Veni, Vidi, Vici

For the first time in weeks, my alarm clock's snooze button remained undisturbed as I bounced out of bed and hopped into the shower. It was time to start my one week journey through Italy, and I was excited! My easy 1 hour route to the airport left a lasting impression, reminding me how fantastic Seoul's subway system is, and had me dreading my future experiences back on the TTC. Costing only $3 and offering almost door to door service, it was a delight.

On our first day in Italy myself and my bestie delighted ourselves just as much with our 'Rome in morning' tour, as we sailed through the extremely limited time we had to explore Rome's ancient streets and wondrous ruins. Being fairly well travelled ladies, we deemed ourselves the perfect travel pair: a pair who cares, just, not that much. And this, my friends, was the attitude we brought along with us in the meagre 5 hours we had to tour Rome.

Don't judge us, we were here for the pizza and wine.The Colosseum is simply an added bonus.

Here goes our itinerary. Fellow non-history buffs, this is for you:

-9:00 am: Wake up
-9:30 am: Out the hostel doors, enroute the 20 minute walk to the Colosseum
-10:00am: Arrive at the Colosseum. It's already swarming with tourists and tour groups. Thank the emperor we didn't come any later.
-10:05am: Decide to trail behind some of the tour groups to see if we can learn anything
-10:10am: Remind ourselves how smart we were for not signing up for one of those things. Wikipedia is all the tour guide these ladies need.
-10:15am: Snap the typical Colosseum photos.
-10:30am: Head north west towards the Fontana Di Trevi, walking along the Roman Forum.
-10:35am: Grab a cafe latte and a classic Italian pastry. Yummy! Not only will this walk be rich with history, it will also be rich with flavour!
-10:40am: Gaze at our surroundings. As the coffee hits, the realizations kick in. The Roman civilization was pretty cool. If only those columns were still standing. *sigh*
-10:45am: Pass Il Vittoriano. This massive structure is a monument built in honor of King Victor Emmanuel, the King who unified Italy. Although finished being built in 1925, it's adorned architecture fits in well with the rest of the cities beauty.
-10:55am: Arrive at the Fontana Di Trevi. sit down and take a rest. We deserve it. This is amazing spot to get some gelato and people watch as lovers and honeymooners flock the fountain to take the photo they travelled all this way for.
-11:05am: Make a wish on a penny! (Hey, my wish even came true!)
-11:10am: Keep on trekking. We are now on our way to the Pantheon.
-11:13: Walk past the Colonna Marcus Aurelio. This thing is absolutely stunning and I've never even heard of it! It's spiral  design tells the story of the Marcomannic wars from around the year 166. So you don't say...
-11:17 am: Arrive at the Pantheon: standing Columns! Woohoo! So that's what they once looked like. Pretty impressive Romans, pretty impressive.
-11:23am: Take necessary Pantheon photos.
-11:30am: My travel partner and I consult our time limits. Do we have time to make it to the Vatican? Let's see if we can! Speed walking it is....
-11:54am: We made it it the Vatican, and wow was it worth it. It's breathtakingly beautiful. But why oh why are they're so many people around? There must be something exciting happening...?!
-11:56am: Investigate with some fellow Vatican visitors: "Hey, do you know what is going on here? Why is it so busy?" Answer "Uhhh, it's Sunday mass and the pope comes out at 12...."
Okay, Okay we should have done a little bit of research. That was maybe really dumb of us to not know. But hey, we are Jews. That is a good excuse, right?
-12:00pm: See the pope.
-12:10pm: Hurry back to the hostel to pick up our belongings and catch our train!

And that, boys and girls, is how we saw Rome in a day and still had time to eat pizza. It's not for everyone, but it was good enough for me*!



*Okay, okay, I went back to Rome and did enjoy having some extra time to actually tour a bit more, and I'll get more into that in another post. But on budgeted time, you can't say we didn't do well!

Why is This Night Different from All Other Nights?

There are some things that you don't realize how much you appreciate until you go somewhere completely foreign, and stumble upon that comforting feeling of 'home'. You may not be home at all. You may still be far, far away. This feeling came to me for the first time in my 3.5 weeks of being in Korea, on the eve of Passover, at the Chabad of Korea.

The Chabad of Korea

As I walked into a room filled with over 70 strange, smiling faces, wishing each other a 'Chag Samearch', I felt almost as comfortable as walking into my Bubby's living room. The worldliness of the evening's guests should not come as a shocker, as most Jews in Korea come from somewhere else: America, France, Israel, and so much more. We were of different ages, of different races, and all in Korea for different reasons, all brought together under one roof. All brought together solely because we are Jewish. And despite the vast differences that spanned the room, the evening was filled with such connection, as strangers sat together, singing the same songs, having memorized the verses, all knowing the same tunes. Complaining together about the length of the evening and all equally accepting of each others devotion, or non-devotion, to the religion.

As the rabbi worded quite well, It is not the matzoh that makes a seder, it is not the wine (although, that doesn't hurt), it is the people who, despite their differing lives, are brought together not just at the Chabad of Korea, but around the world to celebrate a chag samearch: a happy holiday. This 6 hour long night filled with everything from the rabbi's lengthy speech, to the overdrawn Dayenu, to the mediocre gefilte fish and the nasally whines of those around me, brought such a feeling of comfort, and reminded me that Judaism really is special, and I am really lucky to be a part of it.

Chag Samearch!