Die Buchwalds

…there was a 16 hour stay at the Pittsburgh airport.

We kicked off what we thought would be our final hours on US soil with Mass at St. Joe’s followed by a bonfire at the Sanders’ house. There was beer & a trampoline, but Matt tells that story best.

By about 4 a.m. on Sunday July 13, 2008, we were assembled at the airport, waiting to check our luggage & find our way to the gate. Our flight was scheduled to depart at 6 a.m. When we arrived at the gate, I was excited & surprised to see Bishop Zubik there. He and many of the seminarians were going to be on our plane too!

6 a.m. came and went. We were told that it was taking longer than expected to load our food onto the plane. Then we were told they wanted to add some more fuel. We finally boarded, probably around 8 a.m. only to wait for about an hour while they redistributed some fuel from one tank to another… and then it happened. We were asked to leave the plane. Fuel was leaking and a part was going to have to be ordered.

The flight crew went home… we knew we were in for a long wait.

Bishop Zubik had Mass with all 425 of us at about 11 a.m. & afterwards told us that it looked like we probably wouldn’t be leaving until 8 p.m. (our “last hours” became our “last day”) A talent show scheduled for 3 p.m. was announced, too. In the mean time, the Bishop & several priests heard confessions, many people napped under the chairs at the concourse, others played cards, Saw, frisbee, hacky sack… we sang & prayed, too. It was something of a “retreat before the pilgrimage” except without amazing food. The airline provided us with $20 each in meal vouchers, but it just wasn’t quite the same as the catering we’ve had at various retreats.

The talent show was a lot of fun. The majority of the participants were (no surprises!) from the St. Joe’s/St. Mary’s contingent. Skits included “Down with the Sickness,” “The Candy Store,” and “The Lawnmower.” Levi, Sarah & Rebecca played & sang “Cast Your Burdens” and an original song called “Lord You’re Movin'” and Dan did what Dan does best… he solved the Rubix cube in less than a minute. People from other groups sang songs and juggled. My favorites were probably the group from Natrona Heights who wrote a song about our delay and the Bishop & the seminarians singing in Latin.

Our delay was big news! It was covered by KDKA (if you search their video archive you can find a few interviews, too! Hat-tip to Mrs. R. for the info), WPXI, and WTAE as well as the Post-Gazette and the Tribune Review. You’ll notice in the stories that some of the details change depending on the reporter, but the basics are the same: A lot of ‘Burghers had to wait a LONG time before we started our journey to be with hundreds of thousands of Catholics from around the world and celebrate Mass with the Pope.

Also worth a mention: Mrs. E. found this blog that was updated periodically through the trip by someone who traveled with us but remained anonymous as “great-gramps.” GG caught a few good pictures of some of our crew hanging out at the airport and later at the Mass with all the pilgrims from the US.

author’s note: hopefully Matt will jump in with some of his thoughts & insights on the trip… look for those to start probably Thursday at the earliest. I’ll be blogging about the trip in small pieces, hopefully to make it more manageable to read and also to write about. Pictures are up on facebook but I need to go through them all again before I upload them here… after that I’ll start adding pictures to all the blog entries for the trip

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We got home last night at about midnight… lots to tell! There will be more blogging in the coming week. Pictures will also appear soon. Some are being uploaded to Amy’s facebook so check there first, but they’ll be in the regular albums on this site later after we’ve had time to sort through & organize them. Amy picks up the cats in the morning & we’re just praying they’re not too mad about being left behind, especially considering we traveled to see Ratzi’s namesake ;)

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We had a send-off Mass for WYD with our amazing awesome Bishop tonight! The whole thing was just fantastic! Our group got to sit in the first two pews so we had a really great view of everything that goes on when the Bishop says Mass :) I just can’t say enough how wonderful it was to be at that particular celebration of the Eucharist.

Bishop Zubik gave us some *very* interesting statistics during his homily. Apparently, other than the dioceses in Australia, Pittsburgh is sending more people (roughly 600) to WYD this year than any other diocese in the WORLD! This is largely thanks to the amazing generosity of our sponsors, Youthtowne, and its founders. There are 475 in the Youthtowne group alone, then there are some other parishes that organized their own trips separately.

After Mass, the Bishop hung around & took pictures with people & autographed our booklets. He even let a few people (Matt included) from our little group hold his staff :)

We just got back because 14 of us stopped to get something to eat on the way home… for those of you familiar with the Pittsburgh area, we went to King’s and ordered an Angry Mob (12 Frownie Brownies and 12 scoops of ice cream). Wasn’t hard to eat because of how many we had in our group but it was FUN! And we have posters. I said we need to laminate one & mount it on a pole of some sort to carry around at WYD so we can easily identify where our group should be ;)

Two weeks from today, we’ll be in Sydney, Australia!!

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We leave on July 12, but World Youth Day 2008 starts in exactly 100 days, on July 15!

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MERRY CHRISTMAS
Welcome to the third annual Buchwald Family Newsletter! This year has been busy, bringing with it many new challenges and adventures.
BUCHWALDS DOWN UNDER?
We kicked off 2007 by making an 18-month commitment to plan to go to World Youth Day 2008 in Sydney, Australia. If you’re not familiar with World Youth Day, it is an international gathering of Catholic teens and young adults. Pope John Paul II started World Youth Day celebrations in the 1980s, with larger international gatherings happening about every three years.
Our parish is teaming up with another local parish and together we have approximately 60 people, including Amy’s cousin Beth, hoping to make the trip.
Since January, we’ve been selling, assembling and distributing hoagies almost continuously. When fundraising started, we were merely along for the ride, but we soon discovered that there were many areas where we could help. Amy waits for the delivery of hoagie supplies (they might arrive any time from 10am to 5pm!) and tries to get everything sorted & organized before the crew arrives while Matt works to make sure the assembly lines don’t run out of anything. We’ve very nearly perfected the process… by the time we actually figure it all out, we’ll be done fundraising!
In the new year, we hope to be updating our website more often with our progress on the road to Sydney. We’ll definitely have a full report with lots of pictures when we get back, so make sure to keep an eye out for it!
ALL IN A YEAR’S WORK
Almost immediately after the first World Youth Day informational meeting, we discovered that Matt’s feet were two very different sizes. After a full course of testing, x-raying and scanning and countless doctor appointments, we still don’t know exactly what was wrong, but his feet finally match again!
While all of that was going on, we learned the hard way that it’s always a good idea to shovel the driveway when it snows.
Matt has had a nice quiet year at I2T without any crazy three-week project start-up trips. It was a welcome change from 2006! He’s looking forward, though, to completing a few more projects in 2008.
The end of June brought with it the first anniversary of living in our house and of Amy’s new career as a full-time domestic engineer. In addition to everyday housework, Amy also teaches CCD and finally finished her Basic Certification courses through the diocese this fall.
We also learned a new craft together over the summer. Amy discovered an organization called Rosary Army, whose primary purpose is to teach people to make, pray and give away all-twine knotted rosaries. Amy’s been working on some rosaries to send to Rosary Army (they send a free rosary to anyone who requests one and rely on volunteers to help keep up with the demand) and we’re also planning to teach the World Youth Day group and take some with us to Australia.
YACHT CLUB AND YOUTH GROUPIES
As a result of our involvement with the World Youth Day group, we’ve also joined our parish’s YACHT Club (Young Adult Catholics Honoring the Trinity) and we’ve been chaperoning occasional Youth Group outings and retreats. Most recently, we spent a weekend at Camp Allegheny on retreat with over 100 teens from all over the Pittsburgh Diocese.
NORTH OF THE BORDER
In August, we visited Niagara Falls for probably the last time before the new passport laws go into effect. We spent the first part of our trip with Amy’s sister Lisa & brother-in-law David then met up with some of Amy’s friends for some extra sight seeing.
While we had Lisa & David with us, we explored Niagara Falls State Park, walked to Canada and back, and visited the Basilica of the National Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima.
At the park, Matt had his picture taken with the statue of Nicola Tesla for the second time, making it a new Official Buchwald Family Traditionâ„¢. We also spent a significant amount of time watching a duck attempt to swim upstream near the edge of the falls. Small things amuse us!
We visited the Shrine so that we could take one more picture with the statue of Saint Matthias to give to Father Ritzert before he retired.
After David & Lisa went home, we spent some more time at the Shrine, exploring the Avenue of Saints and the various gardens and taking in the view from the top of the Basilica.
We spent the remainder of our trip visiting with friends at both Niagara on the Lake and at the Butterfly Conservatory. Amy particularly enjoyed the butterflies! We also walked up Clifton Hill and rode the Sky Wheel, an enclosed ferris wheel that overlooks the falls.
CATS IN THE CORNER
Ratzi & Linus spent much of the past year sleeping and they’re quite proud of it! They also enjoy chasing each other around the house and pestering us for breakfast beginning at about 3:30 in the morning. Mostly, they’re just really loveable cats and we’re glad they’re ours!
UNTIL NEXT YEAR…
We hope that 2008 brings everyone happiness and many blessings. Please stay in touch & let us know how life is in your neck of the woods. Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!!
Love,
Matt, Amy, Ratzi & Linus Buchwald

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