I can’t believe I have been here for 2 whole months now. It is crazy how I am half way done, and yet I feel like I just got here. 

We are finally back to Hod (short of Hod Hasharon) after almost 2 long weeks of being in Poland! I am so happy to be back as I was defiantly experiencing HOD-sickness. I love it here. Our first day back on campus was a sleep day. We returned to campus at 7am from the airport and we spent most of the day unpacking and sleeping. It was really nice since we had been on the go for so long. 

The next day we headed north to Haifia and arrived at an old camp that the British converted for holocaust survivors after the holocaust. We saw where they slept and we learned about what they did to keep themselves occupied during such an intense time. Our next stop landed us at the beach where we watched the geysers erupt. We played group games and had a huge arm wrestle competition on the sand. It was so much fun!  

Purim is coming up so we couldn’t miss an opportunity to stop by a mall and shop for our costumes, and of course grab our favorite smoothie from ReBar; our favorite smoothie place.

That night we were introduced to the Druze religion. I had never heard of this religion but the Druze are known to believe in a combination of Islam, Christianity, Gnosticism, Buddhism, and Hinduism. We had a delicious dinner with many different types of food and learned about some of the commonalities we have with the Druze. I think all religions have things in common so when you’re learning about the different types, it’s kind of cool to see some similiarites.

This week we have finally gotten back into the regular routine of attending classes which was a little weird since we hadn’t been in school much because of all of the travel. 

School here is definitely easier than my home school, but it is hard to manage free time and studying. At home there is much more structure, and something that I have learned is that little structure sometimes can lead to poor time management. I have gotten better at my time management but it is definitely a work in progress.

One of our open weekends fell at the end of this week. I love open weekends. An open weekend means I can be signed out for 24 hours to be off campus with a family member or friend. This open weekend I spent it with one of my camp friends, Shira. I go to Camp Beber in Wisconsin and my friend Shira who went with me happens to live 15 minutes from my school here in Hod Hasharon. It’s pretty awesome that she lives in Herzilya. Anyway, I went and stayed with her family and It was nice to be around a family and have family meals. As much as I love my freedom here at Muss, I miss my mom’s cooking. Shira’s family doesn’t speak much English but it was fun to help make homemade pizza for dinner. I was in charge of the tomato sauce and salad and I practiced my hebrew. When I’m around them I definitely have to step up my hebrew game. 🙂

Later that night Shira took me to her friend’s house in Herzliya. It’s pretty awesome to see that even though we’re from different countries and we’re all the same age, we still have similar interests. The only difference was that their English was a bit broken but they were all so welcoming and nice.  In the morning, I used my cooking skills once again and helped make Shakshukah for breakfast. It was to die for, like so so so good. I want to make this when I get home. Did I say it was good? It was so so good.  which was sooo good. Shira and I spent the rest of the day at the beach before I headed back to campus. 

When I got back and reunited with my friends, it was party time. Meaning we pulled our purim costumes out and got ready together. Getting ready for a party is a production for us. All of my friends borrow each other’s clothing, we change multiple times, and it’s a production with what we do with our hair and so forth.  Purim is sorta like the Israeli Halloween so everyone gets dressed up. My school theme for Purim this year was Superheros, and I of course was Batman that night. It was so much fun. We had cotton candy, smoothie, and candy stations. As Purim is the party that doesn’t end, the next day which was actually the real Purim, 3 of my friends and I dressed up as fairies. Yes, as you can see it’s not a party until you have multiple wardrobe changes. 🙂 We ventured off campus as a group and gave mishlacmanot to sick people in the hospital. Basically mishlacmanot is a gift package with food. Giving mishlacmanot is a huge mitzvah. A mitzvah is a yiddish word for good deed. After we delivered the packages, our party continued and we went to a Purim Carnival. My friends and I went bunji-jumping on the trampolines. It was so much fun.

This week was definitely more of a catch up week to recover from Poland, but stay tuned for next week!

Xoxo,