Meeting "the family"

Friday was full of excitement. To start the day, Matt and I went to finish cleaning up the leaves at the cemetery. This time it only took us about an hour or so, which left plenty of time for us to go back to the shop and help out Clara. Luckily we did finish early, because apparently Clara or someone else did not put in the agenda that there was going to be a huge group of Italians. I think there had to be at least 100 people all standing outside. By the time I got to the shop,though, the tour was over and the people were just leaving. If I had known that there would have been that many people, I would have skipped cleaning the cemetery and helped out in the shop. The only thing I that I did to help out was unlock the pole stopping people from driving all the way to the shop and parking there. There were a group of people that Don Luigi was going to meet with and they had two people who could not walk the distance. Little did I know that this would be one of my many trips to unlock the pole. After I got back to the shop, I spent the rest of the time helping Clara doing inventory again.

Lunch was unusually quite today while we were eating. We were missing both Don Luigi and Don Heriberto. Don Luigi was entertaining the guess who showed up earlier and Don Heriberto is still in the hospital in Roma for his check-up. Just towards the end of lunch, Don Carlo's phone began to ring. It has this kind of elevator music sound to it, but it was pretty chatty. Matt and I started to move our heads side to side while Don Carlo was trying to answer it. The next thing we know Don Carlo also started to dance along with the music. It was the funniest thing I have seen Don Carlo do. Matt and I just burst out into laughter, which broke the silence.

In the afternoon while Matt was opening the shop, I was making my way through the Sacrestia    when I ran into Mattia. He was starting to make his way towards the shop to throw away some trash. Matt went to get something from the machine while I stayed behind the counter. Mattia popped in and made his way to the back room. There is only a curtain separating the room from the store and Mattia decided that he would pop his head through to see if anyone was back there. He also made this weird sound, almost like he was a coo-coo clock. Once again only something Mattia would do, so I am no longer surprised by the things he does.

In the shop during the afternoon we had our share of interesting visitors. The first to stop by was a monk down at Santa Scholastica. This monk is from Canada and he can speak a little English, but not too much. So whenever he sees us, he practices his English. He was there to see Don Luigi who decided to remain in the shop with us for the afternoon. We did not have many visitors in the afternoon, so I decided to do some studying by listening to my lessons on my ipod, while Matt read a book that he brought from home. The monks startled us when he came from the back room, because he asked for a plastic bag with this booming voice. He also said it in a weird manner, which was pretty funny. He left the store and about five minutes after that we had another two people looking to speak to Don Luigi. It was Giorgio, who lives in Subiaco and everyone says is a mobster. Cecilia, Andy, and Matt have all told me that he is somehow connected to the mafia, but the guy seems harmless to me. Maybe they saw some other side of him that I haven't yet. He came along with his attractive daughter to hand some books over to the shop. His daughter actually speaks English pretty well, but I tried to practice some of my Italian while they waited. At one point we switched over to English, because she mentioned that she wanted to Istanbul and I had already been there and I am planning on heading back before my year is up. We will see if I can manage to travel all of the places I would like to go to before next September.

Today was a typical Saturday, with lots of guests and plenty of tours to go around for everyone. Early in the morning it started off slow, bug progressively became busier once the groups showed up. There were supposed to be 2 groups, one in Italian and one in Spanish. The Spanish group showed up on time, but the Italian group was very late. Don Luigi decided to take another group out on tour and about thirty minutes later the group finally showed. I was stuck in the shop trying to help everyone along with Don Antonio while also trying to find Don Luigi to let him know the other group has arrived. 

The afternoon started off the same as the morning with very few people, until I was alone in the shop. Once again it always seems that when I am alone in the shop, everything gets out of control. Two girls from Matt's state, North Dakota, showed up in the shop and requested a tour. His tour lasted a little longer than usual. I guess he assumed that the store would not be too busy and Don Ignacio would be there. Don Ignacio left about 15 minutes after Matt, leaving me alone and that's when the mad rush started. Trying to answer every one's questions in a different language, collecting money, and packing everything in bags is a great example of multi-tasking at its best. It was almost as if I was a machine; running back and forth throughout the store. Things finally died down and there was one man left. 

I collected his things and stated his total. The guy throw down his twenty bill and then saw something else that caught his eye. He pointed out this medal of St. Benedict worth 20 euros, so I grabbed it for him, made sure it was the one he wanted, and rang up the total. He then proceed to exit the store. I stopped him and said he still owes me money. I pulled out both receipts and explained to him the total. It took some time for him to understand that he owe another 13.20 for his first total, making it 33.20. Maybe it was my Italian, but I don't really think so. I explained clearly that he had two receipts, one from his first purchase and then the additional 20 euros. Once he finally got it, he decided that he didn't want the medal. I put it back and then he pointed out another one. I gave it to him and stated the new total again. This time it came out to a grand total of 20 euros. The 20 euro bill was perfect and said he could go. The bad thing is the register is short 20 euros, because I had already printed the receipt and now I have to explain that to Clara when she gets back. I sometimes get frustrated dealing with this stud everyday. These are the days when I rather be somewhere cleaning something.

Matt finally returned from his tour and the store was fairly empty. About an hour before we were going to close, a group of Asian women walked in. They really couldn't speak Italian, but they did speak English. When the last one was done with her shopping, she tried to thank us in Italian, which was no where close. She said something that sounded like "grasias" or "grasis". It took most of our strength to keep from laughing. I looked over at Matt who was cracking up, but I only managed to hold it in until they walked outside. Once I knew they were clear from the store, I turned to Matt and we both started laughing. He asked what she had said and I tried my best to imitate it, but I couldn't do it. It was just what I needed after a hectic day.

Tonight at dinner, Matt and I were teaching Don Luigi who to say a few words in English. We somehow got onto the subject of what you call kids of certain ages. We said it was acceptable to call 12-year-olds boys and 13-year-olds teenagers. Don Luigi also started to count in English and did it fairly well. He asked us what you would call 18-year-olds, and Matt said young adults. Don Luigi practiced it twice and was able to say young adults. Mattia of course chimed in again. He somehow translated young adults into dogs. I don't understand his thought process. We tired to repeat the phrase "young adult", but it only still lead Mattia to the same conclusion. I just told Matt that's it isn't even worth trying to correct him, because that would take all night. I now can understand why most of the monks, except for Don Carlo, don't bother trying to correct him.

Surprise visit and Farewells

Monday marked the beginning of Cecilia's vacation. She will be gone for about a week or so and that means that Matt and I will have to run the shop during the afternoons. Today we started off with another lesson with Anna-Lisa. This lesson was a little different from the others because we actually started to listen to some Italian music while reading the lyrics. Remember how I put in my journal entry the other day that I was feeling more confident and getting better with Italian? Well after this lesson I felt like I had made zero progress. We had homework that we had to have done today and I of course did it. The only problem was that almost everything I wrote down was incorrect. Since there are so many pronouns for the Italian language, its hard to get it right the first time. I was so frustrated with how poorly I performed during the lesson  that I just felt like I would never get the hang of it. I can only dust myself off from this defeat and get back to work. It seems like overtime I think I am starting to get the hang of it, there's some other wall I face that knocks me down.

My difficult day did not end with the lesson. Lunch was another challenge that I had to overcome. Since Pinnucia left with Don Luigi to take Don Heriberto to the doctor in Roma, there was little time for her to prepare lunch. The first course was simply pasta with cheese; a decent start so far. But when I saw the main course, I knew that I would have a difficult time swallowing it. On the cart were fried eggs and this dish that almost looks like lasagna, but is stuffed with I think are zucchini. The eggs were simply fried with nothing else done to them. I really only like my eggs one way, scrambled. I told Don Luigi that I would try one, but already knew that I would not like it. I only managed to get half of it down before I called it quits. Today was just full of obstacles that I had to break through.

The afternoon was more promising. Since the weather here was not the best, there weren't a lot of people visiting today. Actually I think there no Italians who came to Sacro Speco; only foreigners. I got bored and decided that I would take some more photos of the church, since there weren't too many people. 

Once I was done taking my photos Don Luigi showed up in the shop and told us that we could close early today. My afternoon seemed like it would turn out much better than the morning. Matt and I decided to try some of the liquor that they sell in the shop so we could get a better sense of what were actually selling. Since we can take basically anything we want from the shop to try, we took two small bottles to try out. I found both of them to be very good drinks and will not mind finishing them off over the next week or so. 

At dinner I was surprised with a bunch of pizzas. I was expecting something completely different for dinner, but pizza works for me. We usually have soup, and I was crushed to see that there were no soup bowls put out, but once I heard the word pizza, everything else didn't matter anymore. We were also given some beer from Sardegna, where Don Luigi is from, to try. The beer and pizza were of course both delicious. I had to have eaten at least six large slices. This dinner makes me nostalgic for the college years all over again. Pizza and beer was what we lived on during the weekends. 

Tuesday was looking like another slow day for us in the shop, so Clara had us help her do some inventory. She said that Santa Claus had stopped by and delivered some gifts. By this she meant that we had gotten some nativity scenes for the shop. While we were going through what we had room for, an unexpected guest showed up. It was Brian Walsh, another volunteer who was stationed in Israel. Matt came running up the stairs telling me that Brian had just shown up in the shop. I didn't believe him and had to take a look for myself. Sure enough, he was standing right in front of me. We asked Clara if we could take some time to show him around and she of course agreed. 

We took him everywhere we had discovered during our time here. We also of course took him to places that were closed off to the public. We asked him how he got up to Sacro Speco and he told us that he walked. Now I don't know if I made this clear last time, but it took us about 45 minutes to walk from the waterfall which is a little past halfway between Sacro Speco and Subiaco. He did all of this with a backpack strapped  to his back as well. I must say that I was really impressed. We asked him where he was staying for the night and he hadn't made any plans yet, so we suggested that he just crash here. We knew we had an extra room and Don Luigi wouldn't mind. The only one who might have a problem with it was Don Carlo, and he was in Roma for the day, so everything worked out perfectly. 

Later that night we had dinner outside of the monastery where we ate my first night here. We were saying farewell to Pinnucia'sItalia brought here son and daughter for dinner along with their spouses. Don Ignacio was actually impressed by how Brian was able to finish the huge pizza. Even I couldn't fit it all down like the last time I came, but I wasn't the only one. I think the only people who actually finished their pizzas were Don Luigi, Brian, and Italia's son-in-law. After we got back to the monastery, Matt, Brian, and I had some celebratory drinks that we had taken from the shop the day before. Afterwards we all decided to call it a night and head to mass in the morning.

Wednesday morning started off a little different than usual. First of all we did not have morning prayer. For whatever reason Don Luigi said that we would have it and to do either a reading or prayer in our rooms. This was the first time that this has ever happened here during my time. We took Brian to the mass in the morning and then showed him where to get breakfast. Once we were done with the meal, it was time for Matt and I's lesson with Anna-Lisa. Now the bad thing was that neither Matt or I had actually completed the homework because of the surprise guest. You could imagine that Anna-Lisa was not too thrilled about that one.

We introduced Brian to Anna-Lisa, who once again speaks both German and Italian. Brian happens to speak German pretty well, mainly since his monastery's language is German, so we asked him to distract her while we attempted to finish the homework. I am sad to say that our plan did not work. For our homework, I received an F and Matt received and F minus minus. She also threatened to bring in a ruler next time and slap our hands whenever we didn't do the homework. 

Our lesson today was similar to our lesson on Monday. We listened to music again while trying to figure out what the lyrics were saying. We listened again to the same song on Monday, but this time she wanted us to translate what he was saying into English. Now of course she had no idea what we were saying in English, since she doesn't know much, but she did keep checking what we were translating. Brian actually did sit on in our lesson and saw what we go through on. He even said that this was a lot more strict than what he experienced when trying to learn Hebrew. Whoever said English was the hardest language to learn obviously didn't take Italian. They would probably be pulling their hair out trying to make sense of all this stuff. 

After the lesson was done, I walked to the shop. Clara was there and she said that she would get me some tea. The machine in the store had been broken for a few weeks and I couldn't have my tea to warm me up, but it got fixed over the weekend. I was just about to enjoy my nice steaming hot cup of tea when a German man walked into the store looking for a tour guide in either German or English. Clara looked at me and I had no other choice but to accept. I had to force down my hot tea in seconds and head outside to give the tour. The weird thing about this tour was that only one person could actually speak English. It was a family of 4 and the son would translate what I said. He told me before I got started that his English was not all that great either and that I should stick the basics, so I had to continuously rephrase what I said. This was probably one of the most difficult torus to give, since I never had to wait for someone to translate what I said who didn't speak very much English. Clara told me before I went out to give a short tour. That is kind of what I did, since I could not go into too much detail about each fresco without confusing their son. When I returned to the shop I told Clara that it was a difficult tour due to the whole translating thing. If Anna-Lisa hadn't left 5 minutes before they arrived, I would have asked her to give the tour.

Today at lunch the Abbot ate with us. Matt had given his seat to Brian and since Don Heriberto was still in Roma, there were enough seats for everyone. I noticed Don Luigi staring at me with a look of confusion. Little did I know that he was trying to figure out who I reminded him of. He said he finally figured it out. I reminded him of Eddy Murphy. Yeah that's right, Eddy Murphy the comedian/actor. Everyone burst out into laughter and Matt brought up that I was called Usher back in Roma. Don Luigi asked if I liked Eddy Murphy because I look a lot like him, with my facial expression and all. He then even said that Italians love Eddy Murphy. like that would make me feel better. I guess no matter where I got I will be compared to some famous black person, because we apparently all look alike.

When we opened the shore in the afternoon, Don Ignacio came in telling us what he did and didn't like in the shop. Basically everything that had something to do with Benedict could stay and everything else had to go, which is most of the shop. He just would pick up an item and say, "Orribile". I agree with Don Ignacio about some of the things, but the store would be pretty bare if we got rid of half of that stuff. The store is Clara's baby, so I dare not change a thing, because I would never hear the end of it.

We said our good-byes to both Brian and Pinnucia's daughter and remained in the shop for the rest of the day playing with Miciotto. Yeah that cat is starting to become less and less of a nuisance. 

Oh yeah, apparently today Matt got serenaded by Mattia outside of the shop. Matt made the mistake of trying to save Brian from Mattia talking him to death and Mattia the opportunity to grab onto Matt and sing to him. I wasn't there for this one, but Matt did manage to bring it up at dinner tonight. Also Don Carlo once again had something to say to Mattia. Tonight Mattia was talking about sending letters or something to all the monasteries. Don Carlo was trying to figure out where this conversation was going and finally said to Mattia "all you do is talk without saying anything". Another classic Mattia habit.

Thursday was going to be a very busy day for us in the shop. Matt and I had planned to clean the scala santa (the holy stairs) in the morning before groups showed up. It was on the "gift" Cecilia left us when she went on her week vacation. Matt started while I went to the shop to let Clara know where we would be. Apparently we are only supposed to clean the stairs either before we open or after we close. Don Luigi had us assigned for another task today, cleaning the cemetery. I was kind of hoping that they forgot about this, because Matt and I both agreed that it was pointless to clean up leaves that were only going to be back in a few days. It would make more sense to clean the once all the leaves on the trees had fallen. I went to tell Matt what Don Luigi said and he had already finished cleaning the stairs. Looks like one of our small tasks was already done. While cleaning the stairs, Matt actually broke the broom. The reason why I mention this is because today was not a good day for brooms. I also broke one when cleaning the cemetery. It's more accurate to say that it fell apart on my after sweeping a little bit of the leaves.

We made our way out to the cemetery and walked all the way down to the first gate. Cecilia said in her note that we had to clean from gate to gate, which is a pretty long way to sweep leaves. We first started off by sweeping most of the stuff back into the woods. We learned this from Cecilia herself. She said it's all nature anyway so it might as well be with the rest of nature. We did hit a little bit of a snag while we were cleaning. At one point it would double our work if we swept the leaves over the edge, so we got creative and used a dust pan to toss the leaves over. At one point that was all we used to pick up the leaves since they had piled enough to be scooped up. Right when we were finishing, some strange woman and her son drove up in their car. Now this driveway is a private driveway only for those who are visiting the graves of their loved ones or someone who works at the monastery. These two people were neither. I wouldn't have mind their presence, but they took it upon themselves to start picking flowers from the bushes in the cemetery. Matt and I were both surprised and had no clue what to do about this so we acted liked they weren't even there and continued with our work. As they were leaving, the lady started to talk to Matt from her car. I asked Matt what she had said and he told me that she was making no sense. She later attempted to talk to me, but I of course couldn't fair any better than Matt trying to understand her. I just noticed her son pulling flowers and branches from where we just cleaned making a mess all over again. We told Don Luigi what happened at lunch today and he said we should have gotten here license plate number. I guess she's banned from the cemetery now.

In the afternoon there were two English tours, one for me and one for Matt. The first grow arrived at 3 and requested to have a mass and a tour. When they talked to me, they said they would prefer to do the tour first and the mass second. Don Luigi insists on having groups doing mass first and then the tour, but Matt and I didn't really want to argue with the group. Matt started the tour and I waited in the shop for the other group. They showed up a little before 4 and were ready to do the mass. I went to look for Matt and saw that his group was still on tour, which meant they hadn't done their mass yet. Since my group was smaller, I suggested that I would take the smaller chapel while his group would take the other. I tried to get my group to do the tour first, but they insisted on having mass first. Today was just filled with groups who were unwilling to work with us. I took them down to the chapel and prepared the other mass for Matt. The only problem is that there is only one set of books for mass in English. Luckily my group came prepared, but they wanted to have the larger print for their priest, since his eyesight wasn't all that great. I apologized over and over again saying that we only have the one set and the other group also requested a mass. I went back to the shop and waited for them to done with mass so I could start the tour.

The lead woman of the group said they were on a tight schedule and wanted to see Santa Scholastica, so I had to cut my tour in half. I knew it would be impossible because in my group there were older people who had trouble walking up and down stairs. I tried as hard as I could to finish within thirty minutes, but what people forget is that there are a lot of frescoes and a story behind each one. I felt terrible skipping some frescoes or rushing through others. I think the tour lasts at least 45 minutes, so they only had time to go inside the shop and buy the book of the tour of Santa Scholastica. I once again felt terrible about this, but there's nothing I could possibly do with a group of older people who have trouble walking quickly.

Before we closed the store. I asked Don Luigi if it would be possible for us to drive outside tonight to get some photos of the monastery. He of course agreed and we would go right after dinner. So check out some of the awesome photos I managed to take.

Packed back-to-back

Saturday started off as another crazy busy day for us. I knew that Matt would have a tour today, but did not realize that his group would be so huge. As soon as we opened, 50 English speakers walked into the store. I was in the back studying and decided to pop my head out to see if I could help with anything. As soon as I got behind the counter, I could smell this horrific odor. Someone apparently stepped in some dog pooh outside and tracked it all through the store. I waited until Matt finally was able to gather the group outside before I started cleaning up. I tried to close the door so no one would come walking through it, but Don Antonio told me to open them. I of course had to clean up the mess, because Mattia was busy doing nothing again. I tired to thoroughly clean the floor, but Don Antonio again stopped me. A few minutes later Cecilia showed up and picked up where I left off. Such is the life of a volunteer. Always doing the tasks that no one else really wants to do.

About 15 minutes after I finished, I heard another English group outside. I already knew that they would want me to give them a tour, especially since Cecilia offered the teacher one. I was actually happy to give this tour. They were a group of college students doing a study abroad, something I know much about. It was a small group and their teacher stopped me at almost every fresco to talk more about it. I really was thinking to myself if he knew all of this stuff, why did he want me to give the tour. He explained afterwards that it would have been better to hear an explanation from someone form their own country. It was almost as if he read my mind.

The weirdest thing actually happened to me and my group during the tour. I was about to explain the chapel of St. Gregory and the fresco of St. Francis of Assisi when some random guy, not in the group, opened the window looking down into the rose bushes outside and made some weird howling noise. It threw me completely off, and my group could not stop laughing. I just told them that I had no idea what that was and tried to continue with the tour.

In the afternoon Matt, Cecilia, and I played another game of scrabble. I of course won again. I don't want to sound cocky or anything, but I am really good at scrabble regardless of the language. I am starting to get better and better with the language because I speak less and less English everyday. Cecilia, Don Luigi, and Clara force me to do so, which I appreciate. 

First of all I must write this down as an opening. At dinner tonight the discussion about taking blood was brought up. I know what some of you are thinking; why would we be talking about getting blood drawn. Well Don Heriberto is going to the doctor tomorrow for a check-up. He is nervous, but Don Luigi said it would only be something like them asking you to pee in a cup. Anyway, Mattia of course had to chime in. He obviously said something ridiculous again and Don Carlo didn't let that one slide. He asked Mattia, "Tu Sei Stupido"? Translation: Are you stupid. I laughed so hard that I almost choked on the food that I was eating.

Today was another hectic day in the shop. It first started out with Cecilia actually being late to open the shop. Normally Matt and I would do it, but we had to go to mass at 9. Luckily by the time mass was over, Cecilia had opened the shop. I thought that most of the people who were at mass would just leave, but it seemed like each and every one came into the shop trying to buy something. Luckily Matt and I can handle ourselves very well alone in the shop. I was very shocked by how many people I saw in the morning considering the schedule was completely empty. We had a few tours in Italian that were given by the other tour guide down at Santa Scholastica. A little side note; this tour guide is a pretty cute girl that Matt has kind of fallen for. Cecilia tried to warn us about the type of girl she is, but Matt still has the hots for her. The only thing is that he is shy and doesn't want to approach her. Cecilia even tried to force him into talking to her, being the match-maker she is, but still Matt hasn't talked to her. He kept telling her he will do it some other day. 

In the afternoon when I made my way to the store I was bombarded by at least 100 kids. Again this wasn't on the schedule and I knew this would be a very long afternoon. They all rushed into the store wanting to buy this and that. I was fine with it, but the problem was that we were running low on change, that's how many kids there were. We had to go to the vending machines twice to get some extra change. One little girl actually pulled a fast one on me. I didn't know the price of some item she had and was going to go check the price, but she said it was 2,50. I foolishly believed her and rang it up. I checked later and saw that it was actually 3,50. I am not too worried about it though, because I know things will work out in the end.

Just not my week

Wednesday was a very cold day to start off with. It was the first tome on a long time that I was shivering. It has been getting colder here and it might be time to buy another jacket to prepare for the serious cold. But in order to warm up, Matt actually brought a coffee-maker down to the shop from the depository. A monk who used to be here left it behind, and being a huge coffee drinker, Matt decided to bring it down to the shop. Since I am not much of a coffee drinker, I was going to pass until Clara came up with an idea. She ripped open some tea bags that Pinnucia's son-in-law brought from Africa and placed them into the coffee-maker. Turns out that you can actually make pretty good tea with a coffee-maker; it just takes some time and the judgement of how much water you should put in. I actually thought that my day couldn't get any better than making tea with a coffee-maker, but I was wrong.

I was surprised for lunch when I took a quick look in the kitchen and saw that we were having crab. It was battered and then fried. I was so excited that I knew I would have to save room for that main course, so I ate only one bowl of pasta. Surprisingly not everyone was as excited as I was for lunch, because there were plenty left over for dinner that night. I didn't want to eat it all and I figured I would be able to finish them off for dinner, but by the time I got to them, there was only one left, so I had to fill up on olives.

The afternoon in the shop was a huge mess again because both Cecilia and Clara were not there and it was only Matt and I working. There was another huge group of Koreans that barged into the shop trying to buy out the entire store. It is a hassle when you cannot explain to them that there is a line and that they have to wait. They are so used to being in a hurry that nothing else matters to them except getting in and out quickly. What made it even worse was the fact that Mattia wanted to give them discounts on everything that they bought, changing each and every price Matt and I remembered. 

Once that group of Koreans left, we thought our problems were over, but shortly after another group of Koreans arrived. This group was a little smaller, but they did have an affect on my nevertheless. The reason why I am mentioning them is because Mizoto, the evil cat that comes into our store looking for food, happened to be in the shop. When they saw him, their eyes lit up with excitement. One lady even started to meow at him to try to get his attention. I think Mizoto was even more confused than I was. I couldn't even control myself from laughing. I had to go into the back for a moment just to get away from the nonsense. I guess it was a good way to end the day, with a huge laugh.

Thursday was a huge day for me. I finally get to go to Roma and buy some things and meet up with one of my friends who is on the other study abroad trip. I prepared my bag, and after breakfast, Pinnucia took us down to Subiaco to catch the bus that would take us to Roma. It wasn't a long wait until the bus showed up and I slept for most of the ride. It felt like we got to Roma in no time. We got to Termini and decided to take a walk for awhile because I wouldn't be meeting up with Chris for another hour of so. Well this walk ran a little long because by the time I knew it, it was already 12 and I had to be at St. Peter's square around 12. I tried my hardest to find the nearest metro stop, but we got there at 12:25. Chris told me later that he had waited until 12:25, so we just missed him by minutes.

On our way to meet Chris, we ran into a bunch of people traffic. There are people standing outside of the Vatican wanted to give tours to English tourist who are stupid enough to pay them extreme amounts of money. I tried to ignore them, but one of them kept scream, "Wait, Usher. Come back". This just goes to show you that ignorance is everywhere. There is just no escaping it. I would go off into a tangent about this, but I am guessing you guys just want to here the interesting stuff.

Anyway, after we couldn't find Chris, we made our way to a Chinese food place that Matt and Andy went to when they came to Roma. The place was pretty cheap and the food was pretty good. It was just what I needed after our very long excursion through Roma. Afterwards I took Matt to this gelato place that I remembered was right outside of the Vatican. It was the same place that my group was so hooked on during there time here two years ago. I must say it was good, but doesn't hold up in comparison to Italia's son's shop. After our gelato stop, we started to make our way to St. Angelo's Castle, basically a straight shot from the Vatican. Matt had never been there before, so I decided to take him so he could get some amazing scenic shots. Of course I also have some amazing shots. Take a look.

nikes for 40 euros. When I asked the guy to get me a pair, he came out with only 10.5 which are too big for my feet. Just my luck right. The one pair I finally settle on they don't even have in my size. Nothing was going right for me that whole day.

We got back onto the bus and headed back for Subiaco. Since Matt doesn't have a phone, I was the one who would call so we could be picked up. Of course when I tried to call, for some reason the numbers I received from both Don Luigi and Pinnucia didn't work. Luckily I had Don Luigi's email and he managed to get our message. Pinnucia arrived 15 minutes later and we made our way back to Sacro Speco. When we got back, I had the worst headache that I have had in awhile, and couldn't even right in my journal. That's why this post is a long one with tons of photos. I guess it just wasn't meant to be for me to buy the things I wanted the most today. But I didn't leave Roma unsatisfied. I did manage to witness a man pretending to be a statue poke some poor woman because she refused to take a picture with him. I am still unsure of what he was supposed to be, but he was all white and had a cane. 

Today we had our lesson with Anna-Lisa again. Another hard one of course. She assigned us more homework to do for Monday, so hopefully I will actually be able to complete this one this time. I have been a terrible student, because I really don't feel like doing homework all over again, especially if we are not be graded on it. Once the lesson was over I figured I would have some time to relax and clear my head. It wasn't going to be a busy day I thought since the schedule was pretty clear, but a small group of Americans walked in looking for a tour. Since I didn't give the last one, I decided that I would take this one. 

This tour was a little different from the ones I normally give, because I had a blind man in my group. His wife was basically his eyes and it was very difficult for them to get around in the church. Since the building is 12th century, there are a lot of stairs and narrow pathways with twists and turns. Halfway through the tour they decided to call it quits and wanted to sit and wait until I finished. I felt pretty bad, but there was nothing that I could do, so I continued anyway. It always seems no matter where I go, I seem to attract the difficult tours. I thought I hadn't done the best job, but the grow gave me 70 euros for a job well done. They loved it and wished me luck on my travels. I guess I am a little harder on myself than others are on me.

At lunch Mattia made another mistake. There was this weird sound that I never heard before. Don Carlo told Mattia to go. It was someone ringing the bell of the front door of the monastery. Shortly after Mattia left he came back out of breath. He was babbling about some group of Germans wanting a tour now. Mattia was so frantic saying that this was a major problem. Don Luigi told him just to go back and say that we will open again at 3. Mattia said the guy doesn't speak any Italian, so he sent Matt and Don Ignacio. When they got back I asked what happened. Of course when they got, it turned out that there was only one man and he was looking for Santa Scholastica. Leave it to Mattia to mistake one man for a large group of Germans. I just shook my head and said I expected nothing else from Mattia. I thought that would be the last ridiculous thing he would do today, but of course I had to put him up to the challenge.

In the afternoon there was supposed to be a group f Koreans coming to do a mass. Of course Mattia would be all over this. His job was to sit in the Sacrestia and answer any phone calls that might come in. He left the Sacrestia again without telling anyone just to wait outside for the Koreans. Matt had to go fill in this time while I sat in the shop. Matt returned about an hour later saying that Don Heriberto filled his spot. 

We were just getting ready to close the shop when we saw the group of Koreans and Mattia making there way down to us. We knew this would be a hassle, because nothing is every easy with Mattia. He came in disrupting our process of helping people get what they want and started to confuse things. Because of him, one woman walked out of the shop with 120 euros worth of stuff without paying. We told Mattia to go get her so she could pay. You would think he could do this simple thing, but he managed to mess that up to. He only came back with the receipt, and she was going to pay with a card. The receipt only states the total of how much she has to pay, not that she paid. He said not to worry because he somehow got her cellphone number and would give her a call. Like that will work. That money is long gone and we are not to blame for it. I told Matt just to leave a note for Cecilia and Clara saying what happened and telling them to go talk to Mattia.

Mattia strikes again

Monday I had another lesson with Anna-Lisa. Before our lesson, I remembered that I had homework that I had to do. So after mass, I ran back to my room and skipped breakfast. Luckily thanks to Don Carlo giving us so many biscotti packets, I was able to hold out until lunch. My stomach did not like the fact that I had eaten two packets because it has been grumbling all day. Or maybe it's because he made us lunch and dinner today. Italia and Pinnucia were not here so Don Carlo filled in to be the chef. His food was a little bland for my taste and Matt agreed with me.

Breakfast wasn't the only thing that I missed today. The barber, who only comes once every six weeks, was here to cut hair. I knew he was going to come today, but I did not know when he would get here and how long he would stay. I knew that Anna-Lisa would want to start our lesson at 9 so I had to get her first. I also wouldn't feel right to waste her time by trying to explain to a barber how he should approach my hair. Don Luigi said that I might have to go to Roma or Subiaco and have either Cecilia or Matt translate for me. I still don't think that it will make a difference, because my experience with barbers has never turned out well. The two times I went experimenting in Minnesota were a disaster. I had to shave my head twice just to cow out even. The sad thing is that those barbers speak fluent English. Imagine what would happen if I had to explain that in Italian. I would have to go bald all over again. I decided that I will wait until our next trip to Roma, which is actually this Thursday. 

I am really excited to go because it feels like its been awhile since I got to stretch my legs outside of the monastery. What's even more exciting is that Matt and I get to go alone, so the places and things we could see are limitless. So for my fans out there I will definitely post some awesome photos to make up for the lack of pictures in the past few journals. You just have to understand that I am busy and there isn't much to see here at Sacro Speco other than the mountains and the church. We are not really supposed to take pictures of the frescoes, but I will make an exception for you. So take a look at this amazing place that I now know backwards and forwards when giving a tour.

The other thing worth mentioning is that Mattia has done another ridiculous thing again. Matt went to go get his hair cut while I was with Anna-Lisa. When he was sitting in the chair, Mattia walked in with Matt helplessly sitting in the chair, reached out, and poked him right in the nose with his finger and then left the room. As to why he did this, Matt and I said it's simply Mattia. There is no real thought that goes into anything he does. He is one of those people who acts first and then thinks later once someone explains his actions. But Mattia isn't the only strange monk here. The Abbot also has some strange tendencies. For instance today in the shop when he was about to leave and saw me standing there, he took his hand and slapped me in the face kind of hard. Now normally I would have lost it, but I managed to just let this one slip. I try to follow a certain rule: You get two warnings from me until I will retaliate, so the Abbot has used up one. The reason why I mention this is because in  the past, he slapped one of the volunteers in the face pretty hard and the volunteer lost it. The Abbot didn't come around the shop for at least two weeks. I guess he felt really embarrassed.

There was a slight change in Mass this morning when Mattia decided to join Matt and I in the upper part of the church. I already knew this would be a long day for me. Mattia was trying to turn on the mic without having feedback from the mic, but it didn't work, so he just turned it off. I told him all you have to do is move the other mic back and it would fix the problem. With Mattia's thought process, he somehow concluded that I meant to say grab the tip of the mic to make a lot of noise. I don't know how you could possibly think that would fix it. Mattia looked at me as if to say what I told him didn't work. Don Luigi came out and explained it to him again. That time he got it correct. 

So Tuesday started off just like any other day until Sacro Speco was overrun with kids. I was expecting a tour at 11:30 today and knew that these children would just get in my way. I did mention this to Clara who told me that my tour had to be short because she wanted to get home. Of course the group arrived late, around 11:50, and the 100 children had already gone inside. I had to skip some of the frescoes thinking that I would have enough time left over to explain them, but those children got in the way. Right when you walk in and see the frescoes of Jesus, they were there, loud as ever. My group could barely hear me when I spoke and there were 35 people in my group. The worst part of the tour had to have been at the scala santa (the holy stairs). The teacher had the idea of having all of these children sit on it while she talked, blocking the only way in or out downstairs. I apologized to my group several times during the tour for the crowd of children. If you cannot already tell or have forgotten, I really don't like kids. They seem to always get in the way. When I finished my tour, it was almost one. I got back to the shop and told Clara and Cecilia that there were too many children. They were everywhere and got in my way at every single point during the tour. Cecilia and Clara had other questions in mind though. They wanted to know what I thought of the girls in my tour. Now this group was of 17 and 18 year old kids. When I told them that the girls were too young and said that they were around 18, Cecilia and Clara both said so what. I told them that dating younger girls was never my style. I always liked girls who were a year or two older than me. I don't like younger girls because I feel that they are too immature, even though we know they mature quicker than boys. Cecilia then tried to play match-maker betraying to leave the shop when all of these girls came in asking questions. Later that day she pointed out in the sign-in log that one of the girls left me a message. Again she is trying to set me up with these younger girls. I don't think she will ever give it a rest.

Today at lunch Matt and I were surprised with two shirts that Say Venice, Italy on them from Pinnucia. She was on a vacation last week and decided to bring back some souvenirs for us. I will definitely have to bring back something for everyone here when I go out on my little adventures. They have all definitely been a huge help. I also was quizzed today during lunch. Don Luigi asked when to say something in Italian. I told him about my tour, since that was the only fresh thing in my mind. They were all impressed on how far I have come in the last few weeks. I can speak a little more now, but I understand a lot more.

When I got back to the shop, Anna-Lisa walked in and asked me if I had been doing my homework. I showed here what I had so far. We were supposed to write down what we had for lunch and dinner, but I was unsure of what this fried thing was that we had for lunch. All I knew was that it wasn't meat and it was some kind of vegetable. I tried explaining this to both Anna-Lisa and Clara, but they didn't understand. Clara called Pinnucia in the kitchen to find out and then told me it wasn't meat. I knew that because that's what I said. It was just a very long day. The only thing I could look forward to was coming back to my room and getting some good photos of Subiaco at night.

Matt and I decided to head out of the gate after dinner on this clear night to get some good photos. We were out there for at least 15 minutes taking shots, until We both heard something. I was in another location taking a photo when I heard this rustling in the woods. I figured it was some deer or something just passing by. Matt was still taking photos of Subiaco when he too heard this rustling. Shortly after that he heard what he thought was a growl. He first passed it off as me burping, but once he saw that I wasn't behind him and heard it again, he called me over and said that there's something else here. I told him that I heard something too, but thought it was harmless. We decided not to take our chances and headed back to the monastery. We asked Don Carlo when we got back what kind of wildlife lives in the area. Apparently there are a lot of wild boars here. That's what we believe made that loud growl. I think if we had stayed a little longer, it would have made a charge at us. We both agreed never to go out there without any weapons if we ever decide to take photos at night.

Finally wedding season's over

Friday was an interesting day. It started off with Don Carlo leading mass and getting upset with some of the people when they didn't end the prayer at the same time. He made a huge fuss and yelled in a booming voice "We finish the prayer together during mass!" I looked at Matt in shock thinking how could he just yell that during a prayer. Even more shocking, how could he tell people how they should pray. But that's just Don Carlo for you. He will never change.

The major surprise that happened Friday was that the Abbot and Don Luigi sat in a car that Mattia was driving. In case you don't remember, Mattia is a terrible driver and has already damaged (wrecked) one car. I ran to tell Clara this because I couldn't even believe it with my own eyes. I looked at Don Luigi as he entered the car and saw this look of fright on his face, I guess if I were in his shoes I too would be worried. Well I didn't here anything happening after their ride so I guess Mattia did fine, but I still wouldn't trust him on the road. He had a hard time reading during prayers without putting the book so close to his face that Don Ignacio says he could eat it.

That afternoon Cecilia, Matt, and I went to the cemetery to do some more cleaning. This time we were more thorough. We picked the weeds from the concrete and sidewalk, and then cleaned the inside of the chapel. I must say that we did a really good job. Unfortunately, I think that it wouldn't show because there are some many trees around and the chapel won't be used until sometime in November. Why we cleaned it this early is beyond me, but it looks good now. Once we got back to the shop Don Luigi said we could close early today. In my time here we have never closed before 6:30. I knew this would give us plenty of time to play scrabble so I urged Cecilia to hurry so we could play. Unfortunately we did not finish the game, but Cecilia did say that I had obviously won the game. I did however manage to use the dictionary less this time. I guess this is proof that I am getting better with Italian words.

Well Saturday was the mark of our last wedding for the year. We had to of course set up for what could possibly be t he largest wedding I have ever seen here. There are some things that are different here for Italian weddings besides the ritual. For one not everyone is required to be inside for the wedding. There were at least half of the people inside the church, while another forty were standing outside drinking and eating. They were only here for the major event. When the bride and groom walk outside as husband and wife. I think even the monks and Cecilia were surprised at the behavior that we saw. These people drove up to shop with all of this food and liquor to feed and plaster (get drunk) a whole town. I knew that we were in for a long day because these people just seemed like they would want to stay forever. I still don't even know when they left because by the time the bride and groom walked outside it was already 12:45. I had to get to lunch, but still lock up everything. I figured that we could clean up after our siesta. 

When I walked down to the shop I noticed that the sidewalk was clean and Cecilia had done it all. I felt pretty bad about this, but I think she had other plans for Matt and I. She told us we had to clean the parking lots. At first we had to clean up the leaves, but Cecilia told Matt that we just needed to clean up the trash. It seemed easy enough until we got down to the second parking lot. Apparently the people at the wedding thought it would be a great idea to throw pasta, rice, and pieces of paper all over. When we got down there, our mouths dropped when we saw the mess we had to clean up. This stuff was all over the place, and the fact that the wind was blowing and people kept driving past didn't help any. It took us two hours only just to somewhat clean the lot. There are still pieces floating around, and not all of the rice could be picked up because it fell into the cracks of the path. When we got back to the shop, I told Cecilia what we did. I think she knew this would happen because she told us that she saw people carrying large boxes of pasta. You think she would have given us a heads up, but that's Cecilia for you. I told her never again would I clean up something like that. I have made a choice when cleaning up this stuff: at my wedding you are banded from throwing anything. I now know how the people who have to clean afterwards feel. Especially if its tiny stiff that blows in the wind. If I see anyone throwing anything, I will tell you to stay and clean. I think a simple congrats will do.

Sunday was surprisingly another slow day for us in the shop. Matt and I spent most of our time sitting in back practicing our Italian. I now actually have all of my lessons on my ipod, so I can listen to them when doing any type of work. I listen to them and then write down the words I don't know so I can remember them. I find this a good way to study because I have progressed a lot using this new method. I just now have to apply my Italian knowledge to others; translation: start talking more. 

There was really nothing for us to do today because Don Antonio was in the shop and we had no English tours today. At times like this we both agree that we feel kind of useless not being able to help with anything. We do have many days like this when we have very few people visiting the monastery. So all in all today was a pretty dull day. The only excitement that I got was of course at dinner. 

Mattia struck again with his weird comments. To this moment I still don't know exactly what he was trying to say at dinner. Even Don Luigi was confused and he can speak fluent Italian, so I don't feel bad at all that I cannot understand him. Today actually marks my first week of serving lunch. We all take turns handing out the meal and making sure everyone has what they need. I was a little nervous because of Don Carlo. He likes to take control of everything and that includes how to serve the meal. Luckily he approved of my methods, so I guess I am in the clear for now. I just have to survive the week and I should be fine. I did however miss one thing that Mat pointed out to me. Don Heriberto gets his own meals because of his condition and during dinner its pretty much serve yourself. Matt showed me that Don Heriberto was eating his salad with his hands because he didn't have a fork. I asked Matt should I get him one, but by the time I could get up, he finished and started on his fruit. I guess if he wasn't bothered by it then there should be no reason why I should. Matt told me that I had to put this one in the journal. The crazy things you see.

Speaking of Don Carlo, he still hasn't stopped giving Matt and I biscotti packs every night. I have no room to eat all of this stuff so there are 10 packs in my room. Since I am usually the last one to finish with one course, because I like to get seconds and thirds, I have to finish everything. This leaves no room for Don Carlo's biscotti packets. I will probably have at least 50 before the year is out if he keeps this up. Maybe when I travel this is all I will bring to save money.

A day at Santa Scholastica

Don Luigi finally returned to the monastery this morning. It was nice that he finally got back because things haven't been the same. Don Carlo really likes to take control of everything that we do here and I believe having Don Luigi back will limit his hand in everything. Just to provide another example, Don Carlo has to inspect the food before we can buy it and it needs to meet his approval. He really likes to have some kind of input into everything that is done here. I am not complaining because he really doesn't both me much, unless I am setting up the table for breakfast, but others sometimes find it a little much. 

It seems this week will be a very busy one even though it just started. This Tuesday was another usually crazy busy day for us. Working in the shop started off just fine until we had several groups show up and crowd us trying to buy things. This time they were Germans who tried to ask questions in German. Unfortunately Anna-Lisa wasn't here to translate this time so there wasn't much we could do but interpret what they were saying. The store didn't really die down until we were about to close. Just before we were about to close a small group of Australians showed up out of breath. They were looking to just see the cave inside, but there was little time left for them to go inside. Matt and I decided to let them go in anyway since they made it up all this way. We also said that we could give them a tour once we open again at three. They said that they would wait around until we opened back up, but I was a little skeptical that they would actually still be waiting there.

When I went to open the shop, sure enough they were still here. I said that I would return shortly to give them a tour. Mattia had told me that some group wanted a English tour, but he ran off somewhere and never told me who it was. I decided to go out with my small group and if anyone wanted to tag along, it would be fine with me. Right at the beginning of the tour, a couple asked me if they could listen in on my explanation. I guess Mattia failed to find them and it was lucky I had been there. I finished the tour and got a generous 25 euro tip for going out of my way. I was happy to do it because it's practice for me to improve my tour. I had to leave the group quickly because I knew Matt was the only one in the shop. 

When I was walking to the store, I saw Matt closing the door. He told me that there had been another tour that Mattia supposedly heard wanted a English speaking guide. Of course he was wrong again. Matt returned shortly after saying there was no group. Mattia came into the shop a few minutes after and said that I had to give a tour to 60 Koreans now. I looked at his in confused because in the book it said that he was to give the tour. I wouldn't mind if he had something else important to do, but he was just standing outside of the shop doing nothing. I said to Matt that if I had to give this tour and saw Mattia off somewhere doing nothing I would have to have a little chat with him. It's almost as if when he actually has a tour he doesn't want to give it, but when he isn't scheduled for one and a group of Koreans show up, he jumps right to the task of giving a tour even though they never asked. I just can't wont be able to understand how that man thinks. Matt told Don Luigi what happened when Mattia tried to pass his tour to me and even he was upset about it. 

The rest of the afternoon Matt and I tried to find the scrabble game, but Cecilia hide it somewhere. We both thought she didn't take it out of the shop, but apparently she did because we both searched all over. The only thing is that her office is locked and she is the only one who has a key. I wound up staying in the shop and helping Clara clean up. The rest of the night was pretty calm and relaxing. I expect tomorrow also to be a very hectic day, because we have our lesson, a tour, and lunch down at Santa Scholastica.

Yesterday was a pretty slow day. Not much happened in the shop worth mentioning. We had another lesson with Anna-Lisa which again was difficult, but I am progressing. She assigned us more homework to do again. I guess you are never done with little assignments that have a dead line. Luckily our next lesson isn't until Monday, so plenty of time for me to procrastinate and wait until the last minute. The major excitement starts in the afternoon going down to Santa Scholastica for lunch.

The lunch was more than I expected. We had two main dishes; I guess that's what you would call them, and a appetizer and dessert. It was much more food than we ever had for lunch at Sacro Speco. Matt told me before hand that I shouldn't expect much for lunch because the last time they ate there, they barely got any food. Good thing I brought my appetite with me, because I wouldn't have been able to finish. After lunch we had very long conversations with some of the other monks. The Abbot asked Mattia about his driving lessons and how they were going. Mattia responded and of course Don Carlo had to step in to correct him. But that wasn't what made me laugh. One of the monks asked Don Luigi when Mattia would be ready to drive and Don Luigi responded "MAI!", which means never. I don't think Mattia heard this, but Matt and I did and immediately started to laugh uncontrollably. We stayed so long down at Santa Scholastica that I wasn't even able to get my hour nap in the middle of the day. I know it doesn't seem like a lot, but it makes a difference when there are few people.

Once we got back, we just opened the shop and sat there. It looked like it was going to be another slow day so I decided to get my camera and take some photos. When I walked outside, there was a man asking me for a light. I went to go get one for him not realizing he would keep there for and hour and thirty minutes chatting about his life. I didn't mind because I wasn't really busy with anything else, but Cecilia and Matt were very curious as to where I was and what happened to me. The man had gotten into a accident about two years ago which caused him to loose his job. He was at this crossroads in his life where he didn't know what to do. He just wanted someone to talk to and happened to find me. After our chat, I introduced him to Don Luigi, who he only talked to for about 15 minutes. I guess he vented all his frustration when talking with me. I viewed this as good practice for when I might become some type of psychologist. So sorry if you were looking for photos in this entry. I kind of got held up.

Later that night Don Luigi asked Matt and I if we wanted to go down to Santa Scholastica and pray the rosary. I decided to join them, even though I am not Catholic. I figured it's a great way for me to learn and understand the religion. It was an interesting service and I did enjoy it. I think I will go again if Don Luigi invites us. After the service, one of the monks there took us to where St. Chelidonia is buried. It was an amazing sight because you can actually see her body we preserved. I wish I had my camera to take photos, but I felt it inappropriate for attending church.

Today again started off pretty busy with two English tours for Matt and I and a bunch of Germans walking into the shop. My tour was a group of high school students from Finland. I really don't like giving a tour to high school students because most of them have very short attention spans. I had to show 25 of them around the monastery. The other thing that Cecilia told me the other day also made me believe that this group would be dull. They didn't know much about the Christian faith, so at times I felt like I was just talking to myself. I probably could have made up stuff and they wouldn't even know the difference. However, I didn't do that. I just gave the same tour I would normally give. I saw it as good practice. At the end of the tour, I got a 30 euro tip. I guess I did well even though there were no questions and they seemed bored. Once I got back from the tour, I was so bored that I asked Clara for something to do, no matter what it was. I spent the rest of the afternoon placing labels on jars of jelly.

In the afternoon I was going to spend my time studying until Cecilia called me and took me with here to do errands. We first stopped by this other part of the monastery where we picked up some supplies. After that we were going to head back to the monastery, but Cecilia wanted to show me around the library of Santa Scholastica. I must admit that it was very impressive. I also managed to get a private tour in a section of the library that's closed to the public. Now Cecilia told me not to mention this to anyone, but I figured I would say something in my journal. I mean who would you tell anyway. One the monks showed us some of the books that dated back to the 14th, 12th, and even the 10th centuries. It was amazing how much detail was put into the pages. And all of these books that I saw were written by hand with beautiful color and print. It reminded of the St. John's bible. 

Once we got back to the shop I convinced Cecilia to get the scrabble game so we cold play one game before dinner. Apparently she hid it in her office. I guess she doesn't want us to get better without her help. We didn't even get to finish the game today, because we had to keep referring to the dictionary to see if what we wanted to place was a word or not, but I think I was ahead again. I guess we could say that I one that game because I had only two letters left.

Tour Crazy

This Sunday had to be one of the slowest Sundays I have every seen here. This time instead of being exhausted, I was bored; bored to the point where I would be happy to do anything. In the morning we had one tour group, half requesting English and the other Italian, and in the evening we had a group of Italians. I decided to step up to the challenge and took the English group. This would be my second tour and I felt pretty confident, but Matt still tagged along with me cause there was nothing else to do. 

It was actually very difficult to give this tour because Cecilia was ahead of me and I had to wait at almost every hallway and door for her to finish explaining something before I could show the frescoes. So I bet you could imagine points of dead silence, which I really hate on a tour no matter where I am. I also felt kind of bad that it seemed like I was rushing through things while Cecilia was going into extreme detail. A few of the guys in my group kept joking saying that Italians are very long-winded, so she would talk forever. I guess they weren't as worried about it as I was. During the tour I did slip up a few times, but the group only managed to correct me on two. I first said the wrong name of someone pictured in one of the frescoes and the second time I forgot to mention one fresco in the lower church. They didn't seem to disappointed about my mistake but more impressed that I managed to memorize all of this information only in three weeks. 

We finished the tour around 11:15, which gave them plenty of time for mass before we closed up for the afternoon, or so we thought. Matt and I went to check on them around 12 to see if they were close to being done, but it seemed like they had only begun. We told Cecilia that the mass was still going on and we had to get to lunch. We tried waiting a little longer until 12:45, but they still weren't finished. We just let Cecilia wait until they were finished, which was another 30 minutes. This had to have been the longest mass I have ever seen. I am used to 30 - 45 minutes, but 2 hours is unheard of. 

In the afternoon I went to help Cecilia in her office with paperwork while Matt raked the rocks again. That just shows how bored we were Sunday. I know it seems like I complain when we have a hectic schedule, but it's better than sitting around feeling useless.

Today was an unusual Monday for us here. The morning was crowded with many visits that weren't scheduled. To start the morning, Matt and I had our study session with Anna-Lisa, which was more difficult than the last one. We were learning all of the possible endings that we could see for the plural form of words, including the exceptions. We have been assigned homework to do for this upcoming Wednesday that will be very difficult to do. At least there isn't any grading, because I would probably be failing horribly at this point. 

The first unexpected visit was from a group of Germans. Anna-Lisa is the only one who can speak German so she had to give the tour and cut our lesson a little short. Matt was the next to go out after a group of 12 Americans showed up. I stayed in the shop, bored out of my mind trying to fill time by rearranging some of the items when I too was called to give a tour. My group was only three people and one woman decided not to do the whole tour. About half way through my tour I was shushed by one of the ladies in the German tour group. She said I was speaking too loud and she could barely hear Anna-Lisa. I thought I was in the wrong until Matt told me that he too had been quieted by this same woman. It's not my fault if you can't hear the other tour guide. This is a very small place with little room for everyone to explain the frescoes without talking over each other. That's what I wanted to say, but I bit my tongue and continued with my tour. The sad thing was I was only able to do half the tour because they had other plans down in Subiaco at 12:30. I did manage to show them the cave and the fresco of St. Francis of Assisi before time was up. At the end the woman gave me a 50 euro tip, which of course went to the church, but I guess this means I am getting better at the whole tour thing.

When I got back to the shop, Cecilia, Clara, and Anna-Lisa were talking about how I looked giving the tour. Anna-Lisa said that I looked like an actor when describing and pointing at the frescoes. I guess I do us my hands and gestures to stress my point when explaining things. I just thanked them and took a bow for my so-called performance. 

Ok so this is the point in my journal where I now have dedicated a section to the things Mattia does or says during the day that are outrageous. Today at lunch Mattia asked about Lady Gaga. Well, more accurately, he just said "Lady Gaga" and turned to look at Matt. When Matt described it to me, it was the funniest thing I have seen in awhile. Mattia does say and do some random things almost everyday so expect more on him in my next journal entry.

Sacro Speco. I believe it was due to the weather, because the fog rolled in on the mountain making it hard to see and it was also cold and wet. Matt and I were so bored just sitting in the shop with nothing to do, until Cecilia called us in the back for a game of scrabble. The only catch was we had to play the game in Italian. This was going to be a challenge for both of us, because it's one thing to speak the words, but you now have know how to spell them. Luckily Cecilia was a good sport and allowed us to use our dictionaries. I think she did this because she herself had a few tricks up her sleeve. I didn't know if scrabble here was the same back home, but there are two-letter English words and not so many Italian ones, or so I thought. She then pulled out this sheet with all the two-letter words halfway through the game. I wish I knew that sooner because I had no vowels and could have come away with some major points. Even though she kind of cheated, Matt and I were still able to crush her. She scored 189, Matt scored 211, and I scored 267 for the win. I guess I am good at scrabble no matter what language I play in. This was actually great practice because I learned some new words and had fun while doing it. I hope we get to play again tomorrow. I really do miss my scrabble battles online, so I guess this will have to do for now.

Just another weekend at Sacro Speco

Friday was my first practice session learning Italian with Anna-Lisa. She is one of the tour guides they call on when we have German groups visiting. It really does amaze me how everyone here knows two languages almost fluently. Cecilia can speak Spanish and is of course fluent in Italian; Clara can read Spanish, knows a good amount of English, and of course is fluent in Italian. Don Luigi can give tours in Spanish, along with two other monks. I one day would like to be able to say the same for myself. 

In these sessions I will learn how to say Italian words while also learning more vocabulary. I guess I am killing two birds with one stone, as they say. Maybe within the next two weeks I will be able to understand almost everything that is said to me and will not have to revert back to speaking English. I try to speak as little English as possible. I also attempt to speak some Italian phrases and words that I learn in my free time, but the Abbot suggested that I have a tutor. I guess I wasn't moving fast enough for him and I would agree. I think this is a great idea and will definitely try to take advantage of this. 

Other than having my study session, today was another slow day for Matt and I. We sat in the store and learned some new words. Before leaving, however, Anna-Lisa gave us homework to do. I guess this will keep me busy until my next session, which is Monday. I am actually really excited, because now with her help I will be able to learn at an exceptional rate.

Today was another fun-filled day here at Sacro Speco. To start things off, I had to deal with crazy impatient Italians in the shop as they throw money at me and I try to get some order. At least this time I wasn't alone. Don Antonio was there to pick up some of the slack. Every time is started to slow down, another large group would come in and create chaos all over again. The weird thing is that no of this was on the schedule for today. Since we have other tour guides who give tours of both Santa Scholastica and Sacro Speco, there is really no way of telling when we will have a huge group. We had to work all the way until about lunch time for us. We also had to rush to set up for a wedding that was in the afternoon. Cecilia had me run to the kitchen maybe four different times for things they need. The reason I had to run back and forth was because this wedding was different from the others. It wasn't only a wedding but also a baptism as well. 

In the afternoon, we started off working in the shop. The one thing that was really popular today in the shop was a alcohol named gocce. It is this 80 percent alcohol that is said to cure headaches, colds; just about everything that you can imagine. Italians have thoughts about alcohol curing certain pains. I think its actually pretty funny seeing these people buy it. Don Antonio would give them a sample of the alcohol and their eyes would light up. Everyone who tasted it today said it was delicious and bottle a few bottles of it. The last ones I saw buy the bottles were some Koreans who came to visit Mattia, the monk who everyone believes isn't right in the head.

When Mattia saw that there were Koreans here, he left his post of watching the video cameras to give them a personal tour that lasted 2 hours. Of course he didn't tell anyone that he was leaving and Cecilia happened to walk by the Sacrestia and saw no one there. Guess who she had sit there. If you guessed Matt (aka John), then you are correct. The one guy who speaks very little Italian. In the Sacrestia you can have anything from phone calls to visitors with questions. Luckily Matt came to help me out. At this point I really started not to like Mattia. He seems to always mess things up no matter what he does. Of course Cecilia did scold Mattia when he returned about leaving the desk without telling anyone. I guess he got so excited to see Koreans that he just wasn't thinking. 

I spent most of the afternoon inside the Sacrestia with Matt, Cecilia, and Don Heriberto practicing Italian. We had to wait for the wedding to end so we could clean up. It seemed like it took them forever to finally leave the church because we weren't able to clean until 6:00, which is 30 minutes from closing time. To top it off, some more people decided to walk through Sacro Speco to check out some of the frescoes. Cecilia had turned off some of the lights not thinking that people were still down there, but luckily I told her to wait awhile. Three girls were wandering around down there taking flash photos. I had to get on the speak and tell them "No Foto!" They looked around trying to figure out where the voice came from. I always wanted to do that. One of the girls had gone upstairs to where St. Francis' fresco is and didn't watch her step. Matt and I watched her tumble down a few stairs and we just laughed. I know that makes me a horrible person, but you had to be there to see. You will be happy to hear that she did not hurt herself. 

There is one thing I failed to mention in my journal. Don Carlo has been handing Matt and I a pack of biscotti almost every night. Right now I have six saved up in my room for a rainy day. I try to eat one a day, but after being filled up from lunch and dinner, there is no more room. Tonight I think was the last night since Don Luigi comes back tomorrow. Don Carlo is alright in my book, even though he does things his own way. Tonight after we cleaned the dishes, Matt and I set up the table for breakfast tomorrow. Don Carlo stopped us before we could push the cart out. He rearranged everything, basically turning everything backwards, and then said it was perfect and set it out. That's just one of the many moments Don Carlo has taken control of something that really doesn't matter. I guess that's his simple pleasure.

Also mike if your reading this, happy birthday. I did manage to send a text but I still want to wish you one here on my blog. Have a good 25th.