Say What?

I have to admit, the cold weather is keeping me indoors. I did make it to Santa Susanna's for Mass this morning. Santa Susanna is a home for American pilgrims and residents in Rome. It is a beautiful Church, built over the ruins of the house where Santa Susanna lived.

It began to dawn on me shortly after I arrived that I have to completely change the assumptions and ways of relating to the world around me that I have developed. The first incident happened three weeks ago, the day I came to the community where I am staying now. As I was unpacking, the superior was bringing me things that she thought I would need. Among these items was a 2nd set of sheets. I almost said to her that I didn't need them because I usually wash my sheets and put them back on my bed the same day. However, since I knew I could not say that in Italian, I just accepted the sheets and put them in my closet. Well am I glad I didn't say anything. The following Saturday I was introduced to how we do our laundry here. Although we have a dryer, the general custom here is that clothing is still line dried. There is no way that I will be able to wash my sheets and put them back on my bed the same day. And if I had tried to explain that to my superior, she would have had quite a hard time understanding my reasoning!

Then the community was talking about the possibility of going somewhere on a weekend. One of the places that came up was Moscow. The look that went across my face was something like, "How in the world can we go to Moscow on a weekend?" Then I realized that I am now a lot closer to Moscow than I am accustomed to being. So, I asked how far away it is by plane--2 hours. Amazing.
This past week, I was helping out for a few days in the Spanish section. I had just finished placing an order for a publisher called Ediciones Encuentro. When I finished, the Sr Chiara told me that I could put the paperwork in the file behind "A". So, I am thinking to myself, "How come she wants me to put the paperwork behind the letter "A" when the publisher starts with "E"? Then it hit me--the way the letter "E" is pronounced here is how we pronounce the letter "A". Whew, problem solved.

Now that the sisters are discovering the types of things that I am good at, I am getting quite a few requests. Yesterday, the student community who lives in the same building that we do was having trouble with one of their computer monitors. So they called on me to help them figure out what was wrong with it. Thank God it was easy because a computer technician I am NOT. However, the fact that I figured out this simple problem has convinced them that I am an expert. Oh dear.... But in the end, it allowed me to get better acquainted with our sisters who are studying--one is from Kenya, two are from Pakistan, one if from Italy, and three or four are from Korea. They are also closer to my age. So, we have decided that I will go to have dinner with them every Saturday. Last night we exchanged stories of acclimating to Italy, and some of the mistakes that we have made with the language. We laughed and laughed. Now I have something to look forward to on Saturday evenings! And yes, I'll remember to bring my camera with me the next time.