so i am sitting in rome, after a pretty chilly afternoon and what happens? my fan on my computer breaks. it sounds like it is grinding up a rock inside of my computer. thankfully my roomate is going out so she lent me her computer, but still. before i left i sent in my computer with a whole list of problems. one of which was the fan and the it guy was just like o dont worry it probs just needs to be cleaned. well obvi not.....cuase its back to sounding as bad as it did before, even worse! and am i at maryland so i can go to see them to fix it. no. im in italy. where i have no clue where to go to get it fixed.
i hate technology sometimes...no i more of hate dells....see dad you should have listened to me when i asked for a mac......
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
tivoli
so the plan for saturday was to go to the vatican finally, well at about midnight the night before i get a phone call from jen seeing if we wanted to the vatican another time and sleep in a lil longer than go to tivoli for the day. Tivoli is a small lil town in the countryside of italy where the garden scene was filmed in the Lizzie McGuire Movie(it has a lot of pretty fountains and waterfalls). so we decided to take the train for 2.30 euro, or something cheap liek that, and go to tivoli for a bit before Jen and I went to the opera.
so we get there at like 9ish i would say and we finally find how to get into town, get a panini for lunch and follow signs to the gardens(d'este) well to our pleasent surprise on our way we stumble upon tivoli's own littel carnivale! there were tents wiht table at least 100 feet long with candy and tables with masks and jewlery. But mostly candy(it was very small just in the small little square of this very tiny town). so before we head to the gardens we walk around. We got to one booth that had a tone of venitian glass jewelry and we get some stuff, and as we are leaving jen calls julie, lisa and me back and to our further surprise the vendor gives us each all pretty bracelets for free. he was so nice, when we didnt like the color/the bracelet didnt fit he gave us new ones! so about 1 minute later julie goes " do you guys remember that episode of friends where joey gets chandler a really aweful gawdy bracelet and chandler loses it replaces it then finds the old one, and hten gives it to joey?" and of course i remember this moment foundly, becuase its friends and i know just about every moment. so taht is when she said, "guys we're bracelet buddies!"
well i have to say, there is some magic in being bracelet buddies, because on our way to the gardens we find a shop that sells cameos. He was the ninth generation to be making the cameos out of shells and blue stones and they were absolutley beautiful. so on a day when i was trying to save money, i fell in love with a cameo and bought one(so much for not buying myself anything else....) but julie and jen also bought cameos. julie got a beautiful one of a women sitting carved into the blue stone and jen got a gorgeous ring. well after shopping for a while trying to convince ourselves in and out of buying hte jewelry we realize the time head back to the candy booth quickly where jen and lisa got a bag full of candy(yummy) and we head back.
well a gelatto place catches( i believe it was jens eye?) but anyway that was closed for the lunch break so we go next door to a pastry shop, where for 1 euro they have most amazing looking mousse filled pastries. jen, julie, and i got a strawberry and vanilla mousse filled pastry and lisa got a pastachio flavored one. and O-M-G they were soooo amazing(pictures are currently up on fb). so once again we witness the power of bracelet buddies.
i wish there were a better word than eat, becuase this was so much better than eating! but after eating the pastry we go to the train station and eventually get on the train, where you buy tickets(no ticket stand at hte stop). and to the power of bracelet buddies again, no one ever came around to collect our money! so we had an amazing train ride home with candy and laughs and then jen and i ran back to our apts to get ready to see the opera! which was amazing.
so we get there at like 9ish i would say and we finally find how to get into town, get a panini for lunch and follow signs to the gardens(d'este) well to our pleasent surprise on our way we stumble upon tivoli's own littel carnivale! there were tents wiht table at least 100 feet long with candy and tables with masks and jewlery. But mostly candy(it was very small just in the small little square of this very tiny town). so before we head to the gardens we walk around. We got to one booth that had a tone of venitian glass jewelry and we get some stuff, and as we are leaving jen calls julie, lisa and me back and to our further surprise the vendor gives us each all pretty bracelets for free. he was so nice, when we didnt like the color/the bracelet didnt fit he gave us new ones! so about 1 minute later julie goes " do you guys remember that episode of friends where joey gets chandler a really aweful gawdy bracelet and chandler loses it replaces it then finds the old one, and hten gives it to joey?" and of course i remember this moment foundly, becuase its friends and i know just about every moment. so taht is when she said, "guys we're bracelet buddies!"
well i have to say, there is some magic in being bracelet buddies, because on our way to the gardens we find a shop that sells cameos. He was the ninth generation to be making the cameos out of shells and blue stones and they were absolutley beautiful. so on a day when i was trying to save money, i fell in love with a cameo and bought one(so much for not buying myself anything else....) but julie and jen also bought cameos. julie got a beautiful one of a women sitting carved into the blue stone and jen got a gorgeous ring. well after shopping for a while trying to convince ourselves in and out of buying hte jewelry we realize the time head back to the candy booth quickly where jen and lisa got a bag full of candy(yummy) and we head back.
well a gelatto place catches( i believe it was jens eye?) but anyway that was closed for the lunch break so we go next door to a pastry shop, where for 1 euro they have most amazing looking mousse filled pastries. jen, julie, and i got a strawberry and vanilla mousse filled pastry and lisa got a pastachio flavored one. and O-M-G they were soooo amazing(pictures are currently up on fb). so once again we witness the power of bracelet buddies.
i wish there were a better word than eat, becuase this was so much better than eating! but after eating the pastry we go to the train station and eventually get on the train, where you buy tickets(no ticket stand at hte stop). and to the power of bracelet buddies again, no one ever came around to collect our money! so we had an amazing train ride home with candy and laughs and then jen and i ran back to our apts to get ready to see the opera! which was amazing.
Sunday, February 20, 2011
shabbat shalom due
This was the second shabbas i went to in rome. This time we went to the rabbis shul and went to his house for dinner. There was a much larger group of us, i went with with four of my guy friends, but than the rabbi had some other people over. The food was amazing, sooo good, reminded me of non italian home cooking which was nice for a change.
Services were services, but at dinner after eating and before berchat we all went around the table and told a story that related to Judaism. not really knowing what story to tell i of course told the story about how we ran into my moms high school friend on the shores of tel aviv. because really where would that ever happen. the rabbi told a really good story rabbis in eastern europe who rejoiced when they finally got supported by teh government to increase their jewish education programs. and the head rabbi had an ancient coin from the days in Jerusalem passed it around and it got lost. long story short it was eventually found, but one of the elder rabbis kept on praying that it would be found and they would not have to empty their pockets to search b/c he had one just like it, and was scared of falsely being accused. this short summary here doesnt give the story any justice, but it was a good tale.
o completely forget to tell how the evening got started. we were searching for shul which was some what near us, and couldnt find any of the raods we needed. my friend jared asked a couple of people and they couldnt help us and went on their way. he than asks one lady, who speaks no english, and she like everyone doesnt know. however, she decided to help us. this little old lady, carring bags, most likely going in the opposite direction, walks us over to a gas station where she one of hte attendants and jared look on a map for htis road. well we thought she helped us great now she will go home. instead, she insisted on walking us the enitre way there. it turned out she is from spain and knows spanish, since we all spoke spanish better htan italian we talked on the way there in spanish and it was just one of the best moments. my friend ethan told this story at dinenr relating it to a mitzvah that we had all experienced, becuase if it werent for this lovely old lady we would have never found the shul.
but anywya, back to dinner. it was delicious, and i mean good. two types of chicken two types of koogel, home made challah. sooo good. but ya it was just a relaly fun night with a large group of us. i told the wife that i would help her cook for pesah, so im excited for the sedars because i wont be around for any more friday night shabbat dinners really(im all booked traveling).
but it was a great experience, a lot more fun than the last shabbas, and a lot more delicious. hopefully we get to do dinners like that with our friends(kinda like what we did thrus night with the mac n cheese)
Services were services, but at dinner after eating and before berchat we all went around the table and told a story that related to Judaism. not really knowing what story to tell i of course told the story about how we ran into my moms high school friend on the shores of tel aviv. because really where would that ever happen. the rabbi told a really good story rabbis in eastern europe who rejoiced when they finally got supported by teh government to increase their jewish education programs. and the head rabbi had an ancient coin from the days in Jerusalem passed it around and it got lost. long story short it was eventually found, but one of the elder rabbis kept on praying that it would be found and they would not have to empty their pockets to search b/c he had one just like it, and was scared of falsely being accused. this short summary here doesnt give the story any justice, but it was a good tale.
o completely forget to tell how the evening got started. we were searching for shul which was some what near us, and couldnt find any of the raods we needed. my friend jared asked a couple of people and they couldnt help us and went on their way. he than asks one lady, who speaks no english, and she like everyone doesnt know. however, she decided to help us. this little old lady, carring bags, most likely going in the opposite direction, walks us over to a gas station where she one of hte attendants and jared look on a map for htis road. well we thought she helped us great now she will go home. instead, she insisted on walking us the enitre way there. it turned out she is from spain and knows spanish, since we all spoke spanish better htan italian we talked on the way there in spanish and it was just one of the best moments. my friend ethan told this story at dinenr relating it to a mitzvah that we had all experienced, becuase if it werent for this lovely old lady we would have never found the shul.
but anywya, back to dinner. it was delicious, and i mean good. two types of chicken two types of koogel, home made challah. sooo good. but ya it was just a relaly fun night with a large group of us. i told the wife that i would help her cook for pesah, so im excited for the sedars because i wont be around for any more friday night shabbat dinners really(im all booked traveling).
but it was a great experience, a lot more fun than the last shabbas, and a lot more delicious. hopefully we get to do dinners like that with our friends(kinda like what we did thrus night with the mac n cheese)
Triple M Night
So what started out as an idea of having a "triple m night": mac n cheese, mojitos and a movie, just turned into mac n cheese. Our entire group and my rooamtes enjoyed what i beleive to be my matserpiece. i made an amazing three cheese mac n cheese, that was based on the mac n cheese that shira made at our past thanksgiving(i used different cheeses). but it was soo good, and i have to say i am quite proud of myself for making it.
it was just a really fun night with all my friends hanging out, eating and drinking wine of course. this night will def have to be repeated.
it was just a really fun night with all my friends hanging out, eating and drinking wine of course. this night will def have to be repeated.
Monday, February 14, 2011
valentines day
so valentines day is big here, not as big in the states, but there were dudes selling balloons on the street corners. didnt do anything special, went out to gelatto near us(but it is amazinnng gelatto) which was yummy and am now just trying to relax and watch things online.
as for the weekend....on friday i walked like all over rome with jen. we went to the pantheon and found the amazing gelatto place that jessica(sister) told me about, and it was heavenly, we also went to the trevi fountain and i showed jen the beautiful church inside the wedding cake, aka victor emanuel aka the big white building. it was a great day of walking around. we actually wound up at the vatican, didn't take a tour(thats this saturday!) but we went in st petersburg(?) square and just looked around. it was a gorgious day that was well deserved. almost forgot one of the best parts, we found this stand right on the way to the vatican that sells old records. we found joe cocker, hall and oats live at the apollo, debbie gibson and the bangles. all records are 5 euro which is awesome. i almost bought a couple but decided to come back when we had more time. i love finding music in foreign places, especially vinyls there is nothing like a good vinyl.
saturday was a much smaller walker adventure. went to the spanish steps finally. very touristy and went into a massive mcdonalds/mccafe. which was cute but also touristy. we than went to villa borghisi which is romes largest park. it was so nice, museums everywhere a zoo and just miles and miles of pathways and grass and tress and statues. it was nice. we split up after villa borghese when frida(roomate) and i tried to find out way back to the apt using hte bus system, which proved much harder than you would think. we were on 2 different buses and went aorund the same circle like 5 times. we eventually got off and just walked to the tram, which proved to be closer than it seemed.
sunday was hw and laundry day. nothing special. caught up on my reading and hung. went out for ellen(friends) birthday. went to this little resturant in trestevere(a couple of tram stops away from me) where we had an ok dinner. i got a ton of muscles and clams in mine, which was good. but wasnt anythign amazing for the price we payed. although they did have delicious termisu(spelling??). but ya so no for dinner, but a good place for dessert. there are better places in campo di fiori that give student discounts.
which brings us back to today. which was my first roman quiz, worth 60 points(i would love to see how many points the tests are) and then doing some work and having gelatto for my valentines day.
finally got to open up the card my mother tried to secretly hide in my suitcase. it put a smile on my face. all in all a good weekend and looking foward to another nice weekend of raoming around rome before venice!
cioa mi amore <3
as for the weekend....on friday i walked like all over rome with jen. we went to the pantheon and found the amazing gelatto place that jessica(sister) told me about, and it was heavenly, we also went to the trevi fountain and i showed jen the beautiful church inside the wedding cake, aka victor emanuel aka the big white building. it was a great day of walking around. we actually wound up at the vatican, didn't take a tour(thats this saturday!) but we went in st petersburg(?) square and just looked around. it was a gorgious day that was well deserved. almost forgot one of the best parts, we found this stand right on the way to the vatican that sells old records. we found joe cocker, hall and oats live at the apollo, debbie gibson and the bangles. all records are 5 euro which is awesome. i almost bought a couple but decided to come back when we had more time. i love finding music in foreign places, especially vinyls there is nothing like a good vinyl.
saturday was a much smaller walker adventure. went to the spanish steps finally. very touristy and went into a massive mcdonalds/mccafe. which was cute but also touristy. we than went to villa borghisi which is romes largest park. it was so nice, museums everywhere a zoo and just miles and miles of pathways and grass and tress and statues. it was nice. we split up after villa borghese when frida(roomate) and i tried to find out way back to the apt using hte bus system, which proved much harder than you would think. we were on 2 different buses and went aorund the same circle like 5 times. we eventually got off and just walked to the tram, which proved to be closer than it seemed.
sunday was hw and laundry day. nothing special. caught up on my reading and hung. went out for ellen(friends) birthday. went to this little resturant in trestevere(a couple of tram stops away from me) where we had an ok dinner. i got a ton of muscles and clams in mine, which was good. but wasnt anythign amazing for the price we payed. although they did have delicious termisu(spelling??). but ya so no for dinner, but a good place for dessert. there are better places in campo di fiori that give student discounts.
which brings us back to today. which was my first roman quiz, worth 60 points(i would love to see how many points the tests are) and then doing some work and having gelatto for my valentines day.
finally got to open up the card my mother tried to secretly hide in my suitcase. it put a smile on my face. all in all a good weekend and looking foward to another nice weekend of raoming around rome before venice!
cioa mi amore <3
Sunday, February 13, 2011
things i am craving
SUSHI!!
mexican food
regular ice cream(why i dont know)
rice
chinese food
thai food
mexican
sushi
a normal post will come soon! about my weekend adventures(i finally got to the spanish steps!!)
but ya im cravin some food that isnt italian, good news is we found a good sushi place and apparently there is a great thai place near us...if only italians could make italian food(maybe i'll be making it. too bad i havnt seen chedder anywhere here! i want chips and queso!!)
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Fireneze!
So this past weekend a friend and i decided to hop on a train and go to Florence for Sat and Sund(we stayed at her friends apt, so no hostel! woohoo lol). but florence was amazing. its so small that you can walk everywhere easily. when we got off the trian we were greated with this gorgeous church than walked about 2 minutes and say the duomo. The duomo is unreal. it is so beatuful and huge and amazing, it sometimes looked like it was just a picture. the deatil that went into hte building was amazing. after dropping our stuff off at her apt(which is newer than our, but i feel very italian in my tacky covered wallpapered apt) we went to the chocolate festival they had. there was soooo much chocolate, all i thought about was jessica(sister). i got some chocolate goodies and than this chocolate drink which was basically melted chocolate, it was amazing! we walked around florence afterword than went to the market, where i got the most beautiful leather jacket! i love it, so happy i was able to buy real italian leather in italy! i got some suvinears for people, not saying what or for who! but i started covering my bases which was good.
Dinner was good, went to a small itlle place and had some pizza(i think our roman pizza is better, im really getting spoiled here) than went to a pub and just enjoyed a nice glass of wine.
the second day we went to the gogili(?) gardens which were huge and pretty. it was a little overcast and cold but it was still nice to walk around and see florence. since i am coming back on a school trip i figured that we would hit up the museums, aka david and the art museum, so we didnt do those. we met up with someone for lunhc where i had a turkey, mozorella lettuce and TRUFFLE OIL! sandwish, the oil shoppe was close cause it was sunday, but i was very happy with mine. i love truffle oil. but ya i will post pictures soon. cant really describe the pretty things i saw.
i would love to go back, its a nice break from the city, although sunday it was packed! but i did notice things were open, liek the grocery store which was nice. but ya that was florence. not going anywehre for 2 weekends, than im goign to venice!
but there will be more roman adventures until then!
Dinner was good, went to a small itlle place and had some pizza(i think our roman pizza is better, im really getting spoiled here) than went to a pub and just enjoyed a nice glass of wine.
the second day we went to the gogili(?) gardens which were huge and pretty. it was a little overcast and cold but it was still nice to walk around and see florence. since i am coming back on a school trip i figured that we would hit up the museums, aka david and the art museum, so we didnt do those. we met up with someone for lunhc where i had a turkey, mozorella lettuce and TRUFFLE OIL! sandwish, the oil shoppe was close cause it was sunday, but i was very happy with mine. i love truffle oil. but ya i will post pictures soon. cant really describe the pretty things i saw.
i would love to go back, its a nice break from the city, although sunday it was packed! but i did notice things were open, liek the grocery store which was nice. but ya that was florence. not going anywehre for 2 weekends, than im goign to venice!
but there will be more roman adventures until then!
Friday, February 4, 2011
Shabbat shalom!
so today we went into the jewish ghetto than to services at the great synagogue and than to a shabbat dinner.
my friend jared set it all up and he actually told us an interesting history or the shul as to why it was in such great shape. apparently the pope who was in power i guess, right before WWII made it a historical monument. and when the nazis went into italy during the war sat down and talked with the pope to see what they could and could not destroy. this was a new pope from the other one who made the shul a history building, and they didnt realize it. so when the nazis came in, they couldn't touch the shul so the surrounding jewish area put a lot of judaica in the basement so it survived, and it is now a museum which shows everything they hid from the nazis.
there was also this mini colliseum type buliding right there that a king decided to make into a fortress. so there is the old ancient colliseum and than a more modern buliding connecting on top of the structure, so it looks like the did a horrible job restoring it, when acutaly a king turned it into a fortress for him back in the days.
services at the shul were really short, and like all other shuls that are seperated the womens area is just full of women gossiping. some where praying but most were talking(although there were not many people there). but it was short and sweet than my friend ellen and i walked to a persons home for shabbas dinner, which was set up by the chabad.
it was a little awk at the dinner, firstly becuase they spoke to jared and were expecting three guys, but also cause only 2 of them spoke english. so ellen and i just sat there and ate our food politely while trying to understand some of the conversation. It was a young man, his mother and father, an older collegue adn than a collegue around his age. he had a one year old son and the wife didnt eat with us, she was sick i think they said. but the baby was cute, huuuge for a 1 year old, like big and a lil chubby, but still cute. it was sooo much food, i cant believe how much italians eat. but they were very nice and invited us over any time for shabbas dinner,even for pesach.
well that was my shabbas in rome, it was nice to connect with jews here, even though they werent my age.
well avire derche(not at all how you spell it, lol)
my friend jared set it all up and he actually told us an interesting history or the shul as to why it was in such great shape. apparently the pope who was in power i guess, right before WWII made it a historical monument. and when the nazis went into italy during the war sat down and talked with the pope to see what they could and could not destroy. this was a new pope from the other one who made the shul a history building, and they didnt realize it. so when the nazis came in, they couldn't touch the shul so the surrounding jewish area put a lot of judaica in the basement so it survived, and it is now a museum which shows everything they hid from the nazis.
there was also this mini colliseum type buliding right there that a king decided to make into a fortress. so there is the old ancient colliseum and than a more modern buliding connecting on top of the structure, so it looks like the did a horrible job restoring it, when acutaly a king turned it into a fortress for him back in the days.
services at the shul were really short, and like all other shuls that are seperated the womens area is just full of women gossiping. some where praying but most were talking(although there were not many people there). but it was short and sweet than my friend ellen and i walked to a persons home for shabbas dinner, which was set up by the chabad.
it was a little awk at the dinner, firstly becuase they spoke to jared and were expecting three guys, but also cause only 2 of them spoke english. so ellen and i just sat there and ate our food politely while trying to understand some of the conversation. It was a young man, his mother and father, an older collegue adn than a collegue around his age. he had a one year old son and the wife didnt eat with us, she was sick i think they said. but the baby was cute, huuuge for a 1 year old, like big and a lil chubby, but still cute. it was sooo much food, i cant believe how much italians eat. but they were very nice and invited us over any time for shabbas dinner,even for pesach.
well that was my shabbas in rome, it was nice to connect with jews here, even though they werent my age.
well avire derche(not at all how you spell it, lol)
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
DUKE GAME TONIGHT!!!!
I hate that the duke game is on at 3 in teh monring here. but since i dont have classes i may go out than try to stay up for a little bit of it! but ya classes wehre the same today(they are ganna be easier than maryland classes, its a differnt structure). i should be doing homework right now, but i really dont feel like it. i think ill get the rest of my books than read tomorrow.
after class we all met back up at AUR to try to discuss traveling, specifically venice and carnival in 3 weekends, and that we will hopefully book tomorrow. i have a decent sized group of people here who all want to go so its a little difficult, but it will be fun! we are also looking into day trips to florence and other places in italy. i didnt realize how many weekends i acutally have booked! when i pulled out my calendar i realized i only have one free weekend in march and a few in april. than may i wanna be back here to enjoy the city for my last couple of weeks. planning everything made it seem like we have such little time here.
nothing else new, doing errands tomorrow getting food at a market than getting other stuff i need. hopefully going out tonight than on saturday we are doing a tour of hte vatican which will be amazing than sunday i wanna do one of my walking cards that mel and noami gave me than do hw. its wierd that we have school, it doenst feel like we should.
but i will update more on that when it happens, today was pretty uneventful.
status on knee: can climb up stairs with some discomfort, but down stairs still really hurts.....but at least its getting better!
after class we all met back up at AUR to try to discuss traveling, specifically venice and carnival in 3 weekends, and that we will hopefully book tomorrow. i have a decent sized group of people here who all want to go so its a little difficult, but it will be fun! we are also looking into day trips to florence and other places in italy. i didnt realize how many weekends i acutally have booked! when i pulled out my calendar i realized i only have one free weekend in march and a few in april. than may i wanna be back here to enjoy the city for my last couple of weeks. planning everything made it seem like we have such little time here.
nothing else new, doing errands tomorrow getting food at a market than getting other stuff i need. hopefully going out tonight than on saturday we are doing a tour of hte vatican which will be amazing than sunday i wanna do one of my walking cards that mel and noami gave me than do hw. its wierd that we have school, it doenst feel like we should.
but i will update more on that when it happens, today was pretty uneventful.
status on knee: can climb up stairs with some discomfort, but down stairs still really hurts.....but at least its getting better!
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