Traveling from my hometown of Oley, Pennsylvania to Hod Hasharon, Israel has been easily the hardest thing I’ve ever done. I’ve always been taught to be honest, so I’ll keep all my writing as honest as I can. I arrived the airport, not feeling much of anything. I wasn’t nervous, nor excited but more just impatient to get on the plane. It didn’t click that I had left everything until the day after I arrived in Israel. The homesickness hit really hard for me, which is difficult to admit because nobody else seemed to have been going through it. It got easier as the days went on (a full week still has not passed) but it still comes in heavy waves.

Today we had our first field trip. I went to an archaeological site with my class, and it was very interesting to see. We walked were our ancestors walked, we touched pieces of pottery that hadn’t been touched in thousands of years, and got to see the beautiful views. Being out and seeing this site had left me feeling much better (not to say that the homesickness is all gone) but it had helped. It had helped me feel more connected to my people, and left me feeling more excited to learn.