By Albany Nelson, Bus 4 Participant
I’ve always liked being Jewish. I’ve always loved the culture and asked many pondering questions since I was young. For so long I asked my parents for a trip to Israel year after year after year. Every year they would say “maybe next year”. So, when I heard that there was an opportunity to go to Israel on scholarship because I went to Camp Kalsman I told my mom right away. After a long discussion and after I gathered evidence on why I should go, my Hanukkah present on the fourth night was that I would be going to Israel this summer. As you can imagine, I was ecstatic. I knew I wanted to learn more about what being Jewish really meant to me as a person and I knew I wanted to learn more Hebrew. What I didn’t know, though, was that those goals would remain the same, however, have a whole new meaning once I got to Israel. It’s been one week and I’ve already learned more Hebrew than I ever thought I would. Although I don’t have to use it all the time because most people speak English, I have already ordered my lunch in Hebrew!
