Settling

Shalom Shalom!

I have a few important updates to share. I moved into a new apartment this week!! I finally found an awesome place in Ramat Aviv, two blocks away from the university. I was about to give up and move in to the housing my program offered me (into a room shared with 2 other Americans and bugs on Ben Yehuda street, a 30 minute drive from the university), but I decided to give it one last try and see what I could find on the Israeli equivalent of craig's list. My persistence paid off, said my mom, and I really think it did because I love it here. Although each of us has our own room, I'm living with two Israelis, Shira and Tzahi. There is a big salon, as they call it in Israel, or living room with big couches, tv, and a pool table! My favorite part is the big window. The kitchen is also really big compared to all the other apartments I've looked at. Basically, I'm very happy with the situation. Last night I invited some friends (some old, some new) over for Shabbat dinner. I realized 20 minutes before friends were coming over that the chicken was frozen, so naturally I called my mom in a panic. Fritz came to the rescue! She taught me how to magically defrost the chicken and cook it in 20 minutes. What a pro. Shira helped me make the rice with peas and onions in it, and I made a salad too. We said all the brachot and it was a very lovely dinner.

It's been hard to meet people on the program as there's no communal space for the students to hang out and meet each other, but I'm starting to make a few really good friends. I even found an awesome Peruvian girl Natalie to whom I can keep speaking Spanish. Yesterday I went with a few new girlfriends into Tel Aviv before shabbat and we had a nice walk through the shuk (it got pretty crazy in there right before shabbat) and through a great crafts market right nearby. Mazal tov to my sister Leora for getting 7th chair in the Illinois All-State Honor's Orchestra and to Paul "P-Dude" Sherman for growing to 5 feet 4 1/2 inches! Shavua tov to everyone :)

Tel Aviv

I did not take this picture.

Here I am, in Tel Aviv! Well actually, I'm currently in Nordia, a small town about 30 minutes north of Tel Aviv, close to Netanya. Today is Wednesday and I've been here since Friday afternoon, and I'm having an amazing time. It was 70 degrees and sunny when I arrived on Friday, although since then it's been rainy and a bit cooler. The 'raelis say that's how winter is here, and it'll be rainy for a few days about once a month, and then warm up again. Because I didn't have anywhere to stay when I arrived, I have been staying with my friend Itay in his house with his family in Nordia. He and his family have been sooo hospitable and generous, and really made me feel completely comfortable here. As my cousin Josh says, Israelis are the most hospitable people ever--after meeting someone, you are so comfortable with them, and you're just like another family member to them. Since I've been here, I have had: Burger's Bar, Aroma, Shwarma, Falafel, Schnitzel (3 times) and a lot of Hummus. Doing great so far. The food here is SO much better than in Spain..what a nice relief. On Friday when I got here, Itay and I went to Shabbat dinner at his friend's house, who lives right next to Rabin square in a beautiful apartment. He is Italian, and cooked us an amaaazing meal (I know, I talk about food a lot). In addition to me and Itay (an Israeli) there were three Italians, one Swiss girl, one German, and one French guy. After that and a few more times I went out with Itay and his freinds in Tel Aviv...so fun, meeting a lot of cool people from all over the world! Also I'm improving my Hebrew by talking to his Israeli friends. It was really hard at first, and still, to switch so suddenly from Hebrew to Spanish. I hope I don't forget my Spanish. Today, we had orientation for school and a Hebrew test to place us in levels for our Ulpan class, an intensive Hebrew course that we will take for the first four weeks before our other classes. Orientation was a little overwhelming. I don't really have the energy to go through meeting a million people again, and I don't feel the same "I am finally in a foreign country for the first time, no parents around, let's party like it's 1999, etc." as everyone else, because being abroad is already a regular thing to me by now. Also, IES had 70 students and there are 230 on this program at Tel Aviv University. That's a lot of Americans to meet at once. I've been pretty calm about it though because knowing from experience, the people you go out with the first few days don't end up being your good friends throughout the program. I'll end up meeting the people who I really enjoy spending time with when the time is right..no need to force any friendships or huge drunken groups of Americans together in order to enjoy the first week on the program. After some speeches from the director of the program and the counselors, we took a Hebrew exam to place us in levels for our Ulpan. Ulpan is a very cool program that these international Hebrew universities provide--it's an intensive Hebrew course for the first four weeks of the program, before any other classes. I hope I'm in a high enough level that it's challenging to me and that I'll learn a lot, but not too high that I can't enjoy every second of my first month in Tel Aviv. After the test, I took a bus from Ramat Aviv (where the university is, about 20 minutes north of the center) down to the center of Tel Aviv with some friends. We found an awesome schwarma/falafel place on Hamelech George, right near Dizengoff Center. Afterwards, we walked a few blocks west and guess where we ended up? Walking on the Tayelet along the Mediterranean Sea, no big deal. After some rain this morning, we were so glad to be walking around in t-shirts on the beach in 65 degree sunny weather. What a beautiful city.

Rome

On the roof of the seminary with St Peter's Basilica in the background

On the train to Rome, Raquel and I had the pleasure of sitting next to Clive and Denice, a hilarious couple from New Zealand. It was sort of chaotic getting onto the train and finding our seats and spots for our luggage, as most people had suitcases and there wasn't really anywhere to put them besides one tiny shelf at the end of each car. Clive and Denice are middle-aged, I would say, and not the most athletic couple. They were breathing so loud and sweating so much when they sat down, and Raquel and I couldn't stop giggling at what they were yelling to each other from across the train as they were trying to find spots for their bags. Try to think of a kiwi accent. Clive: "Where did you put my black bag?" Denice: "I had to abandon it!" The funniest part was that they were so serious about finding places for everything and so stressed out about the situation, and their accent made it sound like they were joking but they were actually not. Clive noticed my camera when he sat down and told me that they are both photography teachers in Auckland. He gave me a free, very animated photography lesson for the rest of the train ride! They told us that anytime we want to house swap with them they are open. I told them I would first need a house to offer.

Trevi

Pantheon

We found our hostel in Rome easily; it was only a few blocks from the train station. They only had mixed dorms, so we were in a room with 7 beds filled with smelly boys. Dropped our stuff off, and started to walk around the city. First to the Fontana di Trevi, a huge fountain where we made a wish, throwing a penny over the left shoulder as they tell the tourists to do. Next to the Pantheon. The columns on the outside made it really impressive, and then we read that it's from the yera 860! Hard to believe because the inside didn't look that old, but cool to picture it being used as a Pagan temple. Then it started raining again :(. We found a gelato place to make us feel better--this one is called Della Palma, near the Pantheon, with over 100 flavors! Then we went to the Colosseum. Sooo cool. We didn't go inside because it was closed (and I heard it's the same thing on the inside as on the outside) but it was cool to see even if only from the outside. Can't believe how old it is -- 80ad. How do those walls stay up? Smart architects. It was cool to walk around there and see the ruins that are still there and to picture the Romans just chillin out in the same place so long ago. We went to a cool wine bar that night.

Colloseum


The next day, we started out at the Vatican. We didn't have much time so we went pretty much directly to see the sistine chapel. There were guards saying no photo, no photo, but Raquel and I have become professional secret photographers over the trip. The paintings by Michelangelo are so impressive and detailed; one could study them for years. We stayed in there for awhile looking at and discussing specific parts of the wall in front, the ceiling, and the painting along the side walls-all bible stories that we deciphered. After that visit, we met my family friend James in the plaza outside St Peter's Basilica. James is the son of a friend of my mom's, and he is in his second year at the seminary to be a priest in Rome! He graduated from New Trier only a few years before us, and was so generous to show us around for a few hours. We first stood in the square while he taught us a little bit about the architecture and some history of the place. He pointed out the pope's apartment, right next to the sistine chapel which one can see clearly from the middle of the square, and even pointed out the window from which the pope gives his weekly sermons on Wednesdays. He then showed us the inside of St Peter's Basilica where we learned so much about the biggest cathedral in the world and about Catholicism itself. He even took us on a private tour underground below the altar where we saw St Peter's bones. That's right, St Peter himself is buried in that church. All the popes are buried down there, and we also saw Pope Jean Paul's grave. We really enjoyed the tour and learned soo much. Afterwards, James showed us around the seminary. It looked just like a regular college dorm! My favorite part was when he took us on the roof (oops, forgot to mention it was the most beautiful day we had had yet--sunny, no rain!) where we could see a wonderful view of Rome.

Sistine Chapel


St Peter's Basilica

Later, Raquel and I walked back, stopping at the Spanish steps. We were walking on a main street towards the hostel, la dee da, and we passed a perfume store. An ad with a violinist caught my eye from across the street, so I went over to look at it. Guess who I found? Joshua Bell in a cologne ad for Mont Blanc, holding his Strad! Ha. We eventually found our way back to the hostel to find two new roommates--two guys from Argentina. They were talking between them and I was eavesdropping, obviously (though a little bit harder to understand Argentine Spanish than Castellano Spanish) and they started talking about the birthright trip from which they had just come. I made some comment about how cool it was that the Jewish community in Argentina is so big, and we started talking about my trip to Buenos Aires. I told them I really enjoyed the service I went to at the synagogue I went to there, and what a small world--one of the guys belongs to that synagogue! Raquel and I then went to the train station to pick up Abigail Russo, another friend from camp who will be in Rome for a few more days with Raquel before they both go to South Africa for the semester. We went to a really good dinner for my last night in Italy. Now, I'm at the gate at Barajas Airport in Madrid waiting for my flight to Tel Aviv...I arrive just in time for Shabbat. Woohoo!!

Florence

In front of Ponte Vecchio

view of Firenze from the top of the duomo

Raquel and I had a whirlwind of a trip in Florence. We arrived via train around 1pm on Saturday January 9, and only had a day and a half to explore the city before our train to Rome on Monday. The train was a high speed line and fancy and high tech inside like the Ave train in Spain. Also, our seats were the closest they could have been to the snack car! That was a plus. Found our hostel easily--only a 15 minute walk from the train station. We stayed in Plus Florence which I would recommend to anyone. It's a huge hostel; can hold more than 400 guests at once! Had a pool, turkish bath, and really nice staff. We stayed in an 8 bed female dorm and had nice roommates both nights.

Santa Maria del Fiore


Bummer that it was raining, but it didn't stop us! We went first to the Academy Gallery to see Michelangelo's David. Entry was 10 euros, a very steep price with no student discount available. I think the David is considered the most famous statue in the world, so we coughed it up. He is very hot. I didn't know he was going to be so tall! The coolest part was looking at his facial expression from both sides--from the left profile he looks boyish and humble, and from the other side he looks a little angry and scared, about to fight Goliath. I also enjoyed seeing a few other sculptures by Michelangelo in the hallway before the David. Some of these were unfinished, and it appeared the figures were trying to escape from the stone. Pretty cool how real every sculpture looked, with each muscle so clearly defined. Next, we went to the Santa Marie del Fiore Cathedral known for the big duomo with another famous painting on its ceiling. We walked up 463 stairs to the top of the tower and even though it was cloudy and rainy we were able to see a beautiful panoramic view of Firenze from the top.





Ponte Vecchio

On Sunday, it didn't rain! We walked around the entire city that day. Found a great flea market which was fun even though we were hassled a lot. Ate a yum pizza in the Piazza della Republica, a famous square with a huge arch in the middle. We continued south and found an outdoor sculpture garden! There was a replica of the David and a lot of other cool sculptures. Right next door was the Uffizi Museum. I really enjoyed this museum--it's not overwhelmingly big, and had paintings from Boticelli, Fra Angélico, Rafael, Michelangelo, Tintoretto, Tiziano...all of whom I learned about in my art history class this semester. I liked the painting of Venus by Boticelli. Also, the museum had a great view of the river and all the bridges, especially the Ponte Vecchio. After leaving the museum, we explored that bridge and the area south of the river. Even though it was really cloudy, the bridge looked so beautiful. I love the colors around there--mustard yellow, orange, green. On the bridge is fun window shopping for jewelry. We had a fun exploration on the other side of the bridge! It's much less touristy on the other side, and we found some cool shops to peek into and even a vintage flea market! We went to a restaurant recommended by a friend for dinner also south of the river called 4 Leoni. It was the best meal we had thus far. Favorite part--pear and cheese ravioli. Yum! Although Firenze was completely different from Venice (there were real streets and cars there!), it is also a beautiful elegant place that seems different from the rest of Europe.

Venice

I just returned to Madrid today from a journey through Italy. I went straight to Venice from Brussels, and one of my best friends from home, Raquel, met me the next day. She'll be studying in South Africa next semester and decided to travel in Italy for the week before her semester starts. I spent three days in Venice (Raquel two), took the train to Florence where we were for two days, then continued to Rome to spend the last two days. Arriving in Venice was confusing. I flew on RyanAir from Brussels, and it's always a gamble with that airline, as I wrote in the previous post. The RyanAir flight to Venice actually landed in Treviso, a city 45 minutes away from Venice. I found a 5 euro bus outside the airport into the actual city of Venice. Although I had seen pictures, when I finally arrived at the island I couldn't believe what I was surrounded by. The weather wasn't perfect, but it didn't matter to me. Getting off the bus from the airport I was plopped in the middle of such a wondeful place, almost impossible to describe with words! The canals combined with the old, pastel colored buildings and a certain Italian flair in the air painted this city the most beautiful place I have ever been.


Finding my hostel was a different, more pressing task in Venice than it had been in other places. I was unable to just wander the streets and ask people for directions, knowing in the back of my mind I could take a taxi if I got lost...it was raining, there aren't streets to wander, nor are there taxis! To get from one place to another the most common mode of transportation is the waterbus. This is a medium sized boat that travels along the grand canal, winding in an S-shape around and through the city. There are multiple "lines" of the waterbus going different directions. To make a long story short, I found my hostel. It was called Sweet Dreams, and was very close to the Rialto Bridge in the San Polo/San Marco area of Venice. I was greeted warmly by the Chinese woman who is the only staff member at the hostel, just like I ended up being the only guest staying at the hostel that night! She and I became friends, and she told me that it is very unusual to have so few people staying with them, and guessed that it's a quiet period because it's right after such a popular time to travel (xmas and new years). Very tired from the previous days and that early morning of travel, I spent most of the day resting in the hostel and planning the next few days. Went to dinner by myself along the canal...a little bit lonely, but had excellent fettuccini alfredo.


The next day, Thursday the 7th, Raquel arrived! To pick up Raquel at the airport, I needed to take a short bus ride from the Island. Instead of taking a waterbus to the bus station, I decided to leave early and wander, walking, to the bus station. There are scattered signs throughout the city pointing pedestrians towards Piazzole Roma, the train station next to the bus station, so I tried to follow those. It happened to be bright and sunny that morning, so that hour long walk was my favorite part of my trip to Venice. Wandering through the narrow alleyways and discovering tiny bridges over even tinier canals threaded through beautiful architecture was such an adventure. A warm jacket, comfy shoes, not knowing where I was going without needing to care about time nor anything was the best feeling. And I was finally going to pick up my travel companion! It was so nice to be with Raquel. We found an awesome store where a woman and her daughters make beautiful leather-bound journals. I bought a dark brown one, and can't wait to start writing in it as soon as I finish writing in my current one. Raquel and I had a good Venetian dinner in a small restaurant in San Marco, and then walking back to the hostel we found a Vivaldi concert!! This was soooo cool. A chamber group--four violinists, a violist, cellist, bassist, and organist played 3 Vivaldi pieces, one Correlli piece, and one something else. Held in the St Vidal Church near the Academia Bridge, the acoustics were awesome and it was such a cool experience. (Vivaldi was from Venice, and wrote most of his pieces, including the four seasons, about Venice itself!)


Even though it rained the entire next day, Raquel and I had a productive day. First, we went and explored the Jewish Ghetto. There's a cool Jewish museum there, and we went on a tour of their three synagogues. The Jewish ghetto in Venice was the first in the world, and the word ghetto came from the Italian word geto which actually menas foundry. It was great to see m'zuzot and Hebrew letters everywhere. Also, the lady pointed out that when looking at the synagogue from the street one can see five windows lined up, symbolizing the five books of the Torah. Besides for these windows, it is impossible to tell from the outside that these synagogues are what they are. The first of the three synagogues we saw was the oldest and it was just a small room, but very decorated with a pretty ark. The floor was sort of lopsided, and the lady said they had to build it so it would be balanced because the city is sinking. The second two synagogues actually reminded me of Catholic churches--the architecture was similar, and the bimah was elevated like the place where a priest stands in a church. Jews couldn't be architects when these synagogues were built, so they were actually designed and built by Christians, who didn't know any better than to build them like their own churches. After the tour, we ate at a Kosher restaurant called Gam Gam. Expensive, but awesome shnitzel and matza ball soup! Later, Raquel and I went all the way to the Peggy Guggenheim museum. It was cool--I enjoyed the art by Picasso, Dalí, and Jackson Pollack. Also had an interesting statue of a boy with a huge erection riding some sort of a hippopotamus--we learned that his penis is removable in case she hosts more prudish guests!

New Years, Belgium, and Amsterdam

Amsterdam

New Years in Madrid was pretty nuts. My friend Jack arrived around 5pm on the 31st. Main problem in Spain on the 31st and the 1st: nowhere is open to eat. We were looking for a regular place to have dinner when he arrived, but I guess new years isn't a big fancy eating night like it is in the states. We settled for some tapas which ended up being expensive and sort of gross. Then, we looked into going out to some bars...everything was empty! We finally realied that the entire population of Madrid was camping out in Puerta del Sol. We headed over there...oh boy. Although I've never been to NYC on new years, Sol reminded me of Times Square on New Years. We could barely walk...it was a little too crowded for comfort. But it was an experience...so much champagne all over, and Spaniards have a weird tradition of eating 12 green grapes in the last 12 seconds before new years. So there were a lot of grapes around there. After that, we went to a party at my Israeli friend's. On the 1st, we went on a long walk through the whole city. Everything was closed, so I couldn't really show Jack any of my favorite places, except from the outside. We went to Retiro Park, walked along Paseo del Prado, and all up and down Gran Via and in Opera to the Palacio Real. I did live in a beautiful city this semester, didn't I! At night, we went to some bars in Malasana with a few Israeli friends again. (all the others went home at the end of IES!)


January 2: Brussels time! Of course, RyanAir is the worst and we were delayed about two hours. But, we finally arrived in Brussels around 10pm...our hostel was pretty gross and the staff was not very nice. The lady at the desk said there's a curfew at 1am when they lock the front door! So we grabbed a map and headed out for a quick exploration of the city. We found ourselves in the main square, called Grand Place. This is the most beautiful square I've seen in Europe. Huge castle-like buildings surrounding the square. I think it was better at night (we saw it again the next morning) because there were cool lights and music on the big buildings. The next morning we saw the famous Mannekin Pis statue, a little boy peeing. Not really sure why this is so famous. Had an excellent Belgian waffle and some Belgian chocolate, of course. Jack is still looking for a Brussels sprout.






In front of the Mannekin Pis statue


Jan 3-4: Amsterdam! Three hour train ride from Brussels to Amsterdam, free with my eurailpass. Beautiful scenery outside the window the entire way. I love trains. Our hostel was a short walk from the train station...in the center of the red light district. Just walking to our hostel we saw probably ten prostitutes in their windows and many many drugs. It was a great hostel-if anyone needs a recommendation, stay at St Christopher's! We couldn't believe how many coffeeshops there were (can buy weed and smoke it here) all over the whole city. We mostly stayed in the red light district for our first few days. On the 5th, we woke up and decided we should leave the red light district and do a little exploring of the other parts of the city. We walked all the way to the Van Gogh museum, and found ourselves in a part of the city that looked completely different than the red light district! The canals are really beautiful there, and all the buildings, including all the homes, are so old and pretty, even more so because they're so crooked. The guide of our walking tour told us that they are crooked and falling in every direction because Amsterdam is built poorly on a swamp. We also saw the Anne Frank house...very museum-y, but interesting to see. I did think this was a very beautiful city. We eventually took the train back to Brussels, and stayed at a hotel near the RyanAir airport in Charleroi, south of Brussels, in order to catch our very early flight the next morning. Jack headed off to Dublin this morning where he'll study this semester, and I to Venice where I am now! Will update soon.

Sevilla

Apologies in advance for the lateness of this post! Am posting from the hostel computer in Venice. Last Monday the 28th I went to Sevilla on the Ave train from Madrid. I was planning on going first to Granada, but I heard you had to buy tickets online to see the Alhambra, so I checked that out before I left, and it was sold out. Big bummer. It was a tough decision, but I decided that if I couldn't see the Alhambra it would be better to come back another time to Granada. So, I went straight to Sevilla for two nights.

La Catedral



The Ave train is awesome. It's Spain's high-speed rail system and it gets to Sevilla in 2.5 hours! Look at a map, that's pretty far. So, I arrived at the train station and took a bus to some square near the hostel. It was pouring rain, but I eventually found my hostel, called the Garden Backpacker. What a great hostel! It had a common room with a tv, a big modern kitchen we could all use, a big garden (but too rainy the whole time to go sit in it), clean rooms, nice staff, and the best of all, great travelers staying there at the same time! When I arrived, I met some people right away that I ended up hanging out with most of the time. I walked around with these two Australian dudes, Dan and Ben. We walked across town to the Cathedral. Although I've seen so many in Europe, this one was really impressive. I read that it's the third largest, after one in London and one in Rome. Cool stained glass windows, huge golden altar mayor, and guess who's buried there? Christpher Colombus! Hung out at his grave for a bit. Also walked to the top of a tower where there were huge carillon bells and an awesome view of the city. Later, everyone in the hostel went to a FREE flamenco show! I think flamenco originated in Sevilla, and it was a pretty good show. Great vibe, with a bunch of new friends plus a glass of Sangria. What could be bad? When I got back to my dorm room in the hostel, three Portuguese girls had appeared. They were really nice, and it was cool to be able to talk with them in Spanish.



Day 2. Free breakfast in the hostel! Woop de doop. Getting dressed was a bummer because my jeans and converse were still soaking wet from the day before (it never stopped raining the entire time I was there). Dan and Ben and I decided the best way to combat the rain would be to rent bikes. Although too hard to hold an umbrella, we would be in the rain for a much shorter time because we would get places much faster than we would have had we walked! Genius. It ended up being a lot of fun, and we saw a lot of the city. We first went directed by our wet floppy maps to the Real Alcazar, the royal palace. This place was so beautiful. I read that it compares to the Alhambra which made me feel a little less bad for not having the opportunity to visit there this trip. The palace was home to Fernando and Isabella, and we saw the room where they prayed with Chris Colombus (in Spanish, Cristobal Colon) before they sent him off to sea. I believe the king and queen of Spain stay in this palace when they visit Sevilla. A lot of Moorish architecture, cool tilework, and many famous paintings and tapestries! It's huge, and I would love to go back in the summertime or when it's not raining to check out the gardens around the palace. Afterwards, we rode along the river and past the university. Next stop, Museo de Bellas Artes. Pretty cool, but not comparable to the art museums we have in Madrid. They had one Goya painting, one Greco, and one Velazquez. They had a lot of Sevillano artists, Murillo, etc, who were pretty cool too. Afterwards, a nice policeman told us where to get gelato. Had some funny convos with the Australians. Can you believe they've never heard of s'mores? They don't even have graham grackers. They taught me about fairy bread, a snack every little kid has at their birthday party. White bread with butter and something called hundreds and thousands sprinkled on top, like sugary confetti. They call rainboots gumboots or wellingtons. My favorite word in an Australian accent is party. "pahdie." Great trip!