All this and class too!

Yesterday morning, we had our first class session on John the Baptist. We are approaching the text in seminar, as opposed to lecture, style. It was fast paced and lively! Our session was only two and half hours, but it certainly felt like more! Fr. Gregory provided lots of background information, so much so that we were often struggling to keep up.

We broke for the Priory's main meal, which is at 12:30. After the (at this point) requisite siesta and a walk with the brothers on a shopping trip, I spent the afternoon reading up on the Kidron Valley, the Citadel, the Western Wall and other sites, as well as captioning my photos so as not to loose important details. After Vespers (7:30) in the Basilica and supper, Fr. Gregory and another professor, Fr. Olivier-Thomas Venard, took us, along with the two newly arrived student brothers (sans luggage, sadly) from St. Albert's out for a beer and an evening stroll in the Old City. After walking through parts of the Old City with wall to wall people and every shopkeeper trying to get you into his shop, walking the streets at night at the end of the Muslim and beginning of the Jewish Sabbaths was almost eerie. (It was also odd going out without hat and sunglasses!) We gave ourselves an extra hour's rest for today, so we're having Mass at 9:00 then heading out on our own to the Citadel, meeting Fr. Gregory for lunch, then going to the Western Wall, Mt. Zion and the Jewish Quarter. I must confess though, I am still overwhelmed by it all.