The Utes come home; All is well

So perhaps we were a little hasty in deeming the Utah Utes' trip to Europe as a disaster waiting to happen. And, yes, we might have erred a smidge when we claimed the Utes had been kidnapped by a nefarious Italian cocaine syndicate.

We say all this because journal entry #7 by Hilary Taylor and Lori Baird finds the volleyball team alive, not incarcerated, and hanging out at the Roman Coliseum. The team reveled in the historical ruins: "Many of us wished we could go back in time to see how all of the events really took place."

Well, you would wish that, until you saw what passed for dentistry during ancient Roman times.

The team also fell for the oldest grift in the books, the ol' "Make a Bracelet / Gimme a Kiss" scam. Apparently, young Italian men make a bracelet for you, asking only a kiss on the cheek in exchange.

Does that actually work? Apparently so, because the Utes were besieged with the young herpes enablers, and their favorite target was Stephanie Hodgman "because after she gave one Italian boy a kiss on the cheek, so many guys were chasing her to get the same."

Well, duh.

Report #8 detailed a trip to the Vatican City, where many of the players on the team got a chance to see the actual pope, Pope Benedict XVI. Which made me wonder: How many of the Utes are Mormons? And how do they feel about the pope as a Mormon? Does he hold any significance to them at all? Where does the pope fit in with the Mormon movement?

Oh yeah: the trip was a success, everyone loved it, life goes on.