The title says it all. I arrived in Rome at Fiumicino Airport at about 17.30… Of course, it took forever to get the luggage, but there was no problem going through immigration and once outside the customs area, Aldo Giraudo was there to meet me. He briefed me on many elements of life at the UPS as we first stopped for something to drink and then took the road back to the university. The trip was almost uneventful, except that on the offramp from Rome's Ring Road into the neighborhood of Fidene, we got rear-ended as we were caught in the gridlock. Luckily, there was no mark on either car. It must have been because we were stopped and the other driver was going at only a crawl. Thank God for that. All we would have needed is to fill out an insurance claim.
Back at the UPS, I have a room in the professors' residence. I will be part of the "Gesù Maestro" Community during my stay here. Giorgio Zevini gave me the key to my new office, which is on the second floor of the Theology Building, one of only five offices there. I'll go through all my material tomorrow.
Meanwhile, I have seen a lot of folks already: Jozef Struz', director of Gesù Maestro and once my director when I was a student in the Don Rua community in 1990-1992. Of course I met Giorgio Zevini on the stairs as I went to the dining room. I also saw Renato Mion, Cosimo Semeraro, Gianfranco Venturelli, Christian Debuts, Jesús Manuel García, Jose Luis Moral, Mario Midali, Giuseppe Nicolussi (provinical superior), Donato Valentini, Ottorino Pasquato, Josef Kutarna (who spent last year in Berkeley), Giuseppe Bertorello, and Antonio Escudero.
Some of these had been my professors; some had been my classmates in years gone by… but that's a lot of people to greet in one evening as I fought off sleep. Which reminds me! What am I still doing up? I'm going to try to catch some sleep. There's a lot to prepare for Monday's class, and I'll have to get on that tomorrow!
Buona notte!
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