Sara's Adventures Abroad: Day Off

Day 11

I was waken up by a phone call from the woman at the front desk saying that I had an outside call, which was the teacher from the private school. She asked me to get a hold of the 3 girls teaching at the private school as they took books back to the hotel that they need right away. I was so confused as to why they called our room? Today was our day off from teaching so we got to sleep in. Kylee and I got dressed and went out shopping with Melissa, Alex and Michelle as we were all off for the day/morning. It seems that everyone got Birkenstock sandals on this trip as they are a big cheaper in Italy than in Canada. I went to this sports store and got a pair of sweatpants (Legea brand) that we see everyone wearing in Sulmona. Then we walked to a nice restaurant for lunch that was recommended to Melissa, which was right past the main piazza. It was kind of hidden away, and you had to walk through a little gated area and through a path to get to the restaurant. We ate outside on the closed in patio and it was just beautiful and so secluded. We all ordered French fries and I saw ravioli on the menu with ricotta cheese and thought I would like it. Once they served me my meal, I immediately smelled the horrible odor and knew I couldn’t eat it. It turns out that the sauce was a truffle mushroom sauce, and was very disgusting. I’m glad I got French fries, but at least I tried something new and know I know. Everyone else’s meals were really good though! There were three other tables of people on the patio. One group was from St. George, Ontario and they said they read about us (the Canadian teaching group) in the newspaper. They have a condo in Sulmona and come once a year. Then the other group was from Florida on vacation, and there were two men from New Jersey, and the man said he had family here and is trying to research his family tree. After lunch we walked back as Melissa and Michelle had to teach the adult school at 3:00, and Alex, Kylee, Brianna, Steph, Laura, Erika, Danielle, Blaire and I took the shuttle to the other hotel to go swimming and tanning as they have a pool. We just found out today that it was possible get a shuttle to the hotel. We came back at around 5:00, Kylee and I attempted to wash our clothes. We bought string from the market as a clothesline, and our clothes severely drooped once we hung them on the line. We went for dinner and had plain pasta with penne noodles, and second course was veal, so I chose the cheese plate instead. I opted out for dinner and instead went for Gelato with Kylee, Shannon, Justin, Melissa, Alex and Michelle.