July 12, 2012

Italian Homework Win

A couple of days ago there appeared here in the friary a Brazilian diocesan priest to make of himself, like me, a beginning Italian student. Tonight he arrived at supper with a vocabulary list containing the various names of things related to food and meals. The brothers seemed to find this very entertaining, and enjoyed pointing out and displaying instances of the various terms: plates and bowls and glasses, forks, knives, and spoons, bread and wine and cheeses, fruits, vegetables, pasta and meat. But one little trouble was encountered when an item was found on the list that was not in evidence in the refectory: la birra.

Well, apparently unwilling to be shown up by someone's Italian homework, Father Guardian summoned his minion to the head of the table, who then scurried off and returned moments later with a chilled bottle of Beck's for anyone who wanted one. This was all very surprising to me, as I have lived in this friary for almost six weeks and have never even seen a bottle of beer, much less been offered one.

So I guess it pays to do your homework. Who knew?

4 comments:

-Lou (Louis) said...

Father,

If you like beer at all, you *have* to try Peroni and Prinz Brau. They are fantastic.

Wine guy myself, though ;-)

-Lou

Sara said...

Amazing. The same thing happened to me when I was a college student, working at a restaurant and going over my Spanish homework with the guys in the kitchen.

GirlCanChant said...

Such a good Father Guardian you have there! ;-)

Roger Bryant said...

Would've been much better with a Guinness.....

Or Diet Dr. Pepper.