Dante Aligheri School---a hell hole...
Title credit goes to Phil Scheer on that one...
Anyways--we finished Early Orientation with brunch on Sunday morning in Rome, and in the early afternoon departed for the 3 language schools. Some guys are in Asisi, others in Verbania and then a group of 24 of us in Siena at the Dante Aligheri School.
Most of the guys in Siena have a host family---but there are 8 of us that are in the outskirts of Siena in Costafabbri, and we are staying at "Monastero" with some Sisters...still learning their order name, but it's the foundress of the female version of St. Vincent de Paul. We all have our own rooms, which are pretty spacious---my room alone has 3 beds and a private bathroom...
The Sisters are wonderful, and it's going to help with the progression of Italian because (unless they're hiding it very well) they do not speak a word of English!
On Monday (which I suppose is still "today" for anyone reading in the US/Haiti) we started our language classes. They are going to be INTENSE. We had to do a placement test online before arriving...I took beginner like my teacher suggested, knowing I'd place out of it (which, sure enough, I did), but I didn't take the intermediate test to determine which intermediate level they would place me in, so I was assigned to intermediate 1. I am with 2 other NAC guys though, so it's alright. We'll see if they think I'm properly assigned or if I move to intermediate 2. Other people in my class include an Australian woman who is a lawyer and learning Italian for fun, a woman from Florida, a married couple from Denmark, an elementary school teacher from Argentina here with her daughter just learning the language, 3 Swiss people, and a French woman...
In the afternoon, I met with a guy named Alberto for 2 hours and I basically spoke Italian the whole time...he asked me guiding questions and we went from there. "What led you to want to be a priest?", "Have you been to Italy before? Tell me about it...", "Tell me about Boston" etc. It helped me work a lot on pronunciation, to distinguish between Spanish, Portuguese and Italian...
After the day of classes ended, about 10 of us walked to the Basilica San Domenico (where St. Catherine's finger and severed head are in tact, dating from 1383) for Mass and prayer. It was very cool to pray in front of St. Catherine's head, asking her powerful intercession.
Similar to last year when I took my Portuguese class in Lisboa, I will not typically post about what the day was like, rather any special events that took place, or any inspiring* revelations that I receive in prayer around Siena. However, in case anyone is curious about my schedule, a typical week is VERY packed. I am still figuring out if this is a normal week or not, but from what I've gathered so far:
Monday-- Class will begin at 10 and run until 1:30. Pranzo (lunch) is until 2:30. Then from 2:30-4:30 (or for the guys who are closer to the Centro 4:45-6:45) there is one on one tutoring with a teacher.
Tuesday-Friday--Large group class 9-12:30, then the NAC seminarians have a class with a priest to learn liturgical language, tour churches etc from 12:30-1:30, lunch then the one on one tutoring.
Despite having TVs with cable in each bedroom, the Monastero does not have (free) Wifi. Another seminarian purchased the month's Wifi package for 39 Euro. This is a time when not being able to sleep comes in handy, since everyone else is sleeping and not logged onto his user name!
It is getting late/early however, almost 2 am, and tomorrow is another jam packed day. Any prayer requests or intentions while I am in Siena, feel free to comment below, facebook me, email me etc...
Oremus pro invicem (JG!!)
KPL
*inspiring= not a guarantee that anyone else will be inspired, they will just be things I meditated upon in prayer that I felt compelled to share ;-)
Anyways--we finished Early Orientation with brunch on Sunday morning in Rome, and in the early afternoon departed for the 3 language schools. Some guys are in Asisi, others in Verbania and then a group of 24 of us in Siena at the Dante Aligheri School.
Most of the guys in Siena have a host family---but there are 8 of us that are in the outskirts of Siena in Costafabbri, and we are staying at "Monastero" with some Sisters...still learning their order name, but it's the foundress of the female version of St. Vincent de Paul. We all have our own rooms, which are pretty spacious---my room alone has 3 beds and a private bathroom...
The Sisters are wonderful, and it's going to help with the progression of Italian because (unless they're hiding it very well) they do not speak a word of English!
On Monday (which I suppose is still "today" for anyone reading in the US/Haiti) we started our language classes. They are going to be INTENSE. We had to do a placement test online before arriving...I took beginner like my teacher suggested, knowing I'd place out of it (which, sure enough, I did), but I didn't take the intermediate test to determine which intermediate level they would place me in, so I was assigned to intermediate 1. I am with 2 other NAC guys though, so it's alright. We'll see if they think I'm properly assigned or if I move to intermediate 2. Other people in my class include an Australian woman who is a lawyer and learning Italian for fun, a woman from Florida, a married couple from Denmark, an elementary school teacher from Argentina here with her daughter just learning the language, 3 Swiss people, and a French woman...
In the afternoon, I met with a guy named Alberto for 2 hours and I basically spoke Italian the whole time...he asked me guiding questions and we went from there. "What led you to want to be a priest?", "Have you been to Italy before? Tell me about it...", "Tell me about Boston" etc. It helped me work a lot on pronunciation, to distinguish between Spanish, Portuguese and Italian...
After the day of classes ended, about 10 of us walked to the Basilica San Domenico (where St. Catherine's finger and severed head are in tact, dating from 1383) for Mass and prayer. It was very cool to pray in front of St. Catherine's head, asking her powerful intercession.
Similar to last year when I took my Portuguese class in Lisboa, I will not typically post about what the day was like, rather any special events that took place, or any inspiring* revelations that I receive in prayer around Siena. However, in case anyone is curious about my schedule, a typical week is VERY packed. I am still figuring out if this is a normal week or not, but from what I've gathered so far:
Monday-- Class will begin at 10 and run until 1:30. Pranzo (lunch) is until 2:30. Then from 2:30-4:30 (or for the guys who are closer to the Centro 4:45-6:45) there is one on one tutoring with a teacher.
Tuesday-Friday--Large group class 9-12:30, then the NAC seminarians have a class with a priest to learn liturgical language, tour churches etc from 12:30-1:30, lunch then the one on one tutoring.
Despite having TVs with cable in each bedroom, the Monastero does not have (free) Wifi. Another seminarian purchased the month's Wifi package for 39 Euro. This is a time when not being able to sleep comes in handy, since everyone else is sleeping and not logged onto his user name!
It is getting late/early however, almost 2 am, and tomorrow is another jam packed day. Any prayer requests or intentions while I am in Siena, feel free to comment below, facebook me, email me etc...
Oremus pro invicem (JG!!)
KPL
*inspiring= not a guarantee that anyone else will be inspired, they will just be things I meditated upon in prayer that I felt compelled to share ;-)
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