Less Traveled Path

Throughout my travels, I’ve had the chance to meet people with interesting backgrounds and fascinating stories. Many times these encounters are very brief, but enriching.

During my Europe backpacking trip in 2003, my friend and I mostly stayed in hostels and not only was it an economical way to travel, the arrangement encouraged meeting all sorts of travelers, especially during breakfast. One morning, we had a meal with two guys who were coincidentally from California. They were taking a break from studying theology in Rome, or rather Vatican City. After finishing their studies, they would then become ordained priests. Since our next stop was Rome, we had planned to meet up with them to get into the Midnight Christmas mass at the Vatican. However, we arrived at our hostel in Rome pretty late and were exhausted by then, so we sent them an email thanking them for their offer, but wished them well.

What I remember the most about my encounter with The Vatican Guys was when one of them busted out the phrase “tiiight” in conversation as in that would be tiiight, aka cool. Studying at the Vatican… cool. Priests using the word tiiight… awesome.