Sunday, May 23, 2010

Reassignment

On Friday, I received a piece of bittersweet news from Sr. Mary Madeline Todd, O.P., the Dominican sister who works at the University of Sydney's Catholic Chaplaincy and has been my main contact in Australia and constant source of advice and reassurance throughout this whole preparation process. I had originally thought that Sr. Mary Madeline would be home in the United States to celebrate the 150th jubilee of her community in Nashville during early July and would return to Sydney about a week after I arrived. Unfortunately, she recently learned that she will be reassigned for the next year, so she will not be returning to Sydney in July. Instead, she will be going to Rome to study theology at the Angelicum (a pontifical university run by the Dominicans). Although I am sad to know that I will not get to meet the one who has been so great a help to me all these months, I am happy to know that she has such wonderful things ahead of her.

As is characteristic of her wonderfulness, Sr. Mary Madeline is letting everyone that she is leaving behind in Sydney know that I am coming and why I am coming. She tells me that they are ready for me and will be happy to work with me. There are two new Dominican sisters coming to Sydney to take the place of Srs. Mary Madeline and Mary Sarah who are there now, but there is a possibility that they will not arrive until a few weeks into my visit. If they are delayed, Sr. Mary Madeline has arranged for another woman to mentor me and oversee my work at USyd. Of course, I will also be spending a great deal of my time with my host, Jessica Langrell, so things are looking good, I think, despite this "occupational hazard of planning ahead," as Sr. Mary Madeline so aptly termed it in her most recent e-mail.

Thursday, May 20, 2010

Welcome!

Hi everyone,

Welcome to my blog, where I will be recording tales of my trip to Sydney, Australia later this summer (10 July - 21 August), the fruits of my Fr. Smith Fellowship for Service and Study Abroad from Providence College.

I just wanted to make a couple of early summer updates:

First, last evening I received an e-mail from fellow PC student and fellow Fellow Francesca Genova, who is already in Oxford, England, where she is studying the New Atheism at Blackfriars. It was great to hear that she arrived safely and settled in. She's already been to see Christopher Hitchens speak!

Over the weekend, I applied for and was granted a short-term tourist visa by the Australian government, so I can officially enter the country and stay there for more than just a short time. Just this morning, I received an e-mail from Jessica Langrell, who I will be living with in Sydney, with some updates. One of my projects for today is registering for SCENE, an evangelization conference sponsored by the Archdiocese of Sydney, which I will attend during my first week.

Finally, a picture of Fr. Smith Fellows, new and old! During exam week, the last summer's inaugural Smith Fellows, Elizabeth Weber and Claire Pevoto (who both just graduated from PC this past Sunday!) took the 2010 Fellows out for some ice cream and advice at the Newport Creamery near PC. This was a great time for all of us to get to know each other a little better, update one another on our plans, and talk about how lucky we are to have this opportunity and how thankful we are to those who made it possible.



From left to right: Francesca Genova '11 (Oxford), Patricia Carroll '11 (Kenya), Julia Tully '12 (Kenya), Hollis Dunlop '12 (Nicaragua), Lia Santilli '11 (Sydney), Claire Pevoto '10 (Philippines), Elizabeth Weber '10 (Oxford)

Thank you again to Claire and Elizabeth for a wonderful time, and best of luck as you conquer the world after PC!