By Melissa Rosenbaum, Young Judaea Year Course, New York

 

My alarm was set for 8:45 on Monday October 4; I was packed and ready to leave for 10 days of isolation at the Beit Yehudah Hostel in the outskirts of Jerusalem for the Magen David Adom training course.

 

The Medical Track was participating in this training course in order to become first responders for MDA (Magen David Adom), the Israeli Red Cross organization. The eleven of us arrived at the hostel filled with nerves because we really had no idea what to expect. We were told it was going to be grueling, at times difficult, but most of all exciting. While we sat in the lobby waiting for registration, many questions were running through my head: 

 

Will the language barrier prevent me from learning important material?...