Hello everyone! Here’s the latest from Europe….

On February 3-5, I went on a retreat with school to the birthplace of Saint Ignatius of Loyola, which is in Northern Spain. We stayed at a beautiful retreat center and were spoiled with wonderful food cooked by the nuns there, nice rooms, and a beautiful mountainous area to explore. We got to visit St. Ignatius’s birthplace, family home, place of baptism, and the place where he converted to Catholicism. It was an incredible weekend full of prayer, reflection, and making new friends. It was a good change of pace from the busy weekends of traveling.

Last weekend, I went to Paris with two of my roommates, Julia and Karin. It was a busy weekend full of lots of site seeing and good food. We started our time in Paris on Friday with a walking tour. Since none of us had been to Paris before, it was really nice to have someone show us around and give us recommendations for the weekend! After that, we visited the beautiful Notre Dame church. That night, we also went to the Louvre and saw Mona Lisa and many other works of art. We didn’t know this until we got to Paris, but with our student visas, we got in free to all the museums!

On Saturday, we went to Versailles, which was probably my favorite part of the weekend. The palace was huge, and we enjoyed walking through all the different rooms. We also visited the gardens behind the palace, which were incredible too. When we got back to Paris, we went to the Basilica of the Sacred Heart, which has had perpetual adoration for the past 150 years! We got delicious Nutella banana crepes, did some shopping, and then went to see the Eiffel Tower all lit up at night!

We began our last day in Paris with Mass at Notre Dame, which was awesome. The church was packed and the music was beautiful. We visited the Eiffel Tower during the day, saw the Arc de Triumph, got one more crepe, and then went home to Madrid.

We were shocked at the relief it was to come back to our host mom’s house after a weekend of traveling. Each of us sent Snapchats to our friends and family with captions such as “Home sweet home” when we arrived back to Madrid. It’s crazy, but this city is really starting to feel a bit like home.

Midterms are this week and next, so my weekend will be filled with finding cute coffee shops and doing lots of homework.  Next week, my mom and her friend Kate come to visit me!

XOXO

Katie