Christmas Greetings!

A very blessed Christmas to everyone. There is lots of Christmas glitz and glitter that I could pull in to this blog entry. I'm sure you've seen it so I think I'll go with understatement here. I just read a thing by Garrison Keilor that talked about poetry being the use of a few details to evoke worlds of meaning. That's what I'm going for here. I'm still in Leuven, and have had a fairly quiet Saturday. I have given myself a study plan for the Christmas break and the exam period that is both adequate and humane. At least that is my plan for making the plan. I should be able to enjoy lots of festivities and still feel adequately prepared when I hit exams.
I will celebrate the 4th Sunday of advent with my worshiping community here in Leuven. We have been using Light as our theme for Advent, with a specific light for each Sunday of Advent. So we had light of love, light of peace, light of hope, and this week, light of life. I'll be giving the reflection before mass - I have it written, but I need to pull it up and dust it off. Also see how to link it to the songs, as well as the readings. The International Community of the University Parish is a VERY international group of students. We're really the whole world, the whole church. There are some groups that have enough people to have their own liturgy, e.g. the Dutch, the French, the Spanish, etc. But everyone else gathers in the International Community. So we're all a long way from home and looking for community, support and shared faith. This makes for an awesome group that I will certainly miss during the Christmas break. Some of them will be staying in town, but most are traveling home, or traveling somewhere other than Leuven. Recording from Advent Service
<I travel home on Christmas Eve - I've already made arrangements with friends in Chicago, lest I get stranded there. Hopefully since the arrangements are made, it will all be fine. But stranded travelers is a good Christmas theme in any case.
I'm afraid that I haven't done any Christmas cards. For the past several years, I have done an electronic Christmas Card with the standard Christmas letter updating folks on my whereabouts and whatnots for the year. But I haven't even managed that this year. I understand that here in the Low Countries, the custom is to spend the Christmas break catching up with friends and family - so maybe??? In any case, this will have to be my Christmas greetings for most.
For those who have been following the blog, you know that I moved to Belgium in August to begin 3 years here studying Canon Law. I've since then added theology to the roster, so I'll have some combination of Theology and Canon Law when I finish.
The move has been a good one - I 'landed on my feet' coming over here, have settled in well and am enjoying the experience. What an amazing enrichment to see the world from a different perspective, and due to the very international character of the university, from many perspectives. That has been quite a blessing. I'm working on learning dutch so I can talk with my neighbors. It's coming along, but slow-ish, as languages will. But most folks here speak English, and a few other languages as well. Imagine if every state in the US spoke a different language - well, as in the official language. Well, you can imagine that you would have to pick up languages, just to survive.
I'll head home to visit community, family and friends. I'm staying through mid January to participate in the last session of the CSJ Chapter (big meeting, new leaders chose). Then I come back to Leuven - the day after I arrive, I have my first exam. Then the other four are the last three days of January. Two are written - sort of the run of the mill exam, except that it is the whole grade - sort of like Law School. The other three are oral exams - also the only grade for the course, but you get two or three questions, and you have 20-30 minutes to jot down some notes about the answer, then you go in and you have 10 minutes try to impress the professor with your brilliance. Hmmm.... This is the norm here at this university, especially in theology and canon law. It should be interesting. I have taught before, and I think that I could probably assess a student's general grasp of the subject in about 30 seconds of talking with them. So I'm not too worried about it. I just hope that I'm feeling brilliant the day I walk in. So if you think of it at the end of January, you might say a prayer for brilliance - correctness and precision would be nice as well.
So to each of you, a very blessed Christmas and peacefilled, gracefilled New Year,
Zalig Kerstfeest!
Amy

The Magic Kingdom

Greetings to all. It's just a week till I come back to the states for about 4 weeks, and I am really looking forward to that.

This Saturday I went to Luxembourg - the Magic Kingdom - actually it is an Grand Duchy, but whose counting.... It was thoroughly enchanting - I would definitely recommend it to anyone who is coming in this direction. It has been around for 1500 years. The Celts had it, then the Romans, then the Spaniards, the French, and so forth. Each group developed fortifications among the hills and castles, and what not. All leading to lovely medieval fortifications spread throughout the hills.
I teamed up with a german girl from the parish where I go. She is also in the choir, so we know each other a bit. The first stop on the trip was an American cemetery and war memorial. It was pretty powerful to visit it with a german - there is a german cemetery nearby, but we didn't visit it. Apparently they decided that enough damage had been done to the landscape and they put their graves in a forest, among the trees. I also saw General Patton's grave - apparently we're related somehow, so I took a photo (not included here)
Classes are finishing up and we're getting info on exams. I'll have four exams the last three days of the exam period. I had to have some later because I'm going to be home for the Chapter. So those last days of January, make sure you send some prayers my way, I'll need them.
Speaking of chapter, a friend of mine, a redemptorist who is here studying theology just got back from his chapter. He hadn't expected anything major to happen, vis-a-vis his studies here, but instead, he will be going to Zimbabwe. Wow. He is one of a group of students (mainly theology) that I meet for coffee each day in the early afternoon. We meet at the international coffee house, it's a nice break from studying. In fact, I'm headed over there after I finish this entry.
So I look forward to seeing everyone VERY SOON. I arrive the afternoon of Dec 24. I don't exactly have a plan, but my brother has Christmas eve dinner, then I will probably go to Carondelet, then mass in the morning and to my sister's for family festivities. I just picked up a tax case that has to be filed before the end of the year, so I'll have to get that off after Christmas - I've prepared everything and the client is supposed to be getting all the proper signatures and then mailing it to Carondelet. They contacted me 2 weeks before the filing deadline.... Merry Christmas!!!

See you all soon.
Amy

Sinterklaas

Happy feast of Sinterklaas - St. Nicholas. This is a big deal here. A BIG deal! The photo on the left is the local version of Sinterklaas. The 'elves' are called zwart peter - black peter. It is interesting to find the locals dressing up and blacking their faces and going out shopping. Our choir is having a little Sinterklaas celebration. Apparently the next phase of christmas over here: the christmas market or Kerstmarkt can't start (by law) till after Sinterklaas has had his big day. My neighbor came over early and gave me some eggs and veggies and pudding.

Legend is that Sinterklaas comes up from Spain. Now of course, it's supposed to be the Turkish St. Nicholas. But the current story is he comes from Spain and generally by boat. Here is a photo of that - although I didn't go out to see it myself.

There is serious christmas lighting around town. There aren't alots of trees in town, but I believe that every one is filled with lights. There have been city workers all around town putting up lights. It is quite amazing to see things ramp up. While all the preparations are interferring with traffic, people take it all in stride. For all the trucks that block traffic regularly on the main thoroughfare, I rarely hear honking or people getting upset with things. They just wait their turn and go around. But it really shows that this is more of a walking town.

The Kerstmarkt is being set up - I have this photo from the Leuven website. Kertsmarkt The market will run for 10 days, and I'll let you know more what is there once it opens and the atmosphere and all. But I'll tell you the whole town shows up for all the markets. We have a weekly open air market that is mainly food - fruits, veggies, breads and pastries, cheeses and meat, as well as a variety of clothing booths. I've been doing may main food shopping there - along with most of the rest of the town. But apparently the Kerstmarkt will bring in folks from the surrounding area as well.

Otherwise, I'm winding down with the last few weeks of classes. I'm working with the various faculties to arrange my exams around my trip to the US and Chapter. I have classes in the Law School, the Theology School and the Canon Law School - which means I have to arrange things with the three offices. Then I'll see you soon!

Peace,
Amy