Long overdue!

Shalom Chaverim,

It has been quite sometime since my last post. Since the beginning of orientation, I have had little time to work on my blog. Right now even I should be doing my many readings for class, but a short blog post is way over due. Wow, where to begin?!
First, orientation was a crazy week. I met so many new students from all over the world. Many parts of the week were boring, learning about the school, rules, schedules etc. But I knew this was an inevitable beginning to the school year. After a few days of orientation on campus, the entire first year international school went on a 2 day trip to the south. In brief here is an outline of our trip: We boarded your typical tour busses early in the morning Wednesday and headed first to the Lahav Forests, for group training with our assigned groups that we were with for the entire orientation week. We then went to Sde Boker, where Ben Gurion, the first Prime Minister of Israel is buried. Then to Beduin tents where we stayed the night, had a "Beduin meal", and evening party. In the morning, after a long night with little sleep, we boarded the busses and went for an early morning hike. From there we had a long bus ride to the Dead Sea. After a couple hours there, it was time to head back to Herzliya. I was very ready to get back to our apartment and begin classes.
    I am now in my second week of classes. I can tell it is going to be very difficult with lots and lots of reading, but I am happy here and like the people in my program. I don't have much time now to explore the rest of Israel, but Herzliya is a nice place to be and all my friends are here. We enjoy spending time together whether on campus, in class, making Shabbat dinner, or going out on the weekends.

   I must get back to my studies now, but I hope everyone reading wherever you may be is well and staying informed with current issues including the upcoming US elections as well as the rapid renewal of rockets hitting southern Israel.
Until next time.
Lots of love,
Hannah Yael

 Friends making Shabbat dinner

Orientation trip Lahav Forest

 Sde boker

 Morning hike