my favorite marcin

well, i'm glad that one's over! right arm carpal/cubital/ulna(?) nerve surgery...check. blogging with one finger here....any-way

i decided to devote the next umpteen blogs to my italy trip. there's some memorable characters, places, experiences and such that i consider worthy of documentation. wow the last time i tried to type while looking at the keyboard was in 9th grade typing class...on a manual typewriter...times are changing at lightning speed...how appropriate :-0

memorable person #1......marcin,(pronounced "marchin") the very polite, endearingly-sweet polish boy who would be a priest. studying at seminary in newark, n.j., marcin still has a couple to 4 years before his ordination into the priesthood. he is from poland. 24 years old. marcin went thru some teenage rebellion and somehow ended up attending some catholic youth rallies around europe, during which time he made a commitment to God to serve as a catholic priest (since he was catholic). his name was drawn by lot as to where he would attend seminary. he was initially disappointed that he was sent to the u.s. because of the many pedophile scandels that have occurred here in the priesthood, but he is enjoying seminary in newark and there is a family that invites him over and makes him feel at home here.

marcin sat next to me on the 7+ hour plan ride over the ocean. we bonded immediately, to the degree that two mother-son generation strangers sitting next to each other on an exceptionally long plane ride can manage to do. not sure if that last sentence makes sense, but you get my drift i hope. he was traveling with a group of 40 from newark to rome to attend the beatification of the pope. we talked about our families.... i just happened to have a pic of our fantastic mr. fox on my iphone..... and when i told him his name was fox, he laughed and said how interesting, my last name is fuks, which means "fox". i told him my last name is loup, which means "wolf". we both got a big kick out of that one:)

at my prompting he told me how he was called into the priesthood, then he said, ....and you?....so i told him the story of my own rebellious youth and how i came to know God. we also watched the movie the tourist together on our little seatback tvs. we liked it. he told me there was some other movie i should see that i can"t for the life of me remember the title of. all i can remember is that when i heard the title, i just smiled and thought, eww, too much raunchy humor for me....oh well, priest or not...i guess boys will be boys! we also took turns trying to sleep on that noisy contraption of an airplane while hurtling 500 orsomething miles per hour through the heavens. when all was said and done he received the promise of a king cake shipped directly to his seminary door. oh char-lieee..............