So far my time in Israel has been amazing, especially since I am getting to experience everything I am learning about outside the classroom. I find it amazing that I can learn something in class and then actually go see it at the site it actually happened. Experiential learning is the best part about this experience for me. At school here on muss, I am fully engaged in what we're learning when we are outside using the outdoors as our classroom.

When we go on a tiyul, I get to see and learn in a different way, actually experience it and end up really understanding what we are learning. For example, right at the beginning of the program we learned about a strata, which is a layer of ancient civilization. When my core teacher explained it in class, I had trouble fully understanding the concept. However, when we went to Tel Gezer, our first tiyul, and I actually saw a strata with my own eyes and it clicked. Experiences like this is what I really enjoy about our tiyulim. Learning on tiyulim helps me retain information and fully lets me understand and involve myself into the topic we are discussing. An another example of using the outdoors as classroom concept was at Masada. Before hiking, we discussed why we would actually be hiking Masada, what happened in history at Masada and why it is so important to us today. I didn't really get why we needed to hike super early in the morning to see what was at the top. After doing the long hike in the morning, seeing the AMAZING sunrise in the morning and all that was at the top that related to what we were learning was so intriguing and I truly loved every second of it… even the very early long hike. Seeing pictures and having a discussion doesn't even compare to the real experience. My favorite part is that by taking notes and learning at places during tiyulim I understand what Israel has to offer and all its history. I feel like I belong here, and when going to a spot in Israel, I am a student rather than a tourist. Muss is nothing like regular school in the United States, I love every second of our outdoor tiyulim and all that it has to offer me.