Christmas break starting

Today is the last day of lessons at the Salesian Pontifical University before Christmas. Oh, did I neglect to say that I have been busy here in Rome?

Yes, my motive for coming was that I had qualified for a Research Sabbatical after 12 full semesters at DSPT in Berkeley. I'd made up my proposal, and so came to the UPS as a Visiting Scholar. Instead of "scholar", however, the Theology School here understood "professor". So, here I am as a Visiting Professor, teaching a double course this semseter, and conducting a seminar course in the Spring Semester.

This isn't how I planned it, but because I'm teaching, the UPS pays my living expenses and my health insurance. What a deal! It would have cost me upward of €30 a day (well, not me: the Salesians in California). Instead, they are making money off me (because my salary from DSPT goes to the Salesian province).

The teaching is a lot of fun -- in Italian with students from all over the world. The course is entitled "Francesco di Sales: Storia e Spirito" [Francis de Sales: Story and Spirit]. It is the same material that I've taught at DSPT and GTU in Berkely for ten years, but putting the course together in another language makes it a bit exciting. The big job is translating my class-handouts from English to Italian. It takes me all week to produce 24 pages in clean-copy Italian. But the students are Advanced Level on their post-graduate specializations (according to the new European academic system); they are very interested and I'm enjoying the interaction. Interaction with the other teachers is very good as well.

And the research? Well I should be nervous about that, but just going back to sources in French and Italian to prepare the course in another language has given me a lot of material, so that I think I can complete my first book proposal (on Francis de Sales) during the month of January when teaching yields to exams.

Best part: I've got a great title for the book: "Francis de Sales: Story and Spirit". Okay, I'll cite the UPS in my acknowledgements page.

So anyway… today the lessons come to a halt. The students are heading off today and tomorrow and quiet will descend upon the UPS. A researcher's delight (I guess).

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