Jours: Un et Deux
Friday, August 12, 2011:
12:00 Chicago Time--head off to Our Lady of Sorrows to meet the bus to the airport.
13:00 Chicago Time--We gather in group and Bishop Melczek leads us in prayer for safe journey. Load the bus. Texting and Facebook updating the entire trip that I don't realize how quickly we arrive at O'Hare.
15:00 (ish) Chicago Time--Arrive at O'Hare, wait in line to check luggage at O'Hare, wait in line to go through security, wait after security for the other 30 people to join you in a group at the gate.
16:45 Board plane to Paris, France.
(in flight time) in no particular order. listen to in-flight radio, attempt to play games only to end up locking up the screen, watch Water for Elephants, nap, get fingernails dug into arm by scared Pete wondering if the plane movements are normal. (sadly, these were less than the movements on the bus).
Saturday, August 13, 2011:
07:54 Paris Time (00:54 ChiTime)--Arrive at Charles De Gaulle airport, short wait through customs then board the tram to our terminal. Short trip through security (where I speak with a convincing enough accent that the TSA person starts going off in French asking me if I've got a computer in my bag) and then up the stairs for a four hour layover.
Shopping, lunch, mailing post card from Paris, witnessing underage smoking... just a typical day in a European airport full of American teens.
12:15 Paris Time--board plane for Pau, France. We travel through a series of tunnels to an outside checkpoint. Walk through the drizzle to our small plane. Thankfully, we're all spread out through the cabin and I'm not sitting next to Pete while he discovers that the size of the plane makes a huge difference in the amount of turbulence you feel. (also, he'd been thinking that bigger planes are scarier than smaller planes--perhaps he was unsure of how the bigger ones would stay up as long, idk)
Flight lasts about an hour-hour and half.
Land get our luggage and meet up with our guide. Board our bus and head off to Lourdes, France.
Somehow I managed to get a seat to myself, therefore, I fall asleep using my carryon bag as a pillow.
not quite an hour later we arrive at our hotel in Lourdes--The Arcadia.
It's on the same side of the river as the Basilica, just up a hill from a street leading right to the front gates. We drop our bags off, have about 45 minutes to freshen up, and then we're down to the base of the hill (elevator is optional, or there's a ramp) and down across the river to a small chapel for a private mass.
Bishop Melczek and Father John come to realize that they cannot find a English translation of readings and psalms in the tiny chapel. Thankfully, Kevin Driscoll has 3G and he pulls up the day's readings on his phone. The rest of the mass Bishop does from memory. It is asked if there are any music people in the house that can help sing some Marian songs.
...
...
chirp
chirp
Pete tries to get me to raise my hand. But honestly, I'm drawing blanks on all kinds of possible songs. I only know the two he'd already mentioned that we'd be singing as opening and closing hymns. So I keep my hand down and we do mass without much music.
Wishing I could have had a little more confidence during the presentation of gifts or communion...and the singing parts of the Mass are more chants than song. I vow to offer up my abilities if we should be in this situation again.
Part way through mass another person wanders in to join us. The more the merrier.
Afterwards we walk back for dinner at our hotel. Passing the long lines for the Baths. (somehow we got separated and a small group of us got lost on the way back). Kelly, Kevin, Mike and I were walking in a group near the front of the pack when it started to pour. We watched all the natives take shelter under the awnings while we crazy Americans kept walking through the rain. We did take the elevator up though and dash across the street.
Wet or not we headed into the restaurant.
18:00 Lourdes Time
Dinner has been provided for us. Placed at each table setting are two large plates and a large bowl, knife, fork, spoon and dessert fork. Water glasses and bread.
Eight places per each of the larger tables. This first night, I ended up sitting with a number of pilgrims from St. Elizabeth Seton.
Kelly and I were at the head of the table so we dished up the soup when it came and passed bowls down. The soup was delicious. I thought it was like butternut squash, but turns out it was carrot. Either way, yum.
After we'd all had second helpings, the bowls were cleared away and a second course came out.
This second course was a pinkish meat covered in yellow sauce. After passing out slices to each person, the first of us took a bite and announced that the food was cold, slimy, and well just gross.
It was like a combination between Spam and salami, and the sauce was largely mustard with dill and other spices added. And looked like puke. It didn't smell that great either, but Kelly and I forced ourselves to clean our plates to prove that we could. Mike and Kevin at the opposite end of the table had polished theirs off very quickly--as well being boys and very hungry, and not sure what would come next, they ate what they could. The other four either took somewhere between 0-2 bites of their food before giving up.
Those plates were cleared away and the third course came out. Thin sliced roast beef and green beans. Warmed to perfection. For dessert we had apple pie.
After dinner we had about twenty minutes to freshen up again and then we were going to proceed down near the Grotto doing our own candlelight procession, as there was a concert going on that night so the usual candlelight procession had been cancelled for the day. We prayed a rosary as a group, girls doing the first half of a prayer boys doing the second all the way down the ramp and then ended the evening along the river near the Grotto (not too close as not to disrupt others who were praying).
The two main church groups split up to talk about what they were going to do the next day. Having eaten with the Seton group, I was quite attached. (Pete had eaten with the other and said that they were largely HSers and he'd also prefer to join the older kids). So Pete and I jumped into their conversation about getting up early to go to the Baths. It was agreed that we would wake at 5am to go get in line for the Baths that open at 7:30am.
21:30ish Those who were really tired headed back to the hotel. The rest of us about 8 in total wandered the shops and up the hill to other parts of the town to experience Lourdes. When Bella was sleep walking and nearly got hit by a bus we decided it was finally time to head back to our hotel. Thankfully, Kevin (not Driscoll) and I have pretty good senses of direction and we ended up at our hotel without back tracking through the streets. Admittedly, Kevin's direction is better than mine during most of this trip
12:00 Chicago Time--head off to Our Lady of Sorrows to meet the bus to the airport.
13:00 Chicago Time--We gather in group and Bishop Melczek leads us in prayer for safe journey. Load the bus. Texting and Facebook updating the entire trip that I don't realize how quickly we arrive at O'Hare.
15:00 (ish) Chicago Time--Arrive at O'Hare, wait in line to check luggage at O'Hare, wait in line to go through security, wait after security for the other 30 people to join you in a group at the gate.
16:45 Board plane to Paris, France.
(in flight time) in no particular order. listen to in-flight radio, attempt to play games only to end up locking up the screen, watch Water for Elephants, nap, get fingernails dug into arm by scared Pete wondering if the plane movements are normal. (sadly, these were less than the movements on the bus).
Saturday, August 13, 2011:
07:54 Paris Time (00:54 ChiTime)--Arrive at Charles De Gaulle airport, short wait through customs then board the tram to our terminal. Short trip through security (where I speak with a convincing enough accent that the TSA person starts going off in French asking me if I've got a computer in my bag) and then up the stairs for a four hour layover.
Shopping, lunch, mailing post card from Paris, witnessing underage smoking... just a typical day in a European airport full of American teens.
12:15 Paris Time--board plane for Pau, France. We travel through a series of tunnels to an outside checkpoint. Walk through the drizzle to our small plane. Thankfully, we're all spread out through the cabin and I'm not sitting next to Pete while he discovers that the size of the plane makes a huge difference in the amount of turbulence you feel. (also, he'd been thinking that bigger planes are scarier than smaller planes--perhaps he was unsure of how the bigger ones would stay up as long, idk)
Flight lasts about an hour-hour and half.
Land get our luggage and meet up with our guide. Board our bus and head off to Lourdes, France.
Somehow I managed to get a seat to myself, therefore, I fall asleep using my carryon bag as a pillow.
not quite an hour later we arrive at our hotel in Lourdes--The Arcadia.
It's on the same side of the river as the Basilica, just up a hill from a street leading right to the front gates. We drop our bags off, have about 45 minutes to freshen up, and then we're down to the base of the hill (elevator is optional, or there's a ramp) and down across the river to a small chapel for a private mass.
Bishop Melczek and Father John come to realize that they cannot find a English translation of readings and psalms in the tiny chapel. Thankfully, Kevin Driscoll has 3G and he pulls up the day's readings on his phone. The rest of the mass Bishop does from memory. It is asked if there are any music people in the house that can help sing some Marian songs.
...
...
chirp
chirp
Pete tries to get me to raise my hand. But honestly, I'm drawing blanks on all kinds of possible songs. I only know the two he'd already mentioned that we'd be singing as opening and closing hymns. So I keep my hand down and we do mass without much music.
Wishing I could have had a little more confidence during the presentation of gifts or communion...and the singing parts of the Mass are more chants than song. I vow to offer up my abilities if we should be in this situation again.
Part way through mass another person wanders in to join us. The more the merrier.
Afterwards we walk back for dinner at our hotel. Passing the long lines for the Baths. (somehow we got separated and a small group of us got lost on the way back). Kelly, Kevin, Mike and I were walking in a group near the front of the pack when it started to pour. We watched all the natives take shelter under the awnings while we crazy Americans kept walking through the rain. We did take the elevator up though and dash across the street.
Wet or not we headed into the restaurant.
18:00 Lourdes Time
Dinner has been provided for us. Placed at each table setting are two large plates and a large bowl, knife, fork, spoon and dessert fork. Water glasses and bread.
Eight places per each of the larger tables. This first night, I ended up sitting with a number of pilgrims from St. Elizabeth Seton.
Kelly and I were at the head of the table so we dished up the soup when it came and passed bowls down. The soup was delicious. I thought it was like butternut squash, but turns out it was carrot. Either way, yum.
After we'd all had second helpings, the bowls were cleared away and a second course came out.
This second course was a pinkish meat covered in yellow sauce. After passing out slices to each person, the first of us took a bite and announced that the food was cold, slimy, and well just gross.
It was like a combination between Spam and salami, and the sauce was largely mustard with dill and other spices added. And looked like puke. It didn't smell that great either, but Kelly and I forced ourselves to clean our plates to prove that we could. Mike and Kevin at the opposite end of the table had polished theirs off very quickly--as well being boys and very hungry, and not sure what would come next, they ate what they could. The other four either took somewhere between 0-2 bites of their food before giving up.
Those plates were cleared away and the third course came out. Thin sliced roast beef and green beans. Warmed to perfection. For dessert we had apple pie.
After dinner we had about twenty minutes to freshen up again and then we were going to proceed down near the Grotto doing our own candlelight procession, as there was a concert going on that night so the usual candlelight procession had been cancelled for the day. We prayed a rosary as a group, girls doing the first half of a prayer boys doing the second all the way down the ramp and then ended the evening along the river near the Grotto (not too close as not to disrupt others who were praying).
The two main church groups split up to talk about what they were going to do the next day. Having eaten with the Seton group, I was quite attached. (Pete had eaten with the other and said that they were largely HSers and he'd also prefer to join the older kids). So Pete and I jumped into their conversation about getting up early to go to the Baths. It was agreed that we would wake at 5am to go get in line for the Baths that open at 7:30am.
21:30ish Those who were really tired headed back to the hotel. The rest of us about 8 in total wandered the shops and up the hill to other parts of the town to experience Lourdes. When Bella was sleep walking and nearly got hit by a bus we decided it was finally time to head back to our hotel. Thankfully, Kevin (not Driscoll) and I have pretty good senses of direction and we ended up at our hotel without back tracking through the streets. Admittedly, Kevin's direction is better than mine during most of this trip