Israel Recap

I realize I brushed over the fact that we got to hang out with 8 Israeli soldiers on my trip. As people have asked me about the trip the theme of them being part of the trip keeps coming up. I made mention of it in my last blog but I didn't really go into much detail. The 8 soldiers joined us as peers and were not on duty. They were there to experience Israel with us. I truly believe that spending time with them is what made our trip amazing. You can never really get a sense of a culture or people without fulling immersing yourself or spending time with locals getting to know them and how they live.

My list of the top 3 things I learned in Israel:

3) These soldiers are fighting to keep Israel as a Jewish state and to make it safe for those who live and visit there. These soldiers are just kids fighting wars and losing their lives for their country. It's totally different than being in the U.S. where your enemies are far away and the wars we do fight leave us clueless as to who or why we are fighting them.

2) Israel is a historic, beautiful, amazing, mysterious, magical place and I can't wait until I get to go back and explore more of Israel on my own terms.

1) Most importantly, Israel is my home too. I never looked at Israel that way until I went there and the first thing I heard was "Welcome Home". As time went on it became more apparent that Israel really is/could be my home. I am considering getting dual citizenship.