Ruth's

So far this week we have been very lucky with our weather and have been having sunny days. After marketing I went to the library to do my reading because I still haven't bought the books for the Art Market yet... I got most of it done and then rushed to Italian. I was supposed to meet up with Michelle and Michael to go with them to the vintage fair but while I was waiting for them I ran into Katie and we decided to walk back together. We walked to the center of Florence and then split up (she went to her apt and I headed to the train station). I was going to buy tickets for me, Alana and Abe but the automatic ticket machine wouldnt let me buy more than one ticket at a time and I didn't want to keep charging it to my credit card because it costs $3 every time I use it :'( so instead I decided to just wait until I spoke with them to confirm what time we wanted to leave. I then went to the Tourists Office to see if anything interesting was going on in Florence but the woman was extremely rude and not helpful at all. Throughout the entire time I was talking with Michelle on the phone but in the end I decided not to meet them at the Vintage fair and just head back to the apartment. Once again I was disappointed because noone wanted to go tovel dishes with me in the Arno :'(.
Because it's Wednesday that means RUTH'S!!! We all had to study for an Italian quiz and decided to bring our notes to Ruth's because dinner always takes so long anyways. We got there at 7:15 because we got emails all day from Hannah Urkowitz telling us about the 7-10:30 Ruth's student special. But of course they weren't opening until 7:30 so we just sort of hung out for 15 minutes. A little while into our meal a girl walks in and starts talking to us like we know her. It turns out she was Hannah. Crazy! So we spoke to her for a bit and she shared her lifes story with us and gave us some tips on Florence. Then we asked Simcha about the Rabbi's wife and it turns out she was sitting at the table over! So he introduced her to us and I asked her if she would be willing to meet with us and show us how to buy kosher food in the supermarket. Then I asked Simcha about toveling and he's like I'm going tomorrow. I can tovel your dishes if you want! So I went back to the apartment to get our dishes to give to Simcha. I then went to Borgo Pinti to see if they have any of my books. I found one of my books for the Art Market (so its a good thing I waited to buy it) and I found the course packet for Florentine Villas. It's so nice that students leave their books for future students to use.
Once I got back to the apartment I found out that one of the girls in our apartment actually went to the Arno to tovel the dishes she bought with another girl. Honestly, I'm not so surprised because they never really seemed to care about anyone else in the apartment or try to include us at all but I was still really disappointed that she didn't ask me to join her or offer to come with me anytime I asked people if they wanted to come with me to tovel dishes. I had even offered to tovel the dishes for them if they wanted. But whatever, if they want to stick to themselves then there is nothing we can do about it.
until next time!
-arrivederci

La Pietra

Today I had my Florentine Villas class and we learned about Villa La Pietra (the main villa on NYU's Florence campus that the entire campus is named after). We had a tour of the inside of the villa and then our teacher gave us a tour of the gardens. First of all I think you all need to just appreciate what my teacher was wearing. It was amazing!! As Nirali put it "it looks like a cat crawled on top of her and exploded". But seriously I am obsessed with her outfits. They are always so much fun! I really enjoyed exploring the villa and I'm looking forward to the other site visits. As I've mentioned previously the classes are 2 hrs and 45 min and I have to get up at around 7:30 in order to make it to class on time. But it's really nice because our walks around the villas are very refreshing and help us stay awake. It was especially nice because it happened to be a gorgeous day. It was perfect for exploring the gardens. It was really cool because on the side of the villa there is a lemon and orange garden. But in the winter they move all the trees into a "lemon house". It sounds really weird - what does that mean that they move the trees into the "lemon house". Most of the plants are in pots and they actually move all the pots into the house in order to make sure that they don't die. It was extremely cool walking into the lemon house and seeing all the lemon trees.
I got home at around 3pm and really wanted to go tovel dishes but unfortunately no Jews were around to go with me. Leora and Alana showed up a little while later but they were too exhausted from classes to want to embark on this adventure (I mean after all we may end up falling into the Arno in our attempt to tovel the dishes).
until next time!
-arrivederci

Ciao Bella!

Since I decided to drop Foreign Media I woke up late and went to the leather market with Nirali and Laura. We walked around for a while perusing the merchandise. I found a cute little booth with clothing that I really liked but none of it fit :'(. It was really sad. I kept seeing bags that I liked but they were all like 90 or 75 euro and the creepy guys kept saying but for you 60 euro. But I still didn't want to pay that much for a bag. Finally we found a booth and the bag was 55 euro. But because of my indecisive nature i wasn't sure if I should buy it or not. So he kept bringing down the price for me and finally I bought it for 40 euro. My first bag :). It's purple and super awesome. We then tried to find Laura a hat and sweatshirt but with no luck. Nirali bought a notebook for her Gardans and Landscapes class. Luckily I noticed that the book she was initially going to buy was an addressbook and NOT a notebook with blank pages like she thought. I then rushed to La Pietra for my Italian class. On the way back it started pouring and Alana and I took the bus back. Even so we still managed to get sopping wet because we had to wait outside in the rain for a while and then had to walk from the bus stop to our apartment. Unfortunately, I realized that my coat and knapsack are not water proof :'(. Oh well... Once back at the apartment I started to make plans for my trip to Rome with Alana and Abe. So excited!!!
until next time!
-arrivederci

Sun, Sun, Sun...

(Yes I was thinking of Yossi singing "Here Comes the Sun" when I named this post)
Today I woke up and it was beautiful outside. Did you know that the sky was blue? Because I hadn't seen it in so long that I'm pretty sure I started to forget what it looked like. But the sky was a gorgeous shade of blue and the sun was shining (a rarity in my time in Florence so far). A bunch of us woke up relatively early and left for the train station to catch the NYU bus to Lucca. It took us a while to find the actual bus stop but eventually we made it :). The bus ride was around an hour and when we got to Lucca the weather was even more gorgeous than in Florence. We broke up into groups and NYU had a tour guide waiting for each group. We were shown around Lucca and learned about the history of different buildings. I had a really enjoyable time. Afterwards we had free time and went shopping in an open-air market (Nirali and Mara bought notebooks) and then we went out to eat. We decided on a dairy restaurant and people ordered pasta and wine. I brought lunch from home and very stealthily ate my peanut butter sandwich which I hid under the table. After lunch we walked around a bit more and then found a gelatto place where most people bought ice cream. There was a piazza with a carousel which def rivaled the carousel at Piazza D'Azeglio. We then hung out on the benches until it was time to leave. Once on the buses I realized that we forgot to visit a super awesome tower with trees on top, but oh well... we can always come back. Then we got back to Piazza D'Azeglio and it was really nice because Abe joined us for dinner. During dinner Robert Aeder skyped us. First of all it was really nice to see Robert again after so long, but also it was really exciting because we started to try and figure out a third country where a bunch of us could meet Robert (he's in London for the semester). It was overall an amazing day!
until next time!
-arrivederci

Ruth's #3

Britt said havdalah for the seven of us and then all the girls proceeded to give me all of their left over food. By the time we left the hotel to head to Ruth's (yes 3rd time this week), I had a huge bag full of peanut butter, tuna fish, mayonaisse, luna bars, etc. It was very exciting to have food again. When we got to Ruth's we found out that a party had reserved Ruth's so they told us to return at 9. I headed back to my apt and dropped off the massive bag of food and then met Mollie and Britt back at Ruth's at around 8:45. It as a good thing we showed up a bit early because at 9 a huge flow of ppl came in and once again a group of ppl waited around to be seated. Mollie and Britt got to Ruth's before me and ordered food for me (thank God they did because once again the food took forever to arrive!). We once again spent around 2 hours at Ruth's and once again we were still hungry afterwards so Mollie and Britt got two courses. We then headed back to my apt so they could take pictures of my beautiful apt and of course so they could use the internet :-P. After a while Britt and Mollie left to catch some sleep before their 7am flight home :'(. By that time I was exhausted and wasn't going to go out with ppl in the apt+Zandi+Ellie, and Nicole was also exhausted but we made a pact that we'd go for a bit and then leave like 20 min later. I think I was the only one who didn't have anything to drink and I also think that I had the best time out of everyone. We went to two bars but both were crowded and there was no where to really sit so we just sort of hung out for a bit at each, took a ton of pictures and then left. Maybe I shouldnt be saying this (or posting in a blog or whatever) but had a great time! I have no desire to hang out in a crowded bar for hours, stink up my clothing bc of all the cigarette smoke and stupid cloud machines, and get hit on by sleezy Italian men. I'd rather hang out for a little bit and leave before I start having a bad time. After the second bar people were starting to get a little cranky and wanted to find a new bar but weren't sure where to go and were debating whether to just head back and that's when I left with Nicole. One thing I hate most about going out and bar hopping is waiting around trying to figure out where to go. People get whiney and what was a fun night (albiet uneventful night), turns into an unhappy crappy night that leaves everyone in a bad mood. So thankfully I missed that part of the evening. Most of the room returned around 20 min after Nicole and I returned because they couldn't decide where else to go. So overall I had a great night but I'm really sad that Mollie and Britt are no longer here :'(.
until next time!
-arrivederci

crazy day!

So... last night and today were crazy busy so I haven't had time to update my blog. So instead of staying up until 1am like I do most nights I'm just going to go to bed now and write a post tom... hope everyone had an awesome first week back at school!!!
until next time!
-arrivederci

Bananagrams?!?! (ps - sorry its so long)

So after I posted the last post I actually ended up doing something. It was around 3:20 and Alana and I were looking at Zandi's pictures and saw pictures of the chocolate fair thing. And we were like OMG it's so cool. So since shabbos we can't take pictures and I'm going to Lucca on Sunday we decided to run out and quickly visit the chocolate fair. It was so much fun. There was chocolate in all shapes and sizes and a bunch of booths even had frog chocolates!!! We then headed back and I stopped off at the 99 cent store and Standa and Alana ran back. I then got back to the apt like 5 minutes before shabbos started, got dressed quickly and then went to shul.
Shul was packed this week (around 40 women and 30 men). Afterwards we once again headed to Chabad and Alana and I raced there so we could beat the crowd and get good seats (basically seats not next to the Chabad son - I know it's mean but we don't really know how to react to what he does so we figure it's best if we just don't sit near him). We got there and a bunch of girls were already there (Mollie and Britt and their 4 friends) so the chairs were near where the son would sit so we sort of paused for a second and before we knew it like 25 people rushed in to the Chabad house and we were left with no seats. :( BUT... then they opened up a new table and all was good. Our apt ended up sitting at that table with two adult couples and I joined Mollie, Britt and the 4 others.
After Chabad we headed back to the apt and played.... BANANAGRAMS!!! Also, Alana and I had bought a beer earlier in the week and Alana decided she wanted some so we opened it and split it. It was a pretty big bottle of beer and I drank my half thinking Alana was drinking hers... but she wasn't! So there we were on a Friday night and I was drunk while playing bananagrams. It was a lot of fun though and honestly I've never been better. I think I won the majority of the games which was really impressive for me. I had a great time. Even if I was a little embarrassed...
The next day my phone alarm went off at 10... I don't really know how to work the phones yet so I guess I had set the alarm and never turned it off... But Alana and I woke up and made it to shul. Once again there was a huge crowd. But at Chabad the crowd was smaller than the night before. Mollie and Britt were at shul and Chabad and after lunch we went back to my apt to show them the place and then went for a walk to Piazza Michelangelo. It was pouring rain and we ended up taking the long route but it was a nice walk all the same. Because it was so rainy it wasn't such a good view from the Piazza but Mollie and Britt hadn't been there yet so they were still able to see a nice view of Florence even if it was a little cloudy. We then went back to their hotel room and played BANANAGRAMS until Shabbat was over!!! And guess what... I won again!!!
Anyways, it's a little after 1 am now and I'm waking up in less than 8 hours... AHH! so I'll write about Sat night tom...
until next time!
-Arrivederci

Nothing to report

So I woke up at like 9 and wasn't really feeling well today so stayed in bed and then just sort of hung out in the apt for most of the day. So sorry - nothing really interesting to report... But if you guys had an interesting day feel free to leave a comment and let me know what you guys did!
have a good shabbos
until next time!
-arrivederci

DISHES!

As you can probably tell from the title of this post I finally got dishes today. I was coming back from the bookstore with Ilana Greenblum and Laura S and I'm like why not just go buy pots and stuff? And guess what, we then went and bought pots and stuff! How crazy?! So now we have a pan, a pasta strainer (I mean hey it is Italy - we need our pasta!), a few spatulas and a kum kum. It was a lot of fun and I'm so excited to start using real things. I did forget to buy a cutting board and still need to run out and buy a few things but it's a good start. Now all we have to do is go to the Arno to tovel the pot... :) get excited for that post!
Then on the way home from buying the pots we stopped off at the Kosher Market and bought ourselves Turkey Sandwiches. They were sooo good!!! And unlike Ruth's it only took like 5 minutes to get our food. It was super exciting :).
until next time!
-arrivederci

My Jog on the Arno.

So today I returned from campus at around 3:30 and it was still light outside and was surprisingly NOT raining (it rains/drizzles like every day here). So I thought to myself, why not go for a run? So I put on my super awesome underarmour cold gear shirt and went jogging. I thought I would be freezing, but the underarmour worked like magic and kept me warm. I ran along the Arno because at orientation they said there was a jogging path but I couldn't find one :'( so I ran on the cobble stone - which probably wasn't such a good idea but I just needed to go running. If you wanna see the path I ran on you can click here. You can zoom in up close and even see the cobblestone that I ran on. On the way back from the apartment I passed the Duomo and there was an Asian couple taking wedding pictures in front of the Duomo. It looked really pretty but then I noticed that the bottom of the woman's white wedding dress was all muddy because of the rain. Whatever. Then I came back to the apartment showered and hung out until it was time to meet Mollie and Brit!!! I met them at Ruth's at 7:15 and we stayed until a little after 9. Yep, I spent another 2 hrs at Ruth's. It's crazy because Wednesday is the 10 euro special deal so a ton of college students came (mainly CUNY students) for the discount so the place was packed. But the service was awful!! They kept forgetting about people's orders and bringing people the wrong items. There was also a group of 4 girls waiting to be seated for 30 minutes. But I guess if you're the only Kosher restaurant in Florence you can do what ever you want. I also hate that the portions are so small in Italy. Brit, Mollie and I were so hungry that even after we finished our main dishes we still wanted more food so we ordered a pizza and split it. It was really nice finally being able to see them.
Once again it's late and I should be in bed so...
until next time!
-arrivederci

Inauguration Day

Today started out like any other, woke up at around 7:20, went to shower only to find out there was no hot water... again!, then walked to school with a group of people and went to my classes. My first class was Florentine Villas which I am really excited for. It basically is a class about villas in Florence (just in case you couldn't tell from the title of the course). We are going to go on field trips each week and visit different villas around Florence. The class will focus on the connection between the history of the Italian villa and the economy, architecture, art and landscape. Afterwards, I went to my Italian class. I seriously love this class. The teacher is so much fun and is really good at engaging the entire class. I don't know if I mentioned it previously but he reminds me of Mr. Bean. I am really happy that I have him as my teacher.
I then hung around La Pietra for a while until the Inauguration party started. I headed over to Villa Sasseti and hung out with Nirali for a bit until other people showed up. They had a whole big party in honor of the inaguration. They invited Italian adults who I think had to pay to attend. They set up two different rooms with huge projectors and we watched the Inaguration on CNN. It was really exciting watching the Inaguration even though I'm in Italy. NYU had someone make a speech and another person recited a poem before the swearing in took place. Then they quieted us down and we all watched and cheered. It was really moving watching Obama get sworn in. There were several people around me who started crying. There was an African American man sitting in front of me who kept cheering really loudly and started to tear a few times. Even if someone did not feel so connected to the event taking place, watching the man in front of me would have been enough to cause the person to feel more connected. I am having trouble describing it but I was really moved watching the man in front of me. He was so proud of the event and he was just beaming. It was an exciting day for all.
Afterwards, Alana, Laura, Mara and I headed back to our apt. Mara headed straight back but Alana and Laura and I headed to Ruth's for dinner. Laura and Alana got cheese blintzes and I got a pizza with onions, olives and peppers with seasoning (last time they just gave me pizza crust, sauce and cheese - no seasoning). The food was delicious. We also each got a diff cake for dessert. All for 10 euro. THANKS SIMCHA!!! (or rather thanks to the shul because they rent the restaurant to Simcha on the condition that he gives students a discount). We didnt realize it until we left but we ended up spending 1 hr and 45 min at the restaurant. Which is crazy! But it's just because Simcha schmoozes for so long so he never came back to check on us. But whatever. Unfortunately I didnt get to hang out with Mollie Ray after dinner because dinner took so long but hopefully I will see her tom!! Oh, also when I got back to the apt the doors to the hidden room were open!!! There is an entire other bedroom in there. I think that bedroom was initially supposed to be mine and Alanas. But it's really exciting that we're now going to be able to acess the other bathroom. Anyways, it's late and I once again have a 9am class.
until next time!
-arrivederci

Chabad House UPDATE

I just wanted to let everyone know that I received more information on the Chabad house situation. I spoke with Simcha, the owner of the only kosher restaurant and he filled me in. There are two chabad houses. There is one that is a book store type place and another one further down the block where we eat. The explosive device was found at the chabad book store place which is NOT where we were. So even though it is still very scary, it is not as scary as we had initially imagined and there is no possibility that the explosive device was ever in the same room as us. Hope this helps put some of you guys at ease!!!

PHOTOS!

The Kosher Market

Ruth's - the kosher restaurant

A group of us having dinner at Ruth's

The carousel in Piazza D'Azeglio

The Chabad House
(locked because it's only open on shabbos)

The Synagogue

Piazza D'Azeglio

First day of classes

After once again having a fitful night of sleep due to the freezing cold and the extremely loud pipes in my bedroom wall, i woke up at around 7:30 in order to shower and pack my bag so i could leave at around 8 to get to La Pietra in time. Nicole and I ended up leaving a little late so we missed Abe and Danny. Although we did end up catching up to them on the last 10 or so minutes of the walk. We were all pleasantly surprised to find out that it took us only 30 minutes to walk to campus. Totally doable, even if we were out of breath and a little overheated after walking up the monster of a hill. But we got there with plenty of time to spare to walk the valley of death and catch our breath and then find our classrooms. I am still unsure of my schedule so I am going to hopefully audit a few classes this week and then decide on which classes to take. However, because classes only meet once a week most of them are 2 hr 45 min long, which is an extremely long time if you're auditing a class. But I'm trying to look at everything in a positive light and if I do decide to take the class it will be worth having gone to the class. Also, this way I got to spend almost 3 whole hours with Abe :). Danny is also in the Media & Society class with Abe (and possibly me if i decide to switch in) and he is also in my Italian class, so it'll be nice knowing someone in my classes. Class ended at 11:45 and I had until 1 to eat lunch and hang out so I went online, checked my email and checked the news. I then realized I was in the wrong building but luckily got to class on time. As it turns out not only is Danny in my class but so is Leora Petashnick and Leora Novick. Also the teacher was so much fun! I'm really excited to start learning Italian. Afterwards I just sort of hung out on campus for a while and stopped by the Office of Student Activities to ask if we can have more blankets because our apt is freezing. I eventually walked back with Leora P. and Alana. After dropping off our bags at the apt we left on an adventure for the supermarket. We spent around 1 1/2 hrs in the supermarket with our super duper kosher list looking through every item in the store trying to pick out the kosher ones. Thankfully we were able to find kosher cookies and stocked up on basic necessities like olive oil and pasta and left the store well stocked. We then came back to the apartment to find out that Nicola, one of the staff at NYU Florence, had stopped by the apt with brand new blankets from Ikea (in Florence), fixed our internet, fixed our stove and bought us a fire lighter thing to light the stove and fixed the washing machine. The day just kept getting better. Then Alana, Ilana, Leora and I made dinner. We all used the stove to make pasta (and it only took like 15 minutes this time!) except Alana made a cool pizza in the oven. Later Leora skyped with Michal and Rachel and Alana and I joined in and saw them in our old room :'(. It was so sad. But we're in Florence in an awesome apartment having an amazing time so all is good. Anyways, gotta go finish my homework.
until next time!
-Arrivederci

Chabad House update

As many of you have probably heard, there was an explosive device that was found at the entrance of the Chabad House in Florence. Thankfully the fuse had burned out and it did not cause any damage but I just wanted to keep you all updated and let you know that we're all okay and we appreciate all your concern!

Last day before classes

Alana and I woke up at 10 after getting less than 7 hours of sleep. But we had a lot to do so we wanted to get a head start on our day. When we left it was raining which was unfortunate because our first stop was the City Sightseeing Red Bus Tour. One of the orientation events that NYU organized for us was the Red Bus Tour and we definitely didn't want to miss a chance to see Florence. It took us a bit longer than I had expected to get to the Santa Maria Novella Train Station (the first stop of the bus) so we missed the 11am bus but got coffee and hung out until the 12pm bus and it worked out just fine. We spent an hour seeing different parts of Florence and even got off the bus at one point to take pictures at an amazing view point on the other side of the Arno. After the bus tour we headed to the Campus Telecom store to pick up Alana's phone which she finally got - yay! We then were able to find our way back to the apt without looking at a map for directions! It was very exciting. A little later we went out and bought some food at the kosher market and then bought a few things at a local supermarket. By then it was around 4:30pm and we decided to go to Ruth's (the only kosher restaurant) for a nice warm meal... except it is closed from 2:30-7:30 every day for the midday European break... So instead we made pasta. Shayna brought a pasta maker and let us use it which was amazing! However, it can't cook that much at one time so it took me around 1 1/2 hours to make 5 servings of noodles... But it was def worth it! Alana, Ilana, Leora, Laura and I all sat down to have a delicious homemade meal :) Afterward we all huddled around the couch and watched gossip girl... Anyways off to do some last minute things before classes...
until next time
-arrivederci

Saturday night

Saturday night Alana, Laura, Nirali, Zandi and Ellie all went out. We stopped at Ellie's apartment for a while. She lives in Via Ricasoli which is the same type of housing as Piazza D'Azeglio (off campus residence hall Type B) but the configuration of their apt was incredibly different. First of all their rooms were only one story tall so it was so much warmer. Also one of the rooms had a loft, and all the amenities were a lot more modern looking than ours. They also don't have a common room but instead have a medium sized kitchen, whereas our kitchen isnt so big and instead we have a massive common room. Afterwards we went out for a bit and ended up hanging out at a bar near the Duomo where of course everything was insanely overpriced. The first place that we went to, Shot Cafe, was the place that the woman we met at Chabad recommended. But it was weird because it appeared to be only Italians and there were like 5 women and 50 men. Of course it was Zandi and a 5 girls (Ellie's roommate, Caitlin, joined us) so all the guys were trying to pick us up. It was quite amusing and if any of us had self esteem problems, they left that bar feeling pretty good about themselves... The night was a lot of fun, aside from all the sleezy men. But it def was not the same as a night out with Matt... we miss you!!!
until next time!
-arrivederci

My first shabbos

Shabbat in Florence was not what I expected. Most of the apt went to the synagogue for Friday night services. We were all blown away at how gorgeous the synagogue is. The inside is magnificent and massive. There were around 20 women and just barely enough men to make a minyan. This emphasized how huge the shul was but even if it had been packed it still would have seemed gigantic. The services were very different from those at home. They have different tunes and the chazan says most of the prayers out loud. It was really nice davening at a shul with a different minhag and different tunes and I enjoyed the experience but to be honest I love Friday night davening back home and I think that it's going to be one of the things I miss most on shabbos. Afterwards we headed to the chabbad house. The chabad house was probably around the size of my bedroom and while i have a huge bedroom the chabad house wasn't so big. It was nice to have hot food again and even tough the food wasn't fantastic we all ate so much of it just because we haven't really eaten in a week. The chabad couple were very friendly and they have several children but only one son was there. He was quite the character. It must be hard for him because they live in Bologna but come to Florence for shabbos. After dinner we headed back to our apt and Blair and Esther joined us and hung out with us for a while. We played bananagrams and just hung out talking and reading for a while. Shabbos day most of us didnt make it to shul but went to the Chabad for lunch and then once again came back hung out and played bananagrams. Then a few of us went back to chabad for havdalah. They way I described shabbos may make it seem like it wasn't so much fun but honestly I had a really nice time. We all hung out in the apt and got to know each other a bit better and I'm really excited to be living with everyone...
until next time!
-arrivederci

Last day of orientation

Today was the last day of Orientation and it was sort of optional so not everyone stayed for the entire thing. A whole group of us walked to the La Pietra campus. It took around 35 minutes and we didnt get lost at all :). A group of us walked to campus on Thursday also but a lot more people joined us today because today was the first really nice day of our stay in Florence. Most days it either rained or drizzled but today we had clear blue skies and it wasn't too cold. So hopefully the weather will continue to get even nicer and soon it won't be freezing in our apartment anymore. Once at campus Laura S and I went to the Community Service meeting while everyone else to a safety panel Q&A. Laura and I were both really excited to learn that our desired community service has unlimited openings and we will most probably be able to become a tour guide for churches which we are both really excited for. After that Laura and I went to the safety panel Q&A and most everyone else walked back to town to get ready for shabbos and do some shopping etc. We hung around campus for a bit more, signed up for a red bus tour around Florence for Sunday and a trip to Lucca the following Sunday. So stay tuned to learn about those events!! Anyways, Shabbos is about to start and I still need to finish getting ready. - until next time, arrivederci!!

My first blog post....

This is my first blog ever but Alana and Abe both made blogs and it looked like so much fun so I decided to join them...

We arrived in Florence on Tuesday and have spent the past few days getting oriented with Florence and NYU in Florence. We spend around 7 hours at Villa La Pietra (the NYU Campus) and the rest of the time in our beautiful apartment or just walking around the center of Florence. My apartment, Piazza D'Azeglio, has been nicknamed "the castle" because it is huge and has really high ceilings. We are located across from a huge park that has a carousel and down the block from the synagogue, chabad house, the only kosher restaurant and the only kosher market. There are 14 girls living in our apartment (3 doubles, 1 single, 1 triple and 1 quad). Of the 14 girls 11 are Jewish. Unfortunately Blair and Esther aren't living with us but hopefully once we all get cell phones we'll be seeing a lot more of them. Abe and Zandi have been our most frequent guests and are basically our token guy friends for the trip so far. We do pretty much everything with them and hopefully they won't get sick of us any time soon. I think someone said that out of 300 students, 30 are guys. So we really enjoy Abe's and Zandi's company.But anyways, back to our castle. When you first walk in there is a huge common room with couches, a tv, tables and chairs. But if you look up there is a huge fresco on the ceiling which is really cool. Most of the rooms are really big with extremely high ceilings. While this is really nice and makes the rooms feel very spacious it also makes the room freezing because all the heat rises... But we've been learning to deal with the weird Italian heating laws. Anyways, a master blogger once told me that it is better to write short posts more frequently than to write really long posts infrequently" so stay tuned for more! until next time arrivederci :)