The End of Year One in Rome: Part I: The Events

There is so very much about which I could write here at the end of my first year in bella Roma. This was certainly a difficult experience, one of the most difficult to date, but also, as such things go, one of the most rewarding. I had a whole month of late nights at the end of the semester for various reasons. I had numerous guests in town, on at least four occasions I can recall, including the visit of our beloved Bishop Bradley, Father John, and a few of my seminarians brothers from Kalamazoo. It is wonderful welcoming guests and being able to show what humble hospitality we can, but hospitality is a very time consuming act.

I also had a large paper to write and an exam to pass for my acceptance as a Scavi tour guide. I spent one extremely late night on that one, but it turned out just fine. I do have to brush up on the material again after a summer away and give a couple tours with another guide before I am officially commissioned, I think, which is very exciting. What an incredible apostolate, to be able to lead pilgrims to the resting place of the Fisherman!

Finally, of course, I had to prepare for exams. Normally, we are given one reading week and four weeks of exams in the spring semester, but I had to condense it to three reading days and 8 days of exams, which was brutal, but I came out of it in fairly good shape, all things considered. I'll break this up into two posts to make it a little more readable, so TO BE CONTINUED...