First of all, you may have noticed that I recently added a hit counter to my blog (hit counter=counts the number of times someone visits my blog) and that the number of hits is rather low (I'm sure this is due to the fact that the counter is so new, and not because people don't LOVE my blog). Anyway, if you could just hit refresh on your internet's browser a few times before reading the rest of this, thus adding numbers to the counter, that would be great. Thanks!
Last weekend, I was in Assisi for a Notre Dame sponsored/subsidized retreat. I hadn't been on a retreat since high school and, to be honest, thought they were a bunch of hooey. I still think this, however, I did enjoy myself. The retreat wasn't intense at all. We visited churches and prayed and such, but we had a lot of free time and didn't play any stupid trust games (however, we did play mafia a lot). We stayed in a convent and were served delicious food the whole weekend. We visited some key spots in the life of St. Francis and went through the basilicas dedicated to him and to St. Claire, which were both lovely. Assisi itself was gorgeous with lots of old buildings, olive groves, and hills. The town also has fantastic gift shops, which for some reason, all sell medieval weapons such as maces, crossbows, and swords. The weapons present a nice juxtaposition with the many religious items found in the same gift shops.
I was feeling very relaxed after Friday and Saturday, because we just sort of walked around Assisi and hung out with each other. However, this state of relaxation was destroyed on Sunday, when we went for a "4 kilometer walk" that turned into a freakin' long 3 hour hike up a mountain. What made me most upset was that we were not warned about this at all, so I did not have the appropriate shoes or pants or anything. The hike went along a path that basically went straight up the mountain, so there was a constant super steep incline, and the path was covered in slippery rocks. To top it off, the retreat leaders didn't know exactly where we were going, and the entire group got split up due to different walking speeds, so everyone was getting lost. The goal of this hike was to get to a hermitage that St. Francis supposedly prayed at every day or something (though I find this very hard to believe, considering it would take a gladiator to climb that mountain daily). We finally see the hermitage, but we can't find that path that leads directly to it, and we end up jumping over a wall and sliding down a hill to get to it. We were able to spend about 20 minutes there before having to turn around and head back. I was so stressed out and exhausted after this that I couldn't really enjoy the rest of the retreat, which was basically over after the hike anyway.
So in conclusion, Assisi was very pretty, I still don't like retreats, and you should warn me before taking me hiking.
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2 comments:
lets go hiking. maybe after an syr, when you are wearing some kind of high heeled shoe. i like the idea. also, i added about 50 hits to your site as i read this blog.
I refuse to hike in high heels, however, thank you very much for putting me over the 100 mark in hits. I didn't think I'd get there until next week!
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