Jeffrey's P-Day

Last week, Jeffrey e-mailed us and told us he was being transferred to a new area within his mission. He was really excited because he found out there were ancient ruins within his ward boundaries.

For any non-members reading my blog, once a week missionaries have what's called Preparation Day (P-Day). They do laundry, go shopping, e-mail Mom and Dad, and explore a little within their area (within mission guidelines).

So I was excited to get Jeffrey's e-mail yesterday. I was excited to read about ancient ruins he explored. And even see some pictures if he could find a computer working well enough to download them.

And what did Jeffrey and his companion do yesterday for their P-Day?

They went to a slaughterhouse. That's right - a slaughterhouse! Forget ancient ruins - lets go watch animals get slaughtered!

His exact words were: "They were killing and gutting cows. We didn't get to see the killing, but we saw the gutting. It was pretty cool, but I could never do it. After about 10 minutes I got nauseous. But it was cool seeing it all."

I'm anxious to e-mail him next week and find out why exactly they went to a slaughterhouse.

I guess I should be grateful that although he thought it was cool, it's not a job he could ever do! And I guess I should be grateful that he didn't send any pictures! I can wait for ancient ruins!

Getting to Church

Robert is in Houston right now, which meant that we had no ride to church on Sunday. As I've mentioned before, I will drive in my suburban area, but I refuse to drive into Milan. And I especially refuse to drive 45 minutes into Milan! The many roundabouts along with the many Italian drivers who don't understand the meaning of the word "lane" really stress me out. So Scott and I had to find another way to church.

There's another American LDS couple that live close to us. Okay, so they're pretty much the only other American couple in our ward, other than some missionaries. They have been taking the subway to church, so Scott and I decided to tag along with them.

I picked them up on Sunday afternoon and drove us all to the Metro station in San Donato. We took the yellow line into the Duomo, which is in the center of Milan. We then changed to the red line and rode that 10 stops out to where the chapel is. After exiting the Metro, it was a short 5 to 7 minute walk to the chapel. After church, we reversed the whole process.

It wasn't bad taking the subway to church. It took a little over an hour each way, as opposed to the 45 - 50 minutes it takes to drive. I felt kind of like a native - using the Metro to actually get to a destination! It would have been nice if I could have found a seat instead of having to stand the whole way both directions. Who knew the Metro was so popular on a Sunday afternoon!

The worst part of the whole experience? Having the elevator in the parking garage be closed when we got back from church. I could have done without having to climb to the fourth story to get the car!

Shopping Story

Today I went with a group of seven other American women into Milan to do some shopping. We took the subway and had to change from the Yellow line to the Red line to the Green line to get to the area we wanted to shop in. Many of us had never been to the area before, so it was a bit of an adventure.

As we were wandering around, we came across a shop selling leather goods - purses, wallets, etc. Being women, we went in! There were signs posted in the store, but they were in Italian, so we didn't know what they were saying.

We had been in the store about five minutes, and we were all busily looking at things. Suddenly a few of the ladies who were in the back of the store started coming forward saying the owner had told them we had to leave. We were all a bit disbelieving, thinking they must have misunderstood. Then the owner came up to us and said, "Go. You leave. No touching. You leave. Now."

So we left.

But I can't tell you how surprised we were. Apparently the signs in the store said "Don't Touch the Merchandise". Tell me this, how do you buy a purse or wallet without touching it to see if it's configured the way you want it? I don't understand that at all.

Also, we obviously were not Italian. We were all talking in English - and not with Italian accents! Why would she assume we understood her signs?

Another example of Italy's wonderful customer service!

Oh, and at least two of us were getting ready to buy something. Her loss.