שלום, or Shalom! (Hello!) My name is Ali and I am writing to you from a city in Israel named Rehovot. The language spoken here is Hebrew and their alphabet looks a lot different from ours. I am teaching English to elementary students!
Before coming to Israel, I lived 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.
For college, I went to Penn State University in Pennsylvania, this was about 3.5 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 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. During my time in Spain, I traveled to many countries around Europe, because they are all very close 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. So when I graduated from college, I decided to move to a completely different country, Israel! I'm so glad to have you along for the journey!
