שלום, or Shalom! (Hello!) My name is Ali and I am writing to you from a city in Israel called Rehovot. My full name is Ali: even though many people think it is short for Alison, it is not.
I grew up in a town called Short Hills in New Jersey, which is close to New York City. I loved being so close to NYC because I enjoy music and going to concerts and different types of museums. New York City also has the best pizza and bagels, which I have really missed while living in Rehovot, Israel.
For college, I went to Penn State University in Pennsylvania, about three and a half hours away from my home and family. I studied Elementary Education and Spanish. I loved studying a different language and learning more about other cultures. I was lucky enough to spend about four months studying in Madrid, Spain. I was able to practice Spanish with many people and was able to experience a new culture in real life, rather than studying it from books. One of my classes even took place in one of Madrid's art museums, La Reina Sofia. During my time in Spain, I traveled to many countries around Europe and even visited Morocco in North Africa, because many countries are close together there. In four months, I visited 13 countries and 36 cities. It was amazing to experience the world!
I was not done with traveling and learning about new places and people.
