For the past several months, I have been living in Israel. The majority of my time I spent studying abroad with Alexander Muss High School in Israel (AMHSI), along with 29 American and Canadian teenagers. While we spent Sunday through Friday morning in school, Saturday was generally our day off or “Open Shabbat”, and an opportunity to go off campus to visit friends and relatives around the country.
Luckily for me, I had many friends in Israel, all of whom I met through Ultimate Peace (UP), an organization that brings together Israeli Jewish, Arab Israeli, and Palestinian youth through the sport of ultimate frisbee. At the end of my study abroad program, I would be staying on in Israel to participate in UP as a CIT (coach in training) for a second summer. Needless to say, I was excited to see my friends and visit them in their cities and villages. Continue reading