Three weeks of community volunteering in Holon have passed and my fellow Year Coursers and I fell into a new routine. I go to Mikve Yisrael, a field school and agricultural farm in the center of Holon to work with elementary-aged students in the botanical gardens. After volunteering I come home for lunch with my five other roommates. Then, it's off to ulpan (intensive Hebrew study) or a siyyur (field trip) in the afternoon. Our evenings are usually spent out in nearby Tel Aviv or hanging out in the Holon Kikar (square).

But with the holiday of Passover came our second chofesh (break) and the opportunity to pack up my backpack and travel around Israel for ten days. With no volunteering, meetings or ulpan , I was able to hit quite a few places around the country from top to bottom and some in the middle, too. Here is my Israel Tour '07:

I kicked off my break and the beginning of Passover in Tel Aviv, the center of Israel, for the seder. My friend Matt's family hosted our seder at the Dan Hotel, and it was different than any I had attended before—a melting pot of different cultures to say the least. It was in Israel, the hosts were British, they had cousins there who were Italian, and the friend I came with and I are American. Everyone brought their family's own distinct traditions and together we were able to have an unforgettable seder.

Following a day of digesting my seder meal, we trekked up north to Haifa to stay with another friend's extended family. Here I temporarily became Sephardic because her family is Yemenite; it was lucky for me because for the first time during Passover, I got to eat rice and beans (my family is Ashkenazi and therefore do not eat rice and beans). We toured around Haifa visiting the beach several times and the gorgeous Baha'i Gardens.

Three relaxing days in Haifa had passed and it was time to pack my bag again. We were headed south to the beach of Hof Nitzanim, halfway between the cities of Ashdod and Ashkelon (and about as far away as you can get from anything in Israel) for the annual music festival called Boombamela. For three days during Passover, this normally deserted beach becomes a vibrant, loud, and chaotic community made up 36,000 Israelis and foreigners alike looking to have an unforgettable time.

Part camp-out, part concert and part street fair, it was one of the greatest times I have had yet in Israel. Each morning my friends and I woke early to the drum circle in the tent next to ours and did not get back to the tent until early in the morning where we would fall asleep to techno music blasting from the 24-hour-a-day outdoor club down the beach. The biggest dilemma of the day would occur around noon, when we were stuck deciding over what to eat for lunch. There were well over 30 food tents, almost all kosher for Passover and featuring everything from Chinese food to sushi to waffles.

On the third day of Boombamela, after the closing bonfire, it was time to leave—this time, to go back up north to the port city of Hadera. Initially it was our plan to camp out on the beach with our sleeping bags, so you can imagine how funny it was when we arrived to the beach in late afternoon to be greeted by the sand slapping us in our faces.

We tried to lay our sleeping bags down but they kept getting blown away, and of course the trip wouldn't be complete if I didn't forget a jacket. That's Israel for you: We were boiling in the sun at Boombamela and now it was like winter again. Fortunately, one of my friends had family in Hadera and all seven of us slept in their living room that night—and I even managed to get the couch.

That night I also learned how to play backgammon or “Shesh-Besh” as it is called here. While that may not sound like a big deal, it's pretty important because backgammon is like the national board game of Israel; it is impossible to walk past a park and not see people playing it on the benches. Not knowing how to play was greatly impairing my full immersion in Israel's culture.

After our “camp-out” in Hadera it was back to Holon. While I was disappointed that my vacation had ended, it came at a good time because my bag had put on ten pounds from all the sand and I missed the comfort of my own creaky bunk bed. I went to sleep that night with thoughts of all the places I have yet to see and things I have yet to do when I come back here after Year Course, because not even nine months is enough time for this country.

Sala Wanetick is one of JVibe's Young Judaea Year Course Correspondents. She's from Southfield, Mich.