In this episode: More CNMC experiences: the trip home; American Food & Beer stories; Lutheran Mariology. Leave feedback at spiritualjourneypodcast@gmail.com or leave a comment on the blog.
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After such an intense week in another part of the world it is so weird to be back into ‘normal life’. Everybody here is just living like nothing special happened when at the same time I’m running around like a chipmunk on steroids because I’m still very excited about the stuff that went on last week.
It’s hard to get back into ‘normal mode’ for me, because the excitement of having been there and not being able to share it with my fellow parishioners is hard. It’s like falling into a black pit. I now understand how people attending World Youth Day must have felt after returning to their homes: You are extremely excited and they look lukewarm from your point of view.
Decompressing and taking it all in are important to me, because usually I don’t deal really well with a lot of excitement and being extremely social. It’s now time to sit down and look back. Decide what to do with all the input I got last week. I did the blogging track for a reason: I’m much more a writer then a podcaster and am thinking about starting a Catholic blog for a while already. My experiences with the Catholic Internet presence in The Netherlands are very important for choosing my tone and focus.
An Atheist turning Catholic: the long journey home.
I already said this at the blogging track session with the American Papist: back when I was an Atheist I was an early adopter of the Internet. When I got interested in faith, the most natural thing for me was to look up things on-line. I did not know any practising Christians in person, so everything I thought of them was based on what I read on-line. What struck me about the Catholics on-line was that they were very sour: they were writing about what was wrong with everything and how they hated current developments in the Church or if they liked the developments in the Church, they hated the ones who hated the developments in the Church. The overall tone was very argumentative, negative and sour. It’s not hard to imagine that Catholicism didn’t look appealing at all, judging from the stuff I read on-line.
If I ever would become a Christian, I most certainly would not become a Catholic in the early 2000s. Remember that shortly after that the whole abuse scandal started, and the Church was portrayed as a horrible organisation nobody really wanted to belong to and those who did were apologising for being Catholic. At least, that’s what the impression on-line was.
Being convinced I needed to be baptised I went to an Orthodox Protestant church and tried to make the best of it. I didn’t fit in, no matter how hard I tried. In 2004 I gave up on the whole project of trying to be a good Protestant. I wasn’t cut out to be one, being accused of all kinds of Papist heresies. In the meanwhile I met a person on-line who was calling herself “Free Catholic” on different internet discussion boards and being the moderator of everything Non-Christian (beliefs not in line with the Nicene Creed) I had to deal a lot with her. I remember we had lengthy discussions about the idea that everybody is a sinner and therefore needs redemption. She totally disagreed with that. We even got in such a big dispute that she didn’t want to talk to me any more.
I don’t know what happened or what I wrote in reply to another person, but it made her read Romans chapters 5 to 7. Then the coin dropped for her and she saw the need of redemption and why she couldn’t stay “Free Catholic”. She returned to the church she grew up in: The Roman Catholic Church. I was happy she returned to Christianity but why she would join that horrible group called Catholics was a mystery to me.
She was a very happy Catholic, we got in touch again and she knew that I was an avid Star Wars & science fiction fan, therefore she shared that her pastor had the same hobbies, was probably as nerdy as I am and that we absolutely had to meet. The name of her pastor was Fr. Roderick Vonhögen, and before I actually got to listen to him and meet him I didn’t believe a single word from what she was saying. My prejudice was that priests were dorky and old-fashioned at the best and liberal semi-heretics at the worst.
She made me subscribe to his podcast, the Catholic Insider and later also the Daily Breakfast was posted in the same feed. The rest is, so they say, history. I entered into full Communion with the Church in August 2008, after repeatedly telling everybody there was no way I would ever become a Catholic.
To outsiders the image of the Church is formed by us, who are Catholics and talk about our faith and our Church. We can chase away people from the Church and the Truth by being sour and negative. This means we have a responsibility, especially as lay people. We need to be aware of the effect words can have to people who miss the context we have.
Therefore I want to start a Catholic blog, but at the same time I want to be very careful in the way I communicate my faith. I need to show the faith to others, instead of being a road block on other people’s path to holiness.
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In this episode I give an update on my travels to the US, which involved a miracle, I watched Alice in Wonderland on the plane and I’ve been shopping for books at Borders.
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The flight back home was completely uneventful, just like I hoped for. I fell asleep around 03:00 AM Central European Time, which would be 9:00PM Eastern Time, two hours after departure. I always set my watch to the new time zone as soon as I sit in the plane. I also saw on the monitors that our estimated time of arrival was 7:30 AM Amsterdam time, so I would have very little sleep, if any. I thought my sleeping aid wasn’t working, so I took another one to knock me out quickly. This was a bad idea, as it turned out later.
I woke up around 6:00 AM, so I had maybe 3 hours of sleep and I was extremely drowsy. Breakfast was served and I tried to squeeze in as much as I could. Their idea was to have the cereal that was similar to cruesli with milk. I always have found that a horrible combination. So I had it with the strawberry yoghurt instead. I could not finish the rest. I had a croissant, but that was about it. To sleepy to eat. Between that and the landing I dozed a bit. After landing in Schiphol Airport and deplaning I waited for Fr. Roderick to arrive from the back of the plane and together we walked to baggage claim. Since I was a standby passenger, they put in my luggage last, which meant it came out first. Fr. had already bought a train ticket, and I should have checked my credit on the chip card I was using but my drowsiness made my thinking slow.
I topped up my credit at the machines at Schiphol Plaza while Fr. was yelling our train was leaving within two minutes. Of course the machine refused to read my travel bank card, so I quickly tried the other one which worked. Fr. dashed of with my luggage, so I had no choice then going after him. I checked in at the gate near the door, followed Fr. in the train and was ready to pass out. That was WAY TOO MUCH excitement for a sleepy Inge early in the morning. I was happy I travelled with Father, because our chatting kept me awake.
In Amsterdam Central Station we changed to a train to Amersfoort and in Amersfoort we said goodbye and exchanged hugs. I had to transfer to a Groningen bound train. I am happy I pass through Amersfoort so often, because now I can find the platform for the Groningen train blindfolded. Being extremely sleepy is almost the same as being blindfolded. I got a quiet seat in the corner, put my bag under my seat and without Father’s chatter to keep me awake I quickly fell asleep again. I woke up shortly in Zwolle, because the train was standing at the platform somewhat longer then usual, only to doze off again when we left for Groningen.
It was shortly before noon when I arrived back in Groningen, and knowing I had to keep awake, I decided to go to the cathedral for the Rosary and Daily Mass. I parked my bag in a corner of the Rectory and wanted to go back into the church when I heard the voice of my parish priest calling my name. I don’t know how I looked like, but I must have shared close resemblance to a zombie. He told me he had received a letter for the Freshman Introduction Team, for an event starting Monday and he wanted to know how things were going. I replied I didn’t know since I just came back from the United States. He said I should be asleep then. Frankly, sleeping is about the only thing I wanted to do at that point, but I also knew that would be a very bad idea. I had to try to stay awake at least until 8:00 PM.
At one point I managed to enter the church for the Rosary but noticed that I dozed off half way through the chaplet and was too tired to say the Hail Mary. I was a bit bummed I couldn’t attend Mass, because I would almost certain fall asleep during Mass, therefore I went home.
I just unpacked everything when my mom called: she was coming over at 4:00 PM to see how I was. I could tell her I was sleepy. But I was glad she came, because I could share my stories and she would help me stay up a little bit more. We had burgers for dinner with a salad and around 7:00 PM she went home, ordering me to go to bed because I was almost sleep walking.
Sleeping is exactly what I’m going to do after I get my laundry out of the machine and clicking ‘Publish’ after writing this blog post.
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On Tuesday we got up early because we wanted to visit the Science Museum in Boston. If you ever visit the Boston area, I recommend visiting this museum, because it’s awesome. First because it has a Naboo Star Fighter suspended at the ceiling and second because it’s very kid friendly and allows them to climb everything and do all kinds of exciting experiments.
After having the leftover donuts for breakfast and discovering that the only way to lure Fr. Roderick out of his room is twittering about donuts and coffee, we went out to the Museum of Science. I really REALLY liked this. There were several shows, Fr. got heaps of new podcasting ideas after watching the “This Week In Science” presentation and I just enjoyed watching the kids being excited over science. Yes, I am a science nerd. I totally dig it.
I also had to laugh very hard when we had our lunch in the museum’s restaurant. We could choose different kinds of food, from Italian to sandwiches, BBQ and grill. We went for the grill and ordered a bun with meat and sauce and two sides. I always want to try the local food whenever possible, so I had the Boston Baked Beans and Cornbread as a side. I never tasted American Dr. Pepper, so I had that as a drink. We couldn’t sit at one table with the five of us, so we split up: Father Roderick and I sat at a table with a stunning view over the river and Zina sat behind us with the kids. For some reason we decided we needed to take pictures of us eating. I took a picture of Fr. happily showing a spoonful of beans he was about to try out. The face he pulled after eating it was priceless, so I took a picture of that too. We both didn’t like the Boston Baked Beans. I think we both expected to taste something savoury and it turned out to be extremely sweet. I guess it’s a love it or hate it thing, because I cannot imagine the combination beans with molasses: it’s horrible.
The cornbread was way sweeter then the stuff I had earlier and so was the Dr. Pepper. I think they adjust the taste of soda to every country’s taste, because both the Diet Coke and the Dr. Pepper taste different in Europe: the American version is MUCH sweeter. I was afraid my teeth would fall out!
After having seen about half of the museum we had to go to the airport. I bought a bottle of water because I was very thirsty, at least that’s what I thought, because the central part of the water was solid ice, so I couldn’t finish everything before going through security. I figured that the water I did have would keep my hydrated until I got on the plane.
Security and customs out of the US is peanuts compared to getting in, so we were at the gate pretty quickly. There were signs that indicated we could use free WiFi at Logan, but getting online was more tricky than it sounded. I think I had to click at least a dozen buttons before connecting to Facebook. The standby list showed only two people, with me being listed first. I asked the agent at the gate what the procedure was, because I knew it was different from Amsterdam. This also gave me the opportunity to make contact with them identifying myself as one of the two standby people. I always do this, because if anything is going on, they know who to look for. The agent informed me getting on this flight would be easy because it wasn’t a busy flight. I hoped to get a seat near where Fr. Roderick was sitting, not to chat, because I wanted to sleep as soon as possible but just because it would be more comfy to sit near to someone you know.
My jaw dropped when I saw the cleared list: I got seat 03J, which means a business class window seat in an Airbus A300. I have no clue why they did this, because there were a lot of empty seats in coach as well. This the first time I ever cross the Atlantic two ways in Business class. I felt guilty because Fr. Roderick got a seat in the back of the plane. An Airbus makes those fish tail movements in flight, so you can get really nauseous in the back of the plane. Father said I deserved it and twittered happily about my seating. I had to board first because of my seating, but I needed to get a boarding pass first. That took a while because the computer refused to print one. I was at the back of the line when boarding, so I didn’t see Father anymore.
I am always amazed what they serve in Business Class: champagne, wine, more wine (in real glasses) and the food is excellent. I skipped the Tiramisu dessert because I was really tired and full and could only think about sleeping. I took a sleeping aid I bought at CVS and dozed off, hoping to wake up somewhere over the UK.
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This was a very relaxed day against all odds. I thought I would be running all over the place, but it wasn’t that bad.. I wanted to go out to downtown Boston early, but it was very hot and humid today. It’s the kind of weather that makes my asthma worse so I decided to just go to Boston Common and look around there in the shade near the water.
Zina had to bring Jeff to his work first, and nearby there would be an opportunity for me to shop at Borders. You have to know that book stores are extremely dangerous for me: if I don’t pay attention I will leave the place with lots of books and a depleted bank account. Thank God I don’t have a credit card. Somehow I managed to spend $120 anyway. I bought all kinds of books I needed for “research”. I’m on the Secrets of Middle-earth panel and have a lot of Tolkien books already. The only problem is that they are in Dutch. A lot of names and places have been translated. This makes talking about them in English extremely complicated. My mission was to get the basic books in English: The Lord of The Rings and The Hobbit. I ended buying those books plus the Children of Húrin, History of Middle-earth volume 1-5, History of Western Philosophy by Bertrand Russell (on sale) and an illustrated book on Catholicism for $6. Books in the United States are SO CHEAP compared to Europe where you have to pay the same price, but then in Euros. With the euro being worth $1.30 when I changed it, this means books were 30% cheaper in the US. I really need a chaperone next time I visit a book store here.
Zina also wanted to go to Boston Common to take the kids to the Frog Pond and let them ride on the carousel, so therefore we went there by bus and underground. I think Americans call this subway and Bostonians “T”. The carousel at the west side of the Frog Pond, near the stop Park Street on the Red Line, is an old restored landmark and rides cost a whopping $3 per kid. We just finished our first ride when my phone rang. It was Fr. Roderick who had said good bye to Cliff and wanted to tag along with us. We would wait near the carousel, because that was a landmark that’s easy to find for him. I paid for an extra ride on it to entertain the kids while waiting for Father. After a while we went uphill to see a civil war monument, at least that is what I think it was when Fr. Roderick called us again. I saw him standing downhill while calling me, so I waved to show him where we were.
Together we took the Subway, or the “T”, which the kids loved. At Harvard Station we took the bus to where Zina lives. I had some time to refresh myself and then we went out for dinner. Matthew Warner had mentioned they had some food at Summer Shack, so Jeff and Zina decided we should have dinner there too. Food was great over there, can highly recommend it. Also they keep track of allergies to make sure every need is looked into. Their service was great as well. If I ever go back to Boston and visit Zina (I now know how to get there using the T), I definitely will take them out to eat there. 
I was surprised to learn that Jeff and Zina made a stop at Dunkin’ Donuts and Trader Joe’s. On the way home Fr. Roderick and I were in a teasing mood, I guess my teasing mood was worse than his so I was making jokes about pushing him into the sprinklers near the sidewalk which were turned on to irrigate the lawns. He dashed off with the box of donuts and I got soaking wet from the sprinklers when they suddenly all turned my way. God punishes immediately, I guess. Fr. thought that was very amusing.
At home I learned that the donuts, which I figured were for breakfast, were supposed to be eaten late at night. I told Fr. this is the infamous ‘late night donut run’ which upset Jillian Michaels a lot. Everybody who has seen “Losing it with Jillian” knows what I mean. Of course we had to post a picture with Fr. and a box full of Dunkin’ Donuts to Facebook, just because.
When it was near eleven o’clock I felt how tired I was and went to bed.
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At first I didn’t have a real idea on what to do for Mass on Sunday. I got up and went downstairs just to figure out if other people would go to Mass somewhere just to tag along. I saw Steve walking around rounding up people to get on the bus for Catholic TV Mass and a tour of the studios. I signed up last-minute, so the tour to the studios was already full and therefore I didn’t have a ticket for that. Steve told me there were some last minute cancellations and I could join them if I wanted to. I was intrigued by the whole idea of “Catholic TV” and didn’t know what to think of it, so I joined them just to see what it was like.
We were greeted by Fr. Reed who invited us to join for Mass, he and Fr. Vonhögen concelebrated Mass and again I had the same feeling I had when Fr. Reed did his keynote a day earlier: it felt scripted and distant like he wasn’t being himself. Again, I don’t know Fr. Reed, but this is just the feeling I got. People who weren’t able to attend Mass didn’t miss a lot of things except for the great homily given by Fr. Roderick.
After Mass there was a tour of the studios and I couldn’t stop thinking how great it would be to have something like this in Europe. Something like Catholic Eurovision, maybe we can call it Vatican TV or so. I’m sure it’s possible to set something like this up over here as well: making sure it’s privately funded to avoid all kinds of politics involved in the programming schedule. I think most bishops would back up an idea like this, when it’s clear it won’t cost them any money.
After the tour of the studios we got a light lunch involving donuts, muffins and other unhealthy stuff. They did offer a fruit salad, but they mixed the fruits so I couldn’t eat it as I’m allergic to some kinds of strawberries. We got a goodie bag with a Catholic TV travelling mug, a comb (really!), 3D glasses (the cheap ones) and some magazine. I kept the travelling mug, hoping it would fit in my expanding suitcase.
When we got back at the hotel I could get my suitcase, because we checked out before we left for Mass. I wasn’t sure what to do: going back to Cambridge, drop off the bag and go to the Tweetup or go directly to the Tweetup. Since we were running out of time and I bumped into Fr. Roderick and Cliff Ravenscraft in the lobby we ended up getting a cab and the gentlemen thought it would be nice if I would sit next to the driver. I took the opportunity to pay for the ride, since everybody has been paying for all kinds of stuff for me me already. I felt grateful to be able to return the favour in a small way.
The Tweetup was great, the beer at John Harvard’s Brew House was great, too. I will never say again that American beer is horrible. Microbrews can be great, like the ones I got over there. After the Tweetup was over we went home to get Stephanie, who ended up caming out at Alewife station because of construction works at the Red Line and Stephanie’s luggage at Jeff and Zina’s. Somehow Matthew Warner showed up as well, he also was heading to the airport and Jeff gave both a ride to Logan.
Zina, the kids and I stayed at home and I took the opportunity to decompress. I usually get pretty worn out when I meet a lot of people in a short time. Being in a crowd costs me a lot of energy. But I didn’t mind. The Tweetup was great!
Because there was confusion at my side which plane to Amsterdam I would take and the realisation that I would be on the same plane with Fr. Roderick, which was on Tuesday, not Monday made me quickly reschedule all kinds of things.
Tired, but satisfied I went to bed, knowing I had a whole day to decompress, see a bit of the city of Boston without the pressure of having to wait out on the airport to see if I could make it on a flight: according to the sold tickets and the stand-by list (2 people, with me being first) I probably would make it on the first flight I was listed for.
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I don’t think it is possible to wrap the whole day in one single blog post. Too much good stuff during the keynotes and the break-out sessions and lots of food for thought. I think I need to ruminate for a while on everything before being able to write about it. Instead, I want to summarize the days as it happened outside those sessions: the get-together of all these great people.
The folks at SQPN always stress that this event is not a conference, but a celebration. And boy, did we share in the joy of faith. We were brought to the Archdiocese’s Pastoral Center in Braintree, MA, which is about 10 miles south of Boston. It’s a very new accommodation given to the archdiocese by a local benefactor after they had to sell most of their possessions after the whole abuse scandal ten years ago. It is very modern, has all facilities and very fast internet. I was surprised to see lots of people watching the ustream feed that was being broadcast from the same connection and it didn’t glitch. The bandwidth must have been over a gigabyte per second.
After we arrived at the centre, we got breakfast and coffee before moving over to the big room for the opening session. I will discuss the other sessions in upcoming blogposts and only get to the opening and closing session here. I loved the session with Mac Barron. For me it was immediately clear that he was doing a spoof on an Apple Keynote. He talked and moved like Steve Jobs, he even wore a similar sweater. It was too funny to hear afterwards that a lot of people didn’t get it, especially given the amount of Apple gadgets at the celebration. I think I counted more iPads in the room then there would be in any given Apple Store. And then the Macbooks and iPhones… It was too funny!
For me, the opening session was also an opportunity to upload stuff online, because my internet connection at the hotel wasn’t working. I had to sign up for internet at the desk, then I had to give my credit card details and if I would be a member of the special program, then it would be for free. I don’t have a credit card, so therefore I couldn’t access free WiFi. Am I the only person who thinks this is moronic? But anyway: I did have internet at the pastoral center and tried to update my social networks, while listening to keynotes while making notes myself. I can imagine that if you are following me through various social networks, that the updates from me from the events were sparse. I’m sorry I cannot multi-task like that, even though I’m female. But I don’t think anybody minded it.
After the hilarious opening by Mac Barron it was time for an introduction by Scott Landry which gave me goosebumps. His story about how the Archdiocese got the Pastoral Center and how they got help after the disastrous financial situation after the abuse scandal was very touching. He was very real, his emotions were real. After that it was time for the first keynote by Fr. Reed from Catholic TV. I will discuss the contents of this session in a seperate blog posts, just like the contents of all the other sessions, because putting everything in one post wouldn’t give them the credit they deserve.
In between sessions there was time to get coffee, eat a bit, connect with people. I don’t know to who I talked, there were so many people I wanted to talk to, but there was so little time, I felt overwhelmed by everything. I hope in the future the CNMC will be more then one day, so I have a chance to genuinely talk to people and hear about what they do in New Media. I talked briefly to Denyse and Deborah, which I saw in person for the first time but I could not do quality time. I’m still a bit frustrated over that.
I also would have loved to make more audio recordings, but everything went by so fast: there simply wasn’t the time to do interviews. I think I got more out of it compared to last year when everything was so very new to me, so perhaps I won’t have this feeling of being overwhelmed as strongly as this year. What I will remember of all the interactions I had was the passion and joy everyone was radiating, you could clearly see that the Holy Spirit was working in overdrive.
The closing talk was by Cardinal Sean Patrick O’Malley. He encouraged us to continue and keep up the good work. But you could tell he didn’t really know who we were and what we are doing. That’s also what he said: before hosting the CNMC, he didn’t know what SQPN was and what we did. He talked about a Catholic radio station and a newspaper they started, which are of course not New Media, but “Old Media”. He explained how he got into blogging and shared his experiences in New Media. Basically the blog was something he was supposed to do for a visit to Rome, but because of the success and the fact they got 3.5 million hits in the first week, there was no way he could stop blogging.
I found it hard to connect to both Fr. Reed and Cardinal O’Malley. I think the reason is that both are not really connected to New Media. Fr. Reed does ‘Old Media’ with Catholic TV and seems to treat New Media as the internet variant of Old Media (which it isn’t) and Cardinal O’Malley’s talk was about the Catholic Newspaper and the Catholic Radio they used before. If he thinks that’s about the same as we do in New Media, then he clearly doesn’t “get” New Media. New Media is not a digital form of a newspaper and Catholic Internetradio. Both would be only broadcasting stuff, not interacting with the listeners/viewers. It shows that we need to reach out more to these kinds of people. When we teach them, when they ‘get’ New Media, it will be a great way to push things forward. That in itself is for me a great motivator to try to show bishops and other key figures what we can do on the internet and maybe get some funding or backup that way. I hope that the speakers who weren’t really into New Media yet also caught a glimpse from the joy and passion that was radiated in the corridors, I hope we were able to impress them and set them on fire as well.
We need to be ambitious and not accept mediocre results, neither should we strive for mediocre goals because we think we never can reach the ambitious ones. We shouldn’t think in terms of what is not possible, we should think of what is possible and aim for the highest goals, just like St. Paul said in the first letter to the Corinthians, chapter 9, verse 24-27 (NIV translation):
Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize.Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air. No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.
I think that’s the attitude we need to have when it comes to New Media.
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It didn’t come as a surprise that I was waking up at an extremely early time. I always do when travelling to the west. Sleeping in a household with little kids means I would have woken up early anyway so I didn’t really bother with it. I took a shower and played with the kids and dog for a bit. I love their dog, Sully, he’s great. I can tell he likes me too.
After breakfast I got the opportunity to geek out on the Liss’ iPad and totally want one, too. Unfortunately it’s not within my budget anytime soon. There are more pressing matters to address, like buying a couch. We were discussing what to do in Boston before I had to leave for downtown to check in at the hotel with the Beeghley family. We decided on doing the Unofficial Harvard Tour. If you ever want to do a tour of the Harvard University Campus, this one is highly recommended. The tourguides are Harvard students and they have a funny story to share. Because I did this tour, I can now officially say I went to Harvard.
There were a number of times I had to smile during the tour. It’s so funny to notice how much the perception of ‘old’ differs from the European perspective. Harvard is one of the oldest universities in the country, they said, being founded in 16 something. Most Dutch universities are at least a century older. I think Leiden University is from 1575 or thereabouts, my university is even older then Harvard: it was founded in 1609. But then again, when I look out of my window, I’m looking at a tower initially built in the 13th century.
Cambridge and Boston are old to American standards, and maybe that’s why I like them. They are pretty, they have a soul. I don’t know why, it must be the brick buildings. I think concrete and steel makes a construction very sterile. After the tour Zina, Steph and me had a burrito at a Taqueria. I never heard of them before. It’s the Spanish word for a taco shop, but they mainly sell burritos. They had great food, but I love Mexican food over everything else, so it’s not hard to please me that way.
After lunch we said goodbye to Zina who went home with the children. Stephanie and I went for a ride on the subway (red line) to Park Street, which would be close to the Omni Parker Hotel where I would stay the next two nights. The hotel would also be the place for the Meet & Greet later that evening. After I settled in my hotel room I was debating whether to go outside to take another tour or to wind down and decompress a bit more. Usually a Meet & Greet is pretty intense, so I decided to stay in my room, have a shower and hang out in the lobby for a bit to see if other people would show up.
This merged into going up to the Mezzanine level of the hotel for the actual Meet and Greet. First thing I had to do after entering the room was giving Fr. Roderick the whole story of my epic journey getting into the United States. It was the first (and only) chance to tell everything in Dutch. Later Captain Jeff dragged me to the table where Fr. Roderick was recording something and I had to sit down to tell my story again in English.
The Meet and Greet was very different for me compared to last year. I’m a shy and modest person and I’m not really comfortable in big crowds, but this was like a family reunion. Lots of people I met a year ago were here again and we hugged a lot. I start to get used to the American hugging thing already. I don’t mind it that much any more. The whole event touched my heart very much because it showed the essence of the CNMC: it’s a celebration most of all. It’s like being member of this big Catholic family and being loved for who you are no matter what. The joy and love was so omnipresent that evening that I got all teary-eyed towards the end of the event. I stayed a bit longer to help out with cleaning up and dragging a very heavy box to Pat Gohn’s car in a nearby car park. When we returned to the hotel, we ran into Fr. Roderick, Dr. Paul and a couple of other people who were going out for dinner. I realised it was past nine and the last thing I ate was the burrito for lunch. I was starving!
We ended up eating at a Irish Restaurant/Pub near the hotel, I think it was Emmets Irish Pub, but I’m not sure. I do know I had a GREAT stuffed chicken breast. It had cranberry in it and it was served with mashed potatoes. The beer in Boston was great too! I really do like Sam Adams beer! Before going to Boston I thought Budweiser when thinking of American beer, and thought also that was a horrible concoction. Sam Adams is almost as good as the Belgian ales I drink at home! I didn’t get the chance to pay for my dinner, because someone else paid for everyone. It’s so humbling to see the generosity and love of people for people they’ve never met before.
It was very late when I got back to my hotel room, past midnight. And now I have to prepare for bed and get up early for the CNMC. The buses leave at the front of the hotel at 7:30am already!
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Today it’s August 5 at the end of an extremely long day. I should be exhausted but oddly enough I’m full of energy. It’s running towards midnight and despite the lack of sleep during the past few days I’m wide awake. It must be the adrenaline rush. Let me describe what happened today. What happened today was nothing short of a miracle. I am currently in the United States, sitting at my bed in Zina’s house in Cambridge, MA.
Yesterday I left with the note I had to get up at 6:00am to be at the airport at 7:00am. I almost missed the train, but I got on in time anyway. I did not forget to check myself out this time, but had troubles checking myself in for the 11:15am flight at the kiosk. It turned out I wasn’t listed for the flight. The flight attendant at the desk got me listed and checked in and said it looked good with the current figures. That wouldn’t be hard, because if the plane leaves at 11:15, most people will check in after 8:00am and I was an hour earlier. I knew that there were only business class tickets for sale online, which meant to me that coach was full and with 10 people standing by, this wasn’t a great sign. This was confirmed by the flight attendant at the gate when I handed over my boarding pass. She thought there would be one or two seats available and with 10 people on standby my chances as a low-priority stand-by passenger were next to 0%. I wasn’t surprised to find out that I wasn’t on the flight. I watched the plane being pushed off the gate and walked to the next gate. Nobody was there yet. I had a very expensive coffee and a sandwich and bought a bottle of water.
The afternoon flight would be my last chance, but things weren’t necessarily better compared to the morning. When boarding started other stand-by passengers were being called, but not me. I felt very sad when I saw the last people in line board and the flight attendants wrapping things up by printing out passenger lists. I packed my things and said a final prayer when I heard my name being called: a flight attendant was walking towards me with a couple of boarding passes. I had a seat, but still had to go through security at the gate. The security officer said I had a business class seat and I was genuinely surprised to hear that. He wasn’t being difficult and because I went through the drill the day before I knew what to say. He wished me a great stay in the US and I walked towards the jetway in a daze.
It is such a weird experience to be blessed like this after totally having given up. The only reason I was still sitting at that gate was because of the support messages that were sent to me over Facebook and Twitter. I was doing it for them, not so much for myself.
The flight was uneventful, I dozed for most of the flight in my inclined chair still having the idea I was dreaming, that it wasn’t real. Come on: getting on a flight that had a very low chance of empty chairs and then being awarded a business class seat on top of that. I had asked for a travel blessing before I left, and it most certainly worked. That and the fact that St. Joseph of Cupertino must like me. He saved me from an impossible situation before and now he did it again.
The final approach to Logan International Airport went a bit different then most of us hoped for: after announcing the final descent into Boston, we were put in a holding pattern because the Boston airport was closed due to bad weather. We could not stay there because we were running low on fuel. Therefore the captain announced we would be diverted to Hartford, CT which was another 30 minutes away. We would refuel there and wait for the weather to improve and fly back. I was amazed how fast we could land at Logan Airport given the fact the whole landing schedule was messed up. But it didn’t end there. We were taxiing to the gate and when we stopped, the jetway operator had the greatest trouble connecting the thing. After that we were led into a corridor with all doors closed. It took a while for a flight attendant could open it, and of course all alarms went off doing so. What started as a landing 30 minutes early turned out to be a landing 2.5 hours late. Going through customs was easy compared to Atlanta last year and when I got out of the International Arrivals Terminal to wait at the curb for Jeff to show up he was already driving there. I could hop in the car and go to Cambridge for dinner.
Originally I had scheduled to have dinner with Denyse and Deborah, but because of all the delays I didn’t make it to dinner. The pizza dinner at the Liss family was great too. After dinner we hung out in the living room for a bit and I unpacked my stuff. Today was a great adventure, and looking back on everything it was great. Hopefully the journey back home will be as uneventful as possible because going to Europe is wearing me out more then going to the US, jet-lag wise. It’s too weird I can estimate how late it is without watching a clock and be correct most of the times while coming from a time zone where it is six hours later then here. Hoping it stays this way and that I won’t wake up at some crazy early time.
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