Beginning of Week Three

Once again, it's been much too long since my last post. I have simply been too swamped with school to be able to post anything of significance. Thankfully, there hasn't been quite as much excitement around here to report. Friday we had our Halloween Party/Costume Contest/Oktoberfest all rolled into one here at the NAC. That was a ridiculous amount of fun. The second-years hosted for us and they put on quite a presentation- they will be big shoes to fill. They even set up a haunted house, of all things! They did a really nice job with it, too! I was thoroughly impressed, from the mad doctor operating on his "patient" to the Exorcist-like possession of one of the second-year men on his shaking and moving bed. Quite frankly, I think the empty corridors and the backstage area they set up for the haunted house are scary enough in the dark without any additional help. The costume party goes utterly beyond description, so you'll just have to ask me in person sometime if you really want to know what seminarians do for a Halloween costume party. If it's any clue it was hosted by the crew from the movie Anchorman with a North American martyr, a flower child, and the physical embodiment of the vice of Entitlement as guest judges. We had a statue, a mime, a dinosaur-impersonator, a Mexican wrestler, a NASCAR chaplain, and a number of buddhist monks in the contest, among other things.

What else? Tuesday the guys in my class from Franciscan went again to Sant'Onofrio to visit the rector there, who is a friend of the head of the pre-theologate program at Franciscan, Fr. Ken. That was pretty nice. He gave us a tour and we got to talk for a little while. I took a couple pictures of the event, but sadly technical difficulties have resulted in their mysterious deletion. I suppose it's just as well that I didn't take pictures of the festivities Friday, either, then. *sigh*

Other than that, things are really just business as usual around here. The first two weeks of class have been good, insofar as they can be. I still feel the need to slam my face into my desk repeatedly every morning, but that urge is occurring less frequently and becoming easier to resist. Taking classes in a foreign language is a very good way to develop virtue, I've discovered. We have about 19 credit hours of class this semester, but there isn't as much homework as there would be in the states. Homework really becomes independent study over here- we get out what we put in. The professors don't check to see if we've done the reading; all that matters is whether or not we can pass the test at the end of the semester. I'm trying, so we'll see how it goes.

Ah, and everyone over here seems to be catching some sort of cold or flu; I heard back home there's been a lot of swine flu going around, so maybe we've caught it here, as well. Amazingly, I'm still in good health, so praise God! I would write more, but I have to get back to work. I'm going to make a real effort to get a post up on Sundays, maybe, from here on out. Now that things are much calmer, maybe I'll get some pictures of random sights from around town or the college posted. I hope all is well back home. Remember to feel free to leave prayer intentions if you think of it; believe me, we spend enough time in prayer to be able to offer everyone up at some point, so please don't hesitate to ask. May the grace of God be with you all.