Yay!

It's been a good several days... I really wish I could post all the pictures for every time I've thought "I wish I had a picture of that". Most recently we set up Christmas decorations in studio, so now we have our very own tree and garlands and lights, and people have been playing Christmas carols. Just the process of getting ready was great- it was really relaxing to take a time out from school and life to decorate. Rome is starting to get ready too- some of the shops have garlands and lights are strung across some of the streets. Pizza Navona has temporary stands all along it that sell Christmas things and treats, and there was a sign up in studio today for tickets to midnight mass at St. Peter's.
We've had rain for a couple of days, so I went to the Tiber tonight and it was flooded. It's probably 6-8 feet higher than normal, and it's way wider and faster than normal- it even covers the embankments that you can normally walk on along the river. Apparently November is the rainiest month here, so hopefully it will rain a little bit less during the rest of the year, although a big plus for the rain is that when it does we have to move inside for graphics, where we have a chance to stay warm!
I've also been trying to consciously distance myself from work- it's finally been ehough time that people are branching out and doing some other things. On Fridays a group of people go and play soccer; Sunday there's Ultimate Frisbee; Tuesday there's choir, and Wednesday there's a faith formation discussion led by some pretty cool seminarians. For the faith formation tonight we had a group dinner- I'm so stuffed! We had spaghetti carbonera and an amazing salad and bread and fruit with cream cheese and chocolate cookie flake dip. Sooo good! Nothing like faith formation, let me tell you!