Study. study, study

These last few days have consisted of learning new words and phrases. I have actually gotten pretty far in terms of progress, but still have a ways to go.
Monday was a very slow day at the monastery so all I really did was just sit in the shop and learn new words. One of the workers here, named Clara, has been a great help to me. Clara, Matt and I spent the day quizzing each other, of course our tests where in Italian while we taught Clara some English words. She actually printed out these sheets with pictures and some of the letters filled in. There were also some sheets with actually sentences missing some of the words or a letter from the word we had to fill in. Doing these little tasks made me feel like a little kid all over again, but it actually did help a lot. I would say my vocabulary has doubled since my last entry. I have also been practicing talking to customers that enter the shop. It is a lot harder than talking to anyone who actually works at the monastery, since they are not aware that I cannot speak or understand a lot of what they are saying, but there is no better way to learn than to be thrown into it. I might be able to pick up certain words that I come across daily, but most of the time I need someone to speak slowly or repeat what they had just said.
Tuesday was a little more hectic. It was a very busy day in the shop. I just remember at one point there were at least thirty Germans trying to buy something from just two cashiers. Matt wasn't there this time so I had to step in. Now the thing about the shop is that there are no prices on the items, but you have to view the shelves or hooks that they are found on. So half the time I was running around trying to find the price of a particular item. And of course no one was patient, but I don't blame them. They didn't know that it was my first day trying to be a cashier. All I really can say that I got the experience to deal with a huge crowd of people at once. I did manage to learn how to use the register though, because just like everything else in the store the buttons are in Italian. So I guess you can say that I got a crash course in reading and understanding Italian. Once the crowd dispersed I was able to continue my lessons with Clara and Matt. Later that night, Don Luigi began to quiz me on what I learned that day. Every day I am coming closer to being able to speak full sentences. I can't wait until that day comes. I know everyone else will be excited, but I will be not only excited, I will be relieved. I will finally be able to understand someone when they speak to me and won't have to turn to someone else for a translation. My next step will be to answer the phone and be able to direct calls or answer questions.
Today was somewhat of a busy day. There were a few tours, but mainly this huge wedding. It seems like every other day there is a wedding here at the church. Matt and I have to set up for the wedding and the masses that are held during the day for the guest who choose to have mass here. In the morning it was very peaceful and quite, but once we returned to work at three, that's when the chaos began. The tour group that requested an English speaking tour showed up, but we couldn't leave the shop until someone else came to man the register. Not to mention that all of these people showed up early for the wedding and crowding the shop. Once one of the monks came to the shop were we able to begin the tour. Since I was still new Matt was the main tour guide while I just listened and tried to learn the history. This was my second tour with Matt, but I still need a little more time before I feel really comfortable giving my own tour. This is nothing like giving a tour at SJU. It's not like I have been here a year yet and know where almost everything is. Plus I want to be more comfortable with my Italian before I try to tackle another task. The sad thing is that I didn't even really get to hear most of Matt's tour, since I had to split my time between setting up for the wedding and running various errands for the monks, but I will get it down one day.
There is one thing I have not mentioned yet in my journals, the food. I am really bid on Italian food, so you of course know that I am loving every minute of it. The one thing that I need to get used to is not having a huge breakfast. That's something that they do different here. The make up for the small breakfast with a huge lunch and dinner. They have a first course, then the main dish topped off with either fruit or some kind of sweet, usually gelato. I have to admit the gelato

A domani