Travel: You’ll Be Surprised By What You Find

As was the feeling among almost all students by the end of fall quarter, I felt I had endured enough of book-learning and memorization to last me up to the new year.

Yet, as I headed for winter break, I realized that my learning shouldn’t be put off on a three-week pause until I returned to school. Instead, I decided to engage in a different kind of learning: learning through first-hand experience.

This past break, I joined 39 other UCLA students, a rabbi and a former Israeli soldier who now works as a program coordinator on campus on a trip to Israel through the Taglit-Birthright Israel program.

As a result of this trip, I believe that a complete collegiate education includes one in which students take the time to learn about their world through a first-hand experience in addition to what is learned in the lecture halls. Because of the differences between how and what I have learned as a student on campus and as a traveler, I have realized that what we hear on the news or from friends and family are insufficient substitutes for understanding the real world.

Never having been to Israel before, I set out on the trip with many preconceived notions of what the country would be like and what the Birthright trip organizers intended for us to take away.

Although I practice my Jewish faith, celebrate the holidays (Who can give up eight crazy nights of gift-giving during Hanukkah?) and respect the traditional laws, I don’t consider myself a religious person. Yet, to my pleasant surprise, the trip didn’t bombard us with religious indoctrinations and subtle hints at joining the Israel Defense Forces.

Rather, it gave me the opportunity to gain insight into how the people of Israel live and how they feel about the legal mandate of joining the army at age 18. Contrary to some reports on the news that simply focus on Israel as a military state, our visit to an olive factory and winery near the Golan Heights in Israel demonstrated that people work hard to maintain a strong and diverse economy often through businesses that continue family traditions.

As an immigrant, I re-encountered what it means to leave your country to go somewhere where you feel accepted in my talks with the shopkeepers and salesmen.

Yet more influential than speaking to an older generation was the chance to travel and live with eight Israeli soldiers, all between the ages of 18 and 21. As I shared an iPod with one, a laugh with another and tears with them all, I realized just how different, yet how similar we are as Israelis and Americans. Even though they have to put off their collegiate pursuits until they complete their years in the army, they nevertheless have the same ambitions and goals.

Looking back, I’m shocked that it took me a trip halfway around the world to learn and correct what I thought I knew about another country. Ironically, I now realize that I don’t need to travel far to better learn about this country and the people with whom I currently share a home.

Learning through first-hand experience doesn’t need to only take place through traveling to another country. As students, it’s hard enough being able to afford commuting from home to school let alone to another country.

While there are other organizations that offer traveling to students for free or at reduced prices, you don’t necessarily need to hop on a plane to see the realities of the world around you.

After sharing attached beds, a tent and 12 days with other UCLA students, I learned that I had ignored the most important resource at my fingertips: my own friends. Each of us ““ including our group leaders, Rabbi Brett Krichiver and Oded Oron, the program coordinator at Hillel ““ had something unique to offer to the learning experience in Israel.

Oron, who has lived in both Israel and the U.S., strongly believes in personal experiences for understanding others.

“As a general perception I have in regards to the understanding of another culture, I feel an encounter in first hand is always the best way to learn about a place and its culture,” Oron said.

“As an Israeli. I feel that the common image of Israel does not represent the way of life. I feel that the people who decide to explore for themselves have a better chance of understanding the place as they experience it for themselves and have a real chance of challenging their preconceptions.”

This trip allowed me to not only learn about Israel, but also that we need to take advantage of the resources UCLA has to offer, namely, in the diversity of its student body and faculty.

So the next time you go to class, choose a seat next to someone you don’t know. Or even take the time to learn more about the people you do. You may never know that the guy sitting next to you in class or on your bus-ride through Israel is an Austrian-Irish-Iranian Jew.

Shamelessly and rather proudly, I can now use the often-quoted and abused line from advertisements for educational products, and genuinely say that learning has never been more fun.

If you’d like to share your winter break experiences, please e-mail Tehrani at [email protected]. Send general comments to [email protected].