As my AMHSI experience continues, I couldn’t be happier. The past week has been extremely busy with a tiyul to Jerusalem, hiking Masada and the Dead Sea, as well as an open Shabbat weekend. The tiyul last week started with a visit to the Israel Museum. At the museum we saw an exact replica of Jerusalem when Herod was ruling over it. It was really cool to be able to see all of the little buildings and compare it to the real buildings that we see today. Then, later at the museum we got to see the Dead Sea scrolls and the actual jars that they were in. Next we went to Kumran where the Dead Sea scrolls were actually found. All of these things we were doing were leading up to us visiting the Dead Sea the next day. That night we stayed at a surprisingly nice youth hostel with amazing views. We then did a “secret santa” type Valentine’s day exchange. Each person was randomly assigned a different person to get a present for.  It was really fun and a great bonding experience as well.

The next morning, wake up was 4:00 sharp in preparation for our hike up Masada. After getting ready, eating breakfast and packing up all before 5 AM, we found out that the snake path, which we supposed to hike, was closed. That followed with an hour bus ride to the other side of the mountain where the other path was. Around 7:00 we finally reached the top. All of the lead up was definitely worth it for the breathtaking views and cool landmarks. The final part of the tiyul was our trip to the Dead Sea. At first I was nervous to go in but it was so much fun! It’s crazy how much you really float but unfortunately I didn’t wear any mud and it did start to rain. This tiyul was definitely one of the highlights of my trip so far.

Now that I am fully situated into my new home here in Hod Hasharon, I have noticed some significant differences in people’s lifestyle here in Israel. For starters, the people have very different prominent personality traits. I’ve seen since the first morning here at breakfast, that the people here are definitely more aggressive. However, they can also be extremely nice and including.  The food is also a huge difference, especially for me. I am a very picky eater so coming here I was curious to see what my eating habits would be like. The meals consist of many more vegetables and cheese than I am used to but I have tried a lot of new food that I really like. Another obvious difference is the mixture of freedom and classes that we have. While some days are non-stop school from 8 AM to 6 PM, others are consist mostly touring the country. The free time on campus is also great because it helps us connect with more people. I can’t believe how fast the trip is going by, but I am enjoying every second of it!