What a fun day.  After cleaning house and washing clothes and sheets and such, I headed off to Baby Jesus Hospital for Children.  That’s really it’s name…Ospidale Bambini Gesu…the biggest Children’s Hospital in Europe.  And a very old hospital with lots of new modern wings.  My Quilt Group was presenting a Quilt to the Children’s Play Area.  Quilters from all over Italy participated in the making of this Quilt.  Actually it is more of a game than a quilt.  The big quilt has 90 small blocks. Each block depicts an animal or a bird. Each block is about 6 inches square.  Then there were 90 identical blocks made…one for each animal or bird.  Then they made 15 small quilts with 15 blocks of the animals and birds…each different.  The children each get a small quilt and little felt squashes, pumpkins or apples.  It is like a Bingo  game.  The ‘Caller’ digs in a bag and brings out one of the small, individual birds or animals.  If that is on your little quilt you cover with one of the felt pieces.  Whoever covers their little 15 block quilt first wins!  We had three little children come in over the course of two hours and even with at least 10 adults playing…each of those children won a prize by covering their quilts first!  Surely there was no cheating on the part of the ‘Caller’!  It was fun for me as I was learning names of animals and birds in Italian and then teaching them what they are called in English…when I could remember what they are called…like a marmot or a narwhal.  Then I got the narwhal confused with a unicorn….and I wasn’t sure if the hedgehog was really a little porcupine.  And let me tell you…they just can’t say Squirrel!  I think there is a funny You Tube of Germans trying to say Squirrel and Italians have the same trouble.  I can’t even spell it the way they can’t pronounce it!  Anyway, it was a very fun and rewarding day…heartwarming for us to bring joy to the children and fun for the children to play and win.  

I got back to the restaurant next door to our apartment in time to meet Andy and a German lady she met a couple of days ago.  They had planned to meet after the lady, Karen was finished with her tour today.  She had told Andy that she was lonely on the tour and had no friends…it had just started.  Tonight she came with three other ladies from her tour.  Another single lady and a mother and daughter.  All Germans and all lovely people.  We had a wonderful dinner and lots of conversation…especially to understand the restrictions of people in East and West Berlin before the Wall came down.  How people in the East could apply to move to the West but had to wait years to be approved.  The older lady had a sister in East Berlin who could only apply after she retired.  We are all going to try to get together again Wednesday evening and maybe Thursday.  So now Karen isn’t lonely…she has three new German friends and two American friends.  And the hostess/waitress downstairs speaks perfect Italian, English, French, Spainish..and since she is German she speaks that as well.  I have trouble with English most days.  And speaking of languages…I really make an effort to make myself be understood in Italian…but as soon as they realize I’m American, they want to speak English!  So, they speak English and I speak Italian.    It’s late…so bedtime.    Must go to the market tomorrow…our cupboards are bare.  I’m planning a shrimp dish and a couple of chicken dishes for the rest of the week.  Going to try to perfect the Chicken and Gorgonzola sauce to have with company next week.  Stay tuned…