Wednesday

Today was a good day, again.

Our morning began with the catechetical session. Initially it looked like the church wouldn't be too full, then groups kept trickling in. Eventually we had people in the aisles - we were easily over 2,000!

The session was a great presentation on staying firm in the faith by the bishop of Edmonton, Canada. Then we had Mass. I think there were about 5 or 6 bishops, around 15 priests, and then the teens and young adults who did the readings and brought up the gifts. With people from Canada, Ireland, Wales, England, Thailand, and all over the USA, it was a phenomenal experience.

Of coruse, some of the ladies got an even more unique experience by being esorted to the men's room. Our catechetical site is a Jesuit center, so there is only one women's "WC" in the whole building. With roughly 1,000 plus women, this is problematic. Finally the volunteers from WYD made an executive decision to turn one of the men's rooms into a second ladies' room. We were all grateful.

Once the session was done (and the ladies were done with the long line for the restroom), we filled our waterbottles and journeyed forth. We had lunch and then headed for the Prado. A priest from Sterling Heights told us that you couldn't easily get in with your backpack (the bag check was overflowing). Since our hotel was 5 minutes away, we headed back to the hotel to drop backpacks. The ladies brought smaller shoulder bags or purses which were allowed so we had room for our necessary items - meal tickets, identification tags, and so forth.

We spent two hours in the Prado Museum. All of us wish we had about a week longer just to explore that museum. Especially with the crowds and noise, we all would have liked to come back again.

Following the Prado we were going to the Gardens, but there was a fee attached and we didn't feel like the small amount of time we were going to spend there was worth it. Thus, we sallied forth for dinner.

Dinner was simple and we were tired. We returned early so everyone could clean up from the day and rest up for the busy days ahead.