September 15th: Day Five
15/09/2014 18:26
Today the General Chapter spent most of the day broken up into its commissions to discuss the house reports. This work is the pastoral work of the chapter, as opposed to the more legal work that occupies the work in the aula. Because the work of the commissions is both sensitive and confidential, it cannot be posted on the web, which gives an opportunity to make some observations on the differences between Italy and places where English is more commonly spoken.
· Florescent lights. Here in Assisi, the lights flash on and off a half dozen times every time they are turned on, so that it is like being strobed at a night club. However, when the lights are on, they are fully on, and they don't take time to come to full brightness.
· Google knows where I am. Google knows that I am in Italy and “helpfully”gives Italian results to my searches. I end up yelling “non capisco” at the computer more often that I would like.
· The coffee. It is really easy to find a good cup of coffee, and really hard to find a bad one. The difficulty is that there are lots of words that describe the different styles and proportions of milk that need to be mastered. Fortunately there are no bad choices.
· The cars. This is just an observation from the sidewalk, not having been behind the wheel, but it seems as if sitting behind a steering wheel here immediately instills the belief that the Last Judgment will occur in the next three minutes if you do not reach your destination.
· The beggars. Perhaps after life in a monastery, the presence of beggars on the street is a little bit jarring. Of course we have beggars back home, but they seem more present here, or perhaps they just make their presence more well known.
· The extra fixture in the bathroom. For anyone who doesn't know what I am talking about, look up the word “bidet.” No more comments on that..