South of the Border

Two weeks ago, the Saint Paul Seminary class of 2010 left for a two-week adventure in Venezuela!

Before beginning their first semester as "Theology Three" students this coming autumn, the class of 2010 will be both learning about Hispanic culture and experiencing an immersion into the Spanish language.

With a departure date 04 June, the seminary was (briefly) hopping with excitment. There are very few of us that are here during the summer and we were very excited to have a larger number of seminarians together in the house again.

Of course, not everyone was as excited as I that afternoon. Travel, of course, brings its own "baggage;" in the crunch-time of having a departure time set, one must double-check that everything is properly packed and that nothing is forgotten: "Did I pack enough shirts?" "Can I bring this on the plane?" "Where is my passport?"

On a related note, before getting into the cars to head over to the airport, one member of the Saint Paul Seminary class of 2010 asked, "Okay, what did I forget that everyone else has?" Another member of the class of 2010 jokingly replied: "Our dignity!" He was kidding, of course; I included this snippet as an example of the good friendships (though sarcastic at times) that exist within the class of 2010.

The good news is all of the class of 2010 returned home safely on Saturday evening! You may be thinking, "Well, that's great - but why are we not seeng many, many posts on their experiences?"

The answer is that most of them were only here for about thirty-six hours; many of them already flew to Mexico for a second part of this immersion experience. We all are looking forward to hearing their stories.

All the best to the SPS class of 2010 in their summer assingments!

Take care, -Jeremy