First Days

Once I stepped on the Due Santi campus I wondered how I would ever go back to the Irving campus. Due Santi is simply beautiful. It is simple: a place dedicated to study, to grow, to think and converse and of course to rest between trips.

It is beautiful: There is a great vineyard, orange buildings which match with the countless trees (which include olive trees and palm trees), no visible polution, fresh air to breathe (which I certainly always appreciate) , sports facilities (a clean pool!), and best of all the same unmistakable “UD air or feeling”.

My first days here were all about getting to know the staff what our job as Student Assistants is exactly. The RAs and professors (and even Dr. Osbourne’s daughters and the campus Chaplain) made sure we got aquainted and felt welcome. On our first night they took the four of us to an Italian Restaurant close by and we ordered many antipestos as well as five pastas to share. We had bruschettas and a plates of cured ham, and I fell inlove with the gniochelli with tartuffo, a delicious potato based pasta in a strong mushroom sauce.

The next night they also spoiled us after a day filled with preparation of all the dorms. They showed us the “forno” and the wine cellar. The forno is the pizza oven on campus, which can be used by anyone whenever they wish to do so by merely reserving it.

We made about five pizzas, all with different ingredients, including a bananna-nutella pizza which I loved of course :). The wine cellar was also really neat to see, and as a small trivia fact: it was used as a bomb shelter when this campus was occupied by nazi militaries in WWII.

Today, however, the peace and quiet that we had been enjoying as the only ten people on campus was broken. Half of us went early in the morning to pick up the other 106 students that will be sharing this beautiful place with us for the next four months while the other ones stayed to receive them and finish the final preparations.

Although the campus definitely feels different, it is a good different. The conversations now inhabiting Due Santi are all full of excitement... : of places we want to visit, things we want to do in Rome, the daunting 30+ books that are on each of our bookshelves (courtesy of the hard work of the SA’s :P) which we will read in their entirety, thinking of the speeches of Monsigneur and Dr. Haitley gave, urging us to live our faith to the fullest and not dare waste this semester with mediocrity..

There are so many of you I wish I could share these experiences with. Unfortunately I will have very limited time and access to the internet, so I hope this blog will allow me to share a part of this semester with you all.

We are going into the city very early tomorrow, to have mass in St. Peters! Ciao!

(little shout out to Lau and Mom who will in fact be going to the Irving Campus tomorrow)