My name is Ashley Gordon. A fairly common name, that for me symbolizes a short, blue eyed, blonde girl living in Long Island. For someone who lives in Long Island, I identify myself more with the land of Israel, because of the mere fact that I am Jewish. This origin comes from both sides of my family. On my mother’s side, her father was a solider in the Israeli army, he was known as a Golani, which is one of the highest ranks in the army. I hold this side of my family very dear to me, because of the fact that I was very proud of my grandfather and all that he did to have a well and successful life, and carry down the stories to us, his grandkids. On my father’s side, both of his parents were raised Jewish and religious, passing down that custom to their children, therefore passing it down to me. Something that people should know about me, is that I am very outgoing. I am never afraid to start a conversation or make new friends. Aside from that I love to cook! If I wasn’t going into architecture as my major, I probably would have started culinary school because I find it fascinating to be able to create such amazing things with just only a few ingredients. For the last few years I have been making dinners nightly and hosting my own friend dinners, where I cook so much food that it could feed an entire family for a week. I absolutely love cooking. Besides for it being fascinating, I find it a good stress reliver, a way to do something where I am not thinking about all my responsibilities and just focusing on what is in front of me while I listen to my favorite music. At the same time, as much as I love cooking, I also love trying new foods and new places. This past summer, my best friend and I made it our mission to discover different dessert, coffee and restaurant places on Long Island. We rated each place by how the food and drinks were and how the ambiance was. Overall, I think we can both say that we found many different delicious places to go back to. It became a weekly thing, and it was named “Wednesdays are for the girls”. It corresponded perfectly with our work schedules because we both worked it out to have Wednesdays and Fridays off to spend time together before she left for school. Lastly, as I am studying to become an architect. I hope that one day I am successful enough to be able to design and own my own restaurant. I haven’t figured out a name for it yet.. but I’m sure as time goes on I will find the perfect one!