Hello Everyone, I hope you all had a great week! This week was bittersweet for me because it is the last full week I get to spend with many of the friends that I have made here. Most of them are only studying abroad for one semester but I will be here for another one. The friends that I have made here are ones that I see lasting a lifetime. Each and every one of these people has touched my life in their own individual way. This is truly one of the most caring groups of people I have ever met and I know that it will not be the last time I see them. I plan on visiting my friend Jemima in Paris in a week and a half. We have all discussed a reunion trip in one of our hometowns and I know that we will make it happen. I am so grateful for this study abroad experience because I have been able to meet so many new people from all around the world. Next semester I will have the opportunity to meet even more people and I am happy about this.

Moreover, as the semester comes to an end I am looking forward to my travel plans over the break. I will be going to Cyprus, Malta, Morocco, Paris, South Africa, and Budapest throughout the break in between the two semesters. My break is from Jan 8th – Feb 17th. During my break, I plan on keeping my brain active by reading up on the conflict within the Middle East and studying all of the Arabic flashcards I made during the semester.

Lastly, I would like to share an interesting perspective that I have gained from this week. If you watched the news this week, it is hard to miss the amount of fear that is circulating due to the current escalation in the Middle East because of the death of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani in an airstrike in Iraq. I have attached a CNN link to an article that further explains this situation.

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/01/02/middleeast/baghdad-airport-rockets/index.html

One line from the above article states that “One pro-Iranian Iraqi cleric, Qais al-Khazali, called for the removal of US forces from Iraq and for the “demise” of Israel, as a response to the deaths of Soleimani and al-Muhandis.”

Additionally, I have received several emails warning me to exercise increased caution in the country that is now a second home to me. Personally, I have not felt unsafe since this event has taken place but I do wonder what is going to happen next because there is a lot of uncertainty in the air. It is unfortunate to say, but the local people here seem rather unphased by this event because it is such a normal part of their lives. Living here has enabled me to look at these events in an entirely new light and has provided me with an unmatched first-hand perspective of the conflict. I am very satisfied with my decision to study here and do not regret it for a second.

I would like to thank everyone for reading this week!

Hello everyone, I hope you all enjoyed the holidays this week and spent quality time with your family and friends. For Christmas Eve, I was invited by Lubna, one of my internship supervisors to have dinner with her family at her house. This was such a great experience and she and her family showed me so much kindness. The food was the best that I have had during my time in Israel. They prepared Arabic Salads and many other dishes but my favorite food of all was the fresh Kebabs. It was so kind of Lubna to show me such compassion and I am extremely grateful for it.

During Christmas day, I traveled with my friends Loren, Eden, and Eliav to Nazareth to see the gigantic Christmas tree they had in the center of the city. We also ate an excellent Middle Eastern restaurant and I tried tabbouleh for the first time. Tabbouleh is definitely one of my favorite foods now and I recommend that you try it if you get the opportunity. Even though I was not able to spend the holidays with my family, I am grateful to celebrate it with the wonderful people I have met here.

Additionally, this week I had my final presentation for my spoken Arabic class in the Palestinian dialect and I received an A. I was happy about this because now I will be ending this class with an A for the semester. I have 2 weeks left in the semester and I have a lot of work to complete before the semester comes to an end. For my internship and Terrorism and Responses classes, I must write a 10-page final for both but I am confident that I will do well on them. Moreover, this week I was able to pre-register for my classes for the spring semester. As of right now, I am interested in taking Islamic Fundamentalism in the Arab World, Syria: History, Politics and Society, Cyberspace, Terrorism and Counterterrorism and continuing my Arabic language classes.

My next couple of weeks will be very busy because of school but I look forward to all that I am going to learn. I have been feeling a little anxious because I am supposed to find out soon if I will make it past the first round for the Critical Language Scholarship application process. The acceptance rate for this program is under 10% and I hope that I can become a part of their 2020 summer cohort in Jordan. This program will allow me to build upon the Arabic language skills that I developed in Israel. I would like to thank everyone for reading this week and I wish you all a successful new year!

Hello Everyone, I hope you all had a great week! This week was full of birthday celebrations for me. On Monday and Tuesday night my friends and I from the international school went to the German Colony in Haifa to have dinner. During this time of the year, the German Colony is decorated with many lights and is a beautiful sight to see. I plan on traveling back to Nazareth this Wednesday for Christmas in order to see the Christmas tree and lights they set up. As the year is coming to an end, I have been doing a lot of reflecting on my semester abroad. I feel that I have truly been accomplishing my goals during my time here. I am much more confident in my intellectual capabilities and my Arabic Language skills. I still have a lot to learn but I believe that I am on the right path. Before I left for Israel, I had to take an oral language proficiency exam over the phone for the Boren Scholarship, and I will have to take another one upon my return to the United States. I am confident that my score will be much higher when I take the test for the second time. Next semester I would like to sign up for local Krav Maga classes. This was one of my goals for coming to Israel and I want to be sure that I follow through with it. I found a place that offers classes in the city and I can’t wait to start taking them next semester. I think it is very important to keep myself in good shape no matter where I am. I have a gym membership at my University’s gym, and I try to go at least four times a week. One of my other goals for the upcoming new year is to read more especially on topics that concern international relations and conflict in the Middle East. After my semester ends in January, I plan on reading a book called “Orientalism” by Edward Said. This book relates to the issues I talked about above and will help me with the essay that I need to write for my application to graduate school. Upon my return to the United States, I plan on applying for several graduate school programs. My top choices are Columbia, Georgetown, and Harvard. I believe that I will be a competitive applicant for these programs because of what I have accomplished during my undergraduate career. Thank you for reading and I look forward to sharing my experiences with you all next week.

Hello Everyone, I had a great week and I hope you all did as well. I would like to start this week’s post by expressing how happy I am with my decision to study abroad. This has been one of the most challenging yet rewarding experiences of my life. Living abroad for a year on my own is much harder than I anticipated but I do not regret a single second of it. This experience has made me more confident in my intellectual capabilities and myself. Before coming to Israel, I was not in love with my International Affairs major and was considering changing it. Studying in Israel has ignited a passion in me for this field of work and I cannot wait to start a career in it. Living first-hand with people who are directly affected by policies that take place on the international stage has inspired me to continue my studies in this field. On Sunday, my Terrorism and Responses class went on a field trip to the Lebanese and Syrian border with Israel. This has been my favorite trip of the semester because it tied everything that we learned in class together and showed us the real-life implications of it. Seeing the United Nations Peacekeeping Tropes was a surreal experience, to say the least. Below I will share some pictures of the borders. Moreover, I have learned to start putting myself first and doing what is best for me. Often, I would take the stress of my friends and their problems and put them on to myself. Once I let this go, I felt free and ready to improve myself. It is important not to surround yourself with people who are constantly filled with drama and negative energies. Instead by surrounding yourself with positive people you will feel uplifted and happy. This is especially important to do while you are abroad because it is easier to get down on yourself when all of your family and friends are thousands of miles apart. I recommend building a support system around you of people that you can trust whether it be your study abroad advisor or friends that you met during your program. Additionally, I have found that taking a little time out of my day to do something that I enjoy such as watching one episode of an anime show or watching a couple of music videos on YouTube can make all the difference. Sometimes even going to the gym, grabbing a bite to eat or drinking a glass of tea by myself is key to feeling content in my new environment. I would like to thank you all for reading this week and I look forward to sharing my new experiences with you all!

Syrian Border with Israel

Hello everyone! I hope you all had a great week because I had an amazing one. I received my grades back from all of my midterms from the previous week. I got an A on my midterm paper for Terrorism and Responses, and A’s on both of my midterms for spoken Arabic and MSA Arabic. I have been very happy with the improvement that I have seen in my language skills in the recent weeks. I can hold conversations and order food at restaurants. I have many friends who are native speakers and they love teaching me the language and the culture behind it. I have an upcoming final presentation for my spoken Arabic class, and I plan on singing a song in Arabic for it. When I mentioned this idea to my teacher, she was very excited about it. I hope that I will be accepted to the Critical Language Scholarship Program in Jordan for the 2020 summer. This program will enable to me to master the language skills that I am learning here in Israel. Yesterday, I went to an international Christian gathering meeting in the dorms and it was very nice. There were Christians from many different countries around the world and we were able to praise God and read bible verses together. Today, I was able to participate in a photoshoot for the Israeli Council of Higher Education. They had a professional photographer take pictures of us around the University of Haifa, Campus. Once, I receive these pictures I will be sure to share them with you all. I had some feelings of homesickness last week because of the Thanksgiving holiday which caused me to miss my family and friends back home. The International School was very kind and put on a Thanksgiving dinner for all of the international students. They even made us 3 turkeys which were very tasty. Additionally, they asked me and my friend Jemima from France to perform a song for everyone at dinner. We chose to perform a song that we both grew up singing in our church’s back home titled “His Eye is on the Sparrow” by Lauryn Hill and Tanya Blount. Everyone enjoyed the song and we were very happy about this. It was nice to be able to share a part of my culture with the wonderful people that I have met here. Lastly, I would like to say that in my personal experience the best strategy for dealing with feelings of homesickness is to go out and immerse yourself in the culture around you. I am truly blessed to be here, and words cannot express how thankful I am to everyone who helped me in my journey. I wish you all a great week!

Hello Everyone! I hope you all had a great week. I would like to start off this week’s blog post by discussing one of my favorite things about the culture in Israel. I truly appreciate the generosity of the people that I have met here. I cannot count the number of times I have been invited by people I have met from across the country to come and meet their families and have coffee with them. In November, I was invited by some friends I made in Haifa to come to Nazareth with them for the day. They gave me a personal tour of their hometown. We went to the Church of the Annunciation, a Shawarma restaurant and a coffee shop. At the coffee shop, I tried an Arabian sweet called Konafeh for the first time and it was delicious. I look forward to having more experiences like this and the next city I want to visit is Beer Sheba located in Southern Israel. One of my local friends here invited me to come and stay the weekend with her family to experience where she grew up. I also traveled to Tel Aviv last weekend with some of my friends from the international school and we relaxed on the beach because we were exhausted from our midterms that week. I am looking forward to the upcoming break in between my two semesters because I have several plans to travel. I plan on visiting Cyprus, Malta, Morocco, Paris, South Africa and Budapest. I was surprised by how cheap these flights were and I figured that this would be the best time for me to experiences these places. I would like to thank everyone for reading this week.

Hello everyone, I hope you all had a great week! I would like to start off this week’s blog post by talking about my overall academic experience so far at the University of Haifa, Israel. I have thoroughly enjoyed my classes and would say that my favorite class is Terrorism and Responses. My teacher has a way of capturing the attention of the entire class and makes me think about highly controversial issues in ways that I would have never before. Moreover, I would say that learning about the Middle East when you are living in the Middle East is completely different than learning about it while in the United States. When we discuss conflicts like the Arab-Israeli conflict in class, I now have a visual of these places and the people that are affected by it. For example, last week Israel was in the headlines of all of the major news networks because they assassinated an Islamic Jihad Leader in Gaza. The CNN link below further describes the situation. The Islamic Jihad is a Palestinian Islamist terrorist organization.

https://edition.cnn.com/2019/11/12/middleeast/israel-gaza-islamic-jihad-intl/

The Islamic Jihad responded to this assassination by firing hundreds of rockets into Israel over several days. I would like to describe my experience of being in Israel during this conflict.

During the morning of the rocketfire I received an email from the Executive Director of the International School instructing us to not travel to Southern Israel or Tel Aviv due to the rocket fire coming from Gaza. Honestly, I was a little scared because I had never experienced anything like this growing up in the United States. Additionally, I have been to Tel Aviv several times so it was disheartening for me to see a video of a rocket hitting the highways of roads I have traveled. I was surprised to see that the locals living in Haifa, seemed unphased by the situation that was topping the headlines of the world’s major newspapers. When I asked people about it they would say things like “we should be fine because we are in Northern Israel and they can’t reach here” or “this is pretty normal and it should calm down in a couple of days, don’t worry.” Hearing them say this helped to calm my nerves and feel as at ease as I could with the current situation. From this experience, I gained a first-hand insight of what it is like to live in Israel. I would like to thank everyone for reading this week!

Hello Everyone! I hope you all had a great week. This week was very busy for me. I had a presentation on extremist right-wing terrorism and domestic terrorism for my terrorism and responses class. Additionally, I am finishing up my application for the Critical Language Scholarship which will enable me to study Arabic abroad in Jordan this upcoming summer after my time here in Israel. The application is challenging because it is composed of many essays that have 200, 300- and 500-word counts. If there was no word limit, I would write around 1000 words. So, it has been difficult for me to narrow down what I want to say in my essays.

Today, I would like to talk about the importance of budgeting yourself while studying abroad. I have never been very good at keeping myself on a budget. It seems like there is an endless amount of random expenses that pop up every week no matter how carefully I plan. I recommend making an excel sheet where you keep track of your weekly expenses so that you can make a budget that is realistic for your spending habits. If you create a budget that does not reflect your spending habits, you will not stick to it. For example, if you know that you enjoy eating out several times a week, it is not realistic to make a budget that cuts eating altogether or only allows for it once a week. Thankfully at UNR, they offer a financial coaching service that is there to help students with their finances called Nevada Money Mentors. Before I decided to study abroad, I participated in the Nevada Money Mentors program and learned how to create a budget and hold myself accountable to it. I have spent much more money in Israel than I originally anticipated. I would say that the prices of goods here are very close to or more expensive than what you would pay in the U.S. Another factor that you may want to consider when creating a budget for your study abroad trip is traveling to and from other countries/cities. Traveling to other places is a big part of studying abroad and most people travel at some point during their time abroad. This can add up very quickly and I recommended checking several websites such as Student Universe, Expedia, Google flights and Skyscanner before purchasing any flights. I would like to thank everyone for reading this week and I hope you all have a great week!

Hello everyone, I hope you all had a great week! This week I want to discuss my tips for funding your study abroad trip whether you are considering study abroad for yourself or know of someone who is interested. When I first heard about study abroad, I thought that there would be no way that I could afford it. The tuition for the University of Haifa is nearly double the amount of money that I pay to attend the University of Nevada, Reno. To my surprise, when I began searching for scholarships there were many options available to me. Especially if you are low-income, a first-generation college student or a minority. The application process can seem overwhelming at first as many of them require letters of recommendation, essays, and even interviews. If you are applying for a large sum of money, you’re application will most likely require all of these components. If you are applying for a smaller sum of money, your application will most likely consist of one or two essays and one recommendation letter. When asking someone for a recommendation letter be sure that you give them plenty of time (3-4 weeks) to complete it, as they are most likely very busy. Additionally, you should give them a hand-written thank you card expressing your gratitude for their help. They will appreciate this a lot. It is also a good idea to send your recommender a copy of your essay so they can have a better idea of what you are applying for and why you are applying for it. Next, I suggest contacting your local study abroad scholarship advisor. My USAC (Universities Study Abroad Consortium) Scholarship Advisor Sonia Meza was a great help to me in searching for scholarships and reviewing my essays. I also reached out to my campus’ Fellowship Advisor Dr. Edgington and she helped me brainstorm ideas for my essays and reviewed them. Both Sonia and Dr. Edgington were amazing in helping me with my application process and I am sure that your campus has similar resources to help you with yours. The last step in the scholarship process is the interview. It could be in person, over the phone, or a skype call. This can be very intimidating, and it’s important that you are adequately prepared for it. I recommend knowing general information about the customs and culture of the country you want to study in. Additionally, it would be a plus if you know about the history and current political situation of the country you want to study in. Lastly, make sure you can explain why you are a good candidate for the scholarship and how it will benefit your academic, career and personal goals. After you submit your application you will be proud of yourself for all of your hard work and just have to wait for that “Congratulations you’ve been selected for the … scholarship” email. I was fortunate enough to be selected for the Boren Scholarship, The Gilman Scholarship, the Fund for Education Abroad Scholarship and some USAC scholarships. I am more than happy to help anyone interested in studying abroad with their application process. Please feel free to reach out to me via email (henrybrendan44@gmail.com) if you have any questions or want me to review your essays. I would like to thank everyone for reading this week! 🙂

Hello everyone! I hope you all had a great week. This week was very busy for me due to the holidays coming to an end. My schedule is packed Monday-Thursday due to classes and my internship. Day by day, I feel that I am getting stronger in my Arabic conversational skills especially during my internship where I get to practice it often. I began my application this week for the Critical Language Scholarship which will enable me to study the Arabic language in Oman, Morocco or Jordan during the summer after my study abroad trip here in Israel if I am accepted. I think that this will be a great natural next step for my language studies to live in a country where Arabic is the official language. Moreover, I have thoroughly enjoyed the Terrorism and Responses class that I am taking here at the University of Haifa. Every week we discuss highly controversial topics like the Arab-Israeli conflict, domestic terrorism, the Algerian War and much more. It is interesting to listen to different perspectives and arguments and see how the international community tries to define the definition of terrorism. The definition that we came up with in class is that terrorism is the use or threat of violence directed in pursuit of, or in service of a political aim. This definition is not agreed upon internationally because different states have different interest and objectives, so there seems to be a fine line when they come together in forums like the United Nations to address this issue. This week I had my interview for the Model United Nations Club that I wrote about in one of my earlier blogs. It went very well, and I am confident that I will be accepted into the club. I gave my speech on the refugee crisis in Yemen and the need for urgent humanitarian assistance in this country. Additionally, I can receive credit for participating in the class and it will be a great way for me to become friends with the local students at the University. I look forward to further developing my public speaking skills and learning how to draft strong resolutions that will be able to have a positive impact on the lives of the people I am writing them for through this club/class. Lastly, I ended the week off by going to the local Paintball arena in Haifa with some of my friends from the international school. This is something that I would normally never agree to do while I was living in the states, but I am happy that I tried it. It turned out to be a lot of fun and I made some memories that I will never forget. A piece of advice that I would give to anyone considering studying abroad is to try to not say “no” as much as possible. Saying “yes” will open up the door to many experiences that will sometimes take you out of your comfort zone but will in return be rewarding and you just might like it in the end. I would like to thank everyone for reading this week and look forward to sharing my next week’s adventures with you all!