Day Four

Today was an improvement on yesterday.

I didn't think it would be, as I woke up a little late and took a late shower, thus making Monika miss her shower so she could get to breakfast in time. Not very considerate of me, especially considering Monika is an LCI student.

The Mensa doesn't offer many options when it comes to breakfast, and those options don't vary from day to day. I'll probably be rotating between granola and a ham & cheese sandwich for the entire semester. Yay. At least I have Choco Flakes to munch on in my room.

My first class for B days is Medieval World, which was pretty interesting. Lots of talk about emperors and Constantine - neat stuff. Plus the teacher is gonna break up the class, with lecture on Tuesday, and completely class discussion on the assigned readings for Thursday. It sounds chill and fun. Plus Krista's in that class, so I don't have to awkwardly sit by myself during the small breaks - we get to sit awkwardly together! Yay!

Next class was Christian Marriage, which has fifty girls and nine boys (Krista counted)
Our teacher has hilarious facial constructions, and when I understand a joke he makes, it's usually pretty funny. Thing is, I don't actually know what he's talking about most of the time, because he's Scottish, and has a VERY thick accent (Rosie, he sounds like Stoick from How to Train Your Dragon - they say "hiccup" the same way!) Also, I'm wondering how he's going to spend three hours a week for sixteen weeks talking about Christian Marriage - we already got the basics and a bit more covered today. More interesting will be watching Krista alternately sass and squirm three hours a week, for sixteen weeks.
We'll see how long she lasts.

The assigned reading is the book by Archbishop Fulton Sheen It Takes Three, so I am looking forward to that. The paper and tests don't look very intimidating, which I can't say of my other classes. Also, Professor Cassidy challenged us to memorize the Instruction on the Day of Marriage from the 1962 Rituale Romanum. If we memorize and recite it perfectly in class, we don't have to write the paper or take any of the tests! That would be sweet, and if it were any other class, I'd totally memorize it, but this class looks like it'll be the same amount of work either way - writing the short paper and taking a few tests, or memorizing a good page and a half of instruction, so I'm not sure if I'll do it. I already have a ton of reading for my other classes.

After classes finished (I finish right before noon Mass every day), pretty much the entire campus went to noon Mass as the bishop of Gaming was saying Mass. The bishop seemed really nice, but honestly, I slept through his sermon because I was already sleepy and couldn't do any more interpreting thick accents at that point. The music, even for Franciscan, was off today, people were clapping for the bishop (he seemed kind of embarrassed), and then we all crammed in the apse of the church to take a picture with the bishop. So, I was glad to get out.

There was a long line for lunch because of the "Mass rush", and it was packed in the Mensa. Krista and I eventually ended up finding two open chairs, and just sat in the middle of this table. The girls on one end were nice and we talked to them a bit, then left when we finished.

We came back to our room, left for the Spar, and I returned with more snacks and milk (yay! 3.5% fat - I'm looking forward to this!) whereas Krista came back with chocolate bars for her family, and then a bottle of wine and plastic cups for herself. Yep, she's acclimating herself into this Europe thing quite well.

Then I piddled for an hour while Krista worked out, and when she came back, we set off for a jog.
Don't worry - I'm still a big bum, but I wanted to use my pretty sketch book, so I figured I'd jog with her till I found a good spot for sketching.

We ended up climbing a little ways up the mountain that the rowhouses (the teachers houses) sit on, but it was super muddy, we didn't actually jog. I found a dryish place to sit, and spent the next hour or so sketching a big blob into my beautiful watercolor book. It's kinda sad actually, but practice makes perfect, so hopefully I'll have at least one sketch that resembles my object by the time the semester is over. Krista explored around a bit, and then found a decent place to jog. I joined up with her later at the Mensa for supper.

phone pictures - don't judge

The Mensa wasn't super crowded, but there weren't a lot of empty tables either. Krista ended up running into a friend of hers, and so we sat at his table with his friends. They were all really funny, and it was the most "normal" I've seen a group of Franciscan students (that had more than one male in the group) act. Half of the table left a while after they finished eating, and I thought we were eventually going to skeedaddle too, but Krista's friend ended up talking to her for another hour or so about her leaving Franciscan. He was super nice and thoughtful - Krista should appreciate the friends she has that she doesn't hang out with as much more. *cough* Krista *cough* ;)

Came back to the room, "finished" my watercolor blob, studied for a bit, then I went out to pray the Rosary at the Kartause.

As I was crossing the courtyard to the church, my paths crossed with another girl. We ended up talking a wee bit, and I asked if she would like to pray the Rosary with me, and she did! That was really nice, because when I pray the Rosary by myself, I end up getting super distracted and take way more time than I should.

When we finished, I asked if she wouldn't mind singing the Salve with me. She asked me to hum the tune so she could remember if she knew all the words; while I was humming it, a girl I met a couple days ago walked out from the chapel and overheard me. She's a music major, and she seemed super nice - she and her friends sang for the Mass at Gaming two days ago, and not only did they have beautiful voices, they also sang some really pretty songs too (read: Latin songs)

So anyways, she asked me if we were going to sing the Salve, and ended up singing it with us. It was really nice and sounded AWESOME in the church, despite the fact I had a scratchy throat and Jenny (the girl who prayed with me) didn't know all the words. Jessica (music major) had a really good voice to cover for us, plus the acoustics (or whatever you call it) in that church is amazing.

Afterwards, we talked a bit outside, and we're going to try to make it a regular thing to meet at nine for Rosary at the church. I'm really glad to have more people praying with me, plus, Jessica's music major friends will probably be coming, which will make the Salve sound even better!

Now I'm back, and guess what? I might get to bed on time if I finish this right now, so peace!