"Bananas float!" (Day 10)

We spend the day in Toulouse. Our first stop was he Basillica of Saint-Sernin. The main things we talked about in this church were the statues outside (we recognized the different attributes that made the statues easily recognizable as to who they were) and we looked at the relics. The most important statue that we looked at was one of Jesus. It wasn’t the typical image of Him that we see today. He was wearing sandals and He had no beard. He was surrounded by the four animals that represent the four gospel writers.

From here, we went to the Church of the Jacobins. The term Jacobins is often associated with the Dominicans. This church had columns down the middle, rather than on the sides so that the people would be closer to the Mass. There were huge stained glass windows and the columns were highly decorated on the top at the ceiling. It is here that you can find the tomb of St. Thomas Aquinas. He was actually preserved in wine.

Our last stop for class was the Musee des Augustines. It used to be a cloister, and now it is a museum that holds many different religious pieces of art. We looked at the sculptures of the saints and some other ones as well. I enjoyed looking at the saints and trying to figure out who they were before looking at the name. I have some work to do though. I also enjoyed looking at the pillars with the Bible stories on them. This is a great way to educate people who can’t read about the Bible, or educate those who don’t understand Latin. You can look at them for a while and continue to find new things.

After the museum, we were free to wander Toulouse until 5:00. We had lunch and then decided to walk down to where the faculty got to go, because we really wanted to see the House of Peter Seilha. Unfortunately we were told that we needed someone to let us in there. We continued just walking around the city. To me, the word city makes me think of New York City, so this seemed like nothing to me, but it was a very nice day.

When we got back, we had a show and tell of what people bought and then had dinner. We had fish, rice, and sting beans for dinner. I pretty much just had bread. After dinner, we had a prayer service at the Seignadou. This was absolutely the highlight of my day. Mary led it and had people pray different prayers from each of the north, south, east, and west. People shared their thoughts and prayers about the week, and the setting was perfect. We were overlooking a stunning view and there was a large cross, a statue of St. Dominic, and a mosaic of St. Dominic. A lot of us ended up staying there for a while after. I will definitely be going back.

Afterwards, I met with Dr. Maret and Mrs. Russo about College Night on Friday. We’re very excited about our presentation about the beginning of Caldwell. I don’t want to give anything away, but it should be pretty entertaining

As I was going downstairs, I heard singing coming from the kitchen. I went in and we had a large sing-along. I really miss music since I’ve been here and this was a lot of fun. It’s not that I don’t hear music, but I literally have it on constantly and that’s been a little weird getting used to.