The first blog that I wrote I went over three main goals that I had for this trip. I feel that I have had an amazing once-in-a-lifetime experience while achieving all of these goals. My first goal was to make many close friends and become close with our Madrichim. After the first month of being on this trip I felt like I knew they guys for my whole life. I have two brothers back at home, and here I felt like I had 12 brothers. I am so close with all of them, we have fun every night, and get closer every day. We have bonded so much while traveling around Israel and immersing ourselves into the Jewish culture together. I have also become extremely close with the Msdrichim. The male Madrich Iggy is such an amazing, nice, funny guy who we always joke around. He has a perfect sense of when we are fooling around and when he needs to be strict on us. We have become super close, whether we were talking in Spanish together, or he was dealing with our nightly shenanigans. He has always been there for us.

My second goal for this trip was to learn as much Hebrew as I could. I was placed into the level 4 Hebrew class at the beginning of the trip. All I really knew was the standard block alphabet. No words, phrases, or even the alphabet in cursive. I now can order food for myself, explain to someone who I am, where I live, how old I am, etc. I can even have some pretty basic conversations with some of the local Israeli kids. I feel as though I have learned a lot of Hebrew for only being here for four months and having almost no prior knowledge of the language at all. Not to mention that I was also trying to learn Spanish at the same time. My last goal for this trip was to fall in love with Israel and make Israel my second home. If you have read my past few blogs the answer here is clear. I have absolutely fallen in love with Israel. I have fallen in love with its amazing and unique history, its culture, and the amazing diversity of the people who live here. I cannot imagine someone not falling in love with this country after going on such an amazing and life-changing trip. This trip would not have been the same or as impactful if it was anywhere else in the world. I got to immerse myself into my Jewish heritage and culture while finding my Jewish identity in the most amazing country. I feel that I have accomplished so much more on this trip than just the three goals that I set myself. I had no clue how much this trip was going to teach me and help me grow. This trip has truly been amazing, and none of us could have predicted what a life-changing, impactful, and fun trip this was going to be.