Via Giolitti

Thursday morning I woke up having slept through the night, finally. It felt good to be rested. There are exactly ten weeks left before we get on a plane home, and it is going too quickly! 

The day started earlier than usual, with a visit to a possible new location for the Institute on Via Giolitti, which is not far from Termini station. The area seems a bit sketchy, but it is quite accessible and there is a famous theater right next door. We saw two apartments, more or less identical to each other in layout, but one is basically finished and the other needs a lot of work. Both are quite a bit bigger than what we have now. We really liked them, with the possible concern that it may not be possible to move the kitchen near the entrance or even the center of the place. So we'll see what happens, but the finished one is probably our favorite candidate so far. After seeing the place, we spoke outside (in the cold) with Ugo for a while. He said that his bosses are quite impressed that our numbers seem to be going up slightly, while throughout Europe the Institute attendance numbers are going down. So they are pleased and want to give us the chance to grow even more with a better location. It felt nice to hear that. Our kids definitely like coming to the Institute and being together.

From there we drove a few blocks to inspect the apartment of the Ganziani. It took us longer to find a parking spot than it would have to just walk there, but we ended up right in front after circling a few times. Their place is a bit dirty, as you would expect with young guys living there, but quite functional. There were two major areas of concern. First, the tile around the shower was put in too low, so the wall has gotten wet and there is mold above the shower and also on the other side of the wall, in the kitchen. Second, the glass door in the kitchen was broken last month when one of the missionaries leaned slightly on it. Not only was the glass not tempered, but it was very thin, so it broke too easily, and Anziano Wagstaff got a pretty bad cut on his back, requiring stitches. In California at least, a pane that large in that location would have to be tempered, by code. We'll see how much the mission office wants to spend getting it fixed, in terms of glass quality. For now it is taped over with cardboard.

Shower water damage

Patched up kitchen door

Once at the Institute, Dee baked desserts all afternoon for upcoming events, while I did lesson prep. We had no kids show up all afternoon, which happens on Thursdays sometimes. With school back in swing and kids getting back to work, it will pick up in a while. In the evening I learned that I had not been selected to sing in the temple dedication choir. The brother in charge said that they decided to go with all locals and no missionaries, which makes lots of sense. I am personally disappointed, having loved singing at the San Diego Temple dedication in 1993, but I am delighted that they have enough local members to do it.

The Benincosas came to start their new self-reliance class at 7pm: "Trovare Un Lavoro Migliore" (Find A Better Job). Only Andrea and Almendra showed up,  though several others had said they wanted to come. This is typical with our kids, who are pulled in so many directions. The Benincosas brought huge cannoli to share with everyone, including the English class folks afterwards. The Ganziani were happy to take home the extras.

We really enjoy our new (probably temporary) Ganziani: Kane and Castro, in a threesome with Anziano Mansell. Anziano Castro is Hispanic from Milano, so he speaks Italian and Spanish natively, with a fair amount of English. He is very refined and smart, but my wife keeps managing to teach him things about Italian. She explained to Anziano Kane, the greenie, that spaghetti is actually plural for spaghetto, which literally means "little string" (spago is string). Anziano Castro's eyes bugged out, because he had never thought of it that way before, and he blurted out "O cielo!", which means "my heavens," one of his signature phrases. Anziano Kane loves my wife's food and is really excited to get to try Crack Chicken for dinner on Friday night.

On our way home, we drove past Via Giolitti just to see what it was like at night. The area is very well lit, though somewhat deserted. With a subway stop only 400m away and Termini a bit more than that, it is probably ok, though security is a slightly bigger concern there than at our present location. Having said that, the whole area around Termini isn't the greatest, but our current spot has more foot traffic. It is just nice to see some possibilities developing.

Noemi, recently returned from her mission, has asked me to be her English study partner. Students taking the Pathway curriculum are required to practice English with a native speaker for thirty minutes a week. She is a totally cool young woman, and this should be lots of fun. I'm excited she asked me. Since we're going home, she wants to do the last few weeks by zoom. But I think she might switch to Sorella Mott, my replacement.