Poland.. you changed my life.

welp,
i have an hour until my first class starts.. hopefully i can finish this by then! There will be no pictures until a later date bc of how slow the internet here is.. either check my facebook or wait.. very very patiently. :P

WHERE TO START?! okay, so we left Thursday from Gaming around 8pm, we watched the movie Karol, a story about JPII's life before and after his Pope-ship.. it was AMAZING and really got us all in the mind set for Poland.

Right, so we arrived in Czestochowa at 5:45 am and we wanted to make it to the unveiling of Our Lady's image at 6, so we legit SPRINTED up a hill and through some archways to get there.. and it was one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen/heard. There were trumpets and drums playing while the image slowly appeared behind a screen thing.. we were all exhausted/having asthma attacks from sitting on a bus for about 9 hours and sprinting.. but it was totally worth it! We ate breakfast and then had time to explore the church that Our Lady is in.. They have modern stations where Jesus' passion is depitced with things that the Poles have gone through recently, including the holocaust, communist rule, etc.. (JPII, St. Maximillian Kolbe, and Mother Teresa were in images) They were very neat. I then offered my intentions/vocation to Our Lady by going on my knees around the church while they were having mass, being able to kiss the back of the image, and then drop off my intentions to her. <3 On the side of the image is JPII's stole he was wearing when he was shot during his papalcy. He gave it to Our Lady because he said itwas her that saved him.. that was really neat because it had his blood on it..and I got to see it, and he'll be a saint soon.. so I saw a sain't blood! so neat. We had mass in front of the miraclous image (who has scars on her face from Turkish attacks yet has even more beautiful radiance) and then we got back on a bus and went to Auschwitz.

Well.. let's start off here by saying that you need to put yourself in my state of mind when I say things about Auschwitz. Anything I say is 'neat' or 'cool', isn't really neat or cool, but being able to be there was.. okaaaay, so there are 2 parts to Auschwitz, I and II. I is the one with the sign "Work Will Set You Free" on it that people usually think of when they think of Auschwitz, however..that camp was much smaller and more modernized (they turned it into a museum) than camp II. In camp I however, I got to see barack 11.. the only barack that is exactly the same as it was in the 30's-40's. In there is cell #28, where St. Maximillian Kolbe died. It was really awesome to be able to see that and send up a prayer to such an inspiring, life-giving saint at his death site. A candle from JPII resides in his cell. In camp I, I also got to go through the only remaining gas chamber they have in Poland. I cannot descibe how I felt after leaving the premises. Seeing how small and cramped it was, the little squares at the top where Cyclone B (the gas) was thrown into, seeing 2 incenerators on the other side, and knowing that thousands upon thousands had lost their lives exactly where I was standing almost made me sick. We left there soon after that and headed to Auschwitz II, which looked like the concentration camp most imagine from movies/pictures. When you walked in you could see the railroad tracks that brought the Jews to the selection point, barracks upon barracks going both ways, and mounds of rock/dirt where they tried to explode the gas chambers so no one would know what occurred there.
Seeing Auschwitz was something I, a WWII junkie, always wanted to see before I died, and now that I did.. I promise you, I will never go back.
After Auschwitz and Our Lady of Czestochowa.. it was a very emotionally draining day, we went to our hotel in Krakow, got dinner, showered, and went to bed.

On Saturday we got up nice and early to tour the castle and Cathedral of Krakow, which was.. alright, boring.. and my mind is currently blanking on what we did after that.. but I'm pretty sure all we did was grab lunch (pierogies, duh! I was in Poland!) and then we got back on a bus for the Shrine of Divine Mercy, which was a little outside of Krakow. I hope you know a little something something about Divine Mercy.. if not, I'd advise you to look it up! :) I got to see the convent where Sr. Faustina saw our Lord, the very first image that was drawn of Divine Mercy (Jesus, I trust in You.), pray in front of her relic, do a chaplet of divine mercy in the convent church, hear a talk from one of her sisters, Sr. Gaudia who was just lovely!, go to mass at the Shrine chapel dedicated to her, have some alone time on this huge tower overlooking Poland, and receive confession from a Polish priest! (who spoke a little bit of English-'"talk slow, use easy words") This combine with Auschwitz really made me think about some not so awesome things that have occured in my past and really brough this desire for forgiveness and to let go of all the baggage and just live my life to the fullest. Sr. Gaudia talked about a playground analogy.. where kids when they play don't continually go up to their parents and ask, am i doing this right? is this how you swing? What if I fall off these monkey bars? They just do, they are themselves and they live and play..and that is how we are to be with the Father.. we shouldn't continually ask, is this how I do this? What if this goes wrong? What if I can't. We just need to trust. and Do not be afriad! (which is said 365 imes in the bible..why? bc we have to say it EVERY DAY!) So..just be w/ the Father. Let Him love you and BE! <3 The rest will take care of itself.

After the Shrine we went back to Krakow to the really cute maket square they have, hung out, got some delic desserts, ate good dinner, took some fun pictures, pretended we were the backstreet boys/girls international, went to a dance club, and went back home to sleep. If anyone knows me well enough,you willbe a little disheartened to hear that that mystery illness occurred Saturday night, so the meds here aren't doing the trick..but God's will be done! I'll save some babies with suffering!!

On Sunday we had a high mass (Latin) in the Krakow cathedral and then we had about 4 hours of free time..so Hannah, Jen, Leann, Danielle, and I rode on a fun little cart (like a golf cart w/ more seats) through the streets of Krakow to visit the main Jewish ghetto and Schindler's Factory.. both which were very sad. The ghetto had 3 walls remaining from the 30's-40's, that the Nazi's made look like Jewish tombstones so they would psych them out.. They had a memorial made to those who lost their lives there. We sadly did not get to tour Schindler's factory but we saw the outside and went on the inside part, just not into the muesum type thing (we're college student studying abroad.. wedon't have the $$ for muesums!) and then we took thefun little cart home! Jen and I sat in the back and numerous Poles laughed at our ridiculousness. We hung out in Krakow for a bit longer and then boarded the buses yet again for Wadowice.. which is where JPII is from. We prayed in front of Our Lady of Calvary where he often went, and I got to see his papal chair that was sent there (which had the marian symbol on it! <3<3) and then we went to another church in Wadowice where JPII went.. allthe time bc he lived there..and it is the location of where he prayed to an image of Our Lady of Pepetual Help, where he received his call to the priesthood--so I got to pray for my vocation in the same spot he received his call! and i lit a candle. ISN'T THAT AWESOME?! We had pope cake (the cake heliked to eat) and then boarded the bus for the 9 hr or so bus ride back to Gaming..

I hope I accurately described how incredible Poland was. They have been through so much hardship and suffering yet God continues to pour such graces upon them for it and shares it w/ us Americans as we made our pilgrammage there. I just cannot thank the Lord and Our Lady enough for the past weekend.

Continuing on my Mary high.. Some friends and I are traveling to France this weekend to see Paris for a day and Our Lady of Lourdes for a day! wooo-hooo. I'll be in a train almost as much asI'll be ther..but hey, it's worth it! :)

ANDDD when I got back to the Kartause, I got a very nice letter from mybest friend, Rachel Rea!! :) and a package from my family..with peanut butter!!! and other American food! yayayaya! Thank you!

I miss you guys. Thanks for taking care of my family, esp the peanut. She's kicking butt in karate today and I'm going to skype her so I'm excited about that. We have our second football game on Thursday.. We dominated the first game..did I say that? I don't remember..

well, anyways..thanks for reading this longblog. Pray to Our Lady-She's incredible, and beautiful and just.. amazing.

Love always,
His child.