A bookstore in Tel Aviv. Photo courtesy of Sierra Semmel. A few years ago, back home in Maine, my family was observing Passover per usual. By this, I mean we were abstaining from eating any…
Semmel’s apartment building in Tel Aviv. Photo by Sierra Semmel. A few years ago, I went to see the movie “Brooklyn” on New Year’s Eve with my sister. I cried intermittently throughout the whole movie…
On Tuesday, April 9, Israel will hold its national elections to the Knesset, which is Israel’s system of government. This date is something we’ve all…
Sierra and her family in Old Jaffa. Photo courtesy Sierra Semmel. Welcome back from spring break, UMaine! Here in Tel Aviv the weather is rapidly getting warmer, the rainy season is coming to an end, the…
On Thursday night, Tel Aviv was the target of rockets, launched from Gaza, for the first time since 2014. The threat passed just a mile…
While pondering what to write about this week, I realized that I somehow made it almost two months in Israel without writing anything specifically about…
In a stark contrast to the single week of vacation I’m used to during spring semester at the University of Maine, Tel Aviv University is…
A page from Sierra’s Hebrew notebook. Photo courtesy of Sierra Semmel. Today I took my final exam for my Ulpan class. The past four weeks, as I’ve briefly described, me and the rest of the study…
One month into my semester in Israel, I can’t help but think about how grateful I am for the people I’ve met here so far.…
The Old City, Jerusalem. Photo by Sierra Semmel. In the week and a half of my Hebrew class, known as Ulpan, I’ve learned nearly as much about my teachers as I have about…