As my trip in Israel is very quickly coming to it’s end, I’ve been thinking about everything that’s happened here. Most of it was very different from what I expected. Before I got here, I thought the class was going to be boring and I thought I wouldn’t make many friends but as time went on I found out I was wrong. I made so many friends here and I can’t even think about saying goodbye to them so soon. It’s amazing how close we all got in such a short amount of time because it feels like I’ve known them forever. But really, it’s hard not to get close because we spend the majority of our time with the people in our dorm and even more time with our class and as it goes you just get to know them all and eventually you’re all like one big family.I was so wrong about the class being boring, it’s the exact opposite. Danny is such a great teacher and even when I’m completely exhausted I still am interested in what he’s talking about. It’s not just history like in school because it’s my history and it’s my story.

In school we talk about all these different countries and hear very little about them and hear barely anything about the Jews and Israel other than the Holocaust. The history of the Jewish people started so long before the Holocaust and they don’t teach you that at school but our story is so amazing since there were numerous times we should’ve been gone for good. If this class has taught me anything it’s that I should be proud to be a Jew and I should always fight for what I believe in. If none of the Jews had fought back then, we wouldn’t be here now and I think that’s amazing. Another thing I liked about the class was all the debates we had. Danny would give us a problem the Jews needed to solve back then and have each of us say what we felt about it and let us discuss with each other. For example, on Masada when everyone could have killed themselves or had the men fight and leave the women and children to be taken or tortured someone needed to make the very difficult decision of what to do. It was very hard but they couldn’t just sit there and do nothing and Danny had us make the same choice before he told us what they did. It kept us interested and involved but at the same time it showed us how hard things were for them and the crazy types of things they had to go through.

I was a little worried about the food here because I’m a very picky eater so I assumed I would have trouble finding something I liked to eat here. In the beginning I did, but a few weeks in I went with my friends to this Shwarma restaurant in Hod Hasharon and I fell in love with it. It’s little pieces of cut up chicken in a pita with whatever else you want inside. I just put cucumbers and tomatoes but most people put humus or things like that. I’m going to miss it so much when I get home because you can’t find anything like it there. Another thing I’m going to miss is the culture, I love all the shuks and markets and seeing all the Orthodox men wearing all black with their big hats. You would never see anything like that in Arizona. I think it’s incredible to see how different things are because it’s just not what I’m used to. For people who live here it’s normal to see men always wearing a kippah but at home it’ so rare that people who aren’t Jewish would have no idea what it was. Of course I’ll also miss the beaches since there are NONE in Arizona. I think people take them for granted because all the Miami kids on this trip didn’t care when we went to the beach but for me it was so exciting and more memorable since I can’t do it at home. It’s so weird to think that in 4 days I’ll be at home with my family sleeping in my own bed. It doesn’t feel like it’s been 6 weeks it feels like it’s been maybe 2. When I first got here it seemed liked so long until I’d be home but once we got in a routine and got used to how things go here, it just went by so fast. Saying goodbye to the teachers, madrichim, and all my friends is going to be really hard but I have so many great memories I’ll never forget.