Floundering in Florence

Floundering in Florence

Dr. Cate Siejk

Teaching in Florence is a daily lesson in humility. The language, learning to wear plastic gloves in the grocery store when purchasing fruits and vegetables, paying one euro to use the public WC, learning how to start the washer and dryer, etc. are some of the daily challenges I face. You do not know how much you do not know until you live in a country where the culture and language are not your own.

All of this is especially difficult when you are accustomed to being “the professor,” the woman or man with the answers to most questions and the needed information to solve a problem.

So, thank God, I still have my classrooms and my students who rely on me to know what we are talking about and sharing with them. This semester I have the pleasure of teaching students from G.U., LMU, and Marquette and it is a delight to see them forming teaching/learning communities as we look at the impact of feminist theorizing on Christianity and Christian theologies. It is also new and interesting to hear about student weekend trips to London, Amsterdam, Paris and beyond

I am learning a lot, sometimes the hard way. But, after all, I am in Florence, Italy and that makes all the difference Dr. Cate Siejk

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