This coming week will mark our one-third of the way done anniversary. We are going on a 4-day hike this week starting at the Mediterranean Sea and ending at the Kineret. I’m excited to do this because I’m hoping I will become closer with everyone I have not talked to that much yet. I’m also not excited because I will not be able to shower for those 4 days.

Since I have been here I have had lots of moments where I thought “I can’t believe that happened” or “That’s my favorite moment of the trip.” The problem is I have felt that favorite moment memory come up to many times.

Probably my most favorite “Only in Israel” moment was on Simchat Torah in Jerusalem. We went to a Yemenite synagogue and it started quite slow and boring with praying. After about 20 minutes everyone gets up and we all start dancing with the Torah. It was much more than just dancing, it was about 100 people screaming at the top of their lungs having a great time. I believe all of my friends and I came back from that feeling amazing because it was such a great time.

My most recent “Only in Israel” moment came up last Shabbat in Tzfat on Friday night when all the boys and our teacher Aubrey went to a Mikvah together. It was really spiritual for everyone since it was an over 1000-year-old Mikvah that people still use. It also felt spiritual because everyone dunked their head under the water a certain amount of times that was important to them. I dunked my head 18 times for Chai/Life.

I have had so many of these amazing moment so far but those were just really meaningful to me. I feel so lucky that I’ve got to have these experiences and I’m looking really to having more of these moments over the next two/thirds of the trip.