Been a while

So it's been a while since I updated my blog and there is so much to tell. Things are going well here at the hostel, kinda slow but good. I really love everyone here that I work with. I recently went away for a week and while gone, realized even more how this place feels like home to me. I talked about them constantly and though had an incredible vacation with my family, felt a little sad when calling the hostel and hearing their voices. So happy to hear from me and wishing me well.

So Christmas was interesting. It was the first time I had not been home for Christmas Eve. I had to work at the hostel for the night shift and once that was done, we made dinner and drank until the wee hours with Muslims, Asians, and South Americans. A truly multicultural Christmas Eve.

I could not have made up the events of the next day if I tried.

My alarm rang at 8am for to me head back to the island to get ready for the Christmas day mayhem that is brunch at my grandmothers with the ENTIRE family. All 35 in her small top floor apt. Needless to say, it gets a little crowded. As I mentioned, there were some festivities occurring the night prior and I was not in the best shape at 8am. I showered and threw myself on the subway towards Penn Station, iPod in the ear, zoning out as the true New Yorker I guess I have become. I arrive to my brothers in Astoria where our other brother comes to pick us up. Once getting to my grandmothers and getting into the swing of things, ie. bringing out the next round of the 5lbs of bacon and plates of pancakes, my mom gets a call on her cell phone from someone looking for me. I get on the phone and the woman on the line says
"Is this Joanna?"
"Yes" I reply.
"Well I think I have your credit cards and wallet"
"No way...I have those in my pocket" I say like an idiot.
"Well you may want to go check"
"Alright"....10 seconds later " Well you're right, HOLY CRAP I don't have them!"

"Yeah I found them on the subway this morning!"

Needless to say I was in a state of panic. To make a long story short, she was on Long Island, in the Hamptons with her family and offered to meet me in the city later that night to drop off my wallet. I ended up picking it up at her hotel lobby the next morning before work and everything was in tact. How often does that happen? You lose your wallet and it is returned to you the same day, Christmas morning!! My Christmas miracle I kept saying. What made the story even more crazy was that I was leaving for our family vacation to ITALY the next day. If I had lost all my cards, there was no way I would be able to get them replaced before leaving and been royally screwed!

So I worked at the hostel on the 26th in the morning and flew out to Pisa, Italy at 8pm. It was an incredible week filled with loads of espresso and cappuchinos that were delicious, fun times exploring Florence and Siena, late night card games, yummy food and tons and tons of laughs with my siblings and mom. It made me really appreciate how good I have it, a family that loves me and always looks out for me (even though I want to kill them sometimes!).

So now I am back at the hostel, into the swing of things. I taught the staff the card game we play and they're addicted. We played till 2am last night :)

The real reason I actually started writing this new entry was because I was fed up. Fed up with opening up the front page of the times, the first page of Yahoo News and the BBC website and hearing about Israel and Gaza. It takes an instant for tears to come to my eyes and I feel my heart drop as I read the latest updates. Having been there twice now, I feel a special bond with the Holy Land. With the people. Knowing some that live there, that are soldiers, some now passed on, I feel my heart break. I find myself not even being able to read the articles, not updating myself with how its going, who is not agreeing to a cease-fire, how many are killed and the terrible conditions the people in Gaza are experiencing. I can't. I just can't.



On a lighter note, here is a picture of myself outside the Duomo in Florence. What a beautiful city even though it was the same cold weather as home in NY.