Things that don't happen at home

I've had some really cool experiences here in Rome, and I keep thinking to myself . . . "now that doesn't happen at home."

. . . I stumbled upon a Baroque music concert in Sant'Augostino Church. It was amazing. I was sitting in an eight-hundred-year-old church, listening to great music, and looking at a Raphael fresco and a Caravaggio painting. Definitely not anything that's ever happened during one of my rambles along, say, Abbott Road.

(By the way, I mention that I went to a "Baroque" music concert, but . . . I'm not yet cultured enough to really know what Baroque music is. Hopefully by the end of my European tenure, I will be. I'm pretty sure I could recognize Baroque architecture, but . . . Baroque music??? I mean, I could tell it wasn't Marilyn Manson, and I'm confident I could distinguish it from the the Neapolitan folk music, but not a whole lot more than that . . . This deficit could, of course, also have something to do with my musical handicap. Rather than waiting for me to blossom in cultural and musical awareness . . . Are there any music scholars out out there? Maybe you can tell us about Baroque music? Just use the comments section . . . )

. . . Last Saturday, I was walking around "my neighborhood," and there were all these guys in red. All cardinals, just wandering around. It seemed like there was a "cardinal convention" of some kind, and they just got let out for lunch. Here a cardinal, there a cardinal, everywhere a cardinal, and they all seemed to be more or less independently searching for somewhere to grab a good slice of pizza. Turns out it was a big day, "promotion day," so to speak: The pope had just named a bunch of cardinals!

. . . And speaking of the pope, I went to see him on Wednesday during his public "audience," and I'm going to see him again tomorrow to Saint Peter's for the first Mass of Advent. I was in Saint Peter's today, and they were setting up "for the pope" - it seemed like a big deal.

. . . And I've met loads of people doing language exchanges. Two of them are, in fact, engineers . . . trying to get out of engineering. Oh - Wait - this was a list of things that don't happen at home . . . ,)