My heart always will be in the east, though I live in the west...

By Jill Wolfson
KOACH Intern
Boston University

In just three short weeks another semester at Boston University will begin. I will be back on good old Commonwealth Avenue, along with thousands and thousands of other students, all with extreme excitement to be back "home." Except this time, it will be different; it won't be the same as the first day of school a year ago or even the year before that. It won't be different simply because I am going into my junior year or because I am taking harder classes and I have different leadership positions. It will be far more different than that. This time I will be walking down Comm Ave seeing the same people, the same buildings, but through different eyes.

I arrived back in the States two months ago from my other home, Israel, more specifically 36 Rachov Brodetsky, Ramat Aviv, Tel Aviv where I spent five months on a Boston University Engineering program. The semester was literally one of the most incredible experiences of my life, from taking very difficult engineering classes, to traveling the world, to learning more about Judaism. I tried my hardest not to give up any opportunity. I wanted to take advantage of every moment I was there, learning and appreciating that I had the opportunity to spend five months, not being a tourist, but living in my homeland.

As it was my third time going to Israel (first on USY Pilgrimage, then on Leading Up North with Hillel), I quickly clicked into the day to day society. However, being on my own for the first time and not being a tourist gave me an entirely new perspective. All of a sudden, I wasn't hopping on the privately rented buses with all Americans, but I was figuring out the bus schedules and taking public transportation.

Since I was living in Tel Aviv, I wanted to make sure that I spent as many Shabbatot in Jerusalem as possible. So normally, unless I was traveling elsewhere for Shabbat, I spent my time in Jerusalem, where I met a wealth of different people from so many different backgrounds. Coming from a very strong Conservative background, I found this very interesting. I spent much of my time with ultra-Orthodox Jews and getting into debates with "black hats." It was amazing.

It wasn't until the last month that I was there, when my friend from BU came to visit and spend Shabbat with me, did I realize how much of my mentality had changed and how much I had adapted. All of a sudden things that I thought were so normal, she thought were crazy. Anything, from the way that there are no lines for things (everybody just piles up and demands what they want) and it's always a balagan (mess), to my improvement in Hebrew, to my engineering professors wearing kippot and wishing us a "Shabbat Shalom," to being able to sit in a restaurant for endless amounts of time, to the 'lama lo?' (why not?) atmosphere. Only then did I realize how different and how hard it was going to be to transition back when I arrived to my home in the States.

Now having been back for a month and a half, I am always thinking about Tel Aviv. My friends make fun of me all of the time for saying "When I was in Tel Aviv…" Looking back, it was just an entirely different world. I have so much trouble expressing the entire experience. Being back in America, things still seem different, things which seemed so normal before.

I am so excited to be back in Boston and for school to start and, most importantly, to see the friends that I haven't seen since December! But no matter what, I know that it won't be the same. It will be so hard for me to explain the incredible life changing experiences that I had. The experience of not only going abroad for the semester, but at the same time going home for the semester, to a home that I was given an opportunity to live and study in for the first time. I know that it will be great to be back but, my heart always will be in the east though I live in the west.

Jill Wolfson is going into her junior year at Boston University, studying Biomedical Engineering. She just spent her spring semester studying at Tel Aviv University and this year she is very excited to be serving as a KOACH Intern.

[Posted 8/31/08]