Life at the Angelicum

Though I'm sad not to be at St. Patrick's Seminary in Menlo Park this year, there has been one great joy after my first couple weeks of class. And that is....there are sooo many people from other countries and other religious orders in my classes. It's awesome. I've met Indians, Panamanians, Pakistani, Nigerians, Swedes, Irish, Scots, Canadians, Chinese, English, and the list goes on. There are Missionary of Charity Fathers, Norbertines, Dominicans, Benedictines, Sisters of Charity, and on and on. There is a certain beauty of seeing the Church in this universal way. And we get to talk to them about the life of the Church around the world.

I study at the Angelicum which is the Dominican run school in Rome. It's nice. We call it the happy place in comparison to the Gregorian which happens to be run by the Jesuits. The joy is...well...we speak in English all the time and everyone is friendly. It's hard to put into words. It's kind of like the difference between these 2 following pictures. See the Angelicum is just a place of light...angels even.



The Gregorian is just a bit more intimidating...



The greatest danger here is not wondering if you understand anything the professor is saying or whether you are going to suffer from heat exhaustion in a small lecture hall packed with 150 students, but whether an American seminarian will start throwing rocks at you or if you will get sprayed in the face by the water spicket with no control. Yes, these things have happened to me.

Plus we have good classes :) and funny professors like the father who commented yesterday as I was sitting in the back of the class something to the effect of, "Would any in the back of the class like to add anything. No wait, you guys aren't even awake." Haha...well he was partially right. On to some pictures for your entertainment. This is one of the entrances. It's usually closed so we have to take these ginormous stairs to the right of it. Chapel is on the left but I forgot to take a picture of it. It's pretty nice. Next time...



This is the inner courtyard. To the left is the evil water fountain spicket type thing that sprays water in your face. Rocks are down below. It's quite nice. We also have this big quiet garden in the back, a little coffee bar with all kinds of food, a library, AND...a Blessed Sacrament Chapel where we have exposition of the Blessed Sacrament from 8-6pm everyday. It's pretty nice.




This is my classroom. Fits about 50-60 people if everyone shows up. :) This is not always typical though. We have some big classrooms too kinda like the university style lecture halls except it's all wood and there is that big ol' crucifix too.



And that's a wrap. AMDG.