Warm Tuesday

Tuesday was overcast but fairly warm for December. I wore a sweater and a light jacket, but didn't really need the latter. In the morning, I walked my nice new winter coat down to the dry cleaners, since I probably won't need it for a few days. It's wool and thus a bit scratchy for me (my skin gets irritated by wool), so hopefully cleaning it will make it somewhat less itchy.

Turnout for Taco Tuesday was about average, though certainly less than last week's crowd.

In the afternoon I composed and sent out seven WhatsApp announcements to the whole group about all the different activities coming up as well as the holiday schedule. We have three service projects in the next week and a half, in addition to our normal activities. The Institute will be closed from Christmas through January 4th, then start again with an Institute lesson on the evening of January 5th. It's a longstanding tradition that much of Italy closes from Christmas through the Befana, which is January 6th, so that's more or less what we're doing.

Joyce, Alessio, and Jayno put up some more Christmas decorations around the Institute and did a nice job with garlands and lights. It definitely looks more festive now.

 

Here's a picture of Dario and Karina getting some late taco leftovers, with Joyce and Jayno looking in jealously! It was funny to see them stick their heads around the corner when the food came out.

 

In the evening, I got to preside at the online Zoom Institute class because Ugo was out to dinner with his boss and other Institute teachers from around Italy. The kids take turns teaching the lesson, so there really wasn't too much for me to do. However, a girl from San Diego, Elena, showed up to class and needed a translator. She has been doing study abroad from UCSD in Budapest and is sightseeing on her way home. She just wanted to see what the Institute was like. So I got to do live translation from Italian to English for about an hour, which is exhausting. I think I did a decent job, though I certainly missed some things.

It was a very good day. We were glad to get home and get some sleep.