Wow. The past week and a half has been one of the most packed of my life. Mostly in a good way, thankfully! Here's a highlight/summary from each day so far:
Tues., Feb. 7: Scavi tours (no pictures allowed inside - but after all, one of my favorite parts was all the Latin inscriptions, so you probably would have just ended up with a lot of those. ;))
So, instead of tombs and bones, here's Katie and I beforehand:
Wed., Feb. 8: Papal Audience!
Thurs., Feb. 9: first class with Dr. Naughton. It's CATH 401: Church and Culture, and we've already had readings from Pope Benedict, Pope Francis, and St. JPII, so it promises to be a pretty great class. Also, we had a telling experience of Italian time: we needed to get books for another class, but the Angelicum bookstore was closed with this sign, which a passing seminarian translated as "Will I return soon?" (Basically, things here are often late and unpredictable. This is my natural tendency, so I've totally been appreciating it! :))
Fri., Feb. 10: Catacombs of Priscilla. Felt such a connection to the community of the early Church! (Also, played my first game of ultimate frisbee in the afternoon: pretty fun; pretty sore.)
Sat., Feb. 11: Lunch at the Irish College w/some of the SJV seminarians. It's such a lovely building and location! (Sorry - should have taken a picture.... :/) Then we walked around, got gelato, and went to St. John Lateran. Wow! It's enormous, and the statues of the apostles inside have so much energy to them.
Here are Grace, Emily Monson, Bekah, Margaret B. and I, trying to get a selfie way too close:
And a more successful one for scale:
Sun., Feb. 12: Back to the Irish college, this time for Mass, after which I simply enjoyed a leisurely afternoon. (Okay, leisurely with a ton of reading for Dr. Lev's class...)
Mon., Feb. 13: First day of classes! I mean, we had had 401 already, but now that they've all started it feels real. Art history with Dr. Lev is going to be intense but also super interesting. God and the Poets is beautiful and inspiring, and probably a good breather in the midst of the rest of them.
Tues., Feb. 14: More classes - including Italian! It was fun. :) We also had our first class of Fundamental Moral Theology with Fr. Giertych: my brain has never had to work so hard. He simply reads his super deep notes and we all take notes breathlessly, hoping that it will be more clear if we simply write enough down. Fascinating material, so I think it will be good overall.
Wed., Feb. 15 (today): First official / fancy community dinner; Msgr. Schlag, a soon-to-be Catholic Studies' professor (currently teaching at Santa Croce) was the guest. He is both down-to-earth and impressive at the same time, and we're excited to have him at UST!
To finish up, some pictures from Chiesa del Gesu:
One of the prettiest churches so far. The ceiling is fantastic; this doesn't come close to doing it justice. (But it proves that I was there, and I'm sure you can google a better picture if you so desire. ;))
Okay, this is the end for real: pistachio ice cream!
Arrivederci!
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