Church and wanderings

Yesterday we were blessed by a worship service in English with communion at Rome Baptist Church. David and I have attended this church on our two previous trips to Rome. On the previous Sunday 195 people worshiped there (to give you an idea of its size). There were many Americans, of course (from Seattle, Florida, Chicago) and many people from the Philippines. Here in Rome, they speak the best English I have found. Today we got very little accomplished, though we tried. We are still attempted to acquire a "permit to stay." So far we have been to two police stations and two post offices--they keep sending us to other agencies! We then tried to join a sports club with a pool so the boys could swim. We were told that there is no free swimming in Italy for people younger than 18. They can only take lessons. Finally, we tried to locate a wireless hotspot and found that the address led us to somebody's garage. At home the power went off again when I was cooking. Apparently you can't cook and have the lights on at the same time. We ate by candlelight. Another exciting bit of news--I had sent a folding bike from home to here, thinking that we could use it to get around. I received noticed that the bike had arrived, but that I needed to pay over 300 euros and go the the airport to retrieve it. (It cost less than half that to send it.) We have decided not to open it and just have it returned home--we can do without the bike! Still and all, we're having fun. The boys are working well at their studies and are enjoying themselves tremendously. Tomorrow we start baseball and the following day fencing, if we can find these places.