Monday started particularly early for Dee, who had a followup dentist appointment at 9am. She left home about 7:45am to walk to the bus stop, but traffic was quite bad for the bus, so she arrived 20 minutes late. Dee writes: I love walking on the Ponte Milvio bridge. Even though I was running late, I took a couple of pictures. Lovers leave padlocks on the bridge and throw the key in the river.
Here are some more pictures of the cool glasses at the local optician near the bridge. In the past, they have even had monocles.
Sherry & Gregg from Del Mar just finished a tour of Israel and are in Rome for a couple of days before they go home. We had arranged for our son Rich to take them some stuff to bring to us, which was very welcome. It was fun to greet them at the door of the Institute with Italian bacetti (kisses on each cheek) instead of an American hug. Sherry liked it, but Greg thought it was weird coming from me, which made it all the more fun! Men do that here all the time. We showed them around the Institute and visited for a few minutes, then walked downstairs to the little restaurant/enoteca that Signora Chirra and her husband own. Sherry and Gregg had served a mission in South Africa a few years ago, so we had a good time comparing notes. We had a very nice lunch and visit together, and then they headed out for a day in Rome and we headed back to the Institute.
We also started a new tradition here, which we have done in our FHEs with our family ever since the kids were little and then with our adult FHE group. We bought a book of 1000 Italian quotes, and somebody in the group picks one that they like and shares it with the group. The young man who picked the quote said, "Here is a quote from Thomas Jefferson." We reminded him to speak in Italian. So, he looked at the book and slowly said "Tommaso Jefferson ":)We also bought an Italian vocabulary book, but that hasn't arrived yet. Next week we'll add our tradition of having somebody pick a word and see who knows its definition.
Alkmini, our delightful, fun, and smart Greek non-member girl, was talking with the missionaries this evening. She is taking the lessons from "her" sisters, and she's the one who went on the missionary activity last week. Anyway, I overhead her say "missionary work is fun!" 😀
After the rice pudding was consumed, the kids played the card game Five Crowns for a while, having a lot of fun until we kicked them out at 9pm because Sheyla wasn't there -- usually she can lock up after we are gone.
