Rome/Assisi Day 10

          Sunday morning I was up at 4:30 to wash my hair and be downstairs for breakfast at 5am. Marissa, Ashley and I headed out to the buses at 5:10 and we were the first ones there. We staked out our area in the back of the bus and hoped no one would sit near us. Marissa and I ended up sharing the back row with five seat and Ashley and Elizabeth each had their own seat plus the seat next to them open in the row in front of us. It was totally worth it to be the first ones down there. I slept for about an hour and then did some homework.

          I ended up sleeping on an off for most of the ride but was awake for the last two hours. It was a thirteen hour trip and I was coming down with a cold the whole time, but it was so awesome to have the back row to ourselves. We made it back to the Kartause at 7pm and all the washing machines were already in use by 7:10. We had dinner and then I came back to my room to unpack and organize homework.

          The Rome and Assisi pilgrimage was a great experience because I was able to see so many places where Saints lived and died and where our faith really began. It was so great to experience it with my peers and to see the strength of their faith and how each of us individually grew in our faith. 

Rome/Assisi Day 9

          Saturday morning I took a shower in our strange shower. I thought the bathrooms in Rome were strange, but the bathrooms in Assisi are even stranger. We do have normal toilet paper and a normal sink, but the shower is a tub that is half the size of a normal tub and there are no doors or curtains for taking a shower. Also, there is no place for the shower head so you just hold it the entire time. It is strange. I got water all over the floor, but hey, at least I was clean!

          After breakfast I French braided Rose’s hair and then we walked to Mass at the Basilica of St. Francis. We walked through the upper basilica, down to the lower basilica and into the chapel where St. Francis is buried. We had Mass at his tomb and all two hundred of us were all crammed into this little chapel probably meant for seventy people. When Mass was over we broke up into groups for our walking tour. Sr. Miriam lead our tour back through the lower and upper basilica, to the abbey of St. Peter, to the Assisi version of Santa Maria Maggiore, to San Francesco Piccolino, to the Piazza Commune and finally to Chiesa Nuova. We saw the place where Francis was born, where his father imprisoned him, the room where his family kept their fabric, and the place where he gave all his possessions back to his father.

          Following the tour, we walked back to the hotel for lunch and then I spent some time in my room. I ended up taking a two hour nap because I was so tired and I could tell I was coming down with a cold.

          We had Mass for our Sunday obligation in the same church we had adoration in and it was so crowded. After the homily, we all received a Tao Cross which Father just blessed. When Mass was over we went back to our hotels for dinner and then I went straight to bed.

Rome/Assisi Day 8

          Friday morning we got to sleep in until 6:45! Breakfast was pretty good at Hotel dei Priori, but I liked the breakfast at Hotel Caravel better. After breakfast we headed over to Santa Chiara for Mass. I got there early so I could walk around. In Santa Chiara, there is the original San Damiano cross, the habits of St. Francis, St. Clare, and Brother Rufino, the shoe St. Francis wore that St. Clare made, an alb that St. Clare made, and some of St. Clare’s hair. St. Clare is also buried there so I got to spend some time in front of her tomb.

          After Mass we gathered outside for our walking tours. Sr. Sarah Rose led our group and she talked about St. Clare and St. Francis and some of their stories. She then let us go back in the church for some time to look around for those people who didn’t  get to look around before Mass. Then we walked down to San Damiano and got to see where St. Francis prayed. It was really beautiful.

          We had lunch back at the hotel and then some down time before the Pilgrimage Walk (aka hike) up to the Hermitage of St. Francis. It took about an hour and Cheris and I were practically dying by the time we made it up there. Some people did it barefoot as a sacrifice, but we figured since we’re not hiker’s, the hike itself was penance enough. When we got to the top, we saw St. Francis’ rock bed, the chapel he prayed in, and the hole where he threw the wolf down. We had to go through all these little doors that were super small. I felt bad for some of the big guys who were squeezing through. One guy was coming out the last door and when he stood up, he hit his head on this random wooden beam. He said, “I hate being tall” so Cheris and I asked him if he was okay and then we walked away because I could feel a fit of giggles coming on. We were trying to be quiet and prayerful, but it was one of those things that just sets you off laughing. It was terrible. We walked around outside on the little paths, and then made our way back down the hill with Rose. We were still having bursts of laughter every once in a while.

          Following such a long walk we of course needed some gelato so we stopped and I got chocolate and mint flavored. We came back to my room and hung out for a bit until they went shopping and I did some homework. We had dinner and afterwards Marissa and I went to the FOP. It was totally awesome because there were so many of us crowded into this little tiny church. I came back to go to bed around 9:30 and got nine hours of sleep. 

Rome/Assisi Day 7

          Thursday morning, we had breakfast at the hotel followed by check out and boarding the buses. It was about a three hour ride to Assisi and once we got to the foot of the hill, we all got out to visit the Basilica of Santa Maria degli Angeli where the real Portiuncula is. We visited all the side chapels, saw the rope that St. Francis wore, prayed in the Portiuncula, saw the rose garden St. Francis was in and then visited the gift shop before heading out. We were back on the buses 50 minutes later to drive up the hill to our hotels.

          We got off the buses and then took an escalator up the hill to the village where we walked for about 10 minutes to the hotel. We got in and went straight to lunch followed by check in to our rooms. We had about an hour and a half until Mass, so I decided to stay in my room and type some journal entries because I was too tired to walk around.

          Everyone was at Mass at the Cathedral of San Rufino and after Mass Fr. Ron gave a little talk pointing out the highlights of the church which included the baptismal font where John Paul II was baptized, the chapel where St. Francis used to spend the night in prayer, a little gallery of painting of John Paul II, and the room where St. Clare was born. Fr. Ron gave everyone an individual blessing, if they wanted, and after the blessing, I walked around the church.

          When we left the church, we stopped and looked in all the little shops on the way back to the hotel for dinner. They were so cute!  After dinner, most of the students were at adoration from 8:15-9:15 and after that most of us went back to our rooms and crashed.

Rome/Assisi Day 6

          Wednesday started at 4:49am. We were going to the papal audience, but in order to get good seats, we had to be the first through security and therefore the first in line. The metro started running at 5:30, so we left the hotel by 5:15 to catch the first metro. We were all so excited! We got off at Termini to switch Metro Lines and we were all running down the escalator because the train was waiting at the bottom. We literally threw ourselves onto the metro because we didn’t think we were going to fit. But like true dedicated FUS students, we crammed even more of us onto the metro. I literally could not move. If I wanted to, I probably could have picked up my feet and not fallen onto the floor. In any case, when we got off at Ottaviano we took off running. We slowed to a fast walk but we made it to the line that was already forming and we were pretty close to the front.

          After we got there at about 6:15, it kinda dawned on us that we had to wait for security to open up at 8:15. We were all standing in a huge group trying to make sure that other people didn’t infiltrate our group. There was this lady who was leaning against my back like I was a stone pillar. She just put her full weight on me and kept leaning. In any case, security opened up the outer gates and there was a mad dash to the metal detectors. There was so much pushing and shoving that my feet couldn’t keep up with my upper body because there were too many legs in front of me. The crowd basically just pushed me along.  So then we stood there for a little while longer until we actually went through security. Then it was a mad dash to get the best seats. Franciscan got up right against the rail and a few rows back so we were in a good spot.

          Everyone was so excited and we all just stood in our spot waiting and waiting. There was a Swiss guard in front of us that some of the girls took pictures with. Finally, at 10am, the pope came out in the pope mobile. Everyone was cheering and waving and clapping and waiting for him to come down our aisle. He turned the corner and drove down near our side. He was looking towards us when he drove past and then he stopped just past us to hold a baby. It was totally awesome!

          Then he kept driving around and eventually everyone sat down for the audience. He gave his talk and then all these bishops translated it into different languages. It was pretty amazing.

          After the audience, Rose, Hana, Shannon, and I walked around and they ended up buying shoes. I bought some scarves and then Shannon and I got gelato while Rose and Hana went into the Pantheon. Then we realized we needed to book it to make it to Mass on time so we practically ran to the metro while Shannon and I were eating gelato. We got on the metro and when we got off, Rose and Hana took off running to the Lateran while Shannon and I tried to find a bathroom. We came across and little pizzeria and the waiter let us use the bathroom. Then we ran across a few crazy busy streets (we still can’t believe we didn’t die in the process) and ran up to St. John Lateran for Mass.

          When Mass was over, I was taking a few pictures and then I looked over and saw Rebecca walking towards me! I knew she was going to be there but it was still so shocking and exciting to actually see her in Rome! It’s something we’ve always talked about doing and the fact that it was actually happening was so awesome! Rebecca and Sara took Anne Maria, Maggie, Maura, me and Shannon to Santa Scala which is the church of the holy stairs where there are the stairs that Jesus walked up when he was led to Pontius Pilate. We didn’t go up the stairs, but we looked and then left to go to Santa Croce in Gerusalemme which is the chapel of the Passion Relics. We saw a thorn from the crown of thorns, a nail from the crucifixion, splinters of the true cross, the finger of Thomas that went in Jesus’s side, and part of the cross beam of the good thief. After we visited that chapel, Shannon and I said good bye to Rebecca and Sara and walked around the corner where we took off running so that we could make it back to Santa Scala to go up the stairs before it closed. It was about a 7 minute walk, but we ran most of the way and by the time we got there we were out of breath and sweating. We made it in and started ascending the stairs on our knees like the other pilgrims. There was only about 5 other people, so we could go at our own pace. We had a handout with prayers to be said on each of the twenty eight steps so we prayed those prayers and then left.

          We went back to St. John Lateran to take pictures and then we went and saw the baptistery. Shannon and I decided to go out to dinner so we went back to the pizza place where we had used the bathroom and had pasta for dinner. We took the metro back to the hotel and packed up our stuff before heading to bed.

Rome/Assisi Day 5

          Tuesday morning I was up again before the sun came up so that we could have breakfast before Mass at Saints Cosmas and Damian. It was a tiny church so most of us were standing and sitting along the back and sides. After Mass, the priest gave a talk about the church and how the ground had risen up on one side so the church was slanted and they had to do construction to make it smaller so that it was safe. Following the talk, we all jumped on the Metro and met outside of a church to split up into groups for our walking tour. While we were waiting for everyone to get situated, Marie and I ended up buying scarves for 5 euro each. We talked the guy down from 10 euro and then Marie bought another one from a different guy for 4 euro.

          We started our tour with Mr. Pipp and during the tour we saw the church of St. Peter in chains where there are chains that held St. Peter in Jerusalem, Michelangelo’s Moses, and the bones of the seven Maccabee brothers. We also saw Santa Maria Maggiore the Bethlehem crypt where there is wood from the manger Jesus was laid in. We visited Our Lady of Perpetual help where the icon is of Our Lady, and we visited Santa Prassede where there are many relics and part of the column where Jesus scourged. We also saw the Colosseum, part of the Roman Forum, the Arch of Constantine, and a few other churches and monumental stone buildings.

          After the tour, Marie, Andrew, Marissa, Cheris, and I went to the Trevi Fountain and took pictures and threw coins in. Then we got pizza and walked really really fast to the Metro so that we would be on time for our Vatican museum tour. It was raining and so we got wet again and my bun got caught on three different umbrellas. That hurt.

          We made it to the Vatican Museum on time and then we started our tour. My headset died so I couldn’t hear what the tour guide was saying, so I tried to stay up near the front with her. We got to see so many statues, paintings, maps, and tapestries that tell us so much about how these people lived back then. We finished the tour in the Sistine Chapel and got to stay there for about twenty minutes. I could have stayed there forever. It was absolutely breath taking! I think it was definitely my favorite part of Rome.

          When we left the Sistine Chapel, I headed back to the hotel with Andrew and Marie. We hung out in my room and while I washed out my shoes and skirt that were still soaking wet and smelled like the metro from the other day, Marie called her mom and Andrew tried to decide who he is going to set me up with for Spring formal (what? that’s like six months away). It was entertaining to say the least. We went to dinner and afterwards, I went to adoration. When we got back and combed someone for lice and then went straight to bed! 

Rome/Assisi Day 4

Monday Morning we were up early again for breakfast at 6am and then Elizabeth and I headed out to get to St. Peter’s early. We got there early enough that we didn’t have to wait in security and once we got inside, it was still quiet. We walked around and visited all the side altar’s, took pictures, went to confession, and prayed by John Paul II’s tomb again. We had Mass at the Altar of St. Joseph and some other English speaking pilgrims joined us.

After Mass, Hana and I decided to go up to the top of St. Peter’s. We walked the whole way and met up with Mickey once we got to the top. It was really cool to go us so many stairs especially when they were slanted to the right and you could barely stand up straight. It was sprinkling when we left to go up to the top, but by the time we got up there, it was really raining. We got soaking wet (again!) but it was totally worth it. We hurried back down because Hana had a Scavi Tour and by the time we reached the bottom, the sun had come out.

I met up with Desiree and we decided to walk around and find a place to get some pizza for lunch. We found this fancy looking (but cheap) place and sat down for some cheese pizza. It was really good and the sauce on it was amazing. We went back to St. Peter’s square after we finished so that we could check in for our Scavi Tours.

The Scavi Tour was really remarkable because we got to see walls that were built hundreds of years ago, tombs and inscriptions from a while ago, pillars, paintings, and pottery. We also were able to see the bones of St. Peter. That was such an incredible experience. After our Scavi Tour we had a walking tour with Professor Larson. We started out by crossing the Angel’s bridge where each angel statue is depicted holding instruments of the Passion. We walked past the church where St. Philip Neri is buried (but the church was closed so we couldn’t go in), the tomb of St. Monica, and Santa Maria Sopra Minerva where St. Catherine of Sienna is buried. We also saw Bernini’s fountains, the market square, and the Pantheon.

We had dinner back at the hotel at 6:30 and I ended up eating with Professor Larson. It was a little intimidating at first because I had to eat this fancy meal with three forks, two glasses, and three courses with my history professor. She is so nice though so it all went totally fine. We all watched the time so I ended up making it to adoration for about 40 minutes. 

Rome/Assisi Day 3

Sunday morning I was up at 5:30 to shower before breakfast at 6am. I have decided that Rome has weird bathrooms because first off they have a bidet, second off they have a ginormous shower head in the ceiling and then a little one that you can take off of the wall that’s below your knees, third off their shower curtain/door only covers half the length of the tub so the water goes all over the floor when you shower, fourth off their toilet paper is all little squares, and fifth off the sink is literally like a ceramic bowl bolted to a table. Like, they pulled the sink itself out of the shelf and set it on top.

Anyways…we took the metro to St. Paul’s Outside the Walls for a brief tour/explanation followed by Mass in Italian. Of course we couldn’t understand a word they were saying, but it was nice all the same. After Mass, we took the Metro to St. Peter’s and stopped on our way to get Pizza for lunch. It didn’t have any cheese on it, but it was still really good. We made our way to St. Peter’s square to wait for the Angelus with Pope Francis. There was so much energy among the students. Finally, it was 12pm and the pope came out! Everyone went crazy and then he said something we couldn’t understand and prayed the angelus. It was so amazing to realize that we were right there praying with the Vicar of Christ on Earth! 

After the angelus, we were following the Newtons who were following Scott to get to the security line. It turned out that Scott was actually going to get some food so we had to go back in and get in line. We were in security for about 45 minutes and then we sat outside of St. Peter’s by the statue of St. Paul for about half an hour. We broke up into groups of about 25 and we all got headsets and then a seminarian from the Pontifical North American College gave us a tour of St. Peter’s. It is so big and so beautiful. We saw incorrupt saints and popes and were able to pray at the tomb of John Paul II. After the tour, we went and got gelato and then headed back to the hotel. It was raining and we all got soaking wet. Of course we were bombarded by the guys on the street selling umbrellas and rain ponchos but we didn’t want to buy from them.

After dinner we had adoration but because dinner ran so late by the time we got to adoration, they were saying the divine praises and leaving. We headed back to the hotel, I combed some hair for a few girls, and then got a good night’s rest.

Day 4

Monday Morning we were up early again for breakfast at 6am and then Elizabeth and I headed out to get to St. Peter’s early. We got there early enough that we didn’t have to wait in security and once we got inside, it was still quiet. We walked around and visited all the side altar’s, took pictures, went to confession, and prayed by John Paul II’s tomb again. We had Mass at the Altar of St. Joseph and some other English speaking pilgrims joined us.

After Mass, Hana and I decided to go up to the top of St. Peter’s. We walked the whole way and met up with Mickey once we got to the top. It was really cool to go us so many stairs especially when they were slanted to the right and you could barely stand up straight. It was sprinkling when we left to go up to the top, but by the time we got up there, it was really raining. We got soaking wet (again!) but it was totally worth it. We hurried back down because Hana had a Scavi Tour and by the time we reached the bottom, the sun had come out.

I met up with Desiree and we decided to walk around and find a place to get some pizza for lunch. We found this fancy looking (but cheap) place and sat down for some cheese pizza. It was really good and the sauce on it was amazing. We went back to St. Peter’s square after we finished so that we could check in for our Scavi Tours.

The Scavi Tour was really remarkable because we got to see walls that were built hundreds of years ago, tombs and inscriptions from a while ago, pillars, paintings, and pottery. We also were able to see the bones of St. Peter. That was such an incredible experience. After our Scavi Tour we had a walking tour with Professor Larson. We started out by crossing the Angel’s bridge where each angel statue is depicted holding instruments of the Passion. We walked past the church where St. Philip Neri is buried (but the church was closed so we couldn’t go in), the tomb of St. Monica, and Santa Maria Sopra Minerva where St. Catherine of Sienna is buried. We also saw Bernini’s fountains, the market square, and the Pantheon.

We had dinner back at the hotel at 6:30 and I ended up eating with Professor Larson. It was a little intimidating at first because I had to eat this fancy meal with three forks, two glasses, and three courses with my history professor. She is so nice though so it all went totally fine. We all watched the time so I ended up making it to adoration for about 40 minutes.

Rome/Assisi Day 2

At about 6:45 on Saturday, we stopped for an hour and got off to use the bathroom and get some breakfast. We were back on the road by 8am and I slept again until about 9:30.

We arrived at our hotel before 11am and got all checked in. Of the 15 hours we spent on the bus, I slept for about 12 hours. I think the combination of the Dramamine and pulling 18 hour days all week (and not sleeping in my bed) because of the lice epidemic completely knocked me out. At the hotel, I combed two heads and then got my head combed before we headed out to get some lunch. Elizabeth, Becca, and I stopped at the first pizza shop we came across (no worries, if we passed it, we would have come across about 15,000 more before we crossed the next street!) and got some food. I couldn’t remember the translation of metric weight to pounds, so I accidentally told the lady I wanted 100 pounds of cheese pizza. She knew what I meant though and gave a good size peace. It was so delicious! I literally could eat it every day and not get tired of it!

We ate our pizza on the way to the metro where we hopped on to go see some sights. We walked down the Circus Maximus and then we stopped at St. Anastasia. Then we went over and saw the outside of the Colosseum and the Arch of Constantine. It was so amazing to see these places that have been there for so long! We walked around the outside of the Roman Forum and went up and down some famous steps (but I can’t remember what they were called). We saw their tomb of the unknown soldier, and then visited the church of St. Martina. We decided to meander back towards the Metro and stopped at another church on the way.

When we got off the Metro, we went to the church Santa Galla for Mass with the FUS crew. It was totally awesome to be all together and starting our pilgrimage with Mass. After Mass, we came back to the Hotel Caravel for dinner. We had bread and lasagna, then roast beef and salad, and then some vanilla pudding/flan something-er-other for dessert. Mr. Pipp made some announcements then I headed up to my room for some sleep. 

Rome/Assisi Day 1

Our Rome/Assisi Pilgrimage started Friday morning with loads and loads of laundry to rid my clothes of lice. I spent the day doing homework, packing, and combing hair. Friday Night we boarded the bus at 7:30 (me and Elizabeth were first to get on!) and got in the back row. We made our selves at home and got ready for a 14 hour bus ride. I had already taken Dramamine because they said the first two hours would be driving through the curvy Alps which makes students who normally don’t get car sick, sick, and I was getting sleep just waiting to leave. They gave everybody bags to put over their seat if they had lice so we didn’t contaminate the bus, but they said they could double for car sickness bags. Once we left, they made a few announcements and then started the rosary. By the fourth decade, I could not keep my eyes open and I was sitting against the window thinking, “I’m so tired.”

I think I remember making it through the whole rosary and then I was out cold. I woke up just about every hour on the hour and shifted positions, but I slept for most of the way. I got off and got some air when we stopped after two hours, but then I fell asleep again as soon as we started moving. Elizabeth laid down on the floor, so I put my feet up on the seat next to me. It was so comfortable (well, not as comfortable as a bed, but better than the Poland trip). We stopped at a few more rest stops, but I slept through them. 

Four-Day Weekend

October 31-November 3 was a four day weekend because it was parents week. I stayed back but Marissa and Shannon went with their parents on the school trip. I spent Thursday doing homework and finishing up my papers.

Friday morning I did homework and after Mass for the feast of all saints and lunch, Rose and I headed out to hike Book Mountain. It was a nice leisurely hike up to the cross where we spent about 20 minutes taking pictures and admiring the view. We continued on our way up the mountain and we were doing pretty well until we hit the steep part. Then I nearly died. And I remembered why I don’t hike. It was a good thing I went with Rose because every few minutes I’d be like “Can we please stop here?” And she’d be like, “Let’s make it to the log just ahead.” We finally made it to the top and sat down on the bench up there. We spent about 45 minutes writing our names in the book, carving our initials into a tree, and finding our friend’s signatures and initials. We started our hike down and when we were about 5 minutes into our descent, I slipped and landed on my hands instead of my butt. It kinda hurt, but I didn’t think anything of it and continued on. I slipped again and caught myself and carried on with our descent. A few minutes later I noticed my hand was throbbing so I looked down and realized that I had a blood bubble about the size of my knuckle forming right where my thumb connects with my wrist. Rose, being the good nursing student that she is, instructed me to hold it above my heart so I made the rest of the hike down with my hand on my shoulder. We stopped again at the cross and took more pictures and ate Milka and finally made it back to the Kartause. We creek jumped (because that’s just the best way to end a sweaty hike!) in our jeans and tee shirts and came back and took showers.

After dinner, my hand was pretty sore so I started asking around for an ace bandage and finally found out that Stephen had one. I got my wrist wrapped up and then put some ice on it before going to bed. The next morning, Ben looked at it and determined that it probably wasn’t broken, but he wrapped it a different way. It felt a lot better, but it looked much worse. I couldn’t do anything because it was my right hand that was hurt, so I got pretty good at highlighting with my left hand! People were asking me what I did to my hand, and I was telling them, but Matt decided I needed a more interesting story. According to him, I was hiking down the mountain and I came across a monkey who had a banana attached to a string. I really wanted the banana and so I followed the monkey. When the monkey turned around and saw me, I tried to punch him so he wouldn't run away and I missed his face and punched a tree instead.

Sunday was uneventful until everyone started coming back to campus. We found out that some of the girls had head lice, and so we started checking other people who were finding out. It was looking like it was going to be a pretty bad situation because most of the people we were checking had it. I ended up shaving Andrew and David’s heads because they wanted to avoid it. When I got back to my room, Shannon and Marissa came back and they were both car sick/have a gluten reaction from eating gluten, so Shannon was throwing up and Marissa was super nauseous. I spent the night on the floor of Becca, Mickayla, and Anne’s room and the next morning, Shannon was still having a reaction to the gluten. All week, people kept coming and knocking on my door and Cheris’ door to get checked or have their hair combed, so we spent the rest of the week combing and checking hair in between classes. I had overheard people saying that they were too embarrassed to get checked, didn’t want to deal with it in Rome (which people were leaving for in a few days), had checked themselves, or had their boyfriend check them. Cheris and I went to Mr. Pipp and told him he needed to make it mandatory that everyone get checked and that we would be available from 6-8pm in the Francis Room to check people. Signs went up and people all came to get checked. It was just great to meet people and be like, “So when was the last time you washed your hair? Do you have dandruff? Do you have products in your hair?” Ya know, typical questions you ask people when you first meet them. I had so many different reactions from so many people such as laughing, not caring, nearly passing out, or arguing with me that it was just dandruff. I even had people come up to me the next day to apologize for arguing with me…honestly, I didn’t even remember that I had checked them because I had looked at so many heads. All in all, we had 84 cases of lice. We were up every night checking and combing until 12:30am ish, and by the time people started leaving for Rome, we finally had some time to be by ourselves.

The funny part for me was that I was in confession the Tuesday before it all started and Father asked me what I thought God wanted me to work on. I was like, “I think patience and kindness towards others and really just taking the time to sit down and talk with people because I like to be busy so I never really just sit and talk. I’m always moving.” Well, ask and you shall receive! I had hours on end of stand talking to people and getting to know them as I combed through their hair.

My theory is that the lice came from the states either from someone who had them over the summer and wasn’t diligent enough with the last round of their treatment, and they had it and they didn’t know it. In the process of everyone hugging everyone who they haven’t seen all summer, sharing clothes while traveling, and sitting on the same couches as everyone else, it just got passed around. By the time people started noticing they had a bad case, it was right around the two month mark which is usually when people start having symptoms. It could have come from anywhere, but the States seems to make the most sense.