So. Lots to report. Last weekend was filled with preparations for the arrival of the Crown Princess of Belgium. This included a lot of flower arranging and making sure the Jeanne Jugan Residence was all spiffed up and ready. We also had practice every day with the residents to rehearse for a song we would sing in the auditorium for her.
Princess Mathilde came Monday morning. She was here less than an hour. (click to see pictures) The residents presented her with flowers and a necklace (made by the residents), and also sweaters knitted by the residents for her four children. She was very nice and gracious, going around to a lot of the residents individually and talking with them. I got to shake her hand too. :) Apparently she has also visited the lsp in Belgium, and she and her family are Catholic. Neat fact: she speaks four languages (French, Dutch, English, Italian). There were a lot of press that came too (mostly Belgian press). So if you happened to be in Belgium, you may have seen us on TV.
Tuesday Michelle, Sam, and I had our day off, and we went ventured out to find some good seafood. We ended up down at Captain White's Seafood, where there was a whole bunch of fish markets. I've never been to one before. Rows upon rows of fish, crabs, oysters, shrimp and more. We even got a free sample. One of the guys took a crab, broke it in half somehow and handed it to Michelle. (Be sure to check out some of the pictures I got). I ended up getting a crabcake sandwhich, and it was really good. While we ate our dinner by the pier we witnessed some really amazing ducks in the water. They made my day. :) The were so funny to watch, especially when we threw bread to them. It was a mad rush in the water! (See the video below).
After that we went to visit the US Holocaust Memorial Museum. I had visited a holocaust museum once before back in MI, but a long time ago. It was certainly not an easy thing to witness this time. Seeing the piles of shoes and other belongings of the victims....reading the stories of those who survived, and those who didn't...walking through the railway cars they had to ride in, seeing the bunks they slept in, and the uniforms they wore...watching video footage of the prisoners, and witnessing the absolute madness of hatred and horror that humanity is capable of... Something else that struck me too was the Torah. Seeing fragments of the scrolls that had been taken from the temples, trampled upon....the Word of God... The Torah is so central to the Jewish faith in any Temple...and then seeing footage of the burning temples... At the end of the exhibit there was a room talking about the genocide happening right now in Darfur. We need to pray for our brothers and sisters over there. One thing that also came to mind was, I just hope someday there will be something like this that will witness to the genocide also happening right now in our own country, and around the world: Abortion. One day. I hope soon.
I had planned to attend Theology on Tap that night too, as Msgr. Charles Pope was speaking. However, I was so exhausted (as most of our days off have been lol) and with being in 90 degree heat all day I just couldn't do it. But the talks are recorded, and it should be put up on their website soon. You can hear it here.
Today was a pretty normal day, although we've been running around getting ready for a big activity we're having tomorrow (I'll post about this next time).
I hope you've all had a good week! Be sure to check out the pictures. :)
Peace!
~Christina
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