Air conditioning in Italy

Monday was a fairly low-key day. The weather was absolutely gorgeous: sunny and warm but not hot. The new stand fan is working great in our living room; we just point it at the wall and it circulates air nicely even on low.  It was time for my monthly odometer report to the office, which I sent in photographically:

We went to Lidl in the late morning on our way into the Institute, picking up a bunch of food for a large culinary activity coming up on Thursday. It took a couple of big loads up the elevator to get it all inside the Institute. 

By then we were fairly warm, and the Institute had been closed up so it was also warm inside, but fortunately we have AC in each room, which cooled us off quite nicely. It will be interesting to see what happens when it gets hot, since many Italians have an aversion to using AC, thinking it unhealthy. Fortunately for us Americans, the younger generation is not quite as averse. Whenever an Italian tells me how unhealthy AC is, I respond with a serious face, "yes, in the US during the summer you can barely walk around all the dead bodies everywhere due to AC"; after a second I break into a big grin and even they laugh.

I put up photos of our two departing missionaries on the bulletin board, as well as little arrows on the world map showing where they are serving. It is a nice tradition we have to remind us of them. The map is quite large, probably 4 x 6 feet.

 

 

 

Dee spent the afternoon baking desserts in the kitchen for FHE and for choir on Tuesday, forgetting that it would be a holiday without choir. She made lemon bars and no-bake cookies with corn flakes and peanut butter, both wonderful. Now she has an extra dessert ready to pull out when needed. Dee writes: My goal is to expand the things I can make with local ingredients as well as to use up the American stuff I've been hoarding.

 

 

During the afternoon I worked on my lesson for Friday night, as well as ordering all the parts for the desktop computer our little group will build. Amazon is great for such things, and all the items will arrive this week.

Dee gave the FHE lesson, on time management. It is nice to have it still be light outside during our evening events. Alessio picked a quote from our quote book; he used a Muhammad Ali one about getting up each time after you hit the canvas, and then he gave an impromptu two-minute sermon on the topic -- awesome! Dee got a bunch of good participation, using the Covey four quadrant approach with everyone filling in some things they felt they needed to work on. 

Afterwards we enjoyed the lemon bars, followed by a six-person game of Cover Your Assets.

 

 

Tuesday is Jomar's 26th birthday, so Dee found a candle somewhere and we all sang "Tanti Auguri" to him.

Claudia made a very nice flyer for our Thursday night South American cuisine event, which I will post on Wednesday when we go back. Ugo's bosses are coming from Paris and Frankfurt to see the possible new location for the Institute on the first floor, and we are urging all the kids to be there to show how tight our current quarters can be. Food is a good draw!

We actually got home a little early this time, and Tuesday will be a day off, the Italian Labor Day. We discussed having Taco Tuesday anyway, but all the kids said "no way" -- they too want a holiday, so who are we to disagree?