Dee writes:
Anyway, Sorella James was expecting a package from her mother. What we brought was a lovely basket of packaged goodies, all Italian. When she opened the card, she said "Oh my goodness, this isn't from my Mom!" It was from a young man, but we don't know the rest of the story. Awkward for her to get it at district meeting with all of us around.
After the meeting we drove straight into town to get to the Institute in plenty of time for the locksmith to show up soon after 1pm. By now, finally, I know the way there from our chapel without having to rely on Google Maps on our phone. The locksmith was able to take the lock apart, buy a small spacer to make it move more freely, lubricate it, and put it all back together within about an hour. Hopefully it will all work fine for a long time. It was great that he could repair it without needing to issue new keys, as there are probably a dozen keys in circulation, with copies costing about 15 euros apiece.
Dee writes:
We were delighted to find some leftover frappe in the kitchen, which we happily scarfed. Yummy.
It was quite chilly, though above freezing -- things are warming up. There is very little snow left on the streets or sidewalks. My wife holed up in her classroom for over six hours of final prep and giving her lesson. We turned on the heater in there and kept it on, so it was toasty and comfortable for her. She ended up with over 300 slides, of which she used about half. She loves teaching family history and is so good at it. Her class asked for the slides and the recording to review all the good stuff she taught. I closed both doors in the kitchen and stayed warm in there, working on my lesson prep for Friday. I also wrote up the blog post for Wednesday and sent a bunch of messages on WhatsApp.
My father-in-law called with a minor problem with the address for mailing some documents, and I was able to help him. Apparently he also finally sold his 1982 diesel truck, which I have been encouraging him to do for nearly twenty years. That truck had the worst and hardest-to-use clutch that I have ever felt, and it was very beat up. So that was a good piece of news as far as I was concerned, though he really loved that truck!
It rained some during the day, but only while we were inside. However, it was very strange precipitation: when we came out in the evening, our car was absolutely filthy all over. It's as if it was raining mud. Very odd. So the car really needs washing right now, but it's supposed to rain Friday so maybe that will clean it up a bit.
Matteo, who is leaving for a mission in Calgary in two months, came in for a while in the afternoon. His English is pretty good, and he has a big vocabulary due to reading books in English (especially Stephen King). We had a lot of fun visiting, sharing language tips and quirks both ways, as well as some jokes which don't translate well, so I won't even try here. It's so difficult to translate humor across cultures, but surprisingly I got his jokes the first time.
Dee writes:
I'll give you one of the jokes. What animal can be in three places at once? L'acquila (eagle). The joke is that the word can become la, qui, la, which means there, here, there.
In the evening there were just a couple of students for English class. The most fun was when Torrey, one of the BYU study abroad girls, came to meet Sorella Johnson, who just got transferred to the apartment below us. The two are best friends from Washington state. In the photo below, Torrey is on the left, Sorella Johnson in the middle, and Sorella Muce is on the right.
With folks going in and out during the evening, I didn't get to finish my lesson prep, but I can do that Friday. My jobs included doing the dishes and answering the intercom to buzz people in. Nice work, if you can get it!