Hey guys,

Well last time I posted was from Ireland. Since then I've seen a little bit of England, spent Christmas with a random family whom I met online, did the boogie with half of my ethnic roots in Italy, and walked to Switzerland from there.
The real reason I went to Italy was to attend a youth conference: the annual Taize European Youth meeting. Taize is an ecumenical community in France, well known for a distinctive kind of meditative common song and prayer. Its recurrant themes are inner peace and human solidarity. That is quite vauge yet is the essential reality of what it's about.

Fortunately, Christmas was not as difficult as I thought it would be.
Disappointingly, I did not find what I was looking for at Taize.
Unexpectedly, the most spiritual time I had during my whole break was the day I walked to Switzerland, when I took off without a map, and walked from the train station to the edge of the city, and over the mountains on my own in silence.

Hey I can't believe we've known each other a year.
I had this funny thought: that day we (minus Emily at this point) all met in the airport, it was so awkward. We were all tired and unfamiliar and not entirely sure what to make of each other. And now a year later, what wouldn't I give to be back in JFK for a few hours with the same group of people!
It is still simultaneouly heart-warming and heart-breaking to look at the group pictures from New Year's Eve.

This week term number two out of three will begin in Oxford. In eight weeks this term will be over, and I will fly back to the States for the majority of my spring break. I will wear a green bridesmaid dress and speak at a wedding in PA. I will give Christmas presents to my family. I will contemplate the fact that a mere eight weeks and thirteen research papers separate me from an undergraduate degree. I'll reflect that I look rather silly in green, but remind myself that the wedding is decidedly not about me.

For now I will end this correspondance with the most sincere expressions of love to you all, as well as hopes that Dena gets that foaming at the mouth checked out. (can dogs carry bird flu? because didn't you get bit in Turkey?...)

keep it real (but not too serious),
Chels

P.S. Corrine, when are you getting married? Do you have a date yet? I love your Christmas photos!! The one with your hair fanned out on the floor....my family wanted me to do that with my sister one year. She flatly refused. I vehemently refused. We never took the picture. It really looks fantastic with you four.