followed other people around and been a little too unstressed about those little things like passports.

The next situation that describes how I interacted with my team most of the week: we were waiting at the bus stop, and after sitting there for a while, I spoke up and said that I was pretty sure we needed to be down at the further bus stop. Allison, in a not unkindly manner, replied rather assertively that we were supposed to be at the one we were waiting at. I didn't argue, because I knew it would be pointless (plus I was too tired), and hey, if we were at the wrong stop, then at least we'd be missing something together!

Fortunately, Dr. Newton was on an early morning jog, saw us waiting, and told us we needed to be at the stop further down.

However, for the rest of the travel, I remained pretty clueless and just followed everyone around and smiled at everyone freaking out about making it on time (we did perfectly fine). It didn't take very long for some of the team to realize this and stop asking me questions about where we were, because my answers were always the same - "Hmmm....I don't know..."
I hope I was at least useful in being stress-relief in the very fact I was so unconcerned about everything, because otherwise, I was very useless and slept most of the time.

When we finally got to Kosice, my half of the group (Allison, Savannah, and Morgan) went with a Byzantine deacon, Father Lukas, to a place called the Dorka.

The Dorka is kind of like an orphanage, but not really. The way I view it is a place for people who are struggling to get back on their feet to get some help. Most of the people have self-inflicted problems and are still working on getting their act back together, but there were some people that were there because of others. One of the residents, an older lady they call Babka, was taking care of her granddaughters - Gabbitka and Nikolka, born of two different fathers.

Anyways, when we got to the Dorka, it was night, so one of the social workers, Barbara (pronounced bar-BORE-a) showed us our rooms and gave us our schedules.
Morgan slept with the two other Byzantine seminarians in the basement, next to the kitchen. We girls were given two separate rooms, right next to each other, but we decided to all sleep in the same room because it was large enough, plus, the other room was usually used for physiologists, so we just felt more comfortable in the second room.

Our schedule consisted of a work "activity" that began at 8:45 and went until noon, then a two hour lunch break, followed by random activities with the kids until 6, then a one hour supper break, a skit and "Rosary" with the kids, then free time.

Our work activities varied from day to day.

The first day, we cleaned out a pretty messy garden room, but with five people working on it, finished with an hour to spare.
The second day, they needed one person to help them with the kids in the morning, so Savannah did that while Morgan, Allison and I cleaned out a really grody cleaning supply closet. We spent most of the time bagging detergent, which was a rather nice, mindless task. I can't give a good estimate of how much we bagged, but the fact that it took us two and a half hours should give you an idea.

The tons of bags of detergent were mostly donations from store owners, given because the bags were unsaleable because gypsies had slashed holes in them, taken some detergent, and left the rest.

So Europe has this thing with gypsies - Romanian "tribal" people that basically won't settle down and get jobs, have bunches of children to collect welfare, and steal a lot of things and basically act as a pain in the arse for most Europeans.

We had to bag all the detergent because the Dorka, instead of giving out the detergent free, sold the detergent to its "clients"(residents) in smaller bags for a minuscule fee.

The third day was my least favorite activity - they gave us two dark and musty closets to clean and organize. The first one wasn't too bad - Allison and Morgan took care of that one, which left Savannah and I to the second, larger, darker, most grody closet.
Yum.
The closet was packed full of boxes and bags stuffed with children's clothing, and it was our task to go through the clothing, toss out the really nasty articles, then fold and organize the rest. This clothing would later be distributed to the clients as necessary.
Anyways, this job took us the longest because there were so. many. boxes. And man, some of those boxes were NASTY. We ended up tossing two large bags of clothing.

We only finished this job on time because Allison and Morgan finished their closet an hour early and came over to help us.

We didn't have an activity for Thursday - we actually spent the entire day in the kitchen, making a Thanksgiving dinner for the kids.

On Friday, I awoke and discovered - you guessed it! - that I was sick! Again! Yay!
Our task that morning was to paint the walls of one of the apartments with this super thin paint that dried within minutes. Savannah got really excited at first, because she had been talking the entire week before about how she spent the summer on paint crew for Franciscan (i.e., painted a lot of the dorms, Heights, etc) and knew everything there was to know about painting.

No one liked that job (except for me, but I ended up leaving after an hour because I was feverish and so tired), but Savannah REALLY hated it. She was so flustered, because what Barbara wanted us to do basically went against everything Savannah knew to be right as a painted.

For one, the paint was incredibly thin. Second, we only painted two of the walls in one of the rooms, which freaked her out because normally, even when you're painting with the same white paint, the shades will be different between the newly painted walls and the old walls. Thirdly, we didn't "cut" the room, where you use a small paintbrush to basically outline the walls, so that you don't have to worry about getting paint where it's not supposed to be when you use the roller. Fourth, paint was kind of getting everywhere, but she didn't realize that it could be rather easily cleaned off if not let to dry for more than an hour or so.

Anyways, I could understand Savannah's frustrations, but Barbara kept reassuring us and telling us this was the way Slovakian's painted, and Savannah would keep talking about wrong everything was when Barbara left. For me, if the Slovakian's wanted it painted a certain way that I was unaccustomed to, I would tell them my worries, and if they reassured me that this was the way they always did it, I would just complete the task and then leave them to the product they desired, whether it fit my expectations or not.

But like I said, I was sick and I didn't have enough energy or patience to try to calm Savannah down, so I just worked silently until I got so tired and achey that I left.

I'm still a little sick today, and this post is already ridiculously long (what else could you expect after a ten day hiatus?), so I will continue it later with more details on the kids, Lukas and the staff, Igor the pathological liar, Thanksgiving dinner, and my team. 

PSA

I'm gonna be in Kosice, Slovakia on a mission trip from tomorrow morning to next Saturday night.
I'm worried about having enough to do there (this was rather a last minute mission trip set up by Dr. Healy since so many people wanted to do the Romania mission trip) and honestly, I'm also worried about my "team".

It's only three other people, but we all had dinner together this evening, along with the other Slovakia team and Romania teams, and man oh man, I don't know if it's just a mood or what, but I just got really tired of everyone really fast.

Maybe it's because I literally am so tired.

Anyways, you say prayers for me, I say prayers for you! It's a win-win situation! (though I'll probably get more win out it...)

Where I go a little cray-cray with the Rosary

I mentioned awhile back about how I was praying the Rosary on weekdays with a couple girls I met. Well, a couple weeks back, I saw a bunch of posters pinned up around campus about Rosary at 5:30 in the Kartuase church, with the intention of praying for the persecuted Christians in Syria - an issue that lies a little closer to home here than it does in America. The girls and I decided to just go to the 5:30 Rosary instead, since it was more "official" or whatever, and there would be more people. 

Different people lead the Rosary every day, starting the beginning prayers, leading the first decade, and then finishing up. Once they finish the first decade, there is a pause for someone else in the church to pick up the next decade. 

It's kinda funny, because sometimes there is a long pause before someone will just give in to the "peer pressure" and just lead the next decade. Of course, given the opportunity to be distracted by something, I run with it and have had fun chuckling to myself over who will give in first. I myself have never led a decade because...I dunno, "public speaking" or whatever just makes me really nervous, and that church is VERY echoey. 

Anyhow, the point is that I enjoy other people being nervous when they feel "pressured" to lead, though I didn't dare do it myself.

So last night, I got in a couple minutes early (*polishes halo*) and was kneeling in a pew, when suddenly I felt someone leaning in to my pew to tell me something. I turn, and my philosophy teacher asks me if I'll lead the Rosary. 

To him: "Um, sure."

To myself: "AGGHHHHHH!!! PUBLIC SPEAKING!!!!! NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!"

Then he told me to wait a couple minutes to give people a chance to trickle in. 

Of course more people came that evening that any other previous evening.

Go figure.

Anyways, I could've used that time to calm down and give myself a pep talk ("C'mon Clare, you can do this! Your entire life has been preparing you for this moment! Just think of all those decades you've led at random churches and at home! You were BORN for this!") but mostly I just freaked out. 

Like, how was I supposed to word the intention at the beginning? Most people said something along the lines of "We offer this Rosary up for the persecuted Christians in Syria", but what if they had changed the intention on me? What if we were now praying for seminarians, or persecuted Oliphants in Kalamazoo?! 

What if I said it too fast (I talk extra fast when I'm panicked)?!

WHAT IF THE WHOLE WORLD CAME CRASHING DOWN BECAUSE I DIDN'T GET THE WORDING EXACTLY. RIGHT.

So those few minutes went really fast in my panic, but also really slowly, because I was unsure about how many minutes I was supposed to wait. 

A "few" minutes?! 

How much is a FEW minutes?! 

1? 

2?! 

3 minutes and 24 seconds?! 

AGHHHHHH.

When I decided that if I waited any longer, my teacher and everyone else would start throwing tomatoes at me, I just skipped the prayer intention all together and dove right into the Creed. 

Aside from the panic about the prayer intention, things actually went pretty well - I managed to lead slowly, but not too slowly, and distinctly, but not too distinctly - it was juuuuuusstttt right. 

Most people who lead end with the Hail Holy Queen, the "Let us pray: O God, whose..." and then invoke a couple saints. I, however, decided to get a little cray-cray and "added" the Our Father, Hail Mary and Glory Be for the pope at the end (to gain the indulgences)

As I was doing so, I was laughing rather maniacally to myself, thinking 'Professor MacNamara is probably thinking "Oh no, this one's gone haywire - she's adding extra prayers!! TAKE HER DOWN! GO GO GO!"' and then he and a bunch of other secret prayer agents that popped out of nowhere would jump over the pew and take me down while everyone else in the church panicked at my adding the extra prayers. 

That didn't happen, fortunately, but anyways, I felt like a blog post was due and this is one of the more "significant"  (i.e. something that I can add extra embellishment to to make more interesting) events that have occurred recently, so, there you are! 

Random Notes: Volume I, Issue 3

I lost my headphones.
Which means no more Stillwater Hobos (at least until a replacement can be found)
Agony.

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Luckily, I have found consolation; chocolate.
Krista and I (with an emphasis on I) may or may not have devoured one box of delicious Croatian chocolate dipped biscuits (that Monika introduced us to) in less than 24 hours.
Also, I may or may not have consumed one large bag of M&M's (it can with 10% more!) and a triple sized bar of Milka within a rather teeny time frame.

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Also, I discovered that a WHOLE SEASON of Korra happened and I didn't even know it! I can tell you I remedied that problem prett-ee quickly!
Unfortunately, it's only the first day of midterms week, and in my first fervor, I left only a couple episodes of season two to distract myself with.

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I've succeeded in getting Europeans to think I'm European, and getting Franciscan girls to think I'm Franciscan.
Well, I am technically Franciscan, but the fact that I'm now considered to be dressing unhomeschoolerish enough is pretty hilarious to me.
Little do the Europeans or the Franciscan's know....

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I've meet all the students and the directors for the LCI program. One of the directors however, looked reaaaalllly familiar to me, and I finally remembered her face from being one of Sister Maria's volleyball teammates her freshman year!
When I was walking back from the town today, I saw her (Teresa) and we talked a little bit about it. She was super nice and said we should get coffee, which would be fun, but very adult-ish and I doubt it'll happen because the LCI people seem to always be running around like headless chickens with all the events they're involved in.

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This post of Krista's is simply golden.