Week 1

In some ways, it's almost impossible to think that a week has past since we arrived at Notre Dame. In other ways, it feels like a lifetime! According to the summer semester, we've made it through "5 weeks" of class already!

Basically, I am now in survival mode. But it's a good thing! Lots of reading, lots of writing, lots of inadvertent falling asleep while reading, and lots of caffeinated beverages.
Also, for Friday's Liturgical Prayer class, we took a "field trip" to the Hesburgh Library to visit the Rare Books Collection. When I found out that we would get to meet with the curator of the Rare Books collection, I FREAKED out. Last year, we made a similar trip in one of my classes, and that was a main highlight of the summer for me. This guy, Dr. David T. Gura, is fascinating. He's currently working on putting a medieval manuscript back together, and by the end of the presentation, I found myself moved by the cause against "breaking books." Anyway, it's just incredible to think about what life was like approximately seven centuries ago. The newest version of the iPhone might not have been the predominant status symbol, but a personalized, illuminated Breviary sure was! Unfortunately, you can't find much about this online, but here's a link to a brief webpage if anyone's interested: http://medieval.nd.edu/events/2013/06/03/17212-hour-by-hour-reconstructing-a-medieval-breton-prayerbook-2/.

Hoping you're all having a wonderful weekend!

Deja Vu? Or just the start of year two!

It's hard to believe, but a year has passed since we first stepped foot on the Notre Dame campus, and we're back again for our second summer. It's been quite an adventure so far, and I'm certainly looking forward to what lies ahead!

The night we arrived, Julie and I visited our favorite restaurant spot here in South Bend: Fiddler's Pub. Julie got the go-to favorite, Fish and Chips...

And I decided to try the Guinness Stew.

Both were as delicious as we remembered! We channeled our inner-Irish and are ready to go!

We started classes today. This module I'm taking Catholic Social Teaching and Liturgical Prayer. So far, so good! But I have definitely returned to the daily rhythm of last year: Coffee, class, eat, class, study, eat, study, sleep (maybe), repeat.

My home-away-from-home this summer is Siegfried Hall:

Miss all of you back at my Kansas home and hope you're doing well!