I Know the Town Shuts Down, But BUSES Don’t Even Run On Sunday?

I checked my Facebook Friday afternoon and Beverly had written me and Asta. She said she was sorry she couldn’t make it last night, and wanted to know what either of us was doing that night. I wrote back quickly, saying I was doing NOTHING and I would love to hang out! She wrote back saying that she would catch the 7:00 bus that night, and we agreed to meet at the bus stop around 7:35.

Later that afternoon, I got a text message from Davide, saying that tomorrow we are going to a birthday party and I need to bring 10 Euro for the birthday present and that Greta said I should already know.

I had no idea.

So I texted him back, saying I had know idea about a party. And why exactly do I have to bring 10 Euro for a birthday present when I don’t even know this guy? I was explaining to Romeo when we were cleaning (Yes. Cleaning AGAIN on Friday night. What is this guy’s problem?), and he said that it was just expected that when you go to a birthday party you bring money for the birthday boy/girl. Whether you know them or not. I told him I like American birthday parties better.

That night, I headed out to the bus stop to find Beverly. I arrived about 5 minutes late, so I hoped she hadn’t gone looking for me. I couldn’t find here anywhere.

I waited at the stop. Didn’t see her.

I walked to the other side of the piazza. Didn’t see her.

I walked back to my original spot. Didn’t see her.

A bus pulled up from what I thought was her town. Didn’t see her.

I waited for 25 minutes before starting to freak out. Beverly had mentioned meeting at the church before we agreed on the piazza. I quickly went that direction, wondering how I could have missed her when I passed through earlier. Didn’t see her.

OH NO. Teramo isn’t a big city, but a girl could easily get lost in all it’s little alleyways, and finding her would be hard. My friend was missing. I half-ran back to my apartment, praying that she had missed the bus. I log on to Facebook and had a new message: it was from her. She thought the bus came early and had therefore missed it.

I let out a sigh of relief.

I told her not to worry about it, and that we could hang out on Saturday instead. She said that sounded like a great idea, and got my phone number so she could call me when she was headed into Teramo.

Well, now I’m spending my Friday night alone. How lame. It actually ended up to be nice. I just talked on Facebook with people and did some major creeping. Plus, I wanted to go to the market, so I needed to get some sleep.

The next morning I headed out to the Saturday market. I wanted to buy a scarf for spring. Not one of those dark colored heavy ones, but a light, bright scarf to compliment my limited spring wardrobe. Right next to my apartment the people with fresh produce set up in a parking lot. I decided to get some fresh fruit and vegetables, since I vowed to start eating healthier over here. I perused through the produce; there were no vegetables besides lettuce. Well, fruit it is.

I creeped on people shopping around me. Apparently you grab a plastic bag and fill it. And then take it to the register and they check you out. Everything was priced for 1 Euro, so that made things easier. I filled my bag and then made my way by the register to head for the kiwis. I got stopped by a man who, when I looked at him confused, took my bag and put it on the scale. I paid for my produce, and skipped the kiwis. Am I supposed to check out separately for every bag? I was just trying to get some more fruit. Well, if you don’t want more of my money, that’s cool too!

I looked into my bag of apples and bananas. A random orange had been thrown in their as well. I don’t know why. Maybe it was to add to the weight so it would equal an even 2 Euro. Oh well, it looked delicious.

I took my produce bag with me, hoping I might have an easier market shopping experience at the other tables. I bought a new pair of red sunglasses for 5 Euro. I’ve ALWAYS wanted a pair of red sunglasses! I’ll be looking fly this summer driving around in those.

I headed in the direction of a table with scarves. They were all so dark. Not what I was looking for. I moved on, and in the distance I saw brightly colored scarves hanging from a tent. Just what I needed. I found a beautiful green and white scarf, and next to it a lime green scarf with a pink and blue and beige pattern on it. That was it…my spring scarf. And I paid only 3 Euro for it.

Summary of my shopping trip: 3 large apples, a bunch of bananas, 1 random orange, 1 pair hott red sunglasses, and 1 cute spring scarf ALL for 10 Euro. Now that’s a successful shopping trip, despite my problem at the produce table.

It was an absolutely gorgeous day outside, and my room is perfectly placed so that sunlight streams through the window and door. I decided to sit outside, sunbathe, and do a little reading. After gathering a little color on my front, and needed to get some on the back of me.

If I open the door to my balcony and open my windows completely, the sunlight streams in perfectly to create my own personal tanning bed. I placed my towel on the tile floor, grabbed my pillow, and popped my iPod in, letting the sun warm the back of me. I rolled over to re-warm my front. Every year I show up to bikini season with slightly tanned arms and legs, and a white stomach. Determined to change that this year, I rolled over to my back and pulled up my tanktop just enough to get some sun on my stomach.

The next thing I know, my roommate comes barging in on my tanning time. Thank goodness I hadn’t pulled my shirt up any more than that! I pretended to be asleep, but it was clear he wasn’t going away. So I looked up at him. He started laughing at me and called me crazy. I told him maybe I was, but I didn’t care. I was still trying to get over the shock of how close I was to almost pulling my shirt up farther. That was close.

He left my room, and a couple minutes later my phone starts to ring. It was Beverly, and she was headed into Teramo! We met at the Grande Italia (where we had our first coffee break after lessons) and decided to drop her stuff off at my place and then figure out where we would go after that. She had came at the point of the day where every shop closes down, so not much goes on in town.

We decided to walk across the bridge to the other side of town. Francesca had mentioned that a specific store possibly had peanut butter. Because nowhere else in this town. We decided to walk over there and find out. Unfortunately, no peanut butter. BUT I found these tiny milk chocolate eggs, so I bought those instead.

We went back to the Grande Italia to get a sandwich. And again we struggled with ordering what we wanted. Being obviously foreign does have its perks, though. When a girl brought out our sandwiches, she brought out a plate of pastries, saying that they were a gift from the bartender. Free. We waved and said thank you. They may laugh when we order, but we get free delicacies because of it.

We did some shopping, and I tried my very first Italian gelato. We managed to get across that we wanted a cup (who knew the word was so simple: copetta.) And when the lady asks me for my second choice, a look surprised. I had gotten the small size, and I STILL get two flavors? Without having to pay more? Legit.

So I tried chocolate-chip gelato and plain chocolate gelato. Beverly got lemon and some mixed fruit gelato. They were all delicious, but for as simple as it was, the chocolate gelato was the winner by far. I may have to get some more this week.

That night we went to the grocery store and grabbed things for dinner. We also stopped by a local pastry shop to get dessert. We made the best dinner, for being 2 foreign girls in an Italian kitchen. We had spinach and potatoes in butter and salt, a fruit salad of pineapple, strawberries, and banana, chicken cooked in oil with basil and oregano, and a loaf of bread. I was very impressed with our cooking skills, and we vowed to do this more often.

My roommate introduced himself while we were baking, and then left us alone. The next time he came in was to tell me to clean up the dishes because he had played soccer and he was hungry. And to point out that we had made the floor a mess.

Why was he suddenly so bossy?

No duh I was going to clean the dishes after we were done. I don’t just leave them out dirty like he does. I clean up my dishes directly after using them. And I would mop the floor tomorrow. It’s not hurting anyone being dirty right now. I couldn’t figure out why he was acting that way, but I brushed it off and continued eating.

That night Beverly and I watched “Nine.” The movie is set in Italy, so it was funny to watch it knowing that we could easily hop on a bus and see all the places they talk about. After the movie, we stayed up doing random things. Beverly read parts of my books, and eventually picked up The Host and read it. I jumped on Facebook and did my nightly creeping. Once I had my fix, I hopped on the bed. She and I then started talking, and the next thing I knew it was 4:30 in the morning. Waaaaaay past our bedtimes!

The next morning (well, it was technically the afternoon) I woke up. Beverly and sat around for a little while and made plans to visit places in Italy. I found someone to travel with! My Italian friends aren’t as excited to visit Rome or Pisa or Venice, so I was so excited to hear that Beverly wanted to travel just as much as I do! I finally have a travel partner.

She left that afternoon to catch her bus back home. And I got back onto my computer to check some e-mails. 20 minutes later the doorbell rings. I open my bedroom door to go get it, and Romeo does the same. I ask him if he was getting it, and he rolls his eyes and walks to the front door. Seriously? WHAT is his issue?

He indicates that it is for me, and unlocks the apartment complex’s door. It must be Beverly. As I was walking out to get her, he feels the necessity to tell me to mop the kitchen floor. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? I just woke up. I will mop it. Get off my back. I say something back to him and give him a bit of attitude and walk down to get my friend.

Apparently the buses don’t run on Sundays. Beverly was stuck with me another day. I was actually very happy. If Romeo was going to be in such a foul mood, I needed someone else around. Since everything shuts down on Sunday, we just chilled. I took a shower, and we decided to go get a hot chocolate at our normal bar by our Italian school. After we had stuffed ourselves on hot chocolate and pastries, we decided to go buy something for dinner.

On our way over to the store, Beverly and I decided to stop by the church in the center of town. I had been told it was beautiful inside but had never taken a look myself. We opened the doors, talking, and immediately noticed how quiet it was. Oops. We started walking around, admiring all the pews and ornaments and intricacies in the architecture. It WAS beautiful. I was about to pull out my camera and start taking pictures, when I noticed a little acolyte walking up to the front of the church. How cute! I figure they DO need people in here when the church is open to prevent vandalism and such. Then I noticed about 5 or 6 people sitting in the pews on the side of the church, to the left of where the acolyte had walked. Then, 3 or 4 guys in white robes came filing out.

Oh no. I think we just walked into a church service. Or a funeral.

Either way, Beverly and I quickly looked at each other with wide eyes, turned around, and shuffled as fast as we could out the back door into the piazza. Only then could we start laughing. That was a close one…we didn’t mean to interrupt! Of course, I realize during our conversation that it IS Sunday. We probably should have expected a night service.

And apparently the shop I thought was open on Sundays isn’t.

That’s okay. We weren’t very hungry anyways.

But I knew that there was some kind of store open on Sundays around the area we were in. They had a huge sign boasting “Aperti Tutti Le Domeniche!” (Open Every Sunday!), and I saw it every time I went running. We walked down to a parking garage, out the stairs for a more direct descent, discovered that we couldn’t back in through the door, hopped the barrier and discovered the store.

It was like a Lowe’s or Home Depot. Only Italian.

We wandered around for a little while. I’m sure we looked incredibly lost, because we were 2 girls walking around a hardware store full of mostly men and their wives. That’s okay, we had time to kill.

By the time we made it back to the house, we decided we weren’t hungry. So we watched the last episode of Tool Academy 2, because I was months overdue in watching it. I think I have her hooked.

We weren’t incredibly hungry, so we made a small dinner of chicken nuggets, leftover pineapple, and bread. Beverly hopped in the shower, and I read my book. We then pulled a cot into my room, because we didn’t want to upset Romeo by one of us sleeping in Luca’s room while he was away. We both finished reading our chapters, and settled in for bed. It was like having a sleepover, except that in my room you couldn’t fit much more between my bed and that cot. That’s okay. There was only 2 of us anyways.

The next morning we went our Italian lesson together. Asta is in Lithuania for 2 weeks, so it is just me and Beverly. We had our routine coffee break afterwards, and Beverly and I went to get a hot dog to kill some time.

Hot dogs are not the same as in America. I don’t know which one I like better. Italian hot dogs are completely wrapped in some kind of bread and baked that way. They are delicious, but I think I like American style simply because of that reason. It’s American. We did some window shopping and then said goodbye. I was kinda sad to see my friend go…we had spent nearly 2 days together and I had a really good time. We already made plans to do it again, though.

And I had class that night. And 7 miles to run. Looks like my week is starting out as normal as ever.