Witnessing History

[March 12 &13]

Alright, I know, I never posted on visiting the Vatican!! Fail. But, since so many better things have happened than just my tour around the Vatican Museum, I will skip that, aside from a few words, and you will just have to see my pictures when I get home!!

Vatican Museum: HUGE. It is incredibly enormous. You need AT LEAST 2 hours just to walk through the entire thing... but you could spend an entire day there. The Sistine Chapel took me by surprise the first time i saw it (yes. I went twice.) it was just a little different than I expected. The second time however, was incredible. It was breathtaking to be standing there and be looking at a masterpiece that I'd learned about in classes, and it was especially nice because the second time I went I was with a friend and her roommate-- her roommate is an art history major. It is SO much easier to soak in and really appreciate art when you are with others that do, and know something about it. So that was just awesome. After this we climbed the Basilica. It was an incredible view, and SO much fun to climb!

But now... Because far more important things have happened since I am going to skip ahead and you can all see my Vatican museum pictures when I come back.


POPE.

Yesterday, my roommate asked if I was interested in going with her to see the famous smoke at the Vatican and see if they had chosen anyone yet. I hadn't even been aware that there were actually specified times, and you could go and wait an watch... It makes sense, but I had midterms this week so I never really thought about the Pope happenings (P.S. I think I did really well on my midterms so at least my studying paid off!).
I obviously said yes, not wanting to miss out on history if it happened!

We went, and waited... for a long time.... (they were late on their timing yesterday...) and we saw this:

Black Smoke from the Chimney of the Sistine Chapel

This black smoke signified that there was no decision yet. And so we left. I attempted to study for an exam that I had at 9 the next morning but passed out instead. I was tired.

Today, I woke up at 7:00, looked over my macroeconomic notes some more (like I said, hadn't studied it much because of pure exhaustion) then went and too the exam (if you're curious. I think I did really well). Then I came home, and studied for another exam (Italian... not so well, but hopefully decent enough). After that, I had finally finished finals, and was just done. Entirely done. I watched some netflix, and sat in bed and did nothing.

When my roommate asked again if I wanted to go to the Vatican tonight to see if they would choose I said of course! The cardinals went through votes a couple of other times today as well, but I had exams so I couldn't go. I was tired, but I had made up my mind that as ridiculous as it may be to just keep going and doing the same waiting game with no results, I could not BE IN ROME while this moment of history was in progress and not make EVERY effort to be there when it actually happened. As we were going, we were REALLY hoping they would choose tonight. We didn't want to have gone all that way for nothing, plus we are leaving for Barcelona on Friday so we didn't want the decision to happen while we were gone (I know, I know, we have a tough life here in Europe). In reality though (we were thinking) they would not choose tonight, we'd heard that it usually take as at least a few days, probably a couple weeks before they actually have a decision.

When we walked up to the Vatican it was notably more crowded than the night before... so we grew more excited as we felt the energy of the crowed and realized that maybe the Italians (and news people) knew something we didn't, and began to get REALLY excited to see what would happen.


We arrived just in time, we didn't have long to wait before smoke began coming from the Sistine Chapel chimney once again.

Admittedly, for the first second or so we were confused. It was lighter smoke than the night before, but it began to look dark for a split second before we saw:

WHITE SMOKE!!! We were THERE for it!! It was the most exciting thing ever to actually be WITNESSING IN PERSON this historical moment!!

So a few cool things:

-The Pope is 76 and from Buenos Aires, Argentina
-He is the first Latin American Pope, and the first Jesuit Priest to be Pope
-He took the name of Pope Francis I ("I" meaning no one else has ever taken that name)

There is just so much that is incredible in this moment and I am SO blessed to have been here now. I have been able to witness Pope Benedict XIV resign, making history since retiring from the Pope is practically unheard of, witness his last blessing, and witness the very beginning of the Papacy of Pope Francis I, the first Latin American Pope.


So. Much. History.

I have a video of his speech which I will show you when I get home (I would upload it but it's not working... it's only about 10 mins, but it may be a little long for Blogger).

Ciao!!