So, Um... I Live in a Convent

No joke, I stood in my room for a few minutes the other day and just repeated that a few times. That, followed by a little manic laugh because... well, I live in a convent.

This is not to say that I dislike the convent, or the sister, or the school. Quite the contrary, I very quickly became very fond of all of the above. Still, Sr Gloria looked at me one day this week and said, "You're homesick, aren't you?"

Is it that obvious?

I'm adjusting, though, that's what I do. Everyday, the sisters make me feel more and more at home. All that stuff I used to hear about nuns being mean and frightening never made any sense to me, and much less so now. How can you look at someone like Sr. Gloria or Sr. Thuy and think, "There's someone I need to cower in fear of"? There are ten Salesian sisters in this community (That is, at the school. The provincial house is across the street, where the retired sisters and some official kinds of sisters live and work). I plan to gradually sneak photos of all of them as part of my effort to rid the world of anti-sisterism.

Joking.

My room. There's actually notably more junk in there now than when this was taken, including a set of speakers for my mp3 player (thanks, Papa and Josie!). I'm a huge fan of the huge windows!
We have open-air corridors for most of the school. The offices and the junior high building (where I am) are enclosed, and walking from one to the other is like leaving the fridge, running through the oven, and landing in the freezer. In case you're wondering, those are the stations of the cross hanging on the pillars.

The good Saint John Bosco, founder of the Salesians and patron of th youth. I didn't know anything about him before I came here, but the more I find out, the more I like him. Incidentally, there are two patrons of this congregation: St Francis deSales (hence, Salesian) and my patroness, Teresa de Avila. I didn't know that before I got here either. As Sr. Rosann said after I told her about how I found and developed my affection for Teresa, "I think St. Teresa's got you by the shoulders".

My classroom! My classroom. Do they know they gave me one of these? And put students in it? Do they know how old I am?

I have a funny story about how I got this room, but at this moment I have to run out the door to go with Sr. Gloria and Marco (another volunteer) to show off VIDES at a young adult ministry fair. Then, we're going to a Maronite Church for mass (or Qurbono, as they call it).

More on all of the above as soon as I can! This morning Sr. Gloria helped me jump the weird hurdles that had been keeping me from getting onto Blogger to update. From now on I should be able to update regularly (if not frequently because of school).