Sar-El: One week in the IDF

Me & my roommate, Lindsey

For our Hanukkah break we were given the opportunity to volunteer on an Israeli army base for one week. Of course I signed up! Our group of 14 people went to a base East of Jerusalem. It was an armour and battle tanks base, in other words: TANKS EVERYWHERE! As soon as we got there we were assigned our bunks and given our uniforms. Or should I say given someone else’s uniform! I could definitely fit two of me in those pants. Even with the belt they wouldn’t stay up, I must have had a “plumber butt” all day long! Haha, so the next day I got ‘smaller’ pants, which were still 5 sizes too big. If there’s one thing to say about the uniform, it’s pretty damn comfortable and makes you feel kind of badass. I liked it.

Battle Tanks: A common site on the base

The Schedule: Everyone is on a schedule, here was ours for the week:

Breakfast – 7:30

Flag Raising – 8:40

Work – 8:45

Lunch – 12:00

Work – 13:00 – 17:00

Dinner – 18:30

Evening Activity – 19:30

Some work in the warehouse

The Work: We emptied out warehouses and organized them, cleaned out tanks and guns, and finally worked in the kitchen… as a “Master Chef”!! For some strange reason my favourite days were the two days working in the kitchen. I got to make salads, make schnitzel, talk with the soldiers (in Hebrew!) and basically got to see everything that went down in the kitchen. Israeli’s definitely don’t waste ANYTHING!

Emptying out warehouses was not my forte. The work was repetitive and all the manual labour in the uniform, in the dust and in the hot sun was not fun. In the end, we were there to help where they needed help… so I definitely felt good about what I was doing.


Enough schnitzel to feed an army... literally!

The Army Food: Let me tell you a secret, the food in the army is not so bad! Granted I only had to eat it for one week, but it’s pretty decent. Some sort of egg is served at every meal, there’s always a ton of salads and veggies, rice or couscous, and some kind of protein. If all else fails there’s always bread and hummus! Breakfast and Dinner were always dairy and lunch always had some kind of meat. Lunch always seemed to be the best meal of the day, I would always leave full! BUT… what I loved the most about breakfast and dinner was the pudding and the chocolate milk in a bag! These two things became my addiction for the week… now I’m in withdrawal.

All in all the food was good, it was edible, and I never left hungry!

My 3 best friends for the week: Souvganiot, pudding & chocolate milk in a bag!

The training, drills and evening activities: Our two madrichot (counsellors) for the week were these two young soldiers, Michelle and Smadar. These girls were absolutely adorable and amazing people. They’re so mature for their age, the army forces them to grow up… fast! Every morning we did the flag raising. One person was assigned to raise the flag and salute it, the rest of us stood in lines of three. We also had to “accept our commander” every time we met with Michelle and Smadar. We called this the Hakshev. We did it so many times each day that by the end of the week I knew these lines by heart. We named our group the Kalbot Meshugaot (in English: Crazy Bitches).

Madrichot: Smadar and Michelle

One evening 4 combat soldiers who fight in Gaza came in to give us a lesson on guns. We learned about the different types of guns and their uses, the parts of the gun and how to load it, and the 3 different shooting positions. After all these demonstrations we then got to practice for ourselves. My favourite was when you had to fall from standing position onto your stomach while holding the gun straight… not so easy! I came away with a few bruises from that one.

Also, the next evening we had a soldier come in and do some boot camp drills with us. One of the drills was to crawl on our stomachs in the dust and gravel. Again, a few more bumps and bruises for all of us. Even with those little “boo-boos”, I actually really enjoyed the army’s boot camp, so where can I sign up?!

Boot camp drill: Crawling on the gravel

It was good to come home on Thursday, not to have to put on the smelly, dusty and dirty uniform once again. Not to have to sleep in squeaky bunks. Not to shower under a thin stream of water… oh boy do I miss it! Don’t get me wrong, I loved my week in the army, but I was damn glad to get home. Would I do it again? 100%. It gave me such appreciation and respect for all the soldiers that do this daily for their country. Thank you to them!

Here are some additional fun stuff from the week:

Our first morning waking up on the base was to a beautiful rainbow!

I had to share this: A note from one of our many evening activities

Gotta love self-timer photos!



“It’s Thursday afternoon and I’m outta here!”

In Israel, because of Shabbat, the weekend is Friday and Saturday. Therefore, come Sunday morning it’s back to school?! Huh?! I want my Sundays back!! Anyways, I just had to get used to it. I’ve spent my weekends differently since I’ve been here. Some weekends I’ve stayed in Ashdod to either eat at home, eat with my host family or with my real family who’s been in town. My host family was amazing, I’ve only eaten there twice, but they were incredible. Such open and warm people, I wish I could’ve gone more often but I decided to spend most of my weekends out of Ashdod. However, one Shabbat I did decide to stay here and be lazy. So me and my roommate, Lindsey, made dinner. The menu? - Pancakes, chocolate chip pancakes, and cinnamon pancakes. In that moment, it was the best decision ever! Mmmm!

Most weekends I went to Tel Aviv and spent it with Laura and some other friends. We either have our Shabbat dinners in restaurants or at friends’ houses. It’s always difficult to travel on the weekends because of Shabbat. All the buses stop running by Friday afternoon and only start up again after Shabbat on Saturday night. It can get frustrating, but by now I’m used to it.

About two weeks ago I went to Caesarea to meet some new family members. Edmond, who is my father’s cousin, his wife and their family. They have 7 children, so it was quite the table load… and table load of FOOD! I don’t think I’ve ever been fed so much in my life, and to top it all off I was also sent home with a doggy bag. I literally needed a whole other stomach to get through the weekend. Since the food was just too good to pass up it broke my heart to have to say “no”. But yes, there reached a point where I just had to say “no”. Hhmmm, let me try that again “no thanks”. Ok, uummm… “I’m so full, it’s delicious, but I can’t eat anymore”. Ok, one last shot… “I WILL EXPLODE!” Haha, they didn’t understand “no”. Saying no means “take a taste now while it’s hot, and eat it later… in about 15 mins!” My little story: I got there Friday night and had a dinner that could’ve easily fed 5 people, and those 5 people would’ve been stuffed! The next morning I woke up *still full*, and sat down to eat breakfast. Breakfast consisted of: breads, salads, dafina (which is a meal itself!) and then came the ‘actual’ meal of chicken, meat bourekas, rice, vegetables and more! After the dafina I was literally sweating because I was too full, so you can only imagine how I looked at that new plate of food… Lots of fear in my eyes!! (I guess you can only appreciate this story if you know what dafina is…)

Meeting new family in Caesarea

On a more serious note, the family was amazing to me! They immediately made me feel welcome, I heard plenty of stories and I laughed all night at the table with them. I will definitely be back for more visits before I leave Israel, but next time please remind me to bring my second stomach!

I've also got to meet a few others from the family. My great aunt Fiby, my dad's cousin, Rachel, and a few others from that side. Last weekend I went to my Aunt Marcelle’s for Shabbat dinner. She’s in from France and is staying in Ashdod. I also got to see my g-d parents from Montreal, Ralph and Jocelyne. We had a nice little family dinner, and I got to share some of my experiences with them. Having the opportunity to spend time with them in Israel makes it that much more special. There’s just something about this country!

To many, many more wonderful weekends in and outside of Israel! “L’chaim!”

Marcelle & I in France

Whatup Mekif Alef?!

Ok, so the main part of this program (WHY I’m actually here) is to teach English to the Israeli students in Ashdod. I got paired up with Zach and we were assigned to a high school called Mekif Alef.

School's logo

A little bit about Mekif Alef: It is the first high school that was established in Ashdod in the late 1950’s. It is an “army school” as I like to call it. Basically about half of the students wear the air force uniform because once they graduate high school they will be sent to the air force unit in the army. So even at 14 years old they start wearing the uniform everyday and must follow the Israeli army rules. Also, I’ve definitely noticed that these students tend to be more disciplined and respectful in comparison to the other students.

Now, a little bit about Zach: He’s from New Jersey (poor him!). He’s 21 years old and still in College, he took a semester off to come volunteer in Israel, and will be returning for another semester of school in January. If I must say one thing: I couldn’t have asked for a better partner! I’ve really gotten to know him in the past 3 months and he’s a real sweetheart, a little crazy at times… but overall a genuine guy.

What do we do at school? Well, we go in every day around 8:00 am and sit in the teacher’s lounge while we wait for students to walk in saying “Anglit? Anglit?” This means “English? English?” We get students with all different levels of spoken English. We’ve done everything from talking to classes of students about our lives back home, to teaching small groups of students the Alphabet and how to read basic words, to having full on conversations with those who are fairly fluent in English. Every day is full of surprises, headaches and laughter. It is not easy being a teacher! Especially in an Israeli high school! Ooouuuffff! I’ve met some unique students. For example, just the other day I spoke with a Japanese Jewish boy from Italy. Talk about a mixture! Most of the students at the school also speak Russian, and there are quite a few that even speak French. So some days I speak 3 different languages and I get a little confused. I guess I shall call it Frenglew (French-English-Hebrew).

Zach & I after school one day

The students also like to play jokes on us. The best one was this student of ours who we met within our first week, he told us his name was Boris. He’s been one of our favourite students, and his English is pretty good! Finally after three months of calling this kid Boris, someone asked: “Why do you always call him Boris?” … “That’s not his name”. WHAT?! The kid started laughing and told us his real name, Arcadi. I guess he thought it would be too difficult for us “Silly Americans” to pronounce so he randomly decided his name would be Boris. Hahaha, regardless of the truth, we still call him Boris!

Some of the conversations with the more advanced speakers have taught me a lot about Israeli mentality, its culture and the army. I’ve definitely picked up a few Israeli traits since I’ve been here, hopefully you will recognize me when I come home! Along with meeting some great students, I’ve also spoken with many of the teachers. One girl in particular is so sweet, Loren. She’s like a student teacher in all high school subjects, not only English. I can see a lot of myself in her, and I’ve really enjoyed spending time with her in school and outside of school.

Loren & I

All in all, the teachers are thrilled to have us there. Zach & I offer a mixture of accents: American and Canadian. Some days we really do feel like we’re making a difference, and on those days it feels great.

'Vroom Vroom' around Israel

For the Sukkot break we had 10 days off from the program to do whatever we wanted. Sooooo… me and 2 other roommates, Dotan and Manny, planned to rent a car, grab a tent and some sleeping bags and go on a MEGA road trip all across Israel! Thankfully I did keep a little journal of what we did each day so I can give some good details:

Day 1: We took our time getting up in the morning, packed our bags, picked up the rental car... and were on our way! I was the “designated driver” and I was so damn excited to drive all over Israel. I expected some challenging roads along the way, but we would make it our adventure! We drove up from Ashdod to Nahariya where we camped on the beach for the night. We met up with 4 others from the group: Josh, Arielle, Lindsey and Gabby. The next day the 3 girls were starting a Sea-to-Sea hike from the Mediterranean to the Kineret, GOOD LUCK!



Camping on the beach in Nahariya

Day 2: We woke up in the tent sweating bullets, with sand in all kinds of places that you do not want sand, brushed our teeth and off we went. There was no sleeping in! Our first stop was further north to a place called Rosh Ha’Nikra: A love story between the Sea and the Mountain. Its main attraction is the caves. They are formed by the work of the sea water which dissolved the rocks forming tunnels and sea caves. After walking through these tunnels, we watched a light and sound show about the site and off we went to our next destination: “try to see Lebanon” as I like to call it. We drove up to the most northern place that we could find and luckily asked a tour guide for directions. He ended up showing us around a Kibbutz, a museum and some amazing views of Lebanon and the West Galilee. I even got to hold a piece of a rocket that was shot into the Kibbutz from Lebanon. Kind of cool right?! By then we had worked up quite an appetite, so our free tour guide suggested a place to eat called Arazim. Inhaled some good pita, hummus, falafel and shwarma… stomach ache much?! Next, was Akko! By the time we got there and found parking amongst the chaos it was almost sunset time. We walked around the marina, around the shops and around some old sites. It was beautiful. We watched the sunset on the sea, took some pictures and called it a day. After driving around looking for a camp site we finally fell on a nature reserved called Habonim. It was on the beach, we were able to set up our tent in the sand, use the bathrooms and take a nice cold shower (where there was a line-up to use the ONE outdoor shower!) Oh yes, the joys of camping… and there would be many more nights to come.

Rosh Ha'Nikra caves

Akko old city

Day 3: Haifa! Wow, what a beautiful city, and it is built on a mountain! We took a tour of the Bahai Gardens which were breathtaking, then headed for the Stella Maris church, where we had to wait 2 hours for it to open from “lunch break” or whatever. In the mean time we looked for Elijah’s cave… which we never found and later became a running joke for the rest of the trip “Where’s Elijah’s cave?!?!” The church ended up NOT being worth the 2 hour wait, but that’s ok, we had some good laughs during our waiting time. We then left Haifa and headed to Caesarea where we visited a site with the old Roman Theatre and the Crusader City. Ate on a café on the beach, and decided to head back to Habonim for another night of camping. We were too lazy to search for another campsite, and besides there was no need!



Bahai Gardens in Haifa

Falling in love with Caesarea

 Day 4: Woke up for the 3^rd morning in a row to the sounds of the sea. So peaceful. Hopped in our little car and went to Daliat El Carmel. There we visited an old church where people were coming to get baptised (or something along those lines, I wasn’t exactly sure what was going on). From the roof of the church we had an incredible view of the Israel Valley. Ok… so here is where I had the best pita and hummus of my life: Pita Druzim! We headed down into this little Druze village, and stopped for some food. The woman was making the pita as we ordered, which is more of a large & flat pita. The hummus was wrapped inside and was so warm and delicious. Mmmmmm…! After this deliciousness we drove into the Israel Valley to look for some good hikes. Luckily we found a couple: Mount Fort, Ein Ziv and Ein Tamir. All of these hikes were worth every drop of sweat! In Ein Tamir we had a nice surprise at the end of the hike. We found this pitch black cave which led to a spring. We needed a flash light in order to walk through it because it was literally pitch black. The cave was a walk through cold, cold water and at one point we even needed to crawl because the cave was really low. I’ll admit I did feel a little claustrophobic in there. By the time we had hiked back to the car it was getting late. We called the girls who were doing the Sea-to-Sea hike and met up to camp with them for the night somewhere near Mount Meron. Josh also joined us and we made a BBQ in the woods. I don’t think I’ve ever eaten so many hot dogs… EVER! That night was an experience. First of all our tent was set up on a hill, so all night we were sliding to the bottom of the tent. Second, there were wild boars roaming around outside. We could hear them make noises and were a little freaked out that they would attack us. Well, I was freaked out! In the end I passed out because I was too tired to worry about those stupid pigs anymore.

Mount Fort - What a view!

Day 5: Went to Tzfat where everything is painted blue and white. This is one of the more religious cities in Israel, and we definitely noticed. After eating some of the best falafel we then drove up north to the Misgav Am lookout. From there we could see right into Lebanon, it is so close to the border. There we met an old Israeli man who kindly told us a few stories and pointed out a few things to us from the lookout. He was quite the funny character! He kept asking Dotan “Why you ask so many questions?” Haha, we had some good laughs with him. It ended up being a bit of a foggy day, so we decided to take it easy, hang out in the Aroma café and charge our phones, cameras and use the internet. That night was the first HOT shower I had taken in 5 days and it was magical! I can still remember the feeling of cleanliness. Too bad the camp site smelled like horse poo…

One of my favorite pictures taken in Tzfat



Day 6: First we went to Tel Dan Nature Reserve located on the Dan River. It was like stepping into a mini wonderland for hiking. Next, we went to Banias Waterfalls, Springs and Floating Trail. All I can say is that the waterfall at the end of the trail looked like paradise. Afterwards, we went to Nimrod Fortress. I still laugh at this name, Nimrod! It is located in a magical mountain scenery on the slopes of Mount Hermon. There we discovered all different trails in the fortress and made our own little adventures and photo shoots. After this we went to find Syria. We were told to go into a Druze village called Majdal Shams and to find a lookout point from there. Well, we didn’t end up finding the lookout point but we definitely found Syria because we came to a large fence and couldn’t drive any further. There we saw many army tanks drive by behind the fence and we met some little kids and their crazy dog who took a liking for us. Quickly snapped some photos and got out of there. We ended up driving around the mountains for an hour or so, met up with the 3 girls and Josh (aka: Josie and the pussycats) and went for dinner at Dag Al Hadan. This is where the Dan River meets the Hatzbani River, and the restaurant is actually located right on the river. We ate like kings and queens that night, well I did anyways. All you can eat salads and potatoes, the fish is served to you FULL (head, tail and all), and we had some good wine from the Golan. Finally, just because I was missing home a little, I ordered the Apple crumble for desert… not as good as my mom makes it but gave me a little taste from home. By the end of this meal, we all had bellies out to Timbuktu! Time to sleep: where? IN TIPIS! Yes, I loved this night. We found this campsite in Nimrod (haha, once again) and met the drunk owner who rode over on his horse to meet us. The best part of the night was that we did not have to set up our tent again! Woot Woot… And of course, my first time sleeping in a tipi was a night to remember.



Banias Waterfall



Nimrod Fortress



Dag Al Hadan Fish



Day 7: We woke up in the tipi to the view of Mount Hermon right in front of us and about 10 horses. I, of course, jumped on one the horses and wanted to take him for a ride. But no, I couldn’t run away with the horse, so I got off and got into our little car again for another day of adventures! And adventures we got. Kayaking! We did this for about 3 hours on a site called Kfar Blum. Took our time, swam, lounged in the kayak, attempted to race and quickly gave up. We then went into the city of Tiberias to buy some meat for our BBQ that evening, then headed to Hamat Gader hot springs. These can be found next to the Jordan border. Can I just say one word: eeeww. Because they are natural springs the sulphur smells like rotten eggs, and therefore we smelled like rotten eggs. It was not pretty but worth the stench. I would definitely go back for more hot tub time! Next it was time to BBQ, eat and sleep. All this goodness happened on a campsite on the Kineret across from Tiberias. At night the lights from the city were amazing. ZzZzZzZz…



Waking up to Mount Hermon, Tipis and Horses

Camping & BBQ-ing



Day 8: Hiked to the Meshushim pools (Hexagon pools). They get their name from the hexagonal shapes of the rocks. Next we headed to the Yehudia Forest and waterfalls. Because it was the Sukkot holiday, the site was closing early. Unfortunately we weren’t able to complete the hike, so I definitely need to go back! That night we camped on the Kineret again, but it was so windy that setting up our tent was a nightmare. It actually took an hour, when it normally took us 5 minutes. I had to sit inside the tent to hold it from flying away while the boys attempted to tie it down. It was insane! I thought that once I fell asleep the wind would carry us into the Kineret, and we would wake up floating in the Sea!


Meshushim Pools

Yehudia Forest: Waterfall

Day 9: Time to head South! Drove through the West Bank and somehow felt safe. Went to Ein Gedi and did a beautiful hike there called Wadi Arugot. Next, the moment I’ve been dreaming of the entire trip: time to “mud up” and float in the Dead Sea! We dug for our own mud and lathered up from head to toe. Ooops, I got some in my eye and suffered hard for a good 5 minutes. It burns like you can’t imagine and you have no escape because your hands are full of mud and the only fresh water is a 10 minute walk from you. Try doing that with one blind eye through a maze of rocks. No thank you! So basically you suck it up. After getting our float on in the Sea, leaving with our skin feeling soft like a baby’s bottom, we headed towards Masada. Set up tent and camped right at the bottom of the mountain. Wonderful!

Wadi Arugot Hike 

Mud Monsters in the Dead Sea

Day 10: Woke up at 4:30am in order to hike up Mesada for the sunrise at 5:30am. Was I tired? No, I was exhausted beyond belief, but somehow knowing that I was going to see something so beautiful I found the strength to climb that mountain. Knowing that it was only 10:30pm in Montreal, I called home. I will forever remember hiking up Mesada to the beautiful view of the sunrise on the Dead Sea while talking with my mom on the phone in Montreal. A memory for a lifetime. After the sun had ‘done its magic’ we drove south into the Negev (aka: Desert). Luckily we found what we were looking for, these flour caves. We call them flour caves because the walls actually give off a floury powder. It was quite the maze to walk through these caves, and it was hot! After all it is the desert! We hiked up to the small crater, drove through the big crater and camped overnight in the biggest crater with Bedouins and ate their food. I must say that it is only in the desert that I learned to appreciate really warm and dusty water. When you’re thirsty, you’re freaking thirsty and will drink anything. “Give me that bottle of water!!”

Sunrise on the Dead Sea from Mesada 

Flour Caves... wanna bake a cake anyone? 

Small Crater in the Negev

Day 11: I think it was time to finally get home, we stopped by to say a quick hello to Ben Gurion’s grave and then continued on home to Ashdod J I think you can all guess the first thing I did: SHOWER!!! If I can say one thing about our road trip it would be that I definitely fell in love with the country. “I love Israel” and it will always hold a very special place in my heart.

Camping at the bottom of Mesada

I love Israel

“Happy New Year” Israel Style

This year I had the privilege of spending the high holidays in Israel. Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur.

Pastilla, mmmmmmm!!

Rosh Hashana in Tel Aviv: Gabriel, a friend from Montreal, invited Laura and I to do the prayers and eat dinner at his brother’s apartment. His brother’s wife cooked the most incredible meal, including a dish called pastilla. It is this semi-sweet chicken pie, and O.M.G. it was to die for. By far one of the best plates I have eaten in a very long time! The next day we had tickets to go see David Guetta. I can’t even describe my excitement, but if you know my love for his music then you can only imagine how happy I was that day. The concert was held outside in a park in Tel Aviv. It was FULL. People were dancing everywhere, screaming, jumping around and some were just simply crazy. So yes, this New Year couldn’t have started any better. Incredible food, genuine people, good music and of course.. the beach! “Shana Tova!”  -Happy New Year!

Selichot at the Kotel: Between Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur I decided that I wanted to go to the Kotel to ask for forgiveness. There was an organised bus specifically for this that took us from Ashdod to Jerusalem and back home again. I went with a few people from the group. I have never seen so many people at the wall. You had to push your way through crowds and crowds just to get into the praying area, and then you had to literally fight your way in order to touch the wall. It was very impressive to see how many people came to the wall at this time of the year. Before I left that night, I made sure that I made it up to the wall in order to put a few notes in. Even that seemed impossible to find a vacant spot in the wall, the notes were overflowing onto the ground.

Yom Kippur in Ashdod: My aunt from France was in Israel at this time. She hosted me for Yom Kippur. I ate dinner with my aunt and uncle and spent the entire Yom Kippur with them. What I loved about this day was that all of Israel shuts down for the duration of the holiday. There is not a single car on the road, no stores are open and everything just seems so peaceful. This is because almost everyone is observing the holiest day of the year. The synagogues are packed, so good luck trying to find a seat! The streets are flooded with people. Everyone wears all white and walks in the streets. The kids all come out with their bicycles and scooters and have the time of their lives. Since there are no cars, it’s a free for all! They go nuts! This Yom Kippur was definitely one of the most religious experiences of my life.

I definitely look forward to spending some more holidays in Israel, like Hanukah!

Oh, p.s.!! Gabriel, here is the video of the Tel Aviv beach and the sounds of Matkot! I know you want to come back ;)

Festivals, Sunsets and Food

Festivals: We went to see an Israeli music festival on the beach in Ashdod. It was packed, Packed, PACKED! The stage was set up on the beach near the sea, and everyone was gathered around everywhere in the sand. I honestly think that all of Ashdod and their dogs were there that night. There were people EVERYWHERE! It was such an experience. There was also a street festival where you could buy all sorts of things like jewellery, all kinds of food, clothing, toys… I ended up getting this blue/purple dreadlock braided into my hair. It didn’t last very long though. 3 weeks later I ended up cutting it out. This festival only comes around once a year, so I felt very lucky to be there!

Sunsets: Watching the sunsets in the evening on the beach has been so relaxing. It brings me such peace. We claimed our spot, these ruins. We climb to the top of them and just sit and enjoy the view. Breathing in the fresh air, listening to the waves crash and feeling the heat of the summer air are moments that I will never forget. I’ve enjoyed taking all kinds of sunset pictures. I’ve definitely experimented with the settings on my camera! I absolutely love going to sit alone on the beach, take a walk along the water and just lie in the sand. I wish I could have this available to me everyday for the rest of my life! It seriously does bring me such peace.

Food: Well, need I say more? I just may come home overweight. The food in Israel is a.m.a.z.i.n.g. The falafel, the shwarma, the bourekas, the salads, the pastries, the shakshuka, the hummus, the breads, the sweets, the candy, the nuts… just the fact that almost all the meat is Kosher and that I’m able to eat whatever I want anywhere I want has made me the happiest person on earth. I can go into a restaurant and order chicken, what?! This seems so alien to me but no, it’s true! Only Kosher people can understand this feeling of satisfaction. I keep telling myself that tomorrow I will start a diet, but how can you when everywhere you turn there’s a new food that you just HAVE to try?!

Migrating Down South: Ashdod

Since I’m writing about my adventures 3 months a little too late, I will have to dig deep to remember some stories. But here’s a summary of what went down:

On August 16^th my program was starting in Ashdod, where I would be living for the next 5 months. I had no idea what to expect, but I was so excited for whatever was coming my way. Sarah helped me move from Laura’s apartment in Tel Aviv to my new one in Ashdod. We took a bus, then a train, then a cab to get here but when we did I was relieved to see that I would be living in a beautiful apartment that was 10 minutes from the beach. This would be the life! I met all the other 19 people on the program, I found out I would be living with 6 other people and having to share a room with another girl. My first thought was “well, there goes my privacy!” Thankfully it’s not as difficult as I thought it would be.

Our first week in Ashdod was an orientation week. We got to meet everyone, meet our city coordinators, learn about the program and discover our new surroundings by playing “The Amazing Race: Ashdod”. This is where I got a little nickname: Miss Moses. I was determined to finish that race when everyone else wanted to give up as soon as they found a sushi restaurant! I’m happy to say that I convinced them to not give up and to finish that race.

The next 2 weeks were all about Ulpan (Hebrew studies), beach, sunsets, discovering, meeting people and confusion! A lot of confusion! There were many times where I got on the wrong bus, took a wrong turn or bought the wrong thing at the grocery store. Turns out horseradish and mustard containers look very similar but taste very different. So no, horseradish on my sandwich was not what I planned for that day.

All in all, I was pleasantly surprised with my new home, this new city and of course extremely excited about being 10 minutes away from the beach! I enjoyed every minute of my day just because I was in Israel. I had a permanent smile on my face.