Monday must have been my lucky day. I finally got to see inside one of the rooms that I actually don't have a key for. Behind this huge door are the relics that the monastery collected throughout the years. This was just more preparation for the celebration of St. Benedict. Our job is to make sure we have these relics polished and sparkling for the ceremony on Sunday, so Cecilia and I picked out which relics we would use. I am going to have my work cut out for me tomorrow since I have to polish them and make sure they are presentable.
After making the selections, Cecilia decided to take me into Subiaco and run every possible errand she could think of. We stopped at so many different places that I can't even tell you where we went today. I can tell you the last place we visited since it was a clothing store. Some new clothing had come in and she wanted to check them out. To my surprise we walking into an Armani Jeans store, which is of course way out of my price range. There was only a tiny section for men which I quickly sifted through, only to find the cheapest piece of clothing costing 65 euros. I guess I can treat myself once my time here is up by buying at least one thing from that store.
I finally got to see Clara today. She was the last person beside Anna-Lisa who I haven't seen yet. She just got done with a tour and found me sitting inside the shop behind the register. Her group was coming inside the shop and she assumed that I would be able to handle it all on my own. I told her that three months is a very long time having not practiced speaking Italian with someone else. She insisted that nothing had changed and I could handle it, but she still helped me out a little bit. It turns out that she was right though in assuming I would be able to handle things in the shop by myself.
In the afternoon I was assigned to the shop and only had a few visitors, but that's not what I was really afraid of. I always had trouble answer the phone and being able to answer questions, but I can proudly say that I did fairly well today. There were several calls that came in, which I could fully understand and respond to. I surprised by how well I answered questions in Italian whiteout hesitation. I am really starting to get the hang of this whole Italian thing. It is only a matter of time before I can actually give a tour in Italian, but I shouldn't get ahead of myself. One hilarious thing happened during one of my calls. I had to transfer one of the calls to Mattia, because I could not find Don Ignazio. When I called Mattia's room, he answered the phone and somehow got confused on who he was. He announced himself using a different name and then quickly correct himself. I just laughed and told him that there was a call for him. Leave it to Mattia to make a memorable first day of work.
Don Ignazio paid me a visit today in the shop. I decided to take the opportunity to continue to practice my Italian. We stumbled onto the topic of Don Heriberto, because he called to let me know that I could close the shop. Don Ignazio recalled a time when Don Heriberto called when the store was packed full of people and he was the only person there. He only called to tell Don Ignazio that the church was closed, but would not let him get off of the phone to help the customers. Don Ignazio tried to explain it to him, but Don Heriberto just was not getting the clear picture. I guess I am the lucky one since all he ever says to me when he calls is "tutto chiuso".
Well Tuesday was just one of those days that was just plain normal. I wasn't expecting to have one of these days until a few weeks back, but I guess since I have been here before for 3 months it's bound to happen again. Nothing to exciting to report except that this monastery is filled with characters. I am pretty sure I mentioned this before, but it won't hurt to mention it again.
One of my favorite characters is of course Don Carlo. You know whenever he has something to say during lunch it will be hilarious. Well today it wasn't what he said, but what he did. He went to go and collect the dirty plates that accumulated during lunch, because we have several dishes served. We he arrived to collect Don Heriberto's dish, he decided to play a little game of peek-a-boo with him. He snuck up behind Don Heriberto and covered his eyes. Don Heriberto jumped up a little bit, almost like he were scared. Don Carlo patted him on the back and just took his plate. I tell you, the things that happen here you probably won't even believe, but trust me the stories are all true and really funny.
My laptop charger surprised me Wednesday morning by being completely burned out and fried. I looked under my desk and found the cord black and severed. Luckily my computer wasn't destroyed in the process, but now I had to go and find a way to get another charger or there would be no more journal entries and you guys wouldn't like that too much.
That wasn't the only surprise of the day though. When we were finished with mass and returned to the kitchen for breakfast, a mysterious thing happened. When Pinnucia went to the fridge to take out what we had for dinner last night, she found a empty dish. ItaliaItalia and Pinnucia serve him, but sometimes he takes matters into his own hands. Matt caught him sneaking food once in the kitchen when no one was looking. I guess he figured that no one would ask questions about the missing egg and let it be. He is definitely one crafty and clever priest.
Today was not my day for being coordinated. I tripped going up the stairs after breakfast, got my jacket caught on the door handle and almost slipped because of it, but my uncoordinated actions finally caught up with me in the shop. When I was helping Clara sort inventory, I tripped going up the stairs hitting my leg on the metal stair.
This might not have been my day for coordination, but it definitely was a good day for speaking Italian. I got a pretty good test today on how much Italian I actually know. Some guy walked into the store, who later introduced himself as Bruno, and started to talk to me and ask me questions. To my surprise, I was able to understand and answer all of the questions with ease. After I helped him in the store, he offered to buy me something to drink. I told him that I was fine, but he insisted, so I told him that I would drink some tea. He also said that if I wanted to go to Rome I could just give him a call and he would take me. I was thinking to myself "does this guy think I am an idiot or something". There is no way I would ever go anywhere with him. I will admit this made me feel very uncomfortable that this guy continually insisted on buying me something, but apparently things can get weirder. Within the 3 hours that I work in the afternoon, he managed to come back three separate times wanting to talk with me. I finally managed to get him to leave after the shop got a little bit busier, but he decided that he would call the shop. Of course I answered the phone thinking it was something important only to find out that it was Bruno again.
I was pretty popular today because another group of people came into the store from Spain saying that my Italian was very good for someone who has only been here 3 months. The next thing I know there is this older guy standing next to me asking if he could take a photo with me. I thought it was strange, but saw no harm in taking one photo. This was by far one of the strangest days I have ever had here in Italy, and there have been plenty.
Happy birthday to me! Yeah that's right dedicated readers, Thursday, St. Patty's day, is my birthday. I was kind of hoping that everyone here forgot, because I really don't like doing huge things for my birthday, but Don Luigi made sure that everyone knew yesterday during lunch. So today was all about doing things for me. There was a prayer said for me during mass and when I got to the kitchen, Italia asked me what I wanted for lunch. I definitely was not expecting this. I had to think of what I wanted on the spot, so I just picked my favorite thing that I haven't had in awhile: scrambled eggs. Yep, that's right, eggs. I know what some of you are thinking right now and Italia thought the same thing. She asked, "Is that it?" I told her that that was all I really wanted and didn't want them to make a big deal out of today. All she could say was I have a very simple request. I don't want to ask too much of them, because they have all already done so much for me.
After we finished lunch, the priests sung happy birthday to me. Mattia sung it in both English and Korean, Don Heriberto played his part by singing in Spanish, and Don Carlo finished it off by singing in Italian. What more could I ask for when I can hear the birthday song in so many different languages.
Just when my birthday was going so well, who else would show up in the shop, Bruno. He first called and asked when the shop closed. I thought at first I could lie and he would never know or I could just risk the chance that he would come back to the shop today, so I risked it. Well I guess from my tone in this paragraph so far you can figure out that he showed up in the store about 15 minutes later. I don't think he has anything else better to do than to talk my ear off when I am working. Before he left he said that he would come back again another day when the shop isn't too busy. I already know this will be a very long 2 weeks until Matt comes back. If he is here, maybe I can find somewhere else to be when Bruno comes around again.
Well it's Friday and I completely forgot that during today we don't eat meat. This is the first breakfast that I have had here where I didn't have some type of meat with my bread. It was a little different than what I am used to, but I don't think it will be too much of a problem. Italia said to me that if I wanted to eat meat today that I could, but if I am here in Italy and living in the monastery, I should abide by the same customs.
Today I think I have found a person with whom I can practice my Italian. She is a tour guide and her name is Sara. What makes her a good person to practice with is that fact that she can speak English. She is the first Italian I found who can speak pretty good English and will be able to answer my questions when I get stuck. She was very excited that I had returned to Italy, because now she can practice her English with someone, but I think I am more relieved. Anna-Lisa was an excellent teacher, but it was hard to get questions answered when I didn't know how to phrase them in Italian. I now don't have to worry about that as much. I suggested that she could speak to me in English and I could practice my Italian with her whenever she's around the monastery. This is almost the same situation that I have with Clara. She speaks little English, but she learns new words from me everyday just like I learn new Italian words from her. I finally feel more useful now that I can speak a little better and am able to teach others something.
I thought I would be in the shop all night today. I was waiting for Don Heriberto to call and say that we were closed, but the arrived a little too late. A group of four Italians came into the shop. I knew that they were going to take awhile and make things difficult, but what could I do. I just stood behind the register waiting for them to finish their shopping. It took them over 45 minutes to finish, because they insisted that I give them a small gift for buying all that stuff. I told them that I could not, but of course that never works. I decided to cave and give them each a little pearl cross worth 1.50 euros. I will just have to put 6 euros in the register tomorrow.
There's nothing else that would lift my spirits from such a long day than having a conversation around the dinner table. Tonight we talked about rainbows and killing animals for food. I know, the things we talk about are just totally out of the blue. Well Don Ignazio wanted to know how to say rainbow in Italian and that's how rainbows fit into the equation. As for the whole slaughtering animals, I still don't even know how we got onto that topic. Well Mattia decided to tell me of a time that he saw a chicken slaughtered. He witnessed the chicken being picked up and placed on a wooden cutting board. But the chicken wouldn't be cut just yet. The blade had to be sharpened. So the chicken would helplessly lie on the table watching the blade being sharpened. They way he described it was just priceless, not to mention his facial expressions of what the chicken was feeling.
Dinner wouldn't be worth mentioning unless Don Carlo had something to say. Mattia brought up some story of how he was afraid of not eating enough, because one time he went 10 hours without food. To him that was a very long time. Don Carlo said that we eat to live and Mattia just lives to eat. I laughed so hard that I almost choked. Classic Don Carlo comment. Oh and tonight at dinner I made a huge ruckus when I got up to get more soup. I apparently got up to quickly, didn't notice my foot was caught on the chair, and flipped it over. Don Carlo again had to through in his two cents again. He figured I was too hungry to be concerned for things that would slow me down like moving a chair. What can I say; it was really good soup.
Sometimes I just really loathe technology. I knew something was off Saturday morning when I felt like I had slept for almost 9 hours. Well to my surprise, I apparently did sleep that long. What woke me was a call from Cecilia telling me that my tour had arrived and they would be ready to go in about 5 minutes. My phone decided to somehow completely drain its battery in about 5 hours having just finished charging. Well it was 9:30 and I had to somehow get ready to go in just a few minutes, so I didn't even have time to hop in the shower or brush my teeth. I was completely off of my game today, but I still managed to do the tour and answer questions. I guess I did pretty well since I got a 20 euro tip from the group. That's right ladies and gentlemen, John the successful tour guide is back in action, and what a way to start off.
There were a lot of people this morning in the shop. Don Ignazio actually had to fill in covering the shop, which he rarely does unless we are stretched pretty thin. I had one tour, Cecilia had another, and Sara came back today to give another tour. Not to mention that there was a large group of teenagers here waiting for mass. We can all guess how much of a disaster that would be. Well once I was done with my tour, I had to show them where they would be having mass and to make sure that they would be done and out of the church by 12:30, since we all had to go down to Santa Scholastica today for lunch.
Of course these group wouldn't finish until 12:45, leaving me to tend to the shop alone, since Don Ignazio had to catch a ride with Don Carlo. I was originally supposed to be in that car as well, but someone had to stay behind until Cecilia came back to take over and of course that would be me. Well Cecilia finally arrived in the shop around 12:55 and I had to rush back to find a ride. Everyone had already left, but luckily Italia was kind enough to offer to take me down to Santa Scholastica for lunch.
When arrived everyone had already eaten the first meal and I had to play catchup the entire time. Once lunch was over I was trying to figure out who I was going to get a ride from back to Sacro Speco. Te next thing I knew Mattia said that he drove here and would be heading back now. The only thing that I could think of was riding with him and ending in some horrific accident. I just could not get the memory of him totaling a car out of my mind. I tried to play it off like I was going to stick around and chat some, but I think Mattia knew that I had no intentions of getting in that car with him. We all walked out together and once we got to the cars, Mattia turned around and asked who would be riding with him. I looked at Don Ignazio and shook my head back and forth telling him I didn't want to risk it. Don Ignazio volunteered and went into the passenger's seat. I guess he was feeling pretty brave today considering he ate a little chocolate bar in the store containing milk. He has a sever allergy to milk and I warned him that there was milk in that thing. He said he was going to try it regardless. Today must be lucky day considering he survived the chocolate bar and the drive with Mattia.
No comments:
Post a Comment