Canon Law Weekend

It's been a long week!!! Last week was regular, then Thursday through Tuesday, we had intensive canon law classes, 8-9 hrs per day, and some theology sprinkled in between. It was alright, some even interesting.

We went to Oostende, a beach town for Thursday through Sunday. I roomed with a Romanian girl - very nice - we talked a lot. She is orthodox, but taking the canon law program, which is quite interesting in itself. She is working on a paper on 'heresy in art' and so we talked about that and my work with Francis Thompson. We talked about the insanity of the canon law program, and about the canon law system, and Romanian US relations, and whatever. Very interesting. She is here in Leuven with her husband, an orthodox priest, and her little boy of about 5 years old. They arrived in Leuven at the same time as I did. She did law undergrad in Romania, and was looking for something to do here in Leuven while her husband is doing his doctorate. So canon law seemed to be a good match for her. Although she is not sure she'll continue. She had hilarious commentaries on the various personalities and professors. Unfortunately I didn't bring my camera, so I won't have a picture with this, but I'll see if I can get a photo at some point.

I did a presentation on religious freedom in USA - well, more or less, it was okay. I managed to bring up all the cases that were quoted later in the weekend from the US. There were a few lawyers there from England and Ireland - all of them were US Supreme Court watchers - grrr.... well, I'm not much help there, although my presentation was on constitutional law. I told them they were allowed to comment, but not to ask questions about which justice said what. Anyway it seemed okay. Pointless, but okay.

By the end of this, my brain was pretty much fried, so I did end up skipping Latin class. :-)

Barb Jennings comes friday. I'll see with her about juggling classes and going around to see stuff. Barb and I will go on a trip to Amsterdam on Saturday - that will be my first time to the Netherlands. We don't have any particular plans, but we'll do church at UPIC, then probably do the Begijnhof on Sunday. Then we'll see if she's ready to strike out on her own. I'll need to do classes on Tuesday for sure. But could probably skip some classes. I've been really good so far, so I'm due for a few skips.

I have most of my shots for Uganda - what happens is that you go to the doc who writes a script for the injections. You walk across the street to the pharmacy and purchase the syringes, made up with vaccine. These you bring back to the doc who administered it herself. I still have to go to the university hospital for the Yellow Fever vaccination. After that, I'll go to Brussels to get a visa, then I'll be set to go.

Tom will come Dec 10, and then we'll leave for Uganda on the 16th.

Peace,
--Amy