Seems like almost everyone was off to a slow Saturday morning. Don Carlo was late to morning prayer and Mattia slept through it. It has been awhile since we did silent reading in the monastery. It was such a beautiful day and hardly any people showed up before 11. I got so bored that I decided to head back to my room and grab my camera.
To tell you the truth, I haven't tried every function that my camera provides. Just the ones that are a little easier to use. Well, now was the perfect opportunity to try them out and learn a little more to better my camera skills. Miciotto finally popped out of his little resting spot. Even he had a rough start today. His eyes were slightly opened just enough for him to see and when people finally showed up, he didn't even bother running anyway like he usually does. He just slowly walked away and then plopped down against the wall when they had pasted.
Since things were so slow, Cecilia made me sit inside the Sacrestia while Mattia gave a tour to a group of Korean nuns. I of course passed the time by studying up on my Italian while looking for new words.
One thing that I hate to see while sitting inside the Sacrestia are people who choose not to follow simple rules of the monastery. We signs all over the monastery telling people not to take photos, because the flash ruins the frescoes, but this of course doesn't stop them from trying. Cecilia and I had to tell one group on a number of occasions to refrain from taking photos. People think they are slick or something; trying to hide the camera under their clothes or something. Well people we do have cameras and can see the flash going off. I don't know how many times I pressed the button yelling "no photos" Saturday. Do they even know what they are destroying?
Mattia did the craziest thing tonight at dinner. After we are done eating, we all help clean the dishes and set up for tomorrow morning. Mattia's job is to vacuum the table and collect all of the crumbs left behind. well for some reason Mattia decided to vacuum my clean plate as well. Luckily I was there and noticed him doing it, or I would have been eating little dust particles. I just looked at him, asked what he was doing, and then took my plate inside the kitchen and rewashed it. Sometimes the things people do just surprise me. I just wonder how many times has he done this in the past?
Rules people, they are there for a reason! On Sundays we have two separate masses, one at 9:30 and the other at 11. Well I usually go to the 9:30 so that I can help out in the shop when things are busiest. I decided to check and make sure that everything was in order for the 11 am mass and had to force a group down the stairs. They didn't understand the concept of this being a church and mass was about to start. They just took their time walking down the stairs as if I weren't there telling them to move quickly. And once I finally was able to close the doors, so other guy decided that now he wanted to make his way down the stairs. You have got to be kidding me right? After you just saw me shove these people down you now have the urge to go down. I just looked at him, pointed at Don Carlo who was waiting, and told him that some people are trying to serve mass now. At this point I don't care if I am rude or not, because people don't listen otherwise.
On a happier note, Diego paid us a visit again today. He taught me some hand gestures in Italian, because I gave him this weird look when he walked in waving one hand like he was chopping the air. Apparently it is a way to say ciao. Things shortly got a little busy after that with crowds of people filing into the shop. Diego and Don Luigi saw this one girl who was attractive and obvious not Italian. They both looked at me, gave me this weird grin, and started gesturing to me that I should talk to her. I swear everyone here wants to play match-maker with the volunteers. I know Andy and Eli probably went through the same thing when they were here last year.
Every time we have little children outside the shop, they love to play in the white rocks. Their actions range from rolling around in them to picking them up and throwing them. When their are children there will be of course some type of pet. Almost everyday I have to grab the shovel and scoop up poop and toss it over the edge. If they only knew…(Mike that one's for you. Like the reference?)
A funny little side note, found out that Don Antonio used to scuba-dive when he was a young man. Apparently he fished that way. I never would have imagined him doing that. When Cecilia told me, I just looked at him trying to picture it. I guess since he is older it would be hard for me to picture him dropping to the bottom of the sea with a little harpoon gun.
Well today was a pretty standard slow day. We had two groups in the morning, one from Germany and the other from Austria. Well I did some more translating for both Cecilia and Clara in the shop. The first time was with a German couple who were trying to figure out what they wanted from the coffee machine. I had to translate some broken English into Italian and then had to translate it back so they could understand. My real tests was with Clara and a group of Americans. One lady wanted to know about this stuff called Gocce. I believe I told you about it before. It is apparently a cure to everything that ails you. It is pretty strong alcohol, which you mix with something like tea of coffee. Well this woman was not sure how strong it was and I had to get Clara to explain it to me and then I could explain it to her. After all of that I don't think she even bought the small bottle. Well at least I can say that everyday I am becoming more and more useful.
Don Ignazio is a prankster. Today after lunch, we were cleaning the dishes while Mattia was filling water bottles. We have this little water dispenser next to the sink that we use to refill the bottles. Mattia often forgets to watch the bottles so that they don't overflow. Today Don Ignazio waited for Mattia to turn his attention on something else and then say, "Mattia the bottle"! Mattia jumped up and ran over, only to find that the bottle wasn't even halfway filled. I just burst out into laughter. I guess you would have to be there. Mattia's face was priceless and I couldn't stop laughing. I laughed so much that Italia started to laugh at how long I was going. It had to be at least a minute or two. I don't know why I found it so funny, but it still makes me laugh.
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