I have been in Israel for roughly two weeks, and I have already witnessed countless differences between Americans and Israelis. For starters, the people in Israel are EXTREMELY friendlier than the locals in America. Even with ordering food, the vendors in Hod Hasharon are extremely patient and understand English very well. As for America, if a vendor cannot understand you, they will most likely ask you to leave or yell at you. This past week, I stayed at a house for Rosh Hashana. Over these few days, I went to multiple Israeli dinners and attempted to add in on conversations that I could barely understand. At the dinners, the family was so welcoming and asked me questions about Alexander Muss and how the program worked. Some Israelis have asked me why I chose Israel. Why did I choose to come here? I usually do not know what to say; it sounds corny to say that I wanted to connect with my roots, but that is the truth. I am currently at the house of the family I was staying with for Rosh Hashanah, and they keep telling me to “make [myself] at home” and to “eat as much as possible”. I assume that this is exactly how my family would act if we had a guest from Israel, but something about it was different. Also, it amazes me that Israelis loves American music. I mean, I love Israeli music but a lot of Americans do not. As for the Israeli history, this country has so much beauty within everything. America is fine and all but ISRAEL is so beautiful! Having the land of Israel as my classroom is the most amazing learning experience I could have ever asked for. Reading, writing, and speaking is worth nothing if you cannot truly imagine the story in which you are reading about. Last week, we learned about Shmuel and Shaool’s journeys. Shmuel was a prophet who was told to find a king for Israel. He stumbles upon Shaool, who he insists MUST be king. After learning the story, we were able to hike Mt. Gilboa. When Shaool becomes king, he allows the people to plunder and ironically died on Mt. Gilboa. In America, I would sit in class, bored as ever and fall asleep. But in Israel, I am genuinely excited to go to class and learn about our nation’s history. This is quite different to me because I HATE history; it is the one subject that bores me. I never truly understood why I needed to know the past if I was living in the present. These past two weeks at Muss have taught me that we learn our people’s history not only to learn where we came from but how these events impact who we are and what we believe.