Leave the Manischewitz at Home this Purim

The European Center for Jewish Students (ECJS) hosts several gatherings every year across Europe to help Jewish young adults (ages 18 - 35) connect with each other.  To my good fortune, this Purim, ECJS hosted a massive weekend of festivities in Rome! So no Manischewitz this Purim... It's time to celebrate EUROPEAN STYLE! 

Thursday night, the weekend was kicked off with a Purim seudah (meal).  There were several hundred 20-something and 30-something Jews from all over Europe gathered in a hotel in Rome to celebrate Purim.  Can you say AWESOME?!? The common languages were English and a bit of Hebrew so I was in good shape to communicate with my new friends-to-be. 

After dinner, the huge group filled a cool night club at the edge of Rome with a Italian-themed costume party! I dressed up as a warrior with my friend Aaron and his friend Micah (I had a crazy week and Purim costumes unfortunately fell to the bottom of my to-do list).  There was another costume party Saturday night which was double the size because many more Italians came from Rome and Milan.  While raging at a night club in Rome with Jewish peers from all over Europe (and some Americans) all gathered together in costume to celebrate Purim is incredible on its own, I'll share 2 highlights of these parties:

1. The music: 

The DJ alternated between the usual American club music (played on the radio and at bars all the time here) and Israeli pop music. He also threw in some Jewish songs to spice things up so after dancing to American and Israeli club music, Ani Maamin would come on and everyone would start jumping up and down singing along, declaring their belief in God to familiar tunes.  Some sections of the room even whipped out the simcha dancing.  Then the song would end and the scene would shift to become more club-like again.  Very hilarious and very appropriate DJing for the crowd. 

2. The comments: 

I was dancing with Aaron and Micah having a great time when a French guy dressed as a Monk joins us. All is good and fun until he starts getting a bit touchy and aggressive with me and making me uncomfortable.  So I try the usual American (read: subtle) "I'm not interested" tactics which fail and I turn to the more obvious ones I've picked up in Italy: physically pushing him away.  And how does the French Monk Jew react? He laughs and says to me: "You must be Ashkinaz." 

These were very unique parties! (Although, they certainly retained the usual characteristics of Jewish young adult gatherings, which I'll leave to your imagination). 

Shabbat was great too! I went to Shabbat dinner hosted by ECJS, which was similar to the Purim Seudah - lots of shmoozing, Jewish Geography, and an exchange of "Facebook" names to keep in touch. Since my apartment is far and not such a safe walk for me to do alone, I stayed at the Mimun's for shabbat and walked home with their oldest son, Simone.  They were lovely and gracious as always and it was really nice spending Shabbat with them!  (This time, I accepted leftovers and mishloach manot!) 

The Purim festivities ended after the party Saturday night but not before Simone and friends let me in on the most amazing secret that I'm about to reveal! We left the party around 3am and went to.... drum roll..... the Jewish Ghetto.  Ok, don't be disappointed yet. Apparently, there's a bakery that opens around 3am to bake for the next day and so we went for super fresh Kosher Italian "pizza."  (I use quotations because it was pizza in the loosest definition of the word. I would describe it more as flavorful focaccia but delicious all the same). 

Happy Purim! And next year in Jerusalem. 

Culture Shock Lives On

Last week, my parents and I enjoyed several meals at Italian restaurants.  I had to remind my parents as they got anxious waiting a half hour between courses that this is Italy and to relax and enjoy their way of life.  I had to remind them again, when we waited 45 minutes for the check.  My parents caught on.  They took me, Becca, and the Mimun's to dinner the other night and were not fazed when the group hadn't gathered until close to an hour after our predetermined meeting time.  I felt quite proud of myself that I had adjusted to this foreign culture (more foreign to us antsy Schlussels than to other Americans).  Well, apparently I'm not there yet.

Last night, Becca's parents took me and the Cousins (the other Italian family that has hosted Becca and me for Shabbat meals) out to dinner in the ghetto.  I had alot to do but meeting Becca's family and seeing the Cousins sounded great so I figured I would get to work afterwards.

Silly me.

Dinner in Italy is a very long affair and I had to remind myself during the half hour between courses and the 45 minutes it took to get the check that I'm in Italy and to relax and enjoy. Enjoy, I did. Relax, I tried.

After dinner, the Cousins drove me home.  I sat in the backseat with their 2 teenage children.  I went through the usual ritual of riding in a car - climbing in, sitting down, reaching behind me and fastening the seatbelt.... And they started to laugh.  They cracked up and informed me as if I made a huge cultural blunder that in Italy, you don't have to buckle up in the back seat.

I found it hilarious that they found my safe practice to be funny enough to laugh out loud.  But laughing alone isn't so much fun and some things translate better than others so I responded simply and decided to blog later.

I guess the culture shock lives on.

Firenze, the Land of Leather and Chocolate

I went to Florence with my program 2 weeks ago and my mother and I came back this weekend - 2 very different, very nice experiences! 

With my program, I woke up at 5:45am to catch a bus to the bus we were taking to Florence. We arrived around 11:30am and immediately discovered the chocolate fair in Piazza Repubblica.  What a treat! After sufficient samplings, my friends and I went to Gusta Pizza.  They made us fresh brick-oven heart-shaped pizzas - it was the weekend after Valentines Day.  Best pizza I think I have ever had.  After lunch, we went on a walking tour around Florence, stopping along the way to take pictures touching a pig snout so we will return to Florence (or so the legend says...) before shopping in the leather market. 

Legend says if you touch the pig's snout, you will return to Florence

That night, my roommates and I, along with one third of the group, went to a cooking lesson! We made an appetizer - melensagna caprese (eggplant, tomato, mozzarella, basil), homemade fettuccine with a meat and vegetarian sauces, and tirramisu for dessert. 

The next day, I met up with Rebecca Elbaum and Jess Powers and visited the Pitti Palace and gardens.  I ate breakfast quickly and noticed that I was the only person awake at the terribly "early" hour of 9:45am.  It was so great to see my Cornell peeps!  Later, I rejoined friends from my program and climbed the Duomo for AWESOME views of Florence's red rooftops, enjoyed scrumptious gelato (Grom uses local ingredients), went to Piazza Michaelangelo for a differet beautiful view of Florence, and returned the chocolate fair and leather market.  Heaven.

We ended the trip with a stop at Pisa which was disappointing besides for taking corny pictures with the leaning tower. The rainy weather didn't help. 

And look at that, I did!

With my mother, I saw less Florentine night life and less chocolate (the chocolate fair was over).  We traveled at a much more reasonable hour on a train (my first European train) and stayed at the cutest hotel - Hotel Davanzati.  The place isn't fancy but the employees are so friendly.  To save paper, they don't have newspapers in the lobby.  Instead, they have iPads you can borrow! The rooms contain white sound machines just in case the noises from the heart of Florence (or the room next door) are disruptive. 

After checking in, we went to the Ferragamo museum, which had a cool shoe display but wasn't much to see.  Then, we walked around Florence, enjoying the charm and relative quiet compared to the bustling Rome.  We got gelato (from Grom, of course), prepurchased museum tickets for shabbas and returned to the hotel for happy hour.  We went to La Giostra for dinner, an unsolicited recommendation from my roommate, Stef.  Unsolicited restaurant recomendations are my favorite because you know there is something special about the place if someone spontaneously told you to go.  My theory was supported - it was an incredible dinner!

Friday, we went for a run and then took on the leather market.  We were very successful and I walked away with my belated chanukah present - a beautiful leather jacket! Thanks Mom and Dad! Afterwards, we went to the food market and bought food for our shabbat lunch picnic. All before returning to my favorite Gusta Pizza for lunch.  There was a huge line when we got there, which follows my Dad's theory that the crowds generally know the best place to go. Our heart-shaped pizzas (as per my request) were well worth the wait! We even made some friends with the strangers they sat us a table with. 

So while we are eating, a man comes in carrying a display of junky-looking watches.  He goes over to a guy sitting near us and offers him a watch he didn't want for....drumroll please.... 120 Euro!!! What a business model! I found this episode hilarious but picturing me in hysterics might be funnier then the retelling of this incident.  :)

Later, we enjoyed happy hour at the hotel before going to the Synagogue for Kabalat Shabbat (Friday night services).  The Synagogue was absolutely stunning.  The massive Synagogue was filled with only 30 pray-ers (most of whom were tourists), something my mother and I both found incredibly sad. Seeing the shul and imagining how lively and full the community must have been before the Holocaust was a powerful reminder of the damage done to our People.

After dinner, we went to chabad for dinner and sat next to the coolest couple!   He is a lawyer and US soldier and she is a doctor in Iran who now works as a medical consultant in DC.  They were so interesting and we spent the walk home afterwards analzying our conversation with them and trying to figure them out.

The next morning, we started with a morning run along the river.  We went to the Ufizi. We saw so much but there was no end to the art we could have seen! We went back to the hotel and enjoyed our picnic lunch from the market and a little siesta, or shabbas nap. Then, we went to the Academia to see Michaelangelo's famous and impressive statue of David! It was no letdown.  The 17-foot statue is so lifelike that its hard to imagine that Michaelangelo freehand carved it from a single slab of marble.  That man was goooood! Later, we took advantage of the beautiful weather and hiked up to Piazzale Michaelangeo for beautiful views of Florence. 


Unforunately, the day had to come to an end and after catching happy hour, my mom returned to Rome for her flight home.

Vegetarians Beware; Barcelona with Captain and Mr. Schlussel

I know I am behind on blogging but that's only because I've been busy entertaining my parents.  Okay, that's only partly true because I'm more backed up than that but let's go with that excuse. 

I met my parents in Barcelona last weekend. I arrived on Thursday night and met my parents at the hotel.  My mom booked the hotel, brought along Rick Steves in her pocketbook, and my parents had already prepurchased our shabbas tickets in advance.  Oh, the luxuries of traveling with family! 

After a weak dinner (there was very little we could eat), we attended a flamingo dance.  I felt so cultured watching a flamingo dance performance the day after I went to the Italian Opera!

We had a fabulous weekend, taking on Barcelona like only the Schlussels seem to enjoy.  At least 4 of us do anyway.  I'm not sure where Adam came from since he actually seems to enjoy relaxing... weird! We hit up all the "touristic" spots (as Europeans like to say) within 2 days since we planned to visit Ramban's house on Sunday, outside of Barcelona.

How ergonomic these benches feel! 

Barcelona is a very confusing city that isn't marked very well with signs.  So, Friday we got to know the Metro system very well and considered posting it on TripAdvisor as a top place to visit. After an early morning Run (running with my parents deserves a capital "R" for intensity), we explored Park Guell.  There, we saw Gaudi's house (an incredible architect, way ahead of his time, who single handedly built most of Barcelona's tourist economy), and Gaudi's ergonomic benches among other things.  The ergonomic benches were a highlight because of their beauty, practicality, and fun name! 

Collegiate Randomness with Spanish Guitars 

Next, we decided to take the metro to Palais Reial, the next touristic stop on the list in my mom's head, and the furthest stop along the metro line.  Well, we arrived and there were no signs pointing to any attractions.  But we had to go to the bathroom very badly (I probably drank 10x the amount of water traveling with mom and dad than I did in Paris) and we were ready for lunch so we found the nearest building... And it happened to be a university.  We walk in as if we belong and accomplish our first goal.  We got distracted by music and noise coming from down the hall so we followed the fun and found ourselves amongst a bunch of college students in medieval costume playing Spanish guitar music, dancing, and distributing sangria. 

We eventually found something to eat and made our way back on the metro to Montjuic.  Finding out way inside and up the mountain was a challenge aside from fighting the overwhelming exhaustion that comes with a Schlussel vacation.  We walked around enjoying some beautiful views, and eventually did visit the Miro Museum and the Catalonian National Art Museum.  Apparently, you are not allowed to bring water inside so I chugged a liter bottle of water and immediately had to use the bathroom again.  The metro and the bathroom were fighting tooth and nail for most visited destination. 

Next stop: a supermarket for Shabbas food! It seemed like we bought food for an army but we finished everything but a few coffee flavored sucking candies by the time Shabbat was over.  After our lovely Shabbat picnic in the hotel room, leaving much evidence behind, we promptly passed out at an embarrassingly early hour. 

Saturday morning, we went for run numero due (#2) along the Rambla and boardwalk before a day of touring. We saw Casa Mila, another Gaudian treasure! My dad insisted that we check out this disgusting mud museum because it was included in our museum ticket package.  My mother and I gave it a fair shot but ended up enjoying a beautiful picnic snack on a sunny, non-ergonomic bench.  Barcelona is the city for people-watching!

Next, we made our way to the Barri Gotic area, the historic center of Barcelona.  After winding down several narrow alleys, the streets would open up to a large placa and an enormous cathedral. This happened several times during our stroll to the Picasso Museum. 

Later, we walked to the beach and strolled around until we couldn't move another inch, at which point we collapsed horizontally on benches to recover enough strength to walk back. 

Saturday night, we went to the ONLY vegetarian restaurant in Barcelona (probably) that Stef Groner's friend hooked us up with.  Great meal. FINALLY!

Sunday was a more relaxing day since our plans to see Ramban's house in Gerona didn't work out because it was too risky to travel so far with our flight to Rome that evening.  We had already seen everything on our list so we just explored and people-watched and enjoyed a beautiful day in Barcelona.  We walked back through Barri Gotic, to the Olympic Village, along the beach, and through Ciutadella Park, where we couldn't tear our eyes away from the funniest dog in the world playing soccer.

Scheduled relaxing by the beach? Check. 

The Incredible Pup

Eventually, we had to part ways with Barcelona and head to the wonderful country with way better food - Italy, of course!

Adios Barcelona!