Queen of LA: "Theodore Herzl. Like, what a great idea, man!"

I realize that my earlier post was very serious, and I’m glad -- I take Israel and the work that I do there very seriously. But at the same time, I want to make sure everyone knows that I truly did have the time of my life -- every trip I take to Israel is filled with laughter, food, friends, sun, and fun. And since the last post had no pictures, why not do one that’s mostly pictures?!

Dancing in Cafe Europa with Holocaust survivors

One afternoon, we traveled to Sderot, the tiny town in the south that is constantly being hit by rockets from Gaza, just a few miles away. The town is covered in bomb shelters, one located every block: residents of Sderot are forced to run to the bomb shelters every time the alarms go off, indicating a rocket has been launched. I have to say that visiting Sderot was one of the most eye-opening experiences of the trip -- it really put the situation and conflict into perspective for me.

Eating fruit off the vine at an agricultural farm -- all the tomatoes, strawberries, basil, carrots, that you want!

Reuniting with my dear friend Shachar and his gorgeous baby in Tzfat :) as you all know, I am fluent in baby Hebrew, so they drove in to see me!

Love of my life, medic/guard extraordinaire, and one of the best people I’ve ever met, Amir. UGH I miss you already!

Pictures won’t do the fun we had justice, but I need to be on record as to how much I absolutely love Sammy. I have never had more fun with a co-staff in my entire life -- he is seriously one of the smartest, funniest, most adorable, and most entertaining people I’ve ever met in my entire life, and I’m basically going to refuse to go back without him :) what a mensch!

And of course, a series of photographs featuring the one and only Alexandra Beth. I feel SO lucky we got to do this together -- I had an amazing time showing her the country I love and can tell how much she now loves it too. For the rest of our lives, I will always remember that we got to share this experience :)