Cooking ahead

Compared to last week, Monday was fairly warm, with highs in the mid-50s, but very rainy. Dee went out for a quick local shopping trip in the morning, including trying to get a new key re-cut for the Institute door. Last week we gave her copy to Maria Jose, the newest member of our council, so Dee had a new one made on Saturday. It didn't work on Sunday, so she took it back to the local hardware store. The guy there re-ran the same key through the copying process, but with no better luck when we got to the Institute, unfortunately. Tuesday we'll take the key back and have him try again, hopefully with a new blank this time. For 15 euros, it needs to work!

We got to the Institute right at 1pm and spent a nice afternoon there. My new boots are comfy and warm. I started prep for my two Friday lessons, and Dee did some prep for her Thursday lesson on Family History. This Wednesday will be very busy with four apartment inspections and travel, with no time for lesson prep, so it was good to get started.

I downloaded a Taboo game on Doctrinal Mastery from Etsy for 3 euros and started translating it into Italian for Friday afternoon. It's great having Foxit PhantomPDF, a PDF editor, so that I can write over the English fairly easily. The kids should enjoy the game. Also using PhantomPDF, I also started translating the song "Star Bright", a family favorite about the coming of Christ to the new world, into Italian. We'll be covering that event in 3 Nephi one week from Friday, and I will try to get a couple of the kids to sing it for my class. Jomar has an amazing tenor voice, and he said he would try to learn it. I got Adrian to help me a bit on the translation, since he likes to write poetry, and he can read the Spanish lyrics to the song. He had some good suggestions.

We also did some cooking prep, anticipating a big turnout for Taco Tuesday. Sunday was a national election here in Italy, and some of the schools are closed for a couple of days afterwards because they were used as polling places. Don't ask me what the result of the election was; I don't understand Italian politics (it seems that not many people do). Anyway, we probably need more food. So I cooked two kilos (4.4 pounds) of taco meat to use as backup on Tuesday, and Dee cooked a batch of Spanish rice for the same reason. We'll make the usual amount on Tuesday, but have an emergency supply in the fridge. She also made two carrot cakes, one for FHE Monday and one for after choir on Tuesday. If you think our life here revolves around cooking, you're right!

Dee writes: 
Alessio, one of our GANS, works every night except Monday, so he is a regular at FHE. He came early and we got to talk a lot He's a maker, so very adept in the kitchen and lent a hand. He speaks very fast and throws in some dialect, so I have to be on my toes. He's such a great guy.

 

 

 

 

 

The Ganziani gave a great FHE lesson tonight; we like to ask them to do it occasionally to give us a break and for the kids to see them in action. They taught about how to seek and receive inspiration and revelation, sharing some scriptures and stories. Anziano Conatti told a story about a day in Palermo recently when he was shopping for socks. The spirit just stopped him in front of a store, which didn't seem to sell socks, but he called his companion back to go inside with him. There they found no socks, but the sales gal had just lost her mom and was angry with God and rather distraught, so they were able to share a bit of the gospel message with her and raise her spirits. Anziano Conatti said that initially he had no idea why he stopped, but it was like he couldn't move his feet to go past the store.

There was a pretty good turnout, including Michela and Federico, whom we haven't seen much here in the past few months due to their travels. As is typical these days, we had two non-members present, as well as Blake, a less-active member. It's good to see them all mixing together well as a group. After the lesson, the carrot cake disappeared pretty quickly, and then a bunch of the kids stayed on to play games, so we got to come home about 30 minutes earlier than usual.

We look at our calendar and see it chock full of events. It's not what you would think of as a retirement, but we sure are having a wonderful time here!

March forth

Dee writes: 
The date March 4th is a meaningful one for me. I finished my mission in 1977 and came home on March 4th. My dad had a small gathering, with invitations saying "March forth on March fourth". The funny backstory is that when I went to my last interview with my mission president, I learned that my Dad had been trying to get me released early, and the mission president had grudgingly agreed. When he told me about it in the interview, I was horrified because I loved my mission so much, and was hoping to EXTEND by a couple of months, not cut it short! My Dad's style is to always be early, but I sure didn't want to apply that trait to ending my mission. So March 4th was the date I ended up with, giving me an extra two weeks as a missionary. I don't think anyone was allowed to extend for two months.
He always phones me on March 4 and we reminisce about that day. It was a treat to get his call this year.

Sunday morning, leaving for church, we had to laugh at a very Italian moment. The night before, returning from the stake conference session where we sang, we got a nice parking spot right next to a driveway entrance. There was a line painted on the road showing where the parking zone ended, and I carefully adjusted my position a couple of times to ensure that our car wasn't blocking the driveway. When we returned in the morning, there was an orange car parked next to us, halfway blocking the driveway! The rule here seems to be that you can park in front of almost anything, as long you leave an inch or two on each side for others to get through. Sigh.

Church was wonderful, as always. It was fast and testimony meeting, and we now know folks well enough that there is extra enjoyment in hearing them discuss their trials and blessings. Ugo conducted the meeting and gave us a good chuckle up front. In August there's a ward temple trip -- 14 hours on a bus each way to Switzerland! This is a long-standing tradition around here, though when the Rome temple finally opens (who knows when? -- we don't!) the practice will almost certainly disappear. Anyway, it's quite cheap: 150 euros apiece for the bus and five nights in the patron housing in Switzerland. Ugo suggested to members of our ward that they might want to start making down payments to the ward to cover their trip ahead of time so that it's not one big lump sum due in the summer. Our ward isn't very well-to-do, so that is good advice. He then added, "or you can pay us 75 euros, and we'll just leave you up there!"

Cristiano, the first counselor in our bishopric, gave a wonderful testimony. He is a real character, lots and lots of fun. Saturday he was driving and realized that he was in the left turn lane but needed to turn right. Being Italian and having a car with a powerful engine, he decided to gun it when the light changed and cut across three lanes to turn right. In doing so, he cut off an older lady in the far lane, who followed him for a while and finally pulled in front, blocking his way. She got out and started yelling and cursing at him. He admitted to us that she was right, and he just stood there silently and took it from her for a while, as a crowd gathered. He said that he learned some new words and phrases as she went on and on! Finally, not knowing how to get her to stop, he reached into his car and pulled out a Book of Mormon from the front seat, apologized to her and gave her the book. She immediately became quiet and the tension evaporated. After a minute of silence, she said "how did you know that I used to be a Mormon?" She told him that she left the church because she had such a bad temper and couldn't control her emotions, so she felt like she didn't fit in. He invited her to come to church again and gave her the address of the chapel nearest to her; she said that she would consider it. Cristiano's closing comment was, "I'm going to make sure that I always have a Book of Mormon available in my car in the future, and drive better, too!"

My Sunday School lesson on Abraham being asked to sacrifice his son, Isaac, seemed to go pretty well. I was tired, so I'm not sure I was at my best, but Dee thought that it was very good. There were some nice comments from all around the room. I started with an old
joke of mine, related to the topic, which I carefully explained was a joke before starting. The question is "How do we know that Isaac wasn't a teenager when Abraham was asked to sacrifice him?" The answer: "Because if he was a teenager, it wouldn't have been a sacrifice -- his father would have been happy to do it!"  At first there were some puzzled looks, then a couple of people started chuckling, and then everybody got it and burst into laughter. After that, I made the lesson was much more spiritual.

From church we went directly to the Institute, taking with us some lunch to eat there to break our fast. I also changed clothes from my suit to warmer slacks and an overcoat. The reason for all this was a GANS activity: going to the national museum Castel Sant'Angelo (Castle of St. Angelo), which is near the Vatican. It's an impressive fort which was home to a pope in the 1500s. On the first Sunday of each month, most museums in Rome have free admission, so this is a good way to do something cultural without spending money. The activity was not without its problems, but we had fun. First of all, it rained almost the whole time. When we selected this spot, we thought it was an indoor museum, but almost all of it was outdoors. Fortunately, we were covered most of the time, and umbrellas helped the rest of the time. Second, the entrance line was very long, what with it being free and all.  Third, most of the kids were really late, like 90 minutes or so, so we didn't get to meet up with everybody as hoped. Thus, we went in with the Balzottis, Maria Jose (who planned the activity) and her nephew Luis, two of my students. The views from the top were wonderful, with St. Peter's Basilica not far away. Dee loves the guns and swords because they fit in with her love of steampunk.

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

We took the bus from the Institute to get there and back, which was standing room only, but it didn't take long. Afterwards the Balzottis came back with us to the Institute for some cookies, and then we drove home with them. Everyone agreed that it was a worthwhile activity, so we may go to another free museum next month.

After we left, a bunch of the kids went to the Institute for a while on their own, including Andrea, the investigator. It's wonderful that they enjoy being together so much.

At home, we found a parking place very close (it's always an adventure finding a spot, particularly after dark), but it required parallel parking. I nailed it, again! Not sure how or why I can do that so well now, but I'm not complaining. 😊

Singing in the choir

It is getting downright spring-like around here. The high was about 60F, though there was some rain. In the afternoon we went out with overcoats on but didn't really need them. Winter may be coming to a close, though we'll probably get a few more dips in temperature.

I stayed at home most of the morning and afternoon, except for a trip out to fill up and wash the car. The rain washed away much of the mud from the other day, but the car still needed a good scrub, so I did it anyway.  Otherwise, I worked on my Sunday School lesson and some paperwork things to catch up for the week. Dee made a fairly substantial shopping trip on foot down to Conad and the Chinese store. 

Dee writes: I spent the afternoon looking at Elder Ferrara's family history. His father and I talked later that night about it. It was really fun to show him some Italian genealogy goodies. He's going to see what he can accomplish at home, and then wants to go to their ancestral towns with his son next year when he finishes his mission. Due to the time difference, I stayed up really late to talk with him. This allowed me to get in yet another load of laundry! Good times.

By mid-afternoon we started our fast, and then headed out to stake conference a bit before 4:30pm. It wasn't for our stake, but we had been invited by our friend Barbara Ventura because she expected some of the GANS from their stake to be there who don't often frequent the Institute. That didn't work out, but we did get to sing in the stake choir led by Lorenzo Rossato and Pam, both of whom we know from Institute. We sang "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing" in Italian, which we had been practicing in our Tuesday choir class. The evening meeting was very enjoyable, with an Area Seventy from Portugal, Elder Moreira, as the main speaker, after President and Sister Pickerd and the two counselors in the Stake Presidency. Elder Moreira spoke in English, which was translated into Italian; the prior part of the meeting had been in Italian, translated into English via wireless headsets. He was very energetic and fun, and it was an inspiring talk, encouraging leaders to think outside the box in terms of reaching out to less active members. We did get to see a number of our GANS there, which was fun, and four of them sang in the choir with us.

We got home about 9pm. Sunday will be a busy day, so we are happy to have had some time at home during the day.

Pancake dance

Friday was a wonderful day, very busy. In the morning Dee drove to Lidl to get some food for us and the Institute, while I stayed home to work on my lessons. For the first time, our main circuit breaker popped; it happened while I was showering with two heaters on in the house, as well as the washer. We've done that before, but this time everything went out. The Balzottis' theory is that when the fridge kicks on, it pushes the circuit breaker just over the edge. It was good in that we learned how to go down to the basement, two stories below ground level (eight stories below our apartment), to find and flip our circuit breaker. There's also a storage room for our apartment down there, but we don't have the key nor any particular reason to put anything down there.

I also got some ankle-high boots from amazon.it, which seem to fit nicely. I wore them all day and they were very comfortable and, most importantly, warm. My feet are always cold, so this is great. It was quite a bit warmer than recent days, but still chilly outside. I had ordered some Rockport boots a week or two ago, but they were too large (in my usual size 46) and not terribly comfortable above the ankle, so I returned them. These are Pikolinos brand, the same as my other new shoes. 

I forgot to mention that Ugo bought us (at our request/spec) a new large (6.5 liter) crock pot on amazon.it for use at the Institute. We had two 3.5 liter models before, but this will be nice for the bigger dinners that we seem to be having .We brought one of the smaller ones home so Dee can do some of her food prep at the apartment before going into town. Here is the new one on the right, compared to the older/smaller version. Ugo has some budget money for such things, separate from our (tiny) food budget.

When we got the the Institute, there was stuff all over, particularly in the kitchen. Some workmen had come to install new HVAC units in each room. Apparently it was from some year-end budget funds that Ugo had left over for maintenance; the old ones were rather shabby looking, with some missing remotes and the rest falling apart. These wall units look much nicer and we now have all the remotes we need, as well as a new compressor outside. There was a brief moment when we thought it would be difficult to cook with all the stuff in the kitchen, but they finished pretty quickly. My wife adjusted her food plans a bit, so all was well.

I was grateful to have a couple of hours of final lesson prep time in the afternoon for my Seminary and Institute classes. We had our largest Seminary class yet, bringing in some teens who don't usually come and a couple of GANS age kids (Matteo and Adrian, who are getting ready to leave on their missions) to play our Doctrinal Mastery scripture games. Everyone had a lot of fun with the different games, which Dee could tell from kitchen by all the yelling, though I'll need to find some new games for next week to keep it fresh. There was lots of laughter and excitement, but more importantly several of the kids seem to know most of their scriptures now!

Dee was going to do some baking for the Seminary group, but with the workers taking a couple of hours of her prep time, she instead just put out some cookies, (fancy) sliced oranges, cheese, bread, and (of course) Nutella, all of which were very popular.

 

For dinner after my Institute lesson, she made sausage and pancakes, which they ate with Nutella and maple syrup, thanks to a bunch of Mapleine brought by McKay in October and baking powder from the Snows in September. The kids were very excited when they heard what would be having for dinner. Dario and Grace got huge smiles and started doing what they called the ballo del pancake (pancake dance), which you can watch here. 

The turnout was a bit bigger than recent weeks -- no schedule conflicts that we know about this time. More importantly, the kids were mostly on time and stayed with me for the whole lesson, which isn't always the case! We covered Helaman, chapters 1 - 9, and talked a lot about how to seek the spirit and be guided by it. And it never hurts to have a good murder mystery story in the scriptures! 😀 Dee writes: Murder mystery is romanzo giallo in Italian. I told some good personal stories as well as a few quotes translated into Italian, and the students had lots of stuff to share. The lesson turned out quite well. We even had an investigator, Andrea (that's a male name here), who has been attending English classes. He was attentive during the whole lesson and spoke with a number of the GANS before and after, hanging around later for dinner and karaoke. Very nice!

After the lesson, dinner was extremely popular. This was one of the best hits so far! Margie, our non-member from Honduras, volunteered to cook the pancakes to help out, and she did a great job which was much needed. My wife was in charge of portion control, very important with such a delicious menu!

 

 

 

 

 

 

After the food was gone, Claudio insisted on finishing up the dishes, pushing me away from the sink. Dee writes: My husband said it was part of his missionary calling, but Claudio one-upped him, saying he was called before the foundation of the world! The kids went into the library for some games and into the big classroom for some karaoke and dancing.

 

 

 

You can see some brief videos of the karaoke room here (with Andrea behind Matteo) and here. There was a lot of energy everywhere, and we left late (about 9:45pm) with the party still going. By the time we got home, we were both exhausted, but smiling!

Dirty rain

Thursday morning we had our district meeting, so we left the house at 9:15am and returned home just over twelve hours later. Anziano Ferrara does a wonderful job of leading the discussions on whatever topic he has selected for us to study that week. It's very inspiring and motivating, and everyone contributes in a meaningful way. The topic was from Preach My Gospel, chapter 11, on getting investigators to make and keep commitments. We also got to take a package and some letters to Sorella James from the mission office, and of course any mail is always a welcome event. All mail goes to the office first, since the missionaries get transferred regularly, and then the office has to figure out how to get things to the missionaries. That is easy enough in Rome but gets challenging for the far-flung cities of the mission, not to mention the isles of the sea, such as Malta, Sicily, and Sardegna. 

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.

Sorella Muce is originally from Albania but has lived in Italy (near Lecco) since she was five years old and knows the Peregos. She's a "greenie", just having started her mission but already a native speaker. The 'c' in her last name actually is written with a strange (to us) accent underneath it, but it is pronounced properly in Italian as spelled without the accent, so I won't even try to find that character. She speaks about five languages and is very sharp! We drove the two Sorelle home after the evening events were done at the Institute and got to know them a big.

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!

Carnevale treats

Wednesday was our day at home, with Dee working on her lesson for Thursday. Because her Family History class is online, it really needs Powerpoint slides for all to see/share in order to be effective, but that takes a lot of time to prepare, especially because of the need to translate everything. By contrast, my lessons tend to have only a few visual aids, with mostly discussion and reading scriptures together. Dee writes: Doug gives several lessons EVERY week, so he spends quite a bit of time preparing. He's an amazing teacher with a depth of materials lodged in his brain and heart that he can share readily. He loves it, but it's a huge job.

The woman who lives across the hall from us mentioned to me in the elevator that somebody had made a snowman (pupazzo di neve) in the piazza on Monday. I had never heard the term before, but figured out what it meant easily enough! We had missed it, but it was still there, a bit melted. I asked her daughter Angelica, who's maybe 12, if she liked the snow, and she just broke into a huge grin.

I made trips to three different grocery stores while Dee was working. First, I walked up to Todis and bought some fresh produce for me as well as eight packages of tortillas (yay!). Then I went to Metro to get cheddar, sour cream, jalapenos, and beef for next Taco Tuesday.  The first three items are extremely hard to find anywhere else in Rome. Our plan is to have a larger amount of supplies, just in case! On the way home from Metro, I stopped at Lidl and bought a bunch more food, both for home and for the Institute. All that shopping went pretty fast, with very little traffic.  I also read the gas meters for our apartment and the sorelle's apartment and turned in our mileage report for the month. The name tag from my coat was missing when I went out, but I found it on the ground in the snow next to our car; the night before we found only a very tight parking spot, and I apparently knocked it off doing my Houdini exit from the car.

Around 4:30pm we headed into town for our Wednesday evening activity at the Institute: a lesson on making Carnevale pastries from Sheyla, who works in a pastry shop these days. When we got to the campus, she wasn't there yet, and a couple of our non-member girls were outside waiting in the cold for her, because the place was locked. Sheyla has a key and was supposed to be there early, so they were very glad to see us. Unfortunately, we couldn't open the door. The lock has been getting harder and harder to turn, and it simply wouldn't open. Several of us tried, and we were about to give up and cancel the evening's activity, but then Margie (our non-member gal from Honduras, tiny and slight) gave it one last try and somehow managed to open it. Whew! After that I ran down to the hardware store to get some spray lubricant; I wanted graphite, but all they had was WD-40, so I bought it and sprayed it into the lock, which seemed to help. A locksmith is supposed to come Thursday afternoon to fix it better.

Dee writes:
What in the world is Carnevale? It's basically the Italian equivalent of Mardi Gras and Halloween costumes mixed together, lots of fun before Lent. Here's a great little article on it which I think you'll enjoy.

Kids started showing up for the 6pm start time, which Sheyla had selected, but she didn't show up until 7pm. It's Italy, so nobody seemed to fret much, except perhaps my wife (just a bit :-). Sheyla first demonstrated how to make frappe and castagnole, then she had two different groups each make their own. She was great.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Castagnole

Frappe

Fifteen kids showed up during the evening, which is a record for these new Wednesday evening events; the Institute used to be closed that night. The fried goodies were awesome! The kids had a great time together. We had to leave soon after 9pm, with lots of deep frying still going on, so we are hoping for a fully cleaned up kitchen on Thursday -- stay tuned!