When I was in high school at Cardinal Gibbons, my first trip abroad was to Italy with about 15 other students, my favorite art, drama, and apologetics teachers, and Brother Gary - one of the rawest, kindest, holy, no-nonsense human beings I've ever met. Before leaving, Brother Richard, another Franciscan Brother of Brooklyn who was not going to be joining us on our journey, handed me 5 bucks for gelato and asked me for a simple favor: "Will you whisper my name in Assisi?" A rather odd request, was my initial reaction. "Of course I will. Why?" Whether it was a Franciscan tradition, or just some custom he'd inherited from his family, he always used to say that when you whispered someone's name in a sacred, beautiful, or meaningful place that the person whose name had been whispered would be there with you, and experience the same things you were.
I have a lot of names to whisper under my breath on this trip. A lot of people that I love will go with me, and I hope to make some new friends along the way. I hope to capture myself and reintroduce the wanderer to something she loves best...wandering.
So, this trip will take me to Alicante, Spain from November 13th until the 25th. Then, on Thanksgiving Day, I'll make my glorious (and hopefully seamless...) return trip to Sansepolcro for dinner and will stay on there until the 28th. I have two bags of marshmallows and a can of sweet potatoes for the feast packed away in my luggage. Hee hee.
Why am I going? And what is the purpose of this trip, exactly? I'm going to spend time with our friends at CIEE who offer amazing study abroad opportunities in Spain, specifically at the Universidad de Alicante. Since we send so many students to this fantastic program, it is important that our office has an idea of how the processes work on that end and that we form close relationships with the wonderful people who work there.
The main purpose of this trip is truly professional development and relationship building; but I will probably post very little on that side of things. This record is really a carafe for what's going on in my heart at the moment - it's a way for you to see what I'm seeing, and a way for me to look back.
So...here I go again y'all. This time, I go with fresh eyes. This time I go with new thoughts to chew on, new hopes for being challenged culturally and linguistically, new ideas about the world.
On the eve of this trip my heart is so full - so much so that it might burst. Off I go into the Wild Blue Yonder - literally. Buenas noches until next time!
The Wanderer
P.S. And if you suddenly feel a warm, Mediterranean breeze blowing across your shoulders - that will be my fault. :)
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