Summer Adventure part 2!

Yikes! Sorry I kind of disappeared for about three weeks, but here you go! I was sick for about a week, so...

Anyway, Saturday (July 11th) was the last day, and all the other girls (except Cy, and another girl and I) were scheduled to depart. It was a sad moment for us because we had sooo much fun and enjoyed the week so much we didn't want it to end. :-) We were able to exchange email addresses real quick, so now we keep in touch we each other. So we all said a general good-bye to all the Sisters Saturday morning, since almost everyone was leaving that day. After breakfast, we, as always, helped a bit in the kitchen, then helped with clean-up on the third floor (where our rooms were)! Since I can't dust, I was in charge of sweeping the living room, then helped Sr. Jerome (one of the Sisters that was assigned to Hawaii earlier this year) with making the beds, and then she taught us the 'Pauline Method of mopping'! It was tiring, but still fun, of course. Then Sr. Jerome, another girl and I went downstairs to get a quick drink of water before working in the St. Joseph Assembly Hall where we had most of our meetings and classes. While getting some water Sr. Jerome talked about the Mary Queen of Apostles statue that we've been seeing in the convent. I don't have a picture of the statue that's in the chapel (which is really pretty, btw), but I have a pic of the one that's in the... um, I forget. It's either upstairs somewhere, or in the assembly hall....

Too bad I don't have a picture of the one in the Chapel though. That one is my absolute favorite statue of Mary! Sr. Jerome told us a bit about it, like that it's the only image of Mary where she is holding Christ out, since her mission is to give Christ to the world, and she was the first apostle of Christ (something like that). That other participant and I really liked it, and we decided then that Mary Queen of Apostles was our favorite Marian title. So after that we were off to clean the assembly hall until we had lunch... and then we all said goodbye to the remaining girls (except one other one)

Cy and I had free time after 2:00 (Boston time), so another Sister (Sr. Margaret Timothy, who was also assigned to Hawaii!) gave us a tour around downtown Boston! Here we go!

...And we passed by the State House!! That's gold on the top! (I wonder...it must be pretty heavy) There are pictures with Cy and I in it, but unfortunately I won't be posting anyone's faces, so... :-P

And it's Paul Revere!! I must've read about him a million times in my schoolbooks, so it was really neat to see the places where he was! (and we saw his house too!) There is a church in the background, but the sky was so bright, it wasn't able to show on the camera... oh well. We also walked along part of the Freedom Trail, that leads to the historic places in Boston. It's really neat! kind of reminds me of "follow the red brick road" or something... :-)

And I'm pretty sure this is the St. Stephen Church. I could be wrong.... Anyway, when we went inside there was music playing, and guess what? It was the Daughters of St. Paul music!! That was interesting... Sister was like, "That's our music!" "I thought it sounded kind of familiar..." I said. It was from an older CD of theirs, but still, that was pretty funny...

And the Boston Public Library!!!! It's gigantic!! We didn't go in, but we could easily see from the outside that it was big. There's another connecting building too!

Borders!! It's huge! (we don't have that big stores in Hawaii...well, maybe we do, but that would probably be in the tourist area...)

Seeing all these colonial-style and victorian houses/apartments were really neat. I've noticed that just about all the houses I saw were really nice and big!! There was another difference I saw between the houses here in HI than the ones over there, but I forget what it was...

We took a walk through the Boston Public Gardens! It's so pretty! They had all kinds of different flowers - some I've never seen before. And...and we saw a squirrel!!

Okay, you're probably all wondering why I'm excited about a squirrel, but there aren't any in Hawaii! That was my first time seeing a squirrel (I know, sad, isn't it?), and I've only read about wildlife, but never really actually seen much of them. And I saw a deer and a hawk for the first time in real life too. Well, in Hawaii you see sea turtles aaallll the time and occasionally some whales jumping around in the water, and maybe if you're lucky some dolphins too. Oh, and octopus, nene, and sometimes sharks, monk seals, and definitely some mongoose.... :-P

And we saw a swan at the park too! There's another 'pond' that I don't really have a picture of, but it has a couple of fountains there, where kids play around the area like it's a water park. During the Winter, Sister told us, the water's frozen and it's used as an iceskating park.

Being around really tall buildings was interesting too... Even if I do live near the downtown area of HI, it's still really different and neat - It's not as big as Boston!

Okay, I think I'm running out of pics to show... after that, we kind of got stuck in traffic 'cause there was going to be a game at Fenway park that day. Fortunately, we managed to get back to the convent in time for dinner! We were a little late, but we were able to catch some of our friends and some of the Sisters we knew. After dinner (and dessert - some awesome cupcakes made by one of the remaining participants and her sister, who's a Daughter of St. Paul preparing for her final vows!) Then a little later we all gathered upstairs in the dinette and watched Sense and Sensibility (the one with Emma Thompson in it)! I almost fell asleep though (not that the movie was that boring, it was good!), it was a long day, but a fun day. But I'm glad I didn't go to sleep early - I wanted that day to last. Then we all said good night to each other, then everyone went to bed. The first thing I did was take my contacts off - I think I went over my limit of hours to wear them. Oh well.

Next day we woke up at 7:00, packed up our stuff, stripped the beds, then replaced them with fresh sheets. Kind of hard to believe that it was the day to leave... :-( We took our things downstairs then made a quick visit to the Chapel. I'm almost burst out in tears right there, but I bit my tongue and tried to hide it. On the way going out, one of the senior Sisters, Sr. Rita, hugged us and told to come back soon. I hope so. It was sooo much fun being with them!!!

Next we gathered in the breakfast room, where all the sisters we knew were waiting for us. We had a small breakfast together, and then with talked with each other on our remaining time there. We got to catch up with two junior professed Sisters there, Sr. Maria Kim and Sr. Emi Magnificat (who were also assigned to Hawaii some years back). It was nice to see them again! Then we took a group picture and said our last goodbyes. It was sad. :-( Hard to believe it was exactly a week ago, when we just arrived! Sr. Margaret Michael then said, "Come back next year!" (I hope so too!!!)

Then the airport....again. :-P Ugh... the flight going back to LA was kind of dreary, with all the clouds and nothing much to see. But towards the end it was actually nice. I still really missed Boston though. I spent most of the time listening to classical music and staring out the window, reminiscing already. When we got to LA we waited and ate a snack during our scheduled 2hr layover. Cy and I just kept on talking with each other our awesome experiences with them! We also (because sometimes we didn't sit at the same table) told each other stories that the Sisters shared with us, like their vocations stories. They were all so cool! We were informed of a delay, something about the flight attendants getting the plane ready and cleaned up. Anyway, we kept talking even after we boarded the plane, until we realized something wasn't right... the plane didn't take off. We were informed that there was something wrong with the cockpit, and that the warning lights were on. So back we went, to the gate and terminal. There was a person who was sitting beside us, worried that he might miss his connecting flight to Kona, and he couldn't speak English very well so... poor guy. So we helped him a bit and he was able to reschedule his flight. In the end, everyone with connecting flights to Kona or Maui missed their flights. The AA people made up for it and even gave everyone a free meal coupon. So I bought dinner and shared it with Cy. And yes... in the end our layover did end up being 7 hrs... again. :-P But once again it didn't seem like 7hrs. Cy and I just kept talking with each other, and we also kept in contact with our parents and two of our aunts. One of them, our aunt that lived in CA told us 'why not just ask the AA people if you can stay with me for a week?' then she went on about it... That would've been a really nice idea but right when she was talking about it, it was time to board the plane. There were groans of 'finally!' and one guy even said on the plane 'Oh good, we're only 5hrs late!' That resulted in a laugh around the area.

I was dead tired so I fell right asleep. It seemed like a never ending night, going from LA to HI in the dark. We arrived in HI safely (thank God!) around 11:45 pm.

Our week was filled with loads and tons of fun!! I loved the Visit with Jesus everyday (hour of adoration), and Mass too! Their life, mission, and spirituality is just totally amazing!!!! I really hope Cy and I can attend the program next year!! :D

To close friends 'n family: If you like, I can try to send you an album with several of our pictures of our trip. Just email me or my mom (and she can forward your email to me), so that I can send you the link.

(P.S. We saw the following Sister bloggers!!!)

postulants Emily & Sylwia, and we met the novices too

Sr. Anne Joan I didn't get to actually meet her, but I saw her.

Sr. Bridget Ellis Forgot to mention that we even got to see the recording studio!!

Sr. Margaret Charles btw, she also came to Hawaii and we had shave ice together with some of my siblings!

...And I think that's it... But just in case I missed anyone I'll be sure to include them here, too. Hope the rest of you guys have a great summer!!