Hey

Yo yo yo was good. My name is Ryan. I am a second semester freshman at the university of maryland, and coming here was by far the best choice I ever made. While the size of the school is gigantic, coming from only 1,200 students to a school about 20x that, the adjustment was not so bad. Learning to balance my time of school work and other stuff was a little challenging at first, only because i did nothing through high school, but once the balance is established, life here isn't so bad.

Now how about the real stuff. My campus has a large population of jews. missing classes for jewish holidays is excused and very widely respected. But the time i most recognized my judaism was not during the semester at all. During winter break, i went on a birth right trip to israel through my school's hillel. This 10 day trip allowed me to experience a good portion of israel, and leave me wanting more. For the first few days we stayed in a town in the north named Tiberius. We didn’t get to see much of the town which was a little disappointing, but we got to see a large portion of the north, including Caesarea, Tsfat, and the Golan Heights. One of the main things i remember from this portion of the trip was the jeep tour we took through syrian mine fields on now israeli land. My jeep driver told us that on the sign, it says “danger mines” in hebrew and English. But, he continued, “Do you know what it says in arabic?” We all sat with blank faces and then he told us, "It says ‘picnic area’." after the tour we walked through syrian bunkers as our tour guide told us stories and left us with a new appreciation for the land. After the north, and just in time for shabbat, we went to Jerusalem. Once in this amazing city, it finally kicked in - I was in Israel - the land i have heard so much about my entire life. I get to finally see it for myself. Before we actually got into jerusalem, we had 8 soldiers join us. They stayed with us for 5 days, and made those the best 5 days of the trip. These guys and gals were insane. Within an hour of meeting them and arriving at the hotel, they had already broken an elevator. While staying in Jerusalem, we saw all the big sites, and learned a lot about its history. After jerusalem, we spent one night in a bedouin tent in the middle of the desert. Although it rained the entire time (yes, rained while we were in the desert), we got to experience the bedouin culture first hand. They prepared a meal for us, taught us some of their rituals, and our sleeping set-up was that of a bedouin. The next day we spent the day in the desert (it was still raining) and then we went to the dead sea. I didn't go in because i was getting over being sick, but i got to be the designated picture taker. After about 30 minutes, i was sitting on the beach, wearing my big jacket, and holding everyone's cameras. That night we went to Tel Aviv. We went to a night club there and the soldiers who we had dropped off two days before came to meet us. The night was a blast. We got to experience the Tel Aviv atmosphere with 40-some of our closest friends. The trip really helped me to gain a physical connection with israel, and not just that religious connection we are forced to make through our childhoods. The hillel on campus provides a lot of jewish opportunities for students. Although my connection to the religion is not as strong as that of some others, i still find many opportunities to explore judaism. For example, the Hillel is now offering a hebrew 101 class in which we will learn the basics of hebrew. Just things like that help me stay connected to my religion and the Jewish people as a whole.

so that’s it for now, but i'll be back soon with more stories to share. . . .PEACE