The Week in Review

I think that starting this blog has proven that time actually goes by even more quickly than I thought previously! Each time I sign in to write a new note, I check to find out when I last logged in and it ends up being several days. Well, I doubt than anyone checks this page frequently enough to care that I don't update it every other day. If you do check that frequently . . . well . . . I'm not sure what to tell you! Sorry!

This has been a good week, all in all. I tried making bread (dinner rolls) again on Wednesday. They turned out on the heavy and dry side, so maybe that means I added too much flour. They didn't quite raise right, either. I'll have to get another lesson from Mom when I come home this summer.

One of the activities that is part of my pastoral formation here is to work at Marymount International School in northern Rome. There are kids there from ages 4 to 18 (thus, elementary through high school), from many different countries and faiths. Many are children of ambassadors and other diplomats living in Rome.

I spent last semester sitting in on various classes, getting a feel for what the different grade levels are like: how the children learn, what classroom management is like, etc. This semester I am supposed to start teaching, but I'm not sure if the teachers are going to be able to fit me in or not. The last couple of weeks I have been working with the second graders who are preparing for First Reconciliation.

Anyway, this past Thursday it was raining, so the kids had been indoors all day, and were especially rambunctious. I was getting very short on patience because the children wouldn't listen to the teacher, stop talking, or stay in their seats. It gave me a new appreciation for teachers and what they have to put up with on a regular basis.

Yesterday, we had a celebration not just for St. Patrick's day, but also to mark the 50th anniversary of priesthood for one of our spiritual directors here. Some of the seminarians put together a small Irish band, so there was good music. Another seminarian used to take Irish dancing lessons, so he danced to a couple of the tunes. There was a nice dinner, and at the end a toast and a kind of "roast" given to "Priest Lyons," as many call him.

This weekend I'm working on catching up on some reading and doing some practicing on the piano for my recital coming up in just a couple of months.

I shouldn't make this much longer or my readers won't want to visit anymore!

Until next time...