Today was a long day. We began with a lesson and then a hike. This image exemplifies the difficulty of the hike and how it was a communal experience, with everyone involved.

Har Gilboa was our first full Tiyul! It was a long day with a lot of activity and adventure which I loved personally.

It’s been weird living in a foreign country! I have traveled outside of the United States before, but I have never experienced being out of my comfort zone for a long period of time before this trip. My first few weeks have been so fun, though!! I think it’s really interesting to observe the differences between Israelis and Americans–there’s definitely a lot of them!

After living in Israel for two weeks now, I can definitely say there are many differences between America and Israel, but overall it is easier than I expected to be an American living here. This may be because I am attending an English speaking school and living with American students.

After being in Israel for a little over two weeks, a few of the cultural differences between Israel and the United States are clear. To start, there is a language barrier between the students at HSI, and the people we interact with in Hod Hasharon. Before arriving on campus, I was told by many people that almost everyone in Israel spoke english. This is why on my first night out in town, I was caught off guard when all of the menus were in Hebrew, and the waiters and waitresses spoke barely any english. After being here for a couple of weeks, it has become much easier to communicate using the few hebrew words that I know, and using hand gestures. I have also found the language barrier to actually be a really good learning experience and its preparing me for other times when I may not speak the native language.

Being an American in Israel is less difficult than I expected. Yes, the language barrier can be challenging, but thanks to Google Translate, that is not a very big issue! I have found that by being in an environment where English is not the main language, it sets me up for success as a world traveler. I am able to work around the language barrier by using hand gestures and the few Hebrew words I know, which allows me to communicate with non-english speakers.

This week has been a whirlwind. I started off the weekend by leaving to spend Shabbat with family friends. It was nice to get away and I took a friend with me, but by Saturday night we were all missing each other and glad to be back in the Hod.

This past week has been so jam packed. We started off the week at a Crusade castle. Here, Christian crusaders lived while trying to win Jerusalem back over from Muslims. Here they did not assimilate but stayed their own. Although we were not able to see a lot of the castle due to construction, the parts that we saw were amazing. It was a pretty big castle with a lot of stone. Next, we went to a hot spring to eat lunch and swim. After that was Tzfat. Tzfat is home to mysticism and kabbalah. There are a lot of art vendors selling beautiful art and jewelry. We met a kabbalist named Avraham. Originally from Michigan, he became enticed by the Kabbalah and decided to move to Israel. Here, he makes beautiful art that explains the kabbalah.

This was a crazy week! It felt like we were hardly on campus yet we covered so much ground as far as Israeli history! We have finally gotten up to the period in history just before and during the time of the establishment of the State of Israel. This week we travelled to different areas of Israel in order to explore what life was like for a Jew during the time of the establishment of the land, and how Jews have continued to live in Israel up to today. Up until now we have traveled to ancient cities like Tzfat and Jerusalem to see what life must have been like during those times. This week we finally have begun to learn about what life is like for the more modern Jew since the establishment of Israel in a more recently founded city, the city of Tel Aviv.

At precisely 3:30 am this Sunday morning we landed back home in Israel, and I could not say I have felt happier. These past two weeks have been quite the experience here on Muss. Two weeks ago, it is hard to believe, was the very week leading up to Purim. Purim in Israel is, to say the least, a party and a half. Before celebrating Purim though, we had a week filled with studies of the Holocaust and the years prior to and following the war for the people and land of Israel. In that week we went to Acco (a prison for many people in the times following the war), Atlit (a pretty beach, and also a deserted British camp where people first came to Israel from Europe during the time of Aliyah Bet), Yad Vashem (the Holocaust Museum of Israel), and heard from numerous speakers about the journey of their lives during the time of the establishment of the modern State of Israel. It was a very interesting week leading up to the big holiday!

Hi!! I realized that you don’t know that much about me. I’m Amy Shugar and I live in Phoenix, Arizona. I’ve lived there my whole life but all of my family lives in Canada. When people first meet me, something they wouldn’t expect from me is that I’m TERRIFIED of birds. I see one and I run the other direction and my friends think it’s hilarious. Where we were today there was a huge cage with a million birds in it and I wouldn’t even go close to it.

I am now almost two weeks into my Israel experience and I could not be having a better time. I have awesome friends, great teachers, fabulous Madrichim, and I love my room and roommates. It really could not get any better. Now being almost three weeks into the experience I have noticed how Israel and the United States are different.

When you come to another country, there are bound to be cultural differences. Here, I have found many things about Israeli culture that differ from the culture in the United States.

To begin, I want to say that I love Israel and the Israeli people so much. Although you would not be incorrect by assuming the stereotypical “Israeli” is the manners and behavior in which Israelis would uphold, but you would not be correct either. I remember that before we left, Rabbi Litcofsky sat down our group and showed us cartoons illustrating the differences is Israeli culture and American culture, and addressed the stereotypes that Israelis are often labeled with. At that time, I thought of this as an overreaction and that they can’t be that different from Americans. However, after being here for about 2 weeks, I can say that I was wrong, but in a good way.

After spending a good amount of time here in Israel, I have noticed that there are many cultural differences and similarities between Americans and Israelis. There are many little cultural observations that once you spend time in the country you start to notice, like the language barrier talking between English and Hebrew.

I always tend to write these blogs at night, as I feel as I am more in tune with myself and can reflect on my experiences in Israel. I have been in Israel for a pretty substantial amount of time now, away from my parents, family, and country in which I primarily reside in. I have to say even though I have been in Israel for a pretty long time, I still feel like I am in America, but in a good way.

So, yet again, I have a new favorite experience on Muss. On Tuesday, February 12th, we went to Jerusalem to continue our learning on the second temple period. In Jerusalem, we first visited a completely proportional and accurate model of the second temple and Jerusalem during that period. We learned that Herod, a crazy lunatic paranoid ruler wishing to be remembered, built this incredible city for the Jews.

The Tiyul that we took today at Megiddo was definitely one of the more beautiful tiyuls that we have had so far. Personally one story that we heard today was the story of Eliyahu the prophet and Ahav.

This photo was taken on February 6th, 2019 at the Kotel in Jerusalem. The Kotel is a significant part of the lives of many Jews, as it is one of the holiest places of the Jewish Religion. Being here made me really emotional. Although I had already been in Israel for a couple weeks, being at the Kotel made me feel like I was at the heart of Judaism.

This photo was taken on February 5th while we were hiking down Mount Gilboa. On the mountain we took a few stops. The first stop we took was before we began the actual hike where we learned about the Israelites’ need for a King, and Gideon’s attempt at uniting them.