Wednesday, February 02, 2005
Alright, alright, I'm sorry it's been many a day since I posted. I've been busy, and stuff, okay? Anyway, I know you all are itching to here about the march, so I'm here to deliver.
So we packed and boarded the bus at Benedictine around 4 pm the friday before last. Rearing to go, we prayed with Father Minerad, sung the fight song, and headed off. The drivers were scheduled to trade off every four hours, so the next stop was going to be somewhere in St. Louis for dinner.
The trip there was loads of fun! I got to know all kinds of upperclassmen that I never would have on the bus ride: Kahki, Brian, Bryce, Tom- really good people that I didn't really know about. I had a friend that was taking a plane over to DC for the trip, and at first I was kinda wishing I was taking a plane ride too; after the bus ride, though, I wouldn't ever trade the bus for a plane.
Anyway, a full day later, on Saturday, we arrived at the Holiday Inn near the National Airport. We checked in, and Rob and some friends walked down to a Chili's for dinner. After some food and picture taking, we went back to our rooms and I learned how to play Phase 10.
The vigil mass for the march wasn't until 8 pm on Sunday, so we essentially had almost a full day to do whatever we wanted. Me and Rob woke up around 8:30 the next morning, and then met up with some other freshman before heading over to the Metro station nearby. (the Metro was lots of fun, by the way!) We all rode the blue line down to the Smithsonian area and went to our first stop, the Holocoust museum. I don't know if anyone reading this has ever been to the Smithsonian Holocoust musem, but it's a museum I won't be forgetting any time soon. The four floors of the permanent exhibit chronicle the the opressed under Hitler's Nazis during World War Two. It was pretty disturbing what happened, and I'm glad I got to be reminded of it all. Actually, the whole thing reminded me of why I was here in the first place: So do you think, years and years from now, people will be walking through a Smithsonian dedicated to the culture of death?
Sorry, sidetracking! The Musuem lasted about four hours or so, and afterward our group rode the Metro over to Union Station for lunch. Boy, lemmie tell ya, food in DC isn't cheap at all! The steak sandwich I had was tasty, though, so I guess the rediculous amount of money was worth it!
After we ate, we went back to the National Mall for some more sightseeing. We stopped at the White House, Lincoln Memorial, and various war memorials. It was freezing cold outside while we were doing this, so we tried to do it as quick as possible. We also stopped at the brand new WWII meorial, which was very cool. I'd never seen it in pictures or anything before, so the whole memorial was completely new to me. I liked it; it seemed like a fitting memorial for the biggest war in history.
After a quick stop at the hotel to change, we all headed over to the Catholic University of America campus for mass at the National Shrine. I've been there before and remember it pretty clearly, but it was still very cool to see again. By the time we got there, the entire upper lever was packed; we were forced to go sit in the Crypt Church, where they had some tv's set up to see what was going on upstairs.
The March started the next day, and apperently BC has a tradition of getting to the rally really early, so after some dinner, we all went to bed. The plan was to check out the next morning and pack the bus, so that we could eat lunch and then leave straight from the march.
Everything worked according to plan, and on Sunday we arrived at the march a few hours before the rally. After some rosaries and chatting with other groups, the whole event finally started. The rally mainly consisted of some congressman coming to speak to us, a call from the President, and some singing. Before the march actually started, Norma McCorvey- The Roe of Roe vs. Wade - made a short speech, encouraging us in what we were doing. We got a blessing from one of the bishops there, and then were off!
The march proceeded up Constitution Avenue, curving around Congress until it ended at the Supreme Court building. It was a lot of fun, and really cool seeing all these pro-life people marching down the heart of Washington, DC. I'll never forget it.
There was some more rallying at the building, and then we all went down to Union Station for lunch before leaving. Almost as cool as seeing the thousands marching was seeing those same thousands in the Union Station food court all at once! The place was stuffed full of people- bathroom lines were rediculously long, there was barely any open floorspace to sit (sitting on actual tables was out of the question), and getting food took at least ten minutes at pretty much any of the stands. I decided to wait out until the bus made it's next stop.
The drive back was relatively uneventful, although I do know how to play spades now. Completely different from hearts, that game. It was fun.
All in all, I had an awesome time. I definately am planning to go next year, as well as bringing some more friends, so we can all enjoy the March for Life and what it stands for.
So we packed and boarded the bus at Benedictine around 4 pm the friday before last. Rearing to go, we prayed with Father Minerad, sung the fight song, and headed off. The drivers were scheduled to trade off every four hours, so the next stop was going to be somewhere in St. Louis for dinner.
The trip there was loads of fun! I got to know all kinds of upperclassmen that I never would have on the bus ride: Kahki, Brian, Bryce, Tom- really good people that I didn't really know about. I had a friend that was taking a plane over to DC for the trip, and at first I was kinda wishing I was taking a plane ride too; after the bus ride, though, I wouldn't ever trade the bus for a plane.
Anyway, a full day later, on Saturday, we arrived at the Holiday Inn near the National Airport. We checked in, and Rob and some friends walked down to a Chili's for dinner. After some food and picture taking, we went back to our rooms and I learned how to play Phase 10.
The vigil mass for the march wasn't until 8 pm on Sunday, so we essentially had almost a full day to do whatever we wanted. Me and Rob woke up around 8:30 the next morning, and then met up with some other freshman before heading over to the Metro station nearby. (the Metro was lots of fun, by the way!) We all rode the blue line down to the Smithsonian area and went to our first stop, the Holocoust museum. I don't know if anyone reading this has ever been to the Smithsonian Holocoust musem, but it's a museum I won't be forgetting any time soon. The four floors of the permanent exhibit chronicle the the opressed under Hitler's Nazis during World War Two. It was pretty disturbing what happened, and I'm glad I got to be reminded of it all. Actually, the whole thing reminded me of why I was here in the first place: So do you think, years and years from now, people will be walking through a Smithsonian dedicated to the culture of death?
Sorry, sidetracking! The Musuem lasted about four hours or so, and afterward our group rode the Metro over to Union Station for lunch. Boy, lemmie tell ya, food in DC isn't cheap at all! The steak sandwich I had was tasty, though, so I guess the rediculous amount of money was worth it!
After we ate, we went back to the National Mall for some more sightseeing. We stopped at the White House, Lincoln Memorial, and various war memorials. It was freezing cold outside while we were doing this, so we tried to do it as quick as possible. We also stopped at the brand new WWII meorial, which was very cool. I'd never seen it in pictures or anything before, so the whole memorial was completely new to me. I liked it; it seemed like a fitting memorial for the biggest war in history.
After a quick stop at the hotel to change, we all headed over to the Catholic University of America campus for mass at the National Shrine. I've been there before and remember it pretty clearly, but it was still very cool to see again. By the time we got there, the entire upper lever was packed; we were forced to go sit in the Crypt Church, where they had some tv's set up to see what was going on upstairs.
The March started the next day, and apperently BC has a tradition of getting to the rally really early, so after some dinner, we all went to bed. The plan was to check out the next morning and pack the bus, so that we could eat lunch and then leave straight from the march.
Everything worked according to plan, and on Sunday we arrived at the march a few hours before the rally. After some rosaries and chatting with other groups, the whole event finally started. The rally mainly consisted of some congressman coming to speak to us, a call from the President, and some singing. Before the march actually started, Norma McCorvey- The Roe of Roe vs. Wade - made a short speech, encouraging us in what we were doing. We got a blessing from one of the bishops there, and then were off!
The march proceeded up Constitution Avenue, curving around Congress until it ended at the Supreme Court building. It was a lot of fun, and really cool seeing all these pro-life people marching down the heart of Washington, DC. I'll never forget it.
There was some more rallying at the building, and then we all went down to Union Station for lunch before leaving. Almost as cool as seeing the thousands marching was seeing those same thousands in the Union Station food court all at once! The place was stuffed full of people- bathroom lines were rediculously long, there was barely any open floorspace to sit (sitting on actual tables was out of the question), and getting food took at least ten minutes at pretty much any of the stands. I decided to wait out until the bus made it's next stop.
The drive back was relatively uneventful, although I do know how to play spades now. Completely different from hearts, that game. It was fun.
All in all, I had an awesome time. I definately am planning to go next year, as well as bringing some more friends, so we can all enjoy the March for Life and what it stands for.
Sounds like you had a grand old time. Glad to read about it. No way would my school have sponsored a trip like that! "Culture of Death? What's that? Can we have gay ministers yet?" Their idiology (idiot + ideology) is getting really old. So tell me, Did you get any sleep on the whole trip? I suppose they didn't exactly calculate homework into the experince... What are you taking this semester? (Sorry, random question.)
