The 4th of July

The Fourth of July really started the eve before. 

Mike and I were invited by his cousins to a block party. 

There was...

Face Painting

Cotton Candy

Sparklers

Some better than others

And a Dance party!

The next day...

Mike and I woke up at 5:50 this morning to prepare for the Freedom Run.

The Running Group (minus Suzie R.)

Mike and I

The Course

It was a hot day, but this has got to be one of the funnest runs I've ever been on (with the exception of my first run)! For the first mile there were speakers pumping inspirational music and for the majority of the race course there were people lined up on the sidewalks, cheering us on (okay, they were really there for the parade later in the day, but it was still nice of them to cheer for us). 

My time ended being 32:26, which is better than my other times (38:40-1st race, 35:10-2nd), and I beat Mike so I'm pretty proud :). 

At the finish line volunteers handed out medals (cool!) and water bottles. There were Gatorade and water stations, fruit, ice cream, bread and chip stands... it was pretty sweet!

Mike and I after the race

After everyone had had their fill of goodies, we headed down to University Avenue for the parade! Mike needed a 'shower' so he left for home, but he promised he would join up with us for the parade.

Olden Patriots

Navajo Representative

ROTC Rep

 It was so much fun watching the balloons, floats and Utahn State/City Leaders go by. (I made sure to hoop and holler when the UVU President and float came by -represent!) After almost 2 hours into the parade (approximately 2.5 hours after we split ways) Mike showed up for the parade. Within minutes he was bored, so we left.

After we got home and watched a little bit of Independence Day, our friends, Kim and Casey, came over and together we went to Bicentennial Park to play Disc Golf. Now, I've only played the game once before, and never on the field we played on so it was no surprise to me that I completely and utterly lost (with a score of 14 over par). But it was fun anyways (and you know that I'm going to sneak over there and practice every change I get).

Later, we all went over to a (random) Apartment Building's pool. Of course when we got there there was two guys from my old high school playing basketball so Mike HAD to join in. So the boys splashed around while Kim and I chatted to the side. 

After about an hour it was time for us to go, so we said goodbye to Kim and Casey and rushed home to change for our friend's barbecue! It was sooooooo good! After it was over Mike and I were only too happy to take home two heaping plates of left-overs! 

The night was not over yet tho, when we got home we picked up some ice cream and root beer then made our way over to our friends, the Lewis's. There we played games and had floats until the Fireworks began. 

It was awesome!

Day 5

**This post was written on May 11, 2009 in Rome, Italy while I was on a Study Abroad.**

Today we were supposed to wake up bright and early to catch the train at 8:15 to Assisi. Yeah, that didn't work out quite as planned. Everyone woke up at 7 (15 minutes before we were supposed to meet in the Hotel Lobby) so we were all rushing to cram food into our mouths (and into our pockets) before we booked it out of the hotel.

The train ride took about 2 hours but the scenery was so beautiful that we were excited to be there!

At the Train Station in Assisi

From the Train Station we took a (really crowded) bus up to the little town of Assisi, the home of St. Francis.

We began our lesson on the steps of the Basilica di St. Francesco.

In front of the Basilica di Francesco

St. Francis grew up in a well-to-do household so life was pretty easy going for him; but when he learned about the church and was converted to the Catholic Church he forsook everything he had. He then had a dream where a variation of the cross appeared unto hum and asked him to restore his house which had begun to fall in disarray.

Saint Francis understood the house to be the spirituality of the followers of Christ so he began a sect of the church that made a vow of poverty and service. He also began a translation of all Church doctrine into the local dialect and preached that Christ was a young man who loved, and cared about ALL men.

 The poor people flocked to the message of Saint Francis, and after he died, young and old would pilgrimage to his grave to receive blessings from the Saint (This was the first time that it was believed that a saint could grant blessings after death in the form of open sainthood.). The pope saw this as a wonderful opportunity to become wealthy so built a large, lavish cathedral right over St. Francis's grave. The pope then built a palace overlooking the Cathedral so that everyone would know that HE was responsible for making St Francis's church the way it is today.

Our Study group took a tour through the Cathedral, stopping at St. Francis's grave (which is fairly plain, as I imagine he would have wanted it to be) and moved into the basilica, which was filled with massive works of art! The first art piece was the Crucifition by Cimabue.The artwork itself had diminished so much that you could hardly see any color, all that was left was the high and low lights, causing all the individuals in the piece to look gaunt and haunting. All of the saints (including Christ) had halos that protruded out of the wall.

Christ was bent in such a way on the cross that his body looked like the letter "C" (and someone was gripping his left foot, at least that is how it appeared at the time). Christ, himself, was dead. He wasn't sleeping peacefully, or in agony, or just standing there, and you could tell that he had gone through a crazy ordeal.

The next large piece that we saw was a series of frescoes by Giotto that depicted the life of St. Francis. There were 28 in all, and they were all about 10' x 15' spanning the entire length of the basilica. They started with his birth, then  his conversion to Christianity, then of his dream of the cross and the message that came with it all the way to his death and sainthood. The Frescoes were very detailed although not to scale, but it was quite realistic non-the-less.

When we left the church Steve (our Professor) took Nancy, Brianna, McKenzie and I out to eat. We sent to the little place hidden down a stairway right off the main road. I had the lasagna (the noodles there in were cooked so well it was like cutting into butter) and this pasta with Alfredo sauce and meat, it was all delicious!

Brianna, Steve, Nancy, McKenzie and I after Lunch

After lunch we parted ways and Nancy and I went walking all over. Up and down the little pathways, stopping now and then to take pictures and goof off.

Posing for our mini Photoshoot

We all got together again to take a tour through the Basilica of St. Claire which sported the original cross that St. Francis had dreamed about, as well as a copy of the cross we saw in the Crucifixion by Cimabue (pretty interesting). Then we left Assisi shortly thereafter, boarding the  bus to the train station and the taking the train back to Rome, just in time for dinner.

Map of Rome

I was just thinking that you may like to have a visual of where everything is in Rome!

Most hotels will have complimentary maps, like this one, for their guests (our hotel had a nice one very similar to this), so if you plan on going to Rome you may not need to bring a map (or you can take one from your hotel home as a little souvenir).

I like this map better than most because it includes mini images of the bigger tourist spots and it includes the metro. Feel free to take a look at this page as you read my other posts about our travels throughout Rome. It will help you to get a better idea of where we went and how much walking was done each day!