Being only 12 days away from the halfway point in this trip, I have already had the time of my life. I feel as though I am already close enough to the boys to call them my brothers, and to officially refer to AMHSI as “home”. We have already been to so many places around Israel with even more to come. This trip has been absolutely awesome and life-changing. This week I was asked to write about an “Only in Israel Moment”. I have had so many of these moments where I just think to myself that this would never happen anywhere else, especially not in the United States. The first time that I had one of these moments was at the Western Wall in Jerusalem for the last couple of hours of Yom Kippur. We had been at the wall for about an hour and we were nearing the last couple minutes our fast. There were many table with free drinks and food. Everyone surrounded the food and drinks awaiting the end of Yom Kippur and the lighting of the Havdalah candle. Once the food and drinks were open and Yom Kippur was over all of the people became savages. Pushing and shoving trying to get food or drinks. There were over a thousand people at the wall and everyone was trying to get food. Little boys would fill their tallit with food and use them as bags. The food was running out quick and people who haven’t gotten any were getting more anxious and more aggressive. The very young kids couldn’t push their way to the front where the food was. So, a young boy around the age of 12 came out of the crowd and three very young kids who couldn’t get to the front started attacking this boy trying to the food for him. I felt this was a very Israeli moment. The people here are a much more open and not shy at all. None of these boys knew each other. I feel like you would never see this is in the United States. Another “Only in Israel Moment” was just today. We were told that there was a chance that it would rain on our trip today so we should bring a raincoat. It almost never rains in Israel, in fact it had not rained our entire trip until today. After the day was nearing to an end and we were headed back to the bus everyone was upset that it didn’t rain today since we had not seen rain for 2 months. Once we got back to campus we started getting ready for bed. Then we thought that possibly we heard rain. We all ran outside and to our relief it was raining. And it started to rain pretty hard. We all ran around outside having fun and sliding around. In the United States we go outside and play in the rain, but we don’t really celebrate the fact that it is raining. But when it rains in Israel, it is awesome and a big surprise. I felt that this was something that would only happen in Israel and not back home. I am having an awesome time in Israel. The trip is now around halfway over and I have already had the time of my life here. I have started to find my Jewish identity, connect with the holy land, visit some amazing places and meet some awesome and really nice people.