First communion (day 4 and day 11 in italy)

We’ve had 2 first communion celebrations since my arrival here (today and the past Sunday). Supposedly the month of may is a common time for first communions. From what I remember from Christine lam and STIM, Catholics celebrate first communion after infant baptism when they’re around 8 years old and is a milestone for the catholic faith. I think at least. Since I’m pretty behind on posting, I decided to efficiently combine these 2 posts/days into one.

Both times we had around 30 people come for lunch (or should I say feast). The lunch (and typical Italian meal) includes wine, mineral water, olives, bread, appetizers (pate & bruchetta), ragu pasta, gorgonzola and zucchini pasta, meat dish, dessert with champagne, and café – all eaten in that order. Italians sure know how to feast and take around 4 hours to finish!

there’s a lot of prep work that goes into feeding 30 people! my favorite thing to do beforehand is arranging the flowers :). I think I found a new hobby. I’ve always associated flower arranging with church moms who take a flower arrangement class after church but mom’s are smart! The hobby is relaxing, fun, and you get to take home something beautiful that you were a part of :). what’s also cool is that all these flowers are either wild or grown on the cheli property! I felt like I was in a movie when I went around picking and cutting flowers in my bare feet for the flower arrangement. Other prep work includes: setting the table, wiping wine glasses, cooking mass quantities of food, cracking walnuts and cutting bread (penne) until you get blisters, etc.

This is the serving team (L to R: vanna, maya, Orlando, me). I learned that waitressing is tougher than it looks! Esp when you don’t understand the language :x. here’s a few phrases that I found helpful though: bon appetito! (eat up, enjoy your food!), al fato? (done?), gratzieh (thank you), prego (you’re welcome), and no parlo italiano (I don’t speak Italian).

This is a picture of the first family we catered to. it reminded me of big fat greek wedding with loud talking, hairy men who were very open about showing their chests, large families, everyone smoking (including the grandmas), and my favorite observation was that you couldn’t tell whose kids were whose. The entire time I was tryin to guess but in the end I was completely wrong (I found out during picture time). O yeah, the cake you see is DELICIOUS. It’s called millie follie (similar to napoleons) and I ate 3 slices each time which made my tummy feel kinda funny afterwards :\ but I don’t regret eating it, I don’t think I do at least.