I went to a Roma soccer game last night. It was hilarious! I have been in Italy for 3 months now and i have never seen Italians so proud of anything having to do with their country or city in my entire life. We get to the stadium 30 minutes early and it is packed with people watching the players warm up. Everyone had huge flags and signs. There was a small section in the stadium for the opposing team and the entire section has police guarding the parameters. There were also police hiding around just incase any harmed the fans of the opposing team. 

They have some interesting traditions at these games. When the announcer calls out the players, he only says the first name and all of the fans scream out the last name. The fans also like to light things on fire in the stands and set off fireworks! luckily i was sitting in the more expensive seats so i didnt have to worry about the guy next to me just starting a fire. The team also has great songs. Last night was probably one of my best nights in Rome so far. It was a huge thing off my bucket list!

Today would have been my grandfathers 87th Birthday. I hate dealing with these kinds of feelings while i am abroad. Even though Rome does feel like home to me-it would be nice to be home with my parents today. There is just a lot of stuff that i have not yet moved on from. 

This past weekend i went to florence, and yes you guessed it, I BOUGHT A LEATHER JACKET! I am going to look so cool when i get back to the states. I absolutely loved florence. It is a very small city with a lot of pride. It was actually a very powerful city before Italy was unified in 1861 so it has a lot to be proud of. The original Michelangelo’s David is in the Florence Academia. I was able to see that along with all of the copies of it that are all over the city. The replicas that i saw were the wooden, marble and bronze. My parents have a small bust of david in our living room. Its kind of funny. 

I also went to the Pitti Palace and Gardens where the Medici family lived when they ruled Florence back in the day. I went to the Duomo. It is a beautiful church that is decorated on the outside with all different colored marble. The outside is so detailed and extravagant and then you go inside and it is so simple. We climbed the bell tower of the church. And let me tell you, after eating your first hearty breakfast of an omelette and bagel in 3 months, it was not an easy climb up that tower!

We also went to Pisa and Pisa is spelled d-i-s-a-p-p-o-i-n-t-m-e-n-t. The tower isnt even that high. And from most angles, it doesnt look like its leaning! taking pics was also a fiasco. My friend jenna and i did a photo shoot and we were climbing all of these posts to try and get the perfect picture. It was hilarious!

Now im back in Rome and sick. Serves me right, i have been a little too wild these days. So now i am trying to get better and rest up for a great weekend!

I HAVE HOT WATER!!!!

I don’t know if i mentioned, but i have not had hot water in my apartment since the day i arrived in this beautiful city. My shower regiment has been as follows:

1. wash my hair outside of the shower wit the removable shower head that does not have a stand. 

2. soap up my lufa

3. then jump in the shower for no more then 90 seconds because that is when the brain freeze sets in. 

But now i can shower all the live long day!

Sorry to all my readers again! I really am awful at blogging. I guess that is one career i should check off my list of possible things to do when i grow up. 

Well where should i begin?

I woke up last week realizing that my time left abroad is slim and its time to make a bucket list. I firmly believe in bucket lists—they help you accomplish your goals. I have not yet started my checking things off the list due to the fact that i am going to be traveling a lot in the near future but it is in the works. 

I went to Paris this weekend and let me tell you, Paris was made for me. I loved everything about the city. The food, clothes, culture, museums, architecture, and even landscape of the city. One thing that i loved about Paris that i have yet to feel from other cities in Europe is their sense of patriotism. French people love being french! I do not experience that in Italy. There are no italian flags, no sense of nationalism. I find it sad actually. I cant imagine living in a country i do not love. 

My trip to France was non stop. I went to the Bastille, Notre Dame, The Louvre, Eifel Tower, Arc de Triomphe, Champs Elysees, Hotel de Invidales, The Jewish Quarter, Galleries Lafayette and much  more. 

Once i get my camera cord i will post some of the pictures. 

Every morning my friends and I woke up early, got some pastries from a small bakery near our hostel and started our day and would not get back to out hotel until midnight. That is the way to do Paris. 

I was also lucky enough to do my favorite activity in Paris, people watching. Since i had already put a little dent in my credit card i sat out on the champs elysees and peopled watched for about an hour while friends of mine shopped. I noticed several things:

1. Everyone in Paris has a significant other. I know that this is obviously not completely true, but i have never seen so much love in one city. 

2. Heels Shmeels! Women dont mind walking the cobble stone streets in the highest and thinest heels 

3. People love to laugh in Paris

4. Men and Women equally love to shop

If it was up to me i would have people watched all night. 

The food that i had in Paris was incredible. I ate pastry after pastry. I had french onion soup and all the cheese i wanted! 

On Sunday my friends and I were walking to the catacombs and we saw the Paris marathon. I have never watched a marathon in person before and it was very inspiring. I decided that by the time i am 25 i want to run the half marathon. Hardly as ambitious, but i have to take things slow. 

That is all for now. Time to go to bed and catch up on some sleep 

Ciao!

the weeks before spring break are a blur due to midterms. We had out italian midterms one week and then the midterms for the rest of our classes the following week. I think my midterms went well. But i had 4 in 48 hours which is a lot and something that does not happen at gw. 

On Friday March 26th i left at 6:30am for the airport for my first SB stop: ISRAEL!! At the Rome airport, Elal and all departures to the US are in a separate terminal due to post 9/11 security measures. It was more intense then airports in the US and i was so surprised. You would think that the US would have such high security measures as rome. It took me a long time to get through security to say the least. 

I landed in Israel and i met up with my parents and my brother benji at the airport. My mom’s cousin’s husband met up with us at the airport and drove us to his house in Karmiel. It is an incredible feeling reuniting with family and i was lucky enough to feel it during my entire stay in Israel. We had a delicious shabbas dinner and all caught up on life with my mom’s cousin and her husband. On Saturday we travelled through the North. We drove around the Golan, walked all over and went to a few kibbutzim aroung the kineret. We met up with my cousin who lives on Kibbutz Massada and her boyfriend. We spent hours traveling around. That night we went to Jerusalem where my parents were staying. 

It was late and we were all hungry so we went for a super quick dinner at Burgers Bar. It was such a treat to have red meat! I went with my brother to his apartment and met all of his friends and heard year course stories. 

On sunday we went all over the old city. We met up with my cousin naomi at the kotel and she spent the day with us. We went to ben yehudah and i helped my mom do some great shopping. On Saturday night we went to once of my parents favorite restaurants in jerusalem, the red heifer. 

On monday Benji and I went to Tel-Aviv. I was lucky enough to meet up with my friends Sam and Benji for lunch. We went to Nachalat Binyamin and Shuk Hacarmel. We walked all over Tel-Aviv, it was just nice to have some one-on-one time with benji. 

For Seder, we went to my family in Raanana. It was a beautiful seder. A little longer then i am used too but worth it because i was with so much family. In a perfect world we would all be able to see each other more often, but since we cant, we make it very special when we can. What was really special is that we had a mix of ashkenazi and yemenite traditions. There i a yemenite tradition when the youngest child dresses up as an israelite coming out of egypt and we ask them questions. We did not see it coming and it was so funny. i reconnected with my cousins and heard all about their resent life events. 

My Next SB stop: GREECE!

I left for Tel-Aviv at 3:00am for a 7:00am flight to Athens. I met my friends in the Athens airport and we had a 11:00 flight to Mykonos. I was nervous that i wasnt going to go make that flight-so i booked it through the airport. I made it in time and landed on the beautiful island of mykonos. We stayed at a villa that was so close to the water in the center of town. The island looked like the kind of Greece that you see in movies. All of the buildings were white with colored shutters and doors. It was absolutely breath-taking. We walked all over the island, there was great shopping and delicious restaurants. Keeping kosher for pesach was not that easy, i think that i ate about 10 greek salads. But it was better then being in Rome and surrounded by pasta and pizza all over the place. 

On Thursday we went to Paradise Beach. It is one of the most famous beaches in Mykonos. It was incredible. The weather was perfect. It was the second day of the season and there wasnt much opened or many people there, but it was better that way. We owned the beach! We got cocktails, climbed cliffs and slept on the beach…what could be better? We had dinner on the water at sunset and went out to some of the bars in Mykonos. They were all so excited to see americans. Mykonos was so interesting. There are no addresses, everyone just knows where everything is. There did not seem to be too many tourists on the island but the restaurants were always so busy. I think the greeks eat out a lot. I bought a few pieces of jewelry and the man that i bought them from was telling me how Greece is a very poor very dysfunctional country, but the Greeks are very rich. I thought that the people on the island would be unhappy because their country is in such shambles but that was not the case.

On friday we took a ferry to santorini. When we arrived we took the bus up these mountains to our villa. The man that owned the villas that we stayed at was very friendly and accommodating and told us all of these different ways to see all of the island in the short time that we were there. When we were walking home from dinner we saw a precessional of people coming from church. There were hundreds of people holding giant crosses and candles. I know very little about greek orthodox traditions but i had never seen anything like it. We followed the precessional and it took us to the center of town. We looked out at a near by mountain and saw thousands of people in the distance with candles. It was a sea of moving candles. We couldnt even see the people…all we saw was thousands of little beams of light. I took many pictures, but they could not capture the moment as i saw it. There were also fire works, all in celebration for good friday. When we got back form our villa, all that was on TV was the story of jesus. So me and my friends sat down with our kosher for pesach cake and watched the stories of jesus. It was on every single channel! 

The next day we got up early and rented ATVs. I drove one! It was such liberating feeling driving all over the island along the coast. We drove to the red an black beaches and had lunch on the black beach. We then drove up the island to the city of Oia where the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants was filmed! The city was incredible. Right on the water, built on all of these cliffs. It was actually kind of crowded becuase everyone was celebrating easter. One of the things that Oia is famous for is the sunset. Everyone sat on top of buildings and crowded around the tip of the island and watched the sunset. 

We drove back to Fira where we were staying and were driven to the airport. Our flight arrived in Athens at midnight and we spent our last night in greece camped out in the airport in athens. Lucky for me i can sleep anywhere. We played games, hung out, slept and talked. a lot. 

It was nice to come back to Rome and come back home. Today is a national holiday and i dont have classes so i am just catching up on sleep and relaxing. 

Im leaving for Paris on Thursday. What a whirlwind these next weeks are going to be! I promise, i will be better at posts from here on in! 

Ciao!

Leaving for Israel and Greece in 5 hours! longest post in the blogosphere history to come when i return!

Chag Sameach!

This week went by so fast. Im sorry for the lack of posts. I had a full week of classes. My classes are starting to get hard which is unfortunate. The week was pretty much the usual.

On Friday i went on a day trip to Naples with my school. It was a 3 hour bus ride. We visited a think-tank in the historical center of Naples. We got to meet the President of the Region of Campania, which is the Region that Naples is in. Its essentially the same thing as meeting the governor of a state. He gave us this whole lecture in Italian about all of the improvements that have been made in naples….aka the subway system. Thats pretty much the only improvement that they have had and they talk about it all day long. The president thought that we spoke Italian, so for about 25 minutes he just lectured in Italian.

After the think-tank we went to a place for lunch where they gave us great traditional Naples pizza. It was pretty good. Then we went to an interactive science museum. That was the best part 100%. It was so much fun. I like things that are interactive.

This weekend in Rome is Women’s Appreciation Weekend, so all of the museums and tourist places are free for women to go too. I took advantage of that today and went to the Castle Saint Angelo. It is one of the only castles in Rome and it has one of the most impressive views of the city that i have seen yet.

Now i really need to start my homework.

Ciao

On Thursday i had the pleasure going to the Italian Senate. One thing that i have noticed about Italy is that their government buildings do not standout the way that ours do in the US, specifically DC. Their architecture does not really stand out and there is hardly any security outside of them. I walked by the Prime Minister’s residence about 100 times before i knew what it was and there are like too police cars outside of it. I could touch it, lick it if i was so inclined…and they wouldn’t care! When i went to the senate i got a chance to sit in the main chambers. I sat in Senator Palavino”s seat. I tried to steal his stationary….but my teacher was watching me and we made eye contact. It was awkward. So i didnt get chance to take an souvenirs

Last night my friends and I went to dinner in the Jewish Ghetto. It was an incredible meal. I has homemade pasta in a meat sauce with 2 mini pieces of brisket. It was delish! it was my first time having real meat (besides chicken) in Italy and it felt great! For an app we got a platter or humus, babaganoush and another kind of middle eastern dip that i had never had before. It was all sooo good!

Today i went on a long walk up to monteverde. My town, Trestevere sits at the bottom of a huge mountain slash hill. Monteverde is at the top of that mountain slash hill. At the top there are the most incredible views of city. Rome looked like a play land. I felt like i could pick up all of the buildings and move them around. I didnt exactly know my way home, but i was able to figure it out. I was actually really proud of myself.

For the rest of the say i am just going to do all of the homework that i have yet to do this weekend…

ciao for now!!!

The last few days have been non stop for me. Yesterday i went to the Holocaust exhibit with my Jews my Jews in Rome class. To be perfectly the honest the exhibit was nothing to rave about. Although i do admire the city of Rome for realizing the importance of Holocaust awareness, everything from the exhibit was from museums that i had already been too. Most of the plaques said “on loan from Washington DC….”.

Last night was probably one of the best nights i have had in Rome yet. A few friends and I went to go see Dave Matthews Band!!! It was an amazing show. We had great seats and although he didnt play the one song that i really needed to hear, i was still in utter amazement for the entire performance.

I finally have all of my trips booked for the semester. I am so glad that i never have to go on another flights website for a very long time. In the next 3 months i am going to Amalfi coast and pompeii, Israel, Greece, Paris, Florence, Sevilla and Morocco. Im so excited and so grateful for all of the parts of the world that i am about to see. This to me was a very important part of my time abroad. Although i do want to spend a lot of time becoming a roman, i have wanted to travel my whole life. I always tell my parents that i want to see everything and i am so grateful they are giving me the opportunity to do so.

So now that i have my travel goal almost checked off my list, i need to start thinking about other things that i want to accomplish while i am here.

About to go to my friend Shoshi’s for dinner, Ciao!