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.
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