Shana Tova!

Shana Tova! Hope everyone had a great Rosh Hashana. I had a great experience being here in Israel on Rosh Hashana. I spent the first night of Rosh Hashana in Jerusalem and the second night with friends in Tel Aviv. It was very interesting to see the differences between not only in the states and Israel, but between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. I had a great Rosh Hashana here in Israel, although I did miss the big family dinners that we have back home every year (and my mom's challah).
  The first night of Rosh Hashana, me and my roommates Matt and Zev, hosted a small Rosh Hashana dinner

for anyone who was still at Beit Ar-El. We had a nice, small Rosh Hashana dinner out on our rooftop with a lot of apples and honey and a lot of food. After we filled ourselves with food, we chilled out for a little bit before eventually heading for the Kotel. We walked about 30 minutes to the Kotel and spent about 30 minutes at the wall. Surprisingly, there were very few people at the wall so it was a very nice, peaceful experience. After we left the Kotel, we were walking home when the Israeli police randomly stopped us. We were searched for about 20 minutes for drugs or anything illegal until we were finally allowed to leave. We finally got home, about an hour after we left the Kotel.
The next morning Zev and I woke up early and walked to Shul. We went to a reform synagogue nearby which was nearly full but luckily we were able to find 2 seats. The services lasted a couple hours and were surprisingly extremely similar to our services back in the United States. I imagine that is partially because the founder of the synagogue (who knows my grandpa) is from the United States and came here to start this synagogue. It was a very nice service and it was great to go to a service that reminded me of services at Beth El. Later in the day we went to a potluck lunch on our Madrichim's roof before Zev and I traveled to Tel Aviv to see some friends from a different section. We had a great time in Tel Aviv and it was great to meet some people in different sections, as well as seeing some people I already knew.
While I did have a great Rosh Hashana, it was very different than what I am used to. I loved being in Israel for Rosh Hashana, but I did miss sitting at the dinner table with my family, making jokes, eating amazing food, and making fun of my mom's dessert.