Apparently Friday was a very special day. Clara said that there was going to be a wedding this afternoon and she had to see it. I thought she was talking about a wedding here at Sacro Speco that we had to set up for, but that's how little I know. She was talking about the royal wedding between Kate and William. She turned on the computer and began to steam the video on line. The only part she was interested in was seeing Kate walk into the church, but the video would pause every few minutes, which made her upset. She kept coming back to the computer asking if she had entered yet. And here I thought no one would care about such things like this.
While the video was loading, a group of teenagers decided to pay us a little visit. These teenagers had a severe cause of the sticky fingers. Whenever Clara would run into the back room and come back out, a few would look around and pretend that they weren't up to no good. Trying to whistle suggesting that they were just looking and not stuffing their pockets. Some people have no respect no matter where they are. Well the world is a vicious cycle and they will get what's coming to them soon enough.
I think the weather has it out for me. The mornings start off very beautiful with lots of sunshine, but the afternoons turn out to be cold, rainy, and just plain miserable. Everyday this week I have wanted to go outside in the afternoon to clear the parking lot, but it just keeps raining here. I would do it in the morning, but Clara likes for me to help her with certain things, so that only leaves me the afternoon when Don Antonio prefers to run the shop solo. I can only wait until the weather clears up so I can finally do some cleaning. I can only imagine how bad it is now.
Welcome chaos, I missed you so much. Saturday was just complete chaos with so many groups coming to visit the monastery at once. I already had some idea that today would be a little hectic, but throw in mix-ups and misunderstandings and you will have a pretty rough morning. Everything was going fine in the shop until I got a call from the Sacrestia telling me that I had to give a tour in English. It was actually two girls from Cecilia's group who could not understand everything said while Cecilia spoke. It's hard for me sometimes too, because she tends to speak very fast when giving a tour. Well I was in the middle of explaining a fresco when some Polish kid came up to me asking me to translate for him. I looked at him and was about to say, "You know I am speaking English now and have no clue how to speak Polish, right?", but he said that the monk in the Sacrestia doesn't understand him. So I went to try and translate his broken English to Don Heriberto, who couldn't help me or him. I had to scramble around looking for Don Luigi, because this group wanted to celebrate a mass. I finally found him only to find out that this group had scheduled the mass. I was on my way to take them to the chapel, when I ran into Matt. He told me that there was a Portuguese group celebrating now. That group didn't schedule anything, but Don Heriberto thought it would be a great idea if they would take the chapel that I prepared for the Polish group. Meanwhile the two girls in my English tour was starting to get a little frustrated, but what can I do when everyone comes to me asking for things. Matt took the group to the other chapel and set it up while I finished my tour.
I should say that I tried to finish the tour. Every 10 minutes or so I had to stop and tell someone not to do this or that. Why can't people just follow simple rules? Like if something is blocked off, don't got behind it. People would just cross under the rope we put up in the morning so people don't wander behind the alter. Well that didn't stop one group from going under and exploring. I told them not to do that and continued with my tour. I thought my job was done until I went outside and saw two people sitting next to the statue of St. Benedict behind the rose bushes. Now the thing is that the gate is always locked and no one would open it so someone could explore back there. I guess they got it in their minds that it would be a good idea if they jumped the gate and do a confession next to the statue. You know we do have priests as well as chapels where you can do that. Why do people do the dumbest things and think it's ok? Just because your a priest doesn't mean that you have different rules than everyone else. In my mind, if you don't work here or I don't know you, follow the rules and there shouldn't be any problems.
Sunday was a day filled with memories. Well memories of the other two volunteers from last year, Andy and Eli. We were all sitting around the table enjoying lunch when someone was remembering Eli's crazy adventures. He did a lot of traveling when he was here, but most of the time it was a short visit. Up until this point most of the stories I have heard have been about Andy, but I guess getting closer to the end of the year Eli started to come out of his shell, or do crazier things.
While talking about Eli, Cecilia brought up how Eli would approach ever single girl he saw. That's when everyone's attention focused on me. Since I am not dating anyone currently, they have now decided to try and set me up with someone. It was hilarious watching them try and figure out who I am interested in and they started going down a list of potential ladies. Don Antonio was sure that he had it figured out and he said some name that I did not even know. I looked at him and had to ask who in the world that person was and if I ever met her before. I just said that I'm not interested in starting anything here right now since I will be leaving in a month or so. I wish I didn't have that break in between, but what can you do?
Seems like the rain and storms are just gearing up. This afternoon when I was resting in my room, I saw this quick flash of light. I thought it was one of my lightbulbs in my room that just flickered and paid it no attention. The next thing I know, there is a loud boom outside and it begins to pour heavily. Five minutes later the sunny pops out like nothing happened. Some crazy weather we are avenge here nowadays.
I was feeling pretty wiped out Monday for some odd reason, but luckily I didn't have any torus scheduled and would be taking a trip with Don Luigi at 4. That's when my whole day turned around, because to my surprise there was a group from New Jersey waiting for me in the afternoon. Don Luigi stressed that I should finish by 4, but that all of course depends on the group.
They first wanted to do some shopping, but I had to urge them to save it for later. When I introduced myself to the group and mentioned I was from Jersey, they all let out a loud cheer. That's of course when I had to go into detail about how I wound up here, lengthening my tour. Throughout the entire tour I had to reexplain frescoes, because someone wasn't paying attention. It was a little frustrating, since I was on a time limit. The priest in the group had to stop me for one minute to emphasize the importance of not using flash. I always mention it to my group before we even enter the church, but of course older people seem to always have trouble with their technology. They just don't know how to work a camera. The priest made up some story about how each flash takes away 5 years of life off a fresco and said I was kind enough to let them take photos. I am glad someone understands how important it is to preserve history. Well I didn't finish the tour until almost 4:45, since there were tons of questions. Don Luigi kept checking on my progress hoping I would be done soon. After I was done, some of the group members gave me tips. I got 10 dollars and 20 euros. All-in-all not a bad group of people.
As soon as I was done saying my goodbyes to the group, I sprinted to Don Luigi's car. We were on our way to Aielli, a small town about an hour or so away. We showed up just right before the mass was supposed to start, so it was my fault that we were so late. We finished the mass and the priest was kind enough to show us around the church, along with the other larger church. Don Luigi said that I have to show him all of my photos before I leave, since I always have my camera with me and seem to always take pictures of everything. Well its mostly for you readers that I take so many photos. Lets be honest, not everyone is interested in my day to day activities; just beautiful photos.
Once we were done touring the churches, we made our way to dinner. It was actually this place overlooking a castle. I wish I had gotten there sooner, because the pictures I have are a little hard to make out. The food was fantastic and very filling. On the way back I was so tired that I dozed off from time to time. I always seemed to be awake when Don Luigi was speaking or telling us something about the areas we were driving through. That's why I didn't post anything for awhile. Lack of sleep will do that to you.
My job in the morning was to do a little house cleaning. Tuesday morning I had to clean all of the spiderwebs collected near and around the stairs. I thought I was just going to use a broom, but Pinnucia pulled out the vacuum cleaner and told to vacuum everything. I knew this would take awhile, since the vacuum cleaner has a short reach. Well I can say that the stairs look immaculate, because there isn't one single web left. I already know that this will have to be done again in about another week or so, considering its a dark and cool place for spiders to make a home.
I arrived in the shop thinking that today would be a normal day, but found Clara frantically working. I asked why and she told me that there were many people here today. I guess I must have missed them, because I didn't see many people on my way through the church. After only 30 minutes of me being in the shop a group arrived wanting an English tour guide.
It was a group of sisters from England. Of course I was the one who had to give the tour, due mostly to the fact that I happened to be in the right place at the right time. The sisters kept asking me during the tour when I would be coming to London to visit them. I had to assure them that it would be in the next few years, once I get enough money to travel around some more. They said that they would have a place for me to stay and everything. So looks like my next adventure will be to London, hopefully in the near future. They were pleased with the job I did and tipped me 5 euros and 10 pounds. Lucky me right.
One thing that did annoy me while doing the tour was that fact that people were taking flash photos. I cannot tell you how many times I had to scream and yell not to take photos. Once again people have no idea what they are doing. They are just destroying wonderful pieces of art that have lasts centuries. Some may say that ignorance is bliss, but I say ignorance is just ignorance. Don't try to sugarcoat it.
I thought I would be done with tours for the day, but apparently groups had something else in mind for me. After sitting int the Sacrestia n the afternoon, I went to the shop and found out that I would be giving a tour in English to a group of Vietnamese. This was of course not before they would clean out our shop. There was a total of 65 people in the group and each one bought at least 10 different things. And to top it off, there was also a school of children in the shop as well. So I had to switch from English to Italian and back and forth. It just got to the point where I started mixing up who was Italian and who spoke English. Once the crowd moved outside, I took a quick glimpse at what was left over and saw many empty spots where souvenirs used to be at one point. You can say that they cleaned us out.
This had to be my quickest translated tour I have ever given. I literally show only three things in total. They were on a tight schedule so I had to rush through a lot of things. I will be sorry when I leave knowing that this is their busiest time of the year. I can only imagine the chaos that they will have to deal with.
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