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

Florentine Villas

One of my less exciting days... Woke up early and pretty much spent the entire day working on my villas paper :'(. I really love this assignment but just hate that I have midterms to worry about and can't focus all my time on this project.
until next time!
-arrivederci

Buddhist Institution

I had an extremely interesting day. I was exhausted this morning and decided to take the bus to school (something I rarely do). So I got on the bus and tried to reach the machine to pay for the ride but it was just out of reach and the bus was really crowded. So another NYU student - a girl I sort of recognize but have no idea what her name - offered to swipe it for me. I have a 10 pass card so she kept swiping it thinking that it didn't go through but she ended up swiping me 3 times. So it was so frustrating because even though it's only 2 euro wasted it's still just annoying because it's 2 bus rides to school that i could have taken instead of walking... So I was sort of grumpy on the bus but before we got off she came up to me and apologized profusely and insisted on reimbursing me. I said that it was fine and it wasn't really her fault she just didn't know how to work the 10 pass cards. We then started talking for a bit and I felt a lot better. Knowing that she cared and felt bad made me less upset because it makes me feel better knowing that people actually care about other people. I then got off the bus and headed to my Art Market class. I have it in a huge room that never has good lighting so I always get really sleepy in that class. It also doesn't help that it's a 9am Thursday class. After class I ran into Abe. I never see Abe anymore so it was nice talking to him for like 15 minutes. I then studied for my Italian quiz for a bit. I think it went well. But we'll see on Monday... After class I looked up online how to visit my Villa. It's really cool that maps.google.com will give you public transportation directions. I looked up which buses to take and surprisingly made it to my villa without getting lost at all. I then spent the next hour walking around the land and taking tons of pictures. I tried to buzz into my villa but unfortunately noone answered the door. I was majorly disappointed but didn't really think there was anything else I could do. After I walked around the majority of my land I was about to head back but decided to return to one section that I hadn't visited. As it turns out this is the enterance to my villa - Villa Bellagio. Because i've been looking at maps from the late 19th century I went to the wrong door. They recently changed the entrance to the villa to the completely opposite side. I am so happy that I didn't head straight home. I walked up to the guards and asked them if I could just walk in. They then asked me if I was Buddhist and I said no but that I wanted to visit for a University class. The guard then shrugged and let me in. I then spent the next 30 minutes walking around by myself and taking notes on what I saw. I then ran into a Japanese group and we hung out for like an hour and a half. The tour guide spoke English and Italian and the Japanese spoke a little English so we were all able to commnicate. They're 22 years old and visiting as a graduation present. They were also Buddhist - hence why they were visiting. I then hung out with people who worked at the Buddhist center and tried having conversations with them in Italian because most of them didn't speak any English. They asked to take a picture with me. They counted down from ten and at the last second shot their hands up and made the peace sign. I started cracking up and knew I had to take a picture for Zandi who is obsessed with when they do that.
The tour guide then showed me a book about Villa Bellagio. I had looked in the library for this book but of course our tiny Villa La Pietra library doesn't have it. I spent the next 30 minutes reading the book and taking notes on the history of the land. I then said goodbye to the Japanese group and waiting for the tour guide to return to photocopy pictures in the book. He said he would only be 5 minutes (he was just putting the Japanese group in a cab) but 30 minutes later he was no where to be found. Another tour guide arrived and she tried to call the first tour guide but eventually he returned. He brought me up into the tour (the initial building of the villa) and showed me around parts of the villa that I wouldn't have been able to visit without him. Then as we were going upstairs to photo copy he remembered that the machine was broken. It was really frustrating but I appreciated all his effort in showing me around. I then rushed to catch a bus and made it to the bus stop just as the bus was arriving. It was a different number bus than the one I took to the villa so I had to ask the driver which bus I needed to transfer to in order to get to "il Duomo". I managed to get on all the right buses and made it back to my apartment in time for dinner with Alana. Alana and I had another date tonight and watched Lost together. I made steamed vegetables - cauliflower and broccoli, salad, quinoa (of course:-P) and a fish steak.
I really enjoyed having a real meal again and had a lot of fun hanging out with Alana. I really miss having her as my roommate.

old roomie dinner!

our yummy dinner

Laura and Nicole then stopped by for a bit. Nicole has been promising to visit me for the past 3 weeks and finally got around to it.
until next time!
-arrivederci

Planning a villa war...

the floor of my room while working on the villa project

Today started out as usual. Intro to marketing was boring as usual and my group presented and of course the entire class was cracking up at Ryan because he always gives really funny presentations. However, after the break Ryan found out that his friends sister had committed suicide. To make the situation even more horrifying - his friend found out that her sister had passed away through facebook. Her parents were flying to her college to tell her in person but word spread before they got a chance to tell her. It was an awful situation and I can't imagine how she must feel.
After class the day got a bit more cheery and I went upstairs to the library to do research on one of my two research midterm papers. I then went to Italian class and we reviewed for our super quiz tomorrow. I then met up with Ellie and scanned our maps but the printer wasn't working and the maps weren't such good quality. So instead I went back to the library and did more research. I then walked home and went to the little office space to do some work. I also sent in my application for the Science and Technology explorations floor. Alana and I then walked to Ruth's for a dinner date. It's weird not living with Alana any more and it was nice to have a chance to catch up with her. Ruth's of course took around 2 hours but we had a very enjoyable meal. However, we started talking about housing now and for next year and I got really sad because I hate having new roommates because each time it's so stressful having to get accustomed to different people's mannerisms and styles of living. Since I applied to be an RA and won't find out for another month I couldn't commit to anyone to be their roommate so I was going to have to go random. I was getting exhausted trying to imagine having 3 new roommates and dealing with the process all over again. It was extremely overwhelming. But I had to study for my Italian quiz so Leora and I studied for a bit. Afterward, I started talking to Maya and since the people she was planning on living with wanted Palladium she said she'd apply to Coral explorations with me if we found a third person. So she asked Valerie if she would want to apply with us and we all applied for the Museum for the Minds floor together. Even though there is no guarantee that we'll all get housing together just knowing there is a chance I'll live with people I know is extremely reassuring. :)
until next time!
-arrivederci

Villa Medici at Castello

Was so excited when I woke up because it's Adar!!! Had a rushed but meaningful Rosh Chodesh davening before heading to catch the bus to our villa trip. We visited another Medici villa (Villa Medici at Castello). This villa was the origin of the first dictionary in the world. It is home to the academia and they still have copies of the different editions of the dictionary. The woman who works that the villa took out the original 2nd edition of the dictionary and we were able to touch it and turn the pages. Someone on our tour told us that the reason it wasn't disintegrating (it was printed in 1623) was because they used to use better quality paper back then. Now our paper contains acid (which is cheaper) and as a result paper disintegrates faster. We then walked around the gardens and saw the huge lemon house. I still get so excited each time we see a villa and visit the lemon house. I really hope that I'm able to see when they bring the lemon trees out of the lemon house at La Pietra. I feel like it is such an exciting time schleping all those trees out of the lemon house.
I then took the bus back to La Pietra and had lunch with Zandi, Ellie and Emily. I then had Italian and then walked back to my apt. I spent a while uploading pictures from the villa visits and working on my villas paper. Super excited for it but its a little overwhelming figuring out what to do. I then walked with Shayna and Jenn for the super awesome chabad meal. Valerie (we met her a few shabboses ago at Chabad lunch) was also there so it was nice seeing her. I then went to Standa with Alana and on the way I saw a guy with a top hat and a stick. It was amazing. I then tried chasing him down the block to take a picture of him but it was too dark and he was walking really really fast so I didn't get a good picture of him :(. But standa was of course super fun!! It's always nice getting food.
until next time!
-arrivederci

Ricasoli

I went to sleep at like 11:30 the night before and woke up at 8:30 this morning and it was great! I had such a good nights sleep. I then had a really nice davening because I wasn't rushed to get to class and it was just such a nice way to start my day. I did some work before heading to Mercato Centrale to buy fruits and vegetables. I love going to Mercato Centrale because now I'm finally eating vegetables again. :) I then went to campus for Italian. I walked back with Leora and on the walk she told me that Shiffy Staiman got engaged. It was so weird because on my walk to school I was actually thinking about Shiffy and how I hadn't spoken to her in a while. Crazy! I'm so excited for her and Noam. I got back to my apartment and did some work. I then steamed some vegetables and Alana stopped by and we ate my veges and talked. I miss living with Alana so it was nice catching up with her for a little bit. I then rushed over to Ricasoli to have dinner with Ellie and start our Florentine Villa project. I brought my kosher pot and dishes so that we can make pasta for the two of us. It wasn't as awkward as I thought it would be and it was really nice hanging out at Ricasoli. I miss having a common room where everyone hangs out (like we did in Piazza D'Azeglio) so it was nice spending time at Ricasoli and seeing so many people. Ellie and I spent a while looking at the maps and trying to find our portion of the land. Megan never told us which villas were on our piece of land so we had to search through the entire book before finding our villa. But I eventually got in contact with her and confirmed our villa and then the process went a lot faster. We have to write a paper about the transformation of our land over time. It's a really interesting assignment but it's just very time consuming so that's a little frustrating. I spent like 4 hours at Ricasoli and then finally at 11 I headed home.
until next time!
-arrivederci

Carnivale!

Woke up late and did some work before heading to see the Carnivale parade with Ellie and Emily. At first we walked around and sat by the Arno thinking that we would see the parade. After waiting for a bit I decided to ask a guard when and where the parade was and it turns out that we were right after where the parade turns. So we walked further up the Arno and found the beginning point of the parade. It was really exciting seeing all the different costumes from the different countries. We also got showered with the confetti multiple times. We hung out and watched the entire parade. In the middle Zandi met up with us and we then walked around for a bit.
Emily left to go buy gifts for friends back home and Zandi and Ellie and I went to H&M to buy some clothing (yes I know we're in a foreign country and we're going to a store that's in America - but whatever). We hung out there for a bit then headed to the Acadamia to see the David. It was really cool. We kept moving around to different seats to get different views of the David. We then walked through the other rooms but Zandi and I agreed that we didn't really find anything meaninful or moving in the art because religiously it didnt have any significance to us and since there were so many busts and artwork of Jesus on the cross they lost any sense of uniqueness. I then went to Ricasoli and hung out for a bit. I finally saw Nirali and we bonded for a while. Afterwards I came back to my apt and made dinner. I then spoke to Aliyah Guttmann and Ashira Gailor for like an hour on skype. But Aliyah's microphone was broken so I basically had a 1 hour monologue. It was exciting. And i gave them a tour of the building and even showed them how our tiny elevator worked. I then did some work and headed to bed.
until next time!
-arrivederci