I bet the snowstorm is really nice in NJ 1/27/15

Kibbutz Tzuba is stunning! I loose my breath every time I look at my amazing view of the Judean Hills. Even though I spend eleven hours in a class room every day, when I go to my room for 10 minute breaks between all my classes I look out at the view and it reminds me of how lucky I am for this opportunity. The weather in Israel is not hot yet, as you might expect in a desert, but it is also not in the middle of a massive snow storm. Today it was around 61 degrees which was nice at first but it got cold really fast at night.
 Along with the change in temperature and school day hours, the meals that I eat are also very different from what I'm used to at home. I eat Kosher meals every day which means that I can't mix meat and dairy. In Israel the main meal is lunch, so we always have meat for lunch and dairy for the other two meals. Another strange thing about the food in Israel is that we are offered salad and hummus at every meal, so yes, I have hummus for breakfast. I'm not sure how my mom will take it when I ask for her to get me hummus for breakfast but we'll deal with that in four months.

Departure Day 1/25

This still doesn’t feel real to me. I’m sitting on the plane on my way to Israel and it has’t sunk in that I’ll be away from my friends and family for four months while studying in Israel. This is never something that I thought I would participate in. I always thought the idea of a study abroad program was great, but it never seemed to be right for me because of my busy sports schedule and social life. However, at the same time, I never saw myself becoming a member of AETY (my temple youth group), let alone being on its board. I am so grateful for the opportunities that I have and I am so excited to see what comes of these next four months. I’ll try to keep everyone updated as often as possible, but I can see myself getting carried away with my crazy schedule and life so we’ll see how this goes. Please contact me while I’m here, I want to be updated on all of the things I’ll be missing out on at home! Well nearly seven hours until I land, lets hope this starts to sink in sometime soon and I get some sleep!