Hi Rollins! While everyone, including myself, is getting ready to return back to Rollins for the spring semester, I am trying to unpack from my incredible semester in Israel. I got back home to Dahlonega, Georgia on Tuesday night and have barely touched my suitcase. Part of this is because the jet lag and time…
Category: Israel: Tel Aviv Univ
Midterm Update
Hi Rollins!! While most of my friends are finishing up their semesters, I just finished my midterms. I have mixed feelings because I realized today that I will be home in just one month. Part of me misses the United States, my home, my family, my dogs, and Rollins. The other part of me does…
Happy First Day of School!
Happy first day of class! Well, I guess that it’s more like happy midterms at Rollins. For me, the first day of class was just a week ago. The Israeli semester runs from October to January, because it starts after the Jewish new year! This is good because it meant I had a 5-week fall…
Tel Aviv to Paris: Whoa
שלום! Oh so much has happened within the last two months since I departed to Israel until January!! I finished Ulpan (my seven week Hebrew intensive) and am now on a five week break for the Jewish High Holy Days. The first two weeks of my break were extra special because my Mom came to…
The Beginning of my Israeli Adventure
Hey y’all! This Sunday marks three weeks since I left home to study abroad in Tel Aviv, Israel. Coming here, I had no idea what to expect. Although I grew up Jewish, Hebrew was not a language spoken around me and the sabbath was not a sabbath but just another day of the week. I…
Ben Gurion Airport
In an hour i will be on a plane to New York. As any person who has studied abroad knows, it changes you. This is also the case for me. I had quite a few expectations and ideas of how studying in Israel would be, yet I could not have prepared myself for what I experienced…
Finally Started Classes
Just a couple weeks ago I finally started classes here in Israel. During the summer I took the intensive Hebrew course called Ulpan, then we had a month long break to explore Israel until the semester started. During that break was when the violence between the Jews and Arabs started, as I’m sure most people…
Exploring Jerusalem
Living in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem feels like its a world away. Especially with all of the current violence, its hard to remember how close the holy city really is. Before all of the recent chaos began, I took a 45 minute bus ride to Jerusalem and stayed at a hostel for a few days to…
Visiting Ancient Caesarea
We went on a group trip to the ancient port city of Caesarea, about an hour north of Tel Aviv by bus. It was built by King Herod around 13BCE to improve relations with the Roman Empire. The original structures were mostly destroyed during the many different times the city was captured. It saw many…
Tel Aviv Graffiti
Coming to Tel Aviv, I was not prepared for the onslaught of graffiti. Studying in such an ancient place one would assume that everything looks like its been there for hundreds of years. This is not the case in Tel Aviv. Though it backs up to the ancient port city of Jaffa, the actual city of…