la Lingua e il Cibo

I have almost come to the end of my one week stay here in College San Paolo.

Tomorrow morning (9.00 a.m. Rome time), the group of us will be heading up to Terni to start our 3-month stay there to learn Italian. So far there are about 70 of us here from this college who will undergo this studies. We have Africans, Malaysians, S American, a Kiwi, Vietnamese, just to name a few who will begin to speak or attempt to in Italian.

For the past week I have been cracking my over the language here as others use Italian to communicate with one another. Because of that and also Italian being the default language, communication is made and I see Chinese speaking to Africans, S American speaking to Indians with nary a problem! Amazing! We'll see how Terni can create this 'anti-Babel' when our batch heads there... :-D After three months, we come back to the College and we'll be speaking Italian like we were born with it!... I hope :-D

Food is no problem in San Paolo so far. Though it is generally pasta in its offering, there have been occasions of rice and a lot of meat to satisfy one's appetite. On special solemnities and Sundays, we have gelato and bananas on top of the usual fare. Then there are lots of salad to drown oneself in! ;-) So, I won't go hungry here!

This morning, I took a stroll together with 3 other brother priests. We wanted to see our neighbourhood and what they have. The streets were a little less crowded and cars weren't too many. Still it was quite an adventure walking around and adjusting to the roads when everything here is going on the right side! When we came back, we now know where the telco shops are, the supermarket, department stores and the MacDonalds! ;-)

Meanwhile, have a pleasant week ahead. The next one will be from Terni! Ci vediamo!