Seminary Shenanigans

Here's a picture of the dumb waiter in the seminary kitchen.  I'm sorry to say that it no longer functions and is now used simply as shelving.  I'm guessing the reason it doesn't work has something to do with the sign in the upper left hand corner of the picture.

But how else do I get to the basement?

The universal joy of the DMV

Last Friday I went to become a resident of Pennsylvania, a decision I made when I realized that: 1) Pennsylvania doesn't have a car tax, 2) Virginia does have a car tax, and 3) I don't have any income anymore.  I had previously looked into what would be required for me to get a driver's license now that I'm here, but I couldn't produce most of the proofs of residency listed on the Pennsylvania DMV website, such as utility bills, or lease agreements.  Ultimately I called the DMV and they told me I could get a letter from the school on letterhead saying that I was lining in the dorms in such and such a room at such and such an address, and I could use that as one of my proofs.  They also accepted bank statement with my address on them as proofs, so I called my bank and changed my address and was told I could go to any local branch to pick up a statement with that on it.

So after liturgy, around 8:30 I headed out to the bank to pick up the statement, having packed up my birth certificate, passport, letter from the seminary, car title, checkbook (because the Pennsylvania DMV only accepts check and money order obviously) and some homework to read in case there was going to be large amounts of time sitting in chairs waiting (this proved to be a very good idea).  I got to the bank a little after 9, and talk to a teller explaining why I'm there.  She was very friendly and told me that she would be happy to print out one of my old statements for me, but that those, contrary to what the guy on the phone told me, will still have my old address on them.  She understood why this didn't do me any good, and offered to print out a piece of paper that did have my current address, but unfortunately it wouldn't be on letterhead, and in fact, on closer inspection, didn't seem to indicate that it was from a bank at all; it was basically just a piece of paper on which was printed my name and address.  Reasoning that this was better than nothing, I accepted the paper and went back out to my car.

While sitting in the bank parking lot it occurred to me that the other semi-official documentation I could manufacture fairly quickly was a new car insurance card with my new address on it.  I attempted to change my address using the app Geico has for smartphones, but upon entering my new address and pressing submit I received an error message.  Go back, try again, same result.  I decided that since I was going to have to deal with this eventually anyway, and as I was fairly flimsily armed as far as proof of address went, it was worth calling Geico and talking to someone so they could update my policy with the correct address before proceeding to the DMV.  So I called up and spoke with an agent, who was quite helpful and friendly, and we got everything sorted out, making the appropriate changes to the policy now that I live in Pennsylvania, and requires slightly different things in insurance coverage, as well as updating my address to the seminary.  Now armed with my letter from the seminary, the piece of paper from the bank with my name and address on it, and knowing that Geico would shortly be emailing me a pdf copy of my proof of insurance card, I decided to proceed to the DMV

I got to the DMV around 10:30, found a parking spot, went in and told the guy at the desk why I was there, took a number, and was directed towards some chairs where I could wait.  Aha! my careful planning is paying off, I have homework to read!  After a brief wait, I got called up to the counter and meet a gentleman who's name tag read, if I recall correctly, "Steve."  Even if I don't recall correctly, I'm going to call him Steve, mostly because it's more convenient than calling him "the guy at the counter" repeatedly.  I explained to Steve why I was at the DMV.  I handed over my DC licence, my birth certificate, and my social security card, and then Steve asked for my proof of residency, so I gave him my letter from the seminary, explaining that I was told that I could use such a letter in my situation.  The letter was readily accepted, and I passed along the piece of paper from the bank, explaining that I had gotten it printed that morning, while helpfully pointing out the part of the paper that contained my name and address.  Having dealt with various DMVs over the years I did not expect my very unofficial looking paper to go over at all well, and was already preparing to offer my insurance card as further proof, when much to my amazement I was told that "everything appeared to be in order."

Now that it looks like I've passed the foreseen hurdle, I was hopeful that the rest of this trip would be brief.  Suddenly Steve said something to the effect of "so you have a licence in Virginia as well?"  I explain that I have had a license in Virginia, but when I moved into DC I surrendered it to the DC DMV and had assumed that had been the end of it.  It turns out that when Steve looked up my record on his computer, I was listed as a valid driver in both DC and Virginia.  My assumption is that when I went and got my DC license, DC never bothered to notify Virginia that I was transferring my license, and so they kept me on their rolls as a licensed driver as well.  Unfortunately this means that before he can issue me a Pennsylvania license, Steve needs to call someone to make sure that everything is on the up and up, and that I'm not running some sort of convoluted  plan in which I'm living a double life but using the same name and social security numbers for both lives.  Steve was on hold for a while, and while he was kind enough to finish filling out my paperwork while waiting for the result, I still ended up having plenty of time to go back to my homework before he got off the phone.  In the end, that all got sorted out, so I assume I am only a licensed driver in one state now, but for all I know, I could be on to my third life.  In any event Steve gave me my paperwork back and pointed me towards the photograph station so I could go get my shiny new license.

Everything went pretty smoothly at that stage, I handed in my paperwork, waited a minute or two to get called up to take my picture, and once I got called up, put in the required information so that in addition to getting a license, I'm also now registered to vote here.  After getting my picture taken and waiting a few more minutes for the license to print I got called up again and got my new, albeit temporary, license (I'll get the real one in the mail in a few days).  At that point, I asked the guy at this counter where to go to get the title and registration, to which he simply replies "Triple A."  I assumed I had either misheard him, or perhaps there was some sort of government agency with which I was unfamiliar, who's acronym just happened to be AAA; but it turns out that in Pennsylvania, the state has ceded the responsibility of titling and registering cars to the American Automobile Association, which seems odd to me because I have thought titling a car in Pennsylvania would involve the Pennsylvania state government, not a federation of motor clubs headquartered in Heathrow, an unincorporated suburban community in Seminole County, Florida.  It runs out that it is in fact AAA's responsibility to title cars in Pennsylvania, so I got the address form the DMV and fortunately the nearest office was just over a block away.  I left the DMV, stopped by the car, fed the meter, and proceeded to the AAA office.

I got to the AAA office and explained to the receptionist why I was there.  She asked me if I had a Pennsylvania driver's license; yes, if my car was insured in Pennsylvania; yes, if I knew the exact mileage of my odometer; yes, I'd jotted that down earlier, if I had a VIN certification; a what?  It turns out that when you take your car to the AAA office to get your title and registration, you need a certification from an approved mechanic who has looked at your VIN and confirmed that it is what you say it is.  Let's not get into the fact that my car is parked right outside and we could just go look at the VIN, no no, it would probably be better if we got yet another agency involved in this process.  In the end, it turns out that if you take your car the the local AAA headquarters they can do the VIN verification there themselves, and also issue the title and registration.  Now that I know that, its back to the car I go, drive up to the new AAA location, follow signs to the parking lot, and in I go.

Once again, I explain to the receptionist why I'm here.  She asked me the same questions as above, except that instead of asking if I had the VIN certification, she just asked if I was parked in the correct parking lot, and then gave me a token to put in the gate machine when I left so I could get out.  Once again, I took a number and sat down to wait to be called.  As I was sitting there I looked at the email I'd gotten from Geico earlier, just to make sure I'd gotten my new insurance cards.  Sure enough, they had arrived, but when I looked I noticed that the address that had been put on the card started with a 2 rather than a 3.  I figured I could either call Geico now, get that straitened out and not be available when my name got called, or simply hope that the person I would be dealing with would not notice the discrepancy, and then fix the issue with Geico when I got home.  I opted for the latter, and a few minutes later got called up to the window.

When I was called up I handed over my various pieces of documentation, and explained that I didn't have a hard copy of the proof of insurance card, but could show it to her on my phone.  She couldn't accept that, but she said if I could send her a pdf she could print it out and that would be ok, so I forwarded her the card from Geico, and sure enough when she looked at it, she noticed a problem, but rather than the address, she had noticed that the lady I had talked to at Geico had changed my policy renewal to reflect my new situation, but that wasn't set to go into effect until October, and she hadn't updated my current policy.  Fortunately the lady from AAA was willing to let me sit there while I called Geico to get everything sorted out, and in the mean time she went out to do the VIN verification herself.  A few minutes later she came back and I was still on the phone; I had talked to a new agent, and she was fixing everything, but it was taking a little while.  While I was on hold I started chatting with the AAA lady, and asked her if she'd succeeded in the VIN verification.  She confided in me that she'd gone to the wrong parking lot, and therefor hadn't seen my car, so she was just going to take my word for it.  Let me tell you, that made me super happy to have gone out of my way to come to the central location.

In the end everything got worked out.  Geico fixed their mistake, and actually managed to give me a discount on the insurance on top of it, I got my title, registration, licence and voter registration all taken care of.  I guess the lesson here is that becoming a new resident of any state and dealing with the DMV is probably a painful experience; but even so, I never expected to interact with a DMV that would make me think that DC's DMV was really a pretty efficient organization all things considered.  I guess you live, you learn.

Here's the photographic proof that it all worked out:

Hooray! A License Plate!

One Week of Class Later...

I have now been through one full week of class, meaning I've had all of my classes once, and while I am excited about all of them to one extent or another, I think the two I am looking forward to the most at the moment are Introduction to Liturgy and Sources from Antiquity.

Sources from Antiquity is going to focus on Aristotle and Plato, and while I read both of them as an undergraduate,  I am excited to be reading and discussing them in an explicitly Catholic environment.  While it was clear even when I read them in a secular environment that the two of them formed much of the basis for a great deal of Catholic theology, I'm excited by the prospect of reading them while explicitly looking for how that basis is formed.  The first semester of this course is to focus on the soul - what Plato and Aristotle had to say about the nature of the soul and then how the Church Fathers established the Christian teaching on the soul in their theologies.  As I mentioned earlier, I have certainly seen the influence of Plato and Aristotle on St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas before, but I'm excited to examine these philosopher's influence on Christian theology more closely.

Another thing I'm enjoying about the Sources class is that for our first week's reading, a large portion of the reading is Greek mythology, the reasoning being that in order to truly appreciate and understand what was said by the early philosophers, one must first understand at least a little about the world in which they lived, and the beliefs held by those around them.  Not only do I agree with such an assessment, but I'm also enjoying the refresher course on the myths.

While I was excited about taking Sources from antiquity from the moment I saw the class name, Introduction to Liturgy did not grab my interest from the title alone, but it was pretty close.  After going through the usual things like the syllabus, we started in on the coursework and started with a careful definition of liturgy; that is what separates it from other types of worship.  Ultimately we decided on a definition of liturgy as a form of visible worship that extends or prolongs the high priesthood of Jesus Christ.  Additionally our Liturgy looks in two directions; it participates both in the Divine Liturgy at the end of time, where the angles and all the faithful participate in glorifying God, and at the same time it looks back at the historical life of Christ, who lived, died, and rose from the dead, and who is truly present in the Eucharist.

For Introduction to Liturgy, we have read excerpts from Maximos the Confessor, in particular when he talks about Christ as He unites creation in Himself, healing the divisions that were created in the fall.  In Christ the inhabited world is united with paradise; we see this in Christ's words to the thief on the cross, "Today you will be with me in paradise."  After His resurrection, Christ unites the inhabited world with Heaven through His ascension, entering Heaven with his earthly body; this unification demonstrates that all sensible nature is one.  Maximos then goes on to say: "Then, in addition to his, having passed with His soul and body, that is, with the whole of our nature, through all the divine and intelligible orders of heaven, He united sensible things with intelligible things, displaying in Himself the fact that the convergence of the entire creation toward unity was absolutely indivisible and beyond all fracture."  Admittedly I haven't fully wrapped my head around this part yet, but I intend to bring it up at class and see if I can't get it clearer in my head.  Finally, Maximos says, "He comes to God Himself ... He who as Word can never in any way be separated from the Father - fulfilling as man, in deed and truth, and with perfect obedience, all that He Himself as God had preordained should take place, having completed the whole plan of God the Father for us."  In other words, finally unifying all that was created with that which was not created, that is, with God.

Well this post ended up being a good deal denser than I meant it to be, but I hope you enjoyed it at least half as much as enjoyed reading Maximos.  In any event, I have a fair amount of reading still to do before I can call it a night, but I'll try to post again soon with more about what I'm doing and studying.

Pilgrimage to Mt. St. Macrina

After the first few days which were dedicated to orientation, the six of us seminarians set out to a pilgrimage at Mt. St. Macrina.  The Sisters of St. Basil the Great of Our Lady of Perpetual Help live there, and, among other buildings on the mountain, is what used to be known as the Oak Hill Estate.  This beautiful building was built in the early 20th century and was purchased by the sisters in the 1930's.  It has subsequently been converted into a house of prayer, and is sometimes used for retreats.  Unfortunately my opportunities for taking pictures was limited, but I'll include a few below of some of the more memorable sights.  This picture is of the chapel that is just off the main entryway.

Chapel at Mt. St. Macrina

Here is a second chapel, you can see one of the entrances to this chapel in the previous picture; the door on the far right above comes into this chapel.  As you can see, this chapel is a good deal more Roman inspired.  I didn't get too much of a chance to ask about the history of the various chapels, but it looked like this one predated the more Byzantine chapel.

A second Chapel

On Sunday evening we prayed Compline in the chapel below, along with the young adults and youth who were attending, as well as three of the nuns from Christ the Bridegroom Monastery.  Unfortunately I can't remember the name of this shrine, but it was a beautiful place to sing Compline.

The Chapel where we sang Compline

One more picture, this one slightly less Byzantine, is of a shrine to the Immaculate Conception.  It can be a little hard to tell in the picture because the sun was fairly bright, but if you look closely, you'll not the neon sign saying "I am the immaculate conception" along with the neon halo.

Shrine of the Immaculate Conception

I have some more pictures from the pilgrimage that I haven't had a chance to go through yet, but I may try to put them up at some point.  Apparently we will be going back to Mt. St. Macrina two more times this year for retreats, at which time I will have a little more time to explore the grounds and the history, in addition to a chance for spiritual reflection, so I expect to have more pictures then at the very least.

My first two weeks

Tomorrow around 1:30 will mark my first two weeks here at seminary, and as several people have asked me to keep them informed about my experiences and the like, I thought I would try to maintain a blog where I can let several people at once know how my experience is going.  I apologize for it taking two weeks for me to get the first post up; but as you'll see in the next few posts, I've been rather busy.  The very short version is that I'm doing well, the people are wonderful, the classes are interesting, the food is much better than expected, and they keep us very, very busy.  I'm going to try to keep this fairly up to date, especially as I am experiencing new things here at the seminary, and we'll see where things go from there.