Ombrello

Saturday was a long day for me. I left at 10:15am to walk to the subway at Jonio, heading to my train for Napoli. On the way out, a threesome of Sorelle came walking toward the apartment. We stopped to chat for a minute, and they said they were going back to get an ombrello (umbrella). Looking up at the completely blue sky, I asked "ombrello?", with a puzzled look on my face, as if to ask why they would need one. One of the sisters, trying to be helpful, said, "that means umbrella." 😀 That made me laugh -- as if I didn't know the word! -- but it turns out that it did rain later on in the day.

I got to Napoli a bit early, taking an ItaloTreno train. That is a private company which competes with the government-run Trenitalia on some of the major city runs. It was cheaper than Trenitalia this time, so I wanted to try it. Unlike Trenitalia last week, this train was completely full, and the seats were slightly closer together, which is a minor issue for me with my long legs, but overall it was a nice experience. In the future I will pick between the two options based on price and schedule.

The weather was gorgeous: sunny and warm, but not too hot or humid. I had time to review my lesson preparation and eat an apple. Fortunately, the room we meet in has a wall-mounted AC unit, but I will order my own universal remote, as they tend to move around the building and can be hard to locate when I get there. Peter showed up a bit early, which is unusual, and it was fun to chat with him. He finished his mission in Nigeria in 2015, and he speaks English with an accent/cadence that is difficult for me to understand; he would probably say the same of me. He called the other guys to remind them to come, so we ended up with four students this time, all very sharp and engaged. We discussed Luke 10-13, including the parable of the Good Samaritan. I really enjoyed their comments, insights, and questions, and we also laughed a lot together. Next week Dee will be there, with cookies.

Maxwell, Steven, Sunday, and Peter

After class, there was a baptism scheduled at 6pm. Unfortunately, the latest train back to Rome leaves at 6:40pm, so I couldn't stay. On the walk back to the station, I dropped by the hotel I had reserved for next month with our son Wes, just around the corner from the station, and it looked very nice. There was time for a quick sandwich and Fanta orange soda (my favorite here, very  different from the US!) at the station before getting on the train, which was on time. I arrived back home about 6:30pm, tired but very happy with the day.

Dee had done a bunch of things around the house, including some ironing for me. She also walked to the grocery store on her own, using our little cart to bring stuff back, with her other hand holding an umbrella when it rained. She can now get around pretty well, using the crutch mostly on stairs only. We spent the evening doing prep for our Sunday lessons, two for her (Primary and Relief Society) and one for me (Sunday School). I also had my weekly phone call with my mom, who seems to be doing well. Overall it was a very rewarding day for me, but I went to bed early after all that traveling.