and I'm back!!!

Landed in Florence 1/2 hr late at 11:20 am. Split a cab with Jenn back to Piazza della Repubblica, dropped off my things and then took a bus with Alana and Leora in time to make my 1 pm class (ha to all those people that said I would never be able to make my clas). After class I hung out with Alana for a while, caught up and studied/ taught ourselves the material for our make up Italian quiz that evening. The quiz wasn't so bad and I think I did well, especially for having needed to teach myself 2 weeks of material (although, I have to say Alana was an amazing study partner). I then walked back to the apt with a bunch of people, made dinner, showered and unpacked before crashing...
it's so weird to be back after such an amazing break...
until next time!
-arrivederci

Duomo Tours

Had class as usual and then gave a tour of the duomo. My tours today were exceptionally fun because the people I gave tours to really seemed to enjoy them and were extremely friendly making the whole waiting in a freezing cathedral to give tours worth it. One German mother and daughter loved my tour so much that the daughter wanted to come to Florence after college and volunteer as a tour guide for a little bit :-P.
until next time!
-arrivederci

Last day in Jerusalem

I woke up early this morning (7:40) because I had to be out of the upstairs apartment by 8. I then headed downstairs and hung out there for a while before heading out to meet Avital and head to Hebrew U together. But... once I got to town Abby wasn't answering her phone. And neither was Becky so I had no idea where anyone was or where I should meet them. So I just hung out in the Ben Yehuda area and did some shopping before heading back to the Comet's to drop everything off. I then met up with Adina Goldberger which was really nice. She never leaves Migdal Oz but her grandmother has been in for a while so they've been doing things together. It was nice seeing Adina and catching up with her. People from before eventually called me back, some overslept like crazy and others didnt realize they had so much class today. So it's sad I won't be able to see some of them but atleast I was able to see them before. Finally, Becky was able to make it into Jerusalem so I went and met her at the place she was staying - The Fuchsberg Jerusalem Center. It was a gorgeous building. We then went to a cute pasta place on Ben Yehuda for dinner. It was nice to catch up with her after not seeing her for so long. We then stopped off at the hostel again before heading to the Comet's. We took a few pictures to show to all the relatives and I then headed to the bus to go to Efrat.
I wasn't going to the make it to the bus at the tachana so I headed to malcha to catch the bus from there. But I got there like 10 minutes before hte bus was supposed to leave from the tachana hamerkazi so i decided to just take the bus to Gilo and tremp. There was a lot of traffic going into the gush but once we got past the check point we got there really quickly. Once I got there Hadar thought she had to leave to go to her brother's because her new born nephew hadn't slept in 24 hours and her brother and sister-in-law needed help. I was going to go to Migdal Oz and hang out with people there but I was really sad that I wouldn't get to hang out with Hadar. But in the end her mom went so we were able to hang out :) yaya!! Hadar was so cute and she kept feeding me and even made me an ice cream surprise.
We did end up going to Migdal Oz for a bit and visited Liyana. I really love Hadar's house and once again had a nice time hanging out with her and her family.
until next time!
-arrivederci

Shushan Purim

Woke up early so I could get to Jerusalem and meet up with Adi in the tachana hamerkazi before he had to head back to his base. When I got to the bus stop Becky was still there (she had left at 8 when I was waking up). She said all the buses had passed her because they were full so they didnt stop. So we walked to a bus stop 10 minutes away that had otehr buses to Jerusalem. But on the walk we saw the bus that I was planning on making pass and it wasn't so full so we could have gotten on. We then caught a bus 20 minutes later. Adi called me around 25 minutes before I got to the tachana hamerkazi and told me he was already there but he couldn't wait for me because he had to continue on to his base. So it was sad that i couldn't see Adi one last time before I left. I then headed to the Comet's to drop off my napsack. I hung out wit Michele for a bit before heading to Rimone's seudah. It was so cute seeing Rimone host a seudah. I don't think i've seen her since she got married. She and Josh were really cute together. One of their guests had left and came back an hour later completely wasted. It was sad to see him go from being so happy to extremely sick. We then looked at Rimone and Josh's wedding pictures (apparently it was the first time they looked through all of them at once). I then walked around the shuk for a bit before heading to the kotel to daven mincha. On the way I walked down Ben Yehuda and saw a really cute girl dressed as a butterfly dance to one of the street performers playing music. A few tourists started to take pictures of her. It was crazy how many costumes I saw and how many drunk people there were. I even saw like 12 year olds who could barely walk straight because they were so drunk. The kotel wasn't as crowded as I thought it would be and I was able to even find a seat to sit down and write a note to stick in the kotel. I also wrote a few notes for people who had asked me to write notes for them. I then was really tired and decided to take a bus back to Rimone's. It prob took 3 times as long because of all the traffic and the route it took but I was able to sit down so that was fine. I hung out at Rimone's for a bit and eventually left with Abby/ Avital. We went to Masaryk and had a really nice dinner. We also got an amazing chocolate volcano cake for desert.
We weren't so hungy after the meal but we waited like 15 minutes after we finished eating to get the cake because it was too good to pass up on. I also ran next door before we got desert to get a gift for the Comet's. Reva had told me about a really nice tea that i could give to the Comet's for dessert but I wasn't able to find it anywhere. So I finally gave up and was going to get a bottle of wine but then found the tea in the wine shop so that was a nice surprise. After dinner I went back to Avital's place and we hung out there for a while. Her place was really nice. The Comet's then called me to ask me to come back because Yoni had a phone interview and I didn't have a key. So I raced back to the Comet's. I was proud of myself that i was able to find my way from Avital's to the Comet's. I got lost for one block but only for like half a block and then turned back and found my way. I slept in the office upstairs because originally Becky was supposed to join me and we were supposed to have dinner and then both sleep at the Comet's but she called me early today to let me know that she wasn't going to make it in time. So I had the office upstairs and a king size bed all to myself :).
until next time!
-arrivederci

Purim

I woke up at around 8 for Megillah reading and Reva and I made it to shul like 5 minutes before minyan even started. It was nice to once again go to minyan in the morning... After megillah reading we went to Aroma for breakfast. Everyone then headed to their seudah's and I passed out while Reva did last minute prep for the seudah and distributed her mishloach manot.

Her mishloach manot was in theme with her costume (thanks to my brilliant idea :-P) and she found the milk pitchers that they use in Israel and inside she had a bunch of cow related items - a milky, the chocolate bars with cows on it and a few other items that I can't remember. I then woke up and headed over to Sara's and Danielle's for the seudah. It was a really nice seudah and the food was delicious. It was buffet style and we all just hung out for a few hours and had a really nice time.
People kept coming and going and as the day got later people became more and more drunk. One guy left completely sober and came back ridiculously drunk. Someone was giving a dvar torah and he started cracking up and falling on the floor. It was quite amusing. After a while most people left except for me, Reva, Avigayil, Sara, Matan, Ariel, and Chaim. Matan and Ariel were a tad drunk and it was really funny watching them. Ariel and Chaim were playing and singing guitar. After a while we had a sort of karaoke thing going and the girls would sing along to lyrics that we googled and Ariel would play while Matan would drunkenly try and play the guitar (he doesn't know how to). Then Ariel fell asleep and we took a few pictures with him. Then we all headed back to Reva's apartment and watched Definitely, Maybe. It was really cute there were around 10 girls crowded around my tiny laptop screen watching the movie. Reva also made us amazing kettlecorn popcorn that she popped by herself. She rocks!!!
until next time!
-arrivederci

Ta'anit Esther

Woke up at around 11:30 after going to bed at 2 and then sort of just hung out in the apartment for a bit. I then finished making my costume and went shopping with Reva for stuff for the breakfast and other random stuff. We then came back to the apartment and baked hamentashen with Atara for a bit before heading to Danielle Grushko's to start decorating the apartment for the seudah tomorrow.
When we got back we quickly made a salad before Reva ran out to practice for megillah reading. All day I was debating whether or not to go to Migdal Oz or stay here for megillah reading and finally at like 4 I decided I wanted to go to Migdal Oz but the one ride i could have had was full and I wouldn't have made it in time otherwise. Really annoying but whatever, nothing I could do about it... I then finished up my costume and we waited for Sarena before heading to the place where the women's megillah reading was going to take place. It was really cute. Reva read two prakim and then there was a nice break fast. We then headed back to Reva's apartment for a little bit.
I changed out of my bananagrams costume because the bottle started to get really annoying. We then headed to the amphitheatre. Everyone was super excited about this amphitheatre. It was on the Bar Ilan campus like a 15 minute walk from the gate. I still can't get over how big the campus is. Anyways, we just hung out there for a bit and drank girls drinks. We didn't have a bottle opener so Reva and Shoshana opened up the bottles by banging them against the side of the steps. It was really funny. Also, because Reva rarely drinks she had no idea what chasers were so she left the juice in the apartment so we just had spritzers and vodka. But even so noone really got drunk and we just sat around singing and talking. Adi also came for like 2 hours. It was really nice to see him again after so long. After I walked him back to his car I went back to Reva's apartment and Yaakov was there with Sarena but when I got to the apartment I had to run to the bathroom and missed his name so I just thought he was another random guy from the building. But then when i got out and sat down with them I was like Sarena I thought Yaakov was here, and they all looked at me strangely and said this is Yaakov... then we all started laughing at me and played bananagrams until heading to bed.
until next time!
-arrivederci

Migdal Oz

Woke up a few times but only got out of bed at 11:30... which was amazing. Hadar had left for work at 9am so I hung out downstairs with her sister for a little bit before heading to the makolet where I bought minutes for my Israel phone. It was so weird being back in Efrat and seeing all the places that I used to visit everyday. I then walked to Migdal Oz and took a tremp up the hill. It was so sad on my walk I passed one of the gates and one of the chayalim asked me if there was a makolet nearby and I told him there was one in Efrat and he got excited and asked how far away so i said like a 10 minute walk. He then looked really really sad so I told him he should ask any girls he sees walking to Efrat if they could buy him something. Then once I got to Migdal Oz I called my friends and they gave me the code to get into the campus. My friends that were still learning there weren't in that day because they were working but there were still a few people that I recognized. I davened in Miri's makom and then headed down for lunch. I saw a bunch of people I knew at lunch including Talya Harczstark and Nichama Twersky. It was so weird being back in Migdal Oz and seeing all the little changes since I had been there. I then started walking to Efrat and caught a tremp to Kenyon Malka. I wasn't meeting Miri for a while so I walked around the mall for a bit but didn't really find anything I liked. I then waited for a bus to take me to merkaz hair. While I was waiting for a bus, a guy got out of his car and started yelling at the bus driver. Apparently the bus driver had nearly run him over and the other driver was going crazy. He even started to get really violent and break things in his arms reach. But the bus driver stayed calm and eventually the other driver got back in his car and drove off. There was no real damage done everything was able to snap back into place but it was still really scary. I decided not to get on that bus and just waited for a diff one. I made it to Cup of Joe and waited a few minutes for Miri to show up. It was nice catching up with her and I was proud of myself that I was able to speak with her in hebrew. After Miri left I tried to get in touch with Kayla Zecher but she wasn't answering her phone so I decided to just head to the shuk and pick up mishloach manot. I ran into Sarah Zweig and we walked around the shuk together. I then walked to the tachana ha'merkazi and bought myself burgers bar for pre fast dinner. Its so weird how much the tachana ha'merkazi has changed since my year in Israel. The one change that I can't stand is how the bathrooms are no longer free. There used to be a bathroom in the foodcourt and one on the sublevel that were free but now you have to pay for all of them. It's only 1 shekel but it still just bothers me because I can't go a billion times before I have to take a long bus ride. I ran into someone I knew on the busride home and there were no seats together by the time we got on the bus but a guy was really nice and gave up his seat and sat next to a charedi guy so we could sit next to each other. I then got back to Reva's apartment and all of her roommates including Shoshana Cohen were there so we hung out for a while before heading to bed. Also, Atara Berkowitz had made really good vegetable soup that we all had.
until next time!
-arrivederci