I finally got to fix the eyesore in front of the store on Wednesday. Instead of having solid ground outside the shop, we have these white pebbles placed there, which makes it easy for them to be tossed all over the place. Well sometimes there are patches that form when people or cars run over them everyday. There was a bare spot in front of the store that Clara asked me to fix, so I spent my morning raking the rocks back to even out the ground.
I think I might have done this in vain, since several groups came to visit in the morning, including two cars that drove over my recent work. It's just as bad as pulling weeds knowing that they will sprout back in a day.
In the afternoon I was surprised by a group of Americans waiting to celebrate mass and have a tour. Well their travel guide told me after the mass that it would be impossible to give a full tour, since they had to back and head back home today. So that left me with a decision to make; what should I show them? I told her that I would just explain the cave, since it was the closet thing and probably on everyone's thing to see list. Of course as soon as I come out of the chapel, Cecilia's group goes inside the cave, not to mention the fact that my group started to wonder around. I think half of the group tried to return back to the shop and got lost somehow. I told them what set of stairs to take, which only go in one direction, but somehow people still got lost. Then there was mass confusion in the shop once again, because some were trying to pay in dollars while others were trying to use credit cards, both of which were not possible. When there is a storm, the machines start to act up, and wouldn't you know it, the storm started right as the group made their way to the shop. Someone in the group said that Santa Scholastica didn't want them to leave Sacro Speco yet and they were probably right.
So this next little section needs a little backstory to it. Every day when Don Antonio walks in for lunch or dinner, he asks Don Heriberto how his life is. Don Antonio then says either his life is beautiful today or hard. Well today for dinner when he walked in and asked the question, Don Heriberto simply replied, "Don't you already know?" I laughed so hard, because this is just unexpected from Don Heriberto. He is typically a quiet guy who is fixed on his food rather than the conversation.
The weather finally decides to cooperate with me Thursday. Since there were few people in the morning, and after sitting in the shop with nothing to do, I decided I would take advantage of the opportunity to do some much needed cleaning. I made my way to the fist parking lot where we have the panoramic view, because I knew there would be tons of garbage lying around. You would be surprised how much trash I found in just that one area. The sad thing is that there is a trash can just a few feet away. Have people gotten that lazy and refuse to walk 10 feet or so? I guess they just love to live in trash.
I felt like my job would be on half finished if I didn't also clean the larger parking lot, so in the afternoon I went down there. It took my two hours just to clean that one section, since once again people have no respect for places they visit. Every two steps I had to pick up something that had been smushed by some car driving over it, of course making my work harder. Once I returned to the shop, Don Antonio told me not too work too hard. I guess I had been gone longer that he expected, but there were no people in the shop, so it was pretty manageable.
Seems like everyone is getting the opportunity to see wild boars roaming around the grounds. I have not had the pleasure of actually seeing one up close. Only the time that Matt and I went outside to take photos did I hear one. Don Ignazio told me that he saw a little baby one that darted away from him, because its mother was calling. Maybe I need to do more cleaning outside so I can just run into one. I think I can take it if it decides to charge me.
Well wedding season is back in full swing. Saturday morning we had our first wedding which went off without any problems, if you don't count the tourist trying to enter the upper church. Some people just don't understand the meaning of private and are too curious. Well folks, curiosity killed the cat. Remember that. So I had to play bouncer for a little while until Matt showed up and took my place so that I could go back to the shop and help Don Antonio. I took some photos for those of you who are interested in how they set up weddings here and are looking for a great spot to have a wedding.
I am really starting to lose hope for humanity when people cannot follow simple rules. If something is blocked off, it probably means that you shouldn't got there. Well the rope in front of the alter didn't stop people from crossing under it and the fact that I would open a door with a key didn't give people the suggestion that maybe they shouldn't go in there. I had to keep asking people to move out of my way and don't got here or there. Are people just that dense and blind? How many times do I have to pass by you before you realize I am cleaning things up and you are in the way? Move so I can finish! That's what I wanted to say, but just dealt with the stupidity of tourists.
Just when I thought people couldn't be any dumber, I was proven wrong once again. In the afternoon there was a Baptism in the upper part of the church in one of the chapels. Well the group left the open slightly open so that those with children could leave if they needed some fresh air. Well a group of Germans thought it would fun to open the door and walk through, since other people were inside. So once again I had to play the role of bouncer and make sure that they were disturbed. People just have no respect for boundaries anymore; come on, use some common sense.
I think some people are beginning to miss Mattia at Sacro Speco, because Sunday during lunch there was lots of talk about Mattia. They talked mostly about how much he eats and that sort of thing. Usually when someone is sick they would eat very little, but Mattia is the complete opposite. He would say things like, "I am so sick", but would have a huge pile of food on his plate. He is just a very peculiar person.
Don Luigi said that we would be open all day today during lunch. I tried to figure out why, since this morning there weren't a ton of people, but decided that I would return to the shop after lunch. Of course once I got there, Don Antonio and the Abbot told me to relax and go back to my room. So I decided that I would just return in an hour or so. Well to my surprise there was a huge mob standing at the entrance, blocking both the only entrance and exit. I had no possible way of getting back to the shop, until of course Cecilia told them to either go in or leave. As to why people stand in the middle of the way is beyond me. It is one of my biggest pet peeves. Do people honestly think that you can just walk right through them or what? I don't get it and will have to get someone to explain it to me.
Once I got to the shop I got a call from Cecilia to do crowd control. Well there were a ton of people still inside the shop trying to buy things so I had to quickly disperse the crowd and run back to the shop. I could tell that Cecilia was also very frustrated with these people just standing around not moving. It's hard to give a tour when people don't move anywhere.
After dealing people foolishly blocking the way, I had to put up with people who could not figure how a vending machine works. They would call me over saying there was some problem with the machine and I needed to fix it, only to find out that they wanted me to put in the money and get their snack. ARE YOU SERIOUS? How hard is it to put money inside the machine, put the numbers, and grab whatever you just bought from the machine. But that's not the worst of it. Half the time people would put in money and select a empty number after having seen that it was empty and then tell me that there is something wrong with the machine. I even watched this happen a few times. And then they would beat on the machine expecting it to cough up something. Well I hate to break it to you, but there's nothing wrong with the machine, only you brain. Half the time I felt like just slapping these people in the back of the head for doing something so stupid. Some people are just hopeless I guess.
I thought I have seen everything, until I see people just blindly selecting things from the shop, only to find out that it is a different language. Do people just give up on reading things before buying them? I guess they say, "Oh, this looks interesting so I will just buy it". I cannot tell you how many times I had to run and change things for people, because they picked the wrong language. It's worst when they don't speak either Italian or English, because I would have to point. This one Korean woman decides to pick these little cards for several different baskets that clearly have flags on them indicating what language it is. I tried to explain to here that they were not Korean, not even one. What is wrong with the world? I can only just shake my head in disappointment.
The Abbot can sneak up on someone if he tries hard enough. You can usually hear the Abbot from down the hall when he is coming, because he is a very animated person, but this morning was a little different. Monday is Don Luigi's birthday and he turned 49 today. The Abbot wanted to surprise him this morning, so he snuck into the kitchen and covered his eyes until he was able to guess who it was. He bought him some pasta and sauce, which I guess was his favorite. It was for his dinner that he would be having Monday night with some special guests, but we would be having a small party for him during lunch.
Today was a busy day for me as far as tours go. I gave two tours, one in the morning and the other in the afternoon. My first group was a group of Germans. What was strange was that the one woman could speak German, English, and Italian, but I had to switch back and forth from Italian to English when I wanted to answer a question. It was actually good practice for me, even though I will be leaving in about three weeks or so. At the beginning of the tour, some people from Bismark gave tour today with German group - some people from Bismarck decided to tag along with my tour, so it went from 6 people to about 15. I honestly didn't even notice them until one person said thanks halfway through the tour.
In the afternoon I gave a tour to a group of one (a little inside joke). It was a woman from Australia. The story behind a group of one is that one day Don Heriberto told us that there were 3 groups in the morning. What he meant was that there were actually 3 groups of two people. So everyday we talk about how there was a group of two or one visiting the monastery. Ah simple pleasures.
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