Shabbat

Went to shul with Alana, Ilana, Leora, Laura, Mara, Jenn and Shayna and got there just in time for Adon Olam. We then headed next door to the building where basically all the Jews live to have a meal at shabbat meal prepared for us by Simcha. A private donation was made to the shul and they used the money to host the Jewish students in Florence and local Jewish students. Unfortunately the Florence Jews didn't all make it and we only had around 6 people show up. But we had around 20 visiting students so we still had a really nice time. The group included Ellie Rubin, Caitlin, Abe, Zandi, the people I walked to shul with, Alix Krinick, Blair, Esther. Allison Rabinowitz and two of her friends also showed up and Valerie also joined us. The food was good but the space was really nice. Unlike Chabad we had a ton of room and there was heat so we could eat without having to wear our coats which was definitely nice. We also had real wine and it was a really fun experience. We spoke to a few of the Italians for a little bit (but tey mainly just stuck to themselves). In Italy, highschool is different and they have to choose different schools that are focused around different subjects. They have gymnasium, architecture, art, linguistics... The boy I spoke to was in a linguistics school. He spoke German, French, Spanish, Italian, English and a little bit of hebrew. I am so jealous! I really wish that I knew 3 languages fluently... However, after talking to him a bit longer he told us that he failed twice and that's why he's 18 and in high school. We're still a bit confused as to what this means because we thought they only took exams in their final year but whatever. After dinner we walked back and Valerie showed me where Uno (the mac store) was so hopefully I'll go there soon to get my computer fixed... we'll see.
Shabbos morning I woke up at 8:40 for some reason and couldn't fall back asleep. So I just lay in bed until the cleaning people came at 9:15. I asked them to come back in 5 minutes but they came back 2 hours later. But it was nice because I had time to get dressed and daven. I don't really like going to shul anymore because I don't like their style of davening and would rather have a meaningful davening in my room using my Ashkenazi siddur. I then read one of my textbooks for a bit before heading over to Chabad. Lunch was really nice and we met another girl from Syracuse who is studying in Florence. The majority of the Syracuse students live in homestays. As a result her Italian was so much better than ours. It also turns out that I met her on the train on the way to Paris. She remembered me telling Zandi about the housing situation. What a small world. There were also visiting chabad guys studying in Venice to become Chabad Rabbis. Alana was going to ask one of them to marry her - she would love the life of a chabad wife (constantly meeting new people every week), but at the last second chickened out. After lunch Valerie took me, Mara, Laura and Alana for a little walk of the area and showed us where co-op was. It's a huge supermarket which we will hopefully go to from now on. It's a little bit out of the way but they have everything and it's so much cheaper than Standa or Mercato Centrale. We then walked to the Duomo with Valerie. We weren't sure if she wanted us to invite her back to our place or not but we all wanted to take a nap anyways so we didn't. I passed out and woke up a little before shabbos was over. I was going to go upstairs for seudat shlishit but they had already closed the sliding doors so i was trapped. But a few minutes later I heard someone in the hallway and someone was opening the doors for us again. So I went upstairs and Mara, Ilana, Leora and I played bananagrams and had seudat shlishit. I then davened maariv and said havdalah for everyone.
After shabbos I did some work before heading to Ricasoli with Laura and Mara. Ricasoli has such a cute apartment and they always do really cute things together. Tonight they had a nice dinner for everyone and invited a bunch of people over. It was a lot of fun. The only annoying thing was that none of the food or wine was kosher so I couldn't have anything. It's so frustrating not being able to do so many things with other people. Because of shabbos I can only travel with people who are shomer shabbos and same thing with kosher. It's so hard to hang out with people because I cannot meet them for dinner at a restaurant or even eat by them. I either have to make them food or bring my own dishes. But at the same time I do love keeping kosher and having shabbos. It can just be frustrating at times. It's especially hard in Florence where keeping kosher is much harder than it is in NY.
Until next time!
-arrivederci