On March 15th, Rome began their three-week-long Red Zone "Zone Rossa" lockdown. The Friday before they announced that new restrictions would be put in place to stop the spread of the British Variant that was still moving throughout the region and supposed to take extra precaution preceding the Easter holiday. So we jumped a whole level of caution, we went from yellow zone to red zone. Basically this means that you can only leave your apartment for three reasons: work, health and necessity. But the category of necessity is kinda broad, so it includes grocery shopping and Mass and exercising follows under health. So it is not nearly as bad as the red zone lockdown that occurred last spring during Rome, where it was only acceptable to leave your house to take out your trash and stand in line for the store.
So we began, our lockdown not really knowing how it would go and how strict it would be. Basically, under the yellow zone restrictions, we couldn't leave the region. An orange zone level (which we skipped but are hoping to change to orange soon) would mean you can't leave the city. A red zone, is you shouldn't be leaving your neighborhood, except for the reasons listed above. When we do leave the neighborhood, basically for Mass at St. Peters or other Churches, we carry paperwork saying where we are going and where we came from. So we can't be found like 4 neighborhoods over nowhere near our route to St. Peters. But they aren't checking paperwork regularly, you just need to have it on you in case you are the lucky person to be stopped. Walking around the neighborhood doesn't feel any different. People can still get their takeaway coffee from Caffe Balduina down the street, the flower man is still stationed in the Piazza, the grocery store lines are a bit longer but nothing crazy if you time it right. The bigger changes would be stores that don't sell essential items are closed or they have roped off "non-essential" items and they can't be purchased...it's really strange honestly. For example, at OVS (think the Italian version of Target) you can only buy pajamas, workout clothes or beauty products. Cute clothes or home products are not considered essential.
Anyways, the staff brainstormed various ideas for online activities and week one was a success in our opinion. We ordered a bunch of extra board games, decks of cards and nicer kitchen knives for each apartment.
We had decided we were going to do a version of dorm wars that occurs on campus, where each room competes in mini competitions to earn points and at the end of lockdown there will be a grand prize for the winning room. We are calling it "the Roma Games". For each event, there would be points awarded to first, second and third place as well as a few points for participation to encourage everyone to compete. First competition: Chopped!
We gave the students mystery basket ingredients outside of their door and they weren't allowed to open it until everyone had received theirs. The ingredients for this challenge were: turkey burger, an artichoke, ramen noodles, eggs, zucchini flowers, and canned tomatoes. They had 75 minutes to put together their dish and then the three RCs combined to create a live judging panel that everyone tuned in to watch over zoom. Each category was worth five points: presentation, creativity and taste. We had some tough decisions on our hands. But we also discussed we should have chosen some easier ingredients because artichoke is not the best if not cooked properly... enough said.
On Tuesday, we were able to still go to St. Peters for a private Mass at the Altar of St. Joseph with our theology teacher, Fr. Baggot. Unfortunately due to the new restrictions by the Vatican this week will be our only opportunity to have private Masses upstairs in the Vatican. Next week, we will have to switch to having Mass in the Vatican Grottoes.
After Mass, I came home and did some much needed chores around the apartment, a thorough cleaning and then laundry. Since we are going to be home a lot more now, I figured it is important that the space feels as clean and comfortable as possible. I also made another apple torte that I made for Tim's birthday to use up the rest of the apples.
I ended the evening very happy as I stayed up to watch the USA National Softball team play my favorite college team, the Florida Gators. It was a late evening, but very worth it in my opinion. I bought the ESPN subscription and let me tell you, I haven't stopped watching college softball since, it's been great!
Wednesday was a day spent in the kitchen! It was St. Patrick's Day and Margaret and I decided we wanted to make shepherds pie, Irish soda bread, and Irish coffees for the students as their group dinner. In normal years, there would be a group dinner party in the Sala, but since everyone has to be in their individual rooms, we did dinner delivery service! It was a lot of stairs for the staff. We did one delivery of the pans of shepherd's pie so they could put them in their ovens for 30 minutes. Then we came back around with the soda bread and ingredients for Irish coffees and then a third time with dessert. The students live in three different buildings and so we were kinda shuffling around like crazy people. Literally shuffling as I wore my pink fuzzy slippers (thanks to the euro store) for the rounds! But the students were so appreciative and so it was so worth it!
Afterwards, the staff gathered to eat our own shepherds pie and played a competitive game of Catan! My close friends now that I absolutely love game nights so when we heard we were going to be going into lockdown, I knew I wanted to order the Italian version of Catan. Katy said the program could buy it and so we played the inaugural game. The only difference is the shape of the roads, settlements and cities and then also the development cards are in Italian but we were able to figure it out easily enough.
Thursday was a repeat of Tuesday morning back at the altar of St. Joseph in the Vatican. The rest of the day I can't say was very productive. The students were in class and I didn't really know what to do with myself. I went downstairs and cleaned the sala and then I typed up a small presentation for our virtual event that evening which was a wine tasting. We tasted two types of red wines, a chianti and a merlot, as well as a delicious farmers cheese. Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures from this event.
Friday I got to sleep in a little, which was great! I woke up in time for 8:30am morning prayer with Margaret and then had a lazy morning until womens conditioning at noon. One of our lockdown initiatives was doing a virtual womens conditioning class three times a week. All the girls join from their individual rooms and we do a quick 20-25 minute workout and play some tunes! It has been well received and keeps us motivated ourselves, making sure we are getting those workouts in!
After that we had a staff meeting to make plans for the following week, followed by a virtual address by Dr. O'Donnell giving tips to the students on some of his favorite things to do while in Rome! The day finished with another Roma Games competition: Italian Trivia Kahoot style. Kahoot is a ton of fun, each team logs in on their own device and the questions are played on the main screen, you get points for speed and accuracy. One of the rooms blew everyone out of the water. It was a ton of fun and a great way to end the first full week of classes for the students. The first week they only had Italian.
Saturday morning, I finally slept in until about 9am which for me here has been an accomplishment. I dont know why my body has decided to run like clockwork here but I have been waking up everyday at 7:30 or 8 at the latest. Not a bad thing but frustrating when I have the opportunity to sleep in and I am usually up late so I am available to students. I had two girls up to my room for coffee and the apple cake I had made earlier that week. It was so nice to interact on a smaller scale and have more personal conversations. It is definitely my intention to do this with each room throughout the semester, whether it is coffee, dinner or games.
After lunch, Margaret and I went to check out this plant store that Katy recommended to us. Oh my goodness, guys, I could have bought the whole place! It was exactly was what we needed after a week of being in our apartments. It was so fun to walk through the rows of plants and various greenhouses and you felt like you left the city for a brief moment. I will definitely be returning! We each bought a couple of items. Margaret bought an adorable ivy plant and this pretty white flower hanging basket. I purchased a mint plant, baby succulent and this beautiful white and purple flower plant (Go Holy Cross Tartans!). It only had a few blooms when I bought it and now it is flourishing and full of blossoms!
I came back home and got my plants all situated, made myself a strawberry mojito with my new mint and enjoyed some afternoon sunshine and a book. The first week finished up and I was definitely feeling the lockdown blues and so this was the beginning of a new leaf and a new week where I was determined to change my mentality and focus on some things that would help pass the time so I didn't feel so bored and trapped. I was used to working so many hours with my old job and so it has actually been a hard adjustment and lockdown meant less work and I didn't know what to do with myself and was a left feeling very useless.
Saturday night we did a virtual talent show. I was skeptical of how it was going to work originally and wondered if the students would be into it but they were and it was so fun to watch. There were a few groups that sang, one student played the banjo, one demonstrated their worm skills, their was a cool light show and probably most impressive: a sock puppet show/lip sync! Before the talent show started, I went around with Margaret and delivered snacks and Aperol Spritz's which is an Italian cocktail that consists of aperol, Prosecco, club soda and a orange slice garnish.
Sunday morning, I was finally able to attend solemn high Mass at Santissima Trinita along with Margaret and Tim! It was so beautiful and always so reverent! Much better than the Mass we attended in Tre Fontane the previous weekend. After Mass we grabbed a delicious kebab lunch to take back to the Residence.
That evening's event was a virtual cooking class taught by Miss Ott. She taught the group how to make her grandma's ragu recipe and then some pasta to accompany it. Each staff member went to a different room and we all tuned in for instruction over Zoom. I cooked with Nick Scanlon and then stayed to enjoyed the meal there with him and Anthony. It was a fun time and we discussed all sorts of fun topics and of course musicals were among them!
I finished up the evening with a quick FaceTime with Tt because I was missing my friends back in Virginia! I texted a few others and celebrated with Emily in spirit as I couldn't attend their baby gender reveal party. But I had it best because since I couldn't attend, I was allowed to find out three weeks earlier than the rest of my friends. Emily and JP had called me on the way home from the doctors when they found out. I can't wait to meet their little girl this coming July!
So this is going to be a double post and cover the first two weeks of quarantine I've decided, so don't go anywhere, I am just going to keep on going!
Monday was an easy going day but it was mentally more productive, I read some of my book, and started to catch up on my Emily Willson devotional (I still have a long way to go) and to be honest, I watched a good amount of college softball. In normal years, I was always too busy in the spring to watch much of the regular season would always tune in once May rolled around and I had finished college so I've really been enjoying having the time to watch! My dad and I are planning on going to watch some of the Womens College World Series in June so I will have done all my research and know the teams in and out thanks to lockdown. Our event on Monday night was virtual bingo! We bought a bingo set at the Euro store before lockdown began and then realized that night was slightly different than normal. It was lottery bingo so you had to fill the whole bingo card. Five rounds of bingo took a pretty long time but we had great prizes: a box of chocolates, two types of gelato, hamburgers, and steak!
Tuesday was a great day for me! I started the day bright and early at Mass in the Vatican Grottos. We got to have it at the main central altar in the grottos, right in front of the tomb of St. Peter. I came home and took a quick nap and then woke up with some renewed energy, which was great for what I had planned next. I was determined to get outside that day and go for a nice long walk and that's exactly what achieved. My plan was to go down to the bike path and see how long it went on for. I just didn't realize that if this was my goal I should have started off heading in thee other direction. So I walked past the beautiful overlook of St. Peters and then only five minutes later the path ended and I had been dumped off in a random neighborhood. But I was listening to my favorite podcast (shoutout to What in the Dang Heck) so I just decided to wander through the neighborhood until I was sick of that. About 40 minutes later I realized I wasn't too far from this park I had been wanting to explore so I took the long way home to go see that and wow was it worth it! The pictures don't do it justice, but take a look anyways. I will definitely be returning and want to try to get here to watch the sunrise one morning!
That night we had group dinner, but since we still can't gather as a group, we just ordered takeout and then the students came and picked up their meal. No stairs for the staff that evening! Next on the agenda was Theology on Tap with the deacons/seminarians assigned to use from the NAC. Hopefully after Easter this event will get to be in person and not just over Zoom. But nonetheless, it is great to be able to have their insight and get more events on the calendar for the students.
I had scheduled several FaceTime calls with home after that because I had the goal of staying up to call into my Christendom Alumna Bible Study that I've been part of for the last nine months. So I chatted with Emily for almost a full two hours about life here in Rome and their exciting transition to a new rental house closer to John Paul's parents for when the baby is born and then I talked to my old roommate for an hour getting all caught up with her life. And then it was finally time to call into bible study. How I've missed this girls and our Tuesday night chats! I can't say I was the most active participant given it was after midnight for me but I am so glad I called in and listen to our final discussion on the curriculum we've been doing since November on John Paul II's Letter to Women. I think I am going to try to stay up for bible study again in the future because it definitely made me feel more connected to life at home and I was surprisingly not exhausted the next day!
Wednesday morning started with a three hour online Art and Architecture class for the students. I listened in a little bit of it while working on a puzzle in the Sala since my room was being cleaned upstairs. Then I proctored their quiz for that class.
Katy had been encouraging me to attend Italian class and since I was free at the time of class that day I decided to attend and it was definitely worth it! I've attended three more classes since then. It's great to once again become familiar with the grammar and common adverbs and adjectives that I need to start formulating full sentences instead of my very broken Italian. DuoLingo and I have become good friends and I am slowly making progress.
Margaret, Tim and I decided to make gnocchi again, this time frying it a tad after cooking it to make it a little crispy. Earlier in the afternoon I had made a vegetable based tomato sauce to use up extra carrots, celery and onions that I had left over in the fridge. We ended the evening with a game of Dutch Blitz and then night prayer over Zoom with the students led by a priest friend of the college, Fr. Glasgow. He's related to the Cuddeback's and he was joined by Deacon Townsend.
We found out on Wednesday night that our priest, Fr. Baggot would not be able to say Mass the next morning due to a covid exposure and he was awaiting test results. And since it was the Feast of the Annunciation, I definitely wanted to get to Mass. One of the students had befriended a priest by serving the Latin Mass for him when private Masses were still allowed at St. Peters. And he has been very willing to have Christendom students attend his daily Mass at 7:15. So bright and early, I got up and headed for St. Mary Major where we were able to have a private low Mass in the crypt Chapel at the Altar of the Nativity, which was absolutely beautiful. There are no pews, so we just stood in the alcove in front of the altar. It might have been the closest I've ever been to an altar during Mass, it was breathtaking!
After Mass, we took a slight detour on the way home to stop by the 24 hour bakery. It was my first visit this semester, but definitely not my first time there. It is this hole-in-the-wall place near Ottaviano, that one could easily walk past and miss. They have such a wide variety of pastries, cakes and sandwiches. And it's super cheap, for example giant sugar donuts are only thirty cents. I was excited to partake in a chocolate twist danish for the special feast day. I came home, made myself a cappuccino, warmed my pastry and enjoyed my devious breakfast while journalling for the day.
Next was a giant grocery order so I could restock my fridge and get the necessary ingredients to make carrot bread. We really over purchased carrots from St. Patricks Day so I was in search of a recipe to use them up. Pinterest to the rescue! And not only did a find a recipe to use up my carrots, but also one that incorporated bananas, which I had some old ones in the freezer. The recipe for the Carrot Banana Bread turned out to be amazing. I used big chunks of salt instead of fine, which actually made it taste better since it had a slightly salty texture. It was a hit among the other RCs as well so it will be a repeated recipe this semester. I also had bought some dark chocolate bars to deliver to my travel pod students as a small pick-me-up to get them through a three hour philosophy class.
While my bread was in the toaster oven, I received a text from a student that her wifi wasn't working on her laptop, so I said she could come up and I could try to resolve the problem. We might not have solved the wifi problem but we had a great conversation, discussing the semester so far and places I've traveled to in the past. She was able to partake in the carrot bread as well. I invited her to come back up and watch the sunset with me since she was admiring my balcony.
So around 6pm Cora returned with an Aperol Spritz for each of us to enjoy while we watched the sunset. One of her roommates joined us briefly before heading off to 7pm Mass in the Piazza. I never really knew Cora as a student so it was great to have a chance to spend several hours with her one on one.
Given all of this, I got a late start to my dinner prep. So I got to work cooking chicken, rice and roasting Brussel sprouts. I had just about finished when Margaret asked if she could swing by to return my curling iron she had borrowed. I opened the day and was surprised to see both Margaret, Tim and an engagement ring!! My two coworkers got engaged that afternoon at Monte Mario Park, the same one I had explored earlier in the week! Ah, I was just so excited for them. We chatted for a little bit about everything and then they asked if they could bail on our virtual event that evening so they could start calling their families.
That night I had arranged for Trivia with Mr. Brown over Zoom. This counted for Roma Games points so everyone participated! It was so good to see one of my old bosses and also participate myself. Miss Ott and I formed a team and just texted our guesses back and forth to each other. We placed in 3rd, although it would have been first if it weren't for a miscommunication. Shucks! Everyone really enjoyed it and I was sad when it was over. It was a jammed packed day and I was ready when bedtime rolled around.
Friday morning started off with a group Mass at a small Church run by some American sisters. They were so gracious to host us since they are good friends of Fr. Glasgow, who said Mass for us. The sisters are also offering a Holy Week retreat for college women that I believe a few of our students are planning on attending. After Mass, Margaret, Tim and I decided not to go straight back to the residence but to grab a coffee near Tiber Island and sit along the river. It was such a beautiful day out and a great break to be outside sitting in the sun hanging out with my newly engaged coworkers and hearing all about their families' reactions from the night before. Coffee was the most necessary part of the excursion because they had stayed up until 3am calling people.
Since they were exhausted and wanted to go back and sleep, it was the perfect cover for me to get away and do some shopping for the surprise engagement dinner I was planning with Katy for that night. I wanted to do something special for them since they weren't able to be home to celebrate with their families. So Katy ordered appetizers and desserts and I tackled making dinner and decorating the apartment. I found balloons and the most beautiful red roses bouquet. We had a full three course meal: suppli as an appetizer, and then I made garlic mushroom spaghetti and homemade focaccia bread for the main course finished up with some delicious raspberry cheesecake from the Cannoleria. It was a great evening! I had a brief FaceTime with Anna before bed but our connection was really bad so I will have to call here back for her birthday next week!
Saturday morning we led a group of students around the Trionfale Market, which is the huge farmers market just outside the walls of Vatican City. It definitely can be overwhelmed but the options are endless, they have just about everything: fresh produce, fruit, nuts, meats, cheeses, fish, pretty much anything you could need. Since I had just loaded up my fridge a few days before, I didn't purchase anything but next trip!
On our way home, we wanted to show Tim the plant store, which of course meant we were destined to buy another plant or two. Just walking in there you are testing your wallet. Margaret bought some basil and thyme while I found a stunning eucalyptus plant! It now resides on a side table on my balcony. I do spend a lot of my down time out there working on this blog or drinking my morning coffee so I think the purchase was justified. I am becoming a plant person, probably has something to do with living in a basement for a year and a half where nothing could grow.
Next up on the agenda, was another Roma Games competition: Taskmaster. I had never heard of it but it is based on a British show, where contestants are giving vague instructions, random objects and a task to accomplish. For us, we set up two pots on Tim's balcony, one that was full of water and one that was empty. They were told they had to fill Pot B with water. They could use any objects found on Tim's balcony. There was a table in front of the instructions that had a colander, cling wrap, disposable masks, a mesh bag, ribbon, spoon, paper, tape, straws, and a wisk. Then there would other items just not in such plain sight such as a dust pan, which many students found and used and most importantly, the cheat object was a hose that was tucked under a bench so they could directly fill the pot.
Each team was invited up to Tim's room one at a time and given five minutes to accomplish the task whatever way they chose. We recorded it from multiple angles and then put together a full video of everyone to watch as a group later that evening. The winner was whoever got the most water in the pot. The very last group to go located the hose and took home the crown. It was truly hilarious to watch. Some group ran back and forth with water in straws or just straight in their mouth. One group decided to take off sweatshirts and shirts and try to soak up the water and run it back and forth and then probably the funniest one was a group that used a shoe, while other members of the team were carrying the now very dirty shoe-water back and forth with their mouth, that's dedication I guess!
While Tim did most of the video editing on my laptop, I went back to my room and made some homemade pizza while FaceTiming with Mary from back home. One of the things I decided to do to change my mindset with lockdown was to take the time to connect to friends back home more, so I had lined up several calls. It was so good to catch up and we plan on trying to do a virtual "Movies with Mary" night after Easter in honor of our typical Wednesday night tradition when I was living in Front Royal.
Daylights savings in Rome is two weeks later than it is in the States, so we set clocks forward before bed. But it wasn't too big of an issue because we had missed out on getting tickets to the 10:30 solemn High Mass at Trinita so we were attending the 12:30 Mass instead so we got to sleep in. Mass actually didn't get started until after 1pm because the previous Mass ran long. Even a low Mass at Trinita is a sight to behold, the grandeur of that Church never ceases to amaze me.
After Mass we had decided it was so nice out and we should try to go walk around the Borghese Gardens. On our walk there, we passed some Lime scooters and decided to take them for a ride! It was so exhilarittting but also quite the bumpy ride, along the cobblestone streets of Rome. We grabbed a quick sandwich from a local grocery store and started to make our way up to the gardens but there were a lot of police and since we weren't dressed for exercise, we really had no excuse why we were in that part of the city so we decided to head home.
We also needed to get back because that evening there was a regional potluck for extra credit for Italian class. We decided we could have the group come down and eat in the Sala in person, just split into two groups. So one group came at 7pm and the other group came at 8pm. Each room made a dish and gave a short presentation on the region they chose. The staff made a couple of homemade pizzas and provided wine, cheese and crackers. It was so nice to sit down with the students in person and enjoy the food they had made. Lots of pasta dishes and cocktails, surprise surprise! They are definitely easier to make.
After the potluck ended I snuck away back to my room to faceitme with my parents. We talked for almost two hours which was really nice. I hadn't talked to them on the phone since right before the lockdown began. But I text them all the time, don't worry, they haven't been neglected. Midnight rolled around quickly and it was time to head to bed because I planned on getting up early to watch the sunrise at Monte Mario, but I can't get ahead of myself yet. That is to come in the next update!
Ciao,
The Brunette
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