Life in Leuven

All is relatively calm - we still have several weeks left in the semester. I have now two papers to write. One for a class on the History of Canon Law, due in March. I'll write something on one of the early canonical collections - probably something on religious life. I have to translate the original text from Latin, so it's a good thing I'm taking Latin this semester. This assignment is from the Capita Selecta weekend - see below.


Then I can start on my Thesis for this year. I'm thinking about writing something about the defense of the rights of members of religious orders. But I have to see if that will be feasible. I have to talk with the faculty about that.


I will come home for Christmas and the Chapter - hopefully with some study time in between because Exams will start before I return, but I'll take them when I get back. The exam schedule should be availble soon, then I can start negotiating that.


Here in town, there are two new bike racks. Yay! One is near my apartment and the other is near the supermarket (Match for those of you who have been here). That is great news, because both places can certainly use them.


I haven't been parking my bike in my apartment lately, because it's been more rainy and so I don't want to track it up. It's also colder, so if I park it on the side, I can come in the hallway door, and that keeps my place warmer.


I think that is all for now. Happy Advent!!
Amy

You Know You're In Paris When....

Last weekend there was an international student trip to Paris. I though I would share some of the oddities there:

You know you're in Paris when the Eifel Tower is almost always on the horizon,<<




...when you find a carousel in front of a church - in this case, Sacre Coeur,>>




...when street musicians play the harp,<<




...and sing opera,>>




...when they erect a permanent ferris wheel where the guillotine used to be,<<




...when the subway entrances look like this,>>




...when the hospital is called Hotel Dieu - Hotel of God - also, Liberte Egalite Fraternite,<<




...when bail bond notices are in French,>>




...when the Christmas ornaments are made of feathers,<<




...when you can't get just one monument in a picture, this is the little brother of the Arc de Triomphe, and the Louvre,>>




...when your shopping mall looks like this.... though apparently only in the Christmas season,<<



...when your subway entrances look like this,>>




...when you have a phantom living in your opera house, (Phantom of the Opera was written about this opera house),<<




...and when this is a major traffic intersection, not a parking lot.>>



There's lots more - I really enjoyed the trip. Happy Thanksgiving everyone.
Amy

Oops

I was on my way out earlier today, and managed to lock myself out - oops. Okay, you can stop laughing now. I'm in a foreign land, I have no money, no ID, no keys - this is a problem!!! Well, thankfully it is midday on a weekday and my landlord is around the corner. So this was easily solved. Honest, this the FIRST time it's happened since I've arrived.

Anyway I locked myself out on the way over to the international student coffee shop. I'm not sure if I've written about that before: for 4 euro, you can get a mug then you get free coffee all year long. There are some folks from the theology department that show up there around 2pm for their fix of caffeine and nicotine. One guy that
is there regularly is from Scotland - he is a Redemptorist. And he is hilarious in a very Scottish sort of a way. There were some other people there two that I hadn't met: an Indonesian Franciscan and a diocesan guy from South Africa. There was also a guy from Croatia that I see pretty regularly. It's a nice break in the afternoon to drop in for coffee and conversation. So I'm pretty awake now, from the lock-out, the caffeine and the company.

Tomorrow evening I'll head over to the Catholic Worker house in Gent for dinner and conversation. I've been promised there will be enough english to keep me engaged. Anyway that should be interesting. They are just starting out, although they have been around for several years. So they are interested in what news I can bring from the states. Not much I'm afraid, but I have an affinity for the group. They are going to Calais over the weekend. Refugees live there on the coast in whatever whay they can, trying to join their families in England. The CWs bring food and clothing. From what I remember, the refugees are from Afghanistan and Iraq.

I have contacted the CSJ international center in Le Puy (in southern France). I want to get down there in the spring. We'll have a couple of breaks. I'll either just visit, or maybe do retreat there. I'm also getting to know some folks from the UK and Ireland, so there may be possibilities for retreat there. I was thinking I'll probably do retreat here in Europe, rather than trying to arrange something in the states. I also hope to connect with the local CSJs, but thus far have been unsuccessful.

Peace,
Amy

Capita Selecta

It's 4:30 and it's already getting dark. Of course it's been rainy all day, so that is part of the reason.
Last weekend we had the Capita Selecta, a 4 day Canon Law program at a small castle on the Belgian-French border. One day there was a lovely snowfall. Nothing stuck to the ground, but it was lovely coming down.

There were about 20 people there altogether - a really international group. At one point we were gathering for sunday mass and the first four of us sat in back: a european, an american, an asian and an african - we decided that it was a mark of the true church: one, holy, catholic, apostolic and sitting in the back.

We had Professor Werkmeister from Strasbourg who did about 10 hours on History of Canon Law. It was really interesting and when you get the historical perspective, our current situation seems less overwhelming. When we got to the point of reading a 1140 canon law text called Gratian's Decree - the professor was like a little kid showing off his toy. He was practically giddy translating and explaining the latin.

Okay I should also note that Werkmeister is in his 60s and was in an amateur cycle race last week. He had an accident in the race, and had one arm in a sling, two fingers on each hand were broken, his shoulder was messed up and he had a big bandage above one eye. Apparently he had surgery the day before he came for the program. Anyway he was pretty energetic for all that.

On the weekend I got some more collaborators for my Canon Law wiki. The idea is sort of like wikipedia, but on Canon Law. So that in the end, there will be a resource that folks can access with information about Canon Law. Also, theoretically anyone with internet can contribute as well. So it should be pretty helpful. Especially if I can get folks from this program who are from all over the world. You can check out this project at canonlaw.wikispot.org

Today I also booked my flight home. I'll come in on Christmas Eve and fly back at 1:30 after the Chapter ends on Jan 20. I may have to reschedule some of my exams, but I've gotten the okay from the professors to do that. Yay!!! I'll see you all soon.

Peace,
Amy

Mom and Dad Visit

Mom and Dad arrived early Wednesday morning at Brussels Airport. We took the train back to Leuven and took a stroll to the center of town and picked up sandwiches at one of my favorite sandwich shops. We came back to my apartment and they settled down for naps while I headed off for class.

Class was cancelled, so I came back, but didn't disturb their rest. I did some reading for class. When they awoke, we had the sandwiches we had gotten earlier, and visited for a bit. They headed back for naps while I went for my afternoon/evening classes. By the time I got back, they were up again, and we chatted a while more before we all turned in.

Thursday Nov 1 is a national holiday here for All Saints. So we went to Mass at the international parish. There was a light lunch there after Mass, and they met some of my friends there. Herman, one of the choir members offered to take us to Brussels Saturday, since he would be headed there anyway. We took him up on that offer. Later, we saw some of the sights, then headed home for my specialty lunch: rice and bean soup.

Friday we also had Mass at the international parish and stayed for about an hour to chat some more with the folks there. Then went to see the Grote Begijnhof (described in an earlier post).

Today, Herman picked us up at 10:00 and drove us to Brussels right to the museum we wanted to see. It took about 20-25 minutes to get there. We had some trouble finding the right entrance, but after perseverance, managed to find the Military Museum where Dad wanted to see aviation hall. That turned out to be quite a treat. Dad says: It is certainly among the top three air museums I have ever seen, with many unique types and an extraordinary collection of engines." He got lots of photos which he will gladly share. Mom and I also looked at some of the uniforms. She noted the intricate hand stitching on uniforms from the Belgian war of independence in 1830. There were also uniforms from Napoleon's tiff at Waterloo.

After having lunch on a park bench outside the musuem, We took the Tram into the center of Brussels and went to the Musical Instrument Museum.

Now I have to say, finding the museum was a bit of a challenge. The map provided by the museum didn't have street names on it, and it wasn't easy to chart a course even with the maps we had and the 'you are here' (u bent hier) signs. Our trek from the station took us down an alley, past the stage entrance of some theatre and up an steep unpromising concrete stairway. We rounded a bend, passing a closed drug store and a dinosaur museum and Mom and Dad were dispairing of my navigational abilities, and it took some convincing before they believed that the building we arrived at was our destination.

The museum was interesting as well. There were about 4 floors of exhibits. When we entered, we were issued headphones with no explanation about their use. We donned the headphones, and headed for the exhibits. As we walked into the first hall, our headphones came alive with a musical offering. Then, on the floor in front of the exhibits, there were little headphone sybmols. When you stood on or near that spot, you got a musical offering played on the instruments you were viewing. We saw and heard folk instruments from around the world. I think we all enjoyed that, but were pretty tired. We headed back to the station for a bite to eat before catching the train to Leuven.

We have some more events, including the Catholic Worker house in Gent. I have really enjoyed their stay.

Peace,
Amy