This week we will mark 6 weeks left in our journey abroad. This makes me sad because I’m not super excited to go home, I just miss my family and friends a lot. About a week ago we arrived back from our seven day trip in Poland. It was truly life changing and an experience I have never done before and one that most people not lucky enough to be blessed with.

This trip was really cool because I’ve learned about the Holocaust before but it’s so different and more meaningful to go the sites and experience everything up close than just looking at blurry photos. It was super emotional most of the sites we went to, but I enjoyed the times were everyone was crying and then all 40 of us were in a circle singing together, that led the tears of sadness to some tears of joy which was really powerful and cool to see.

As I said we went to some super sad sites like Auschwitz and Birkenau. But that was not the purpose of the trip to make everyone cry, they also wanted us get a good understanding on the Shoah. They also took us to places in Poland where they are trying to rebuild the Jewish community and preserve the old one. For example, the JCC and Lancut Synagogue which is led by a non-Jew who stills cares about not forgetting the Jewish history.

The trip was the most seven emotional days in my life. It was a roller coaster of feelings because I would be feeling sad and sick to my stomach, but then I would feel happy when we are all together feeling scared because it showed unity and I felt as if there is a light at the end of the tunnel. These emotions are what made the trip so amazing. It was an incredible bonding experience for all of us.