As I stare at my blank computer screen with the deadline for this article approaching, I’m stuck. I’ve been trying to write my studying-abroad-in-Jerusalem article for months now, as my experiences here have opened my eyes further, but to no avail. The topics people have suggested to me just don’t seem to work. For example:

“Write about living in fear.” This would make a great article, if only it were true.

Sadly, Israel has quite a reputation for being a dangerous, war-torn country. Countless people have been forbidden to come here to study by their parents and even, disgustingly, by their home universities. Many of my friends here at Hebrew U. are not getting any college credit at all for this semester or year because their schools (and the State Department) consider it unsafe for us to be here.

But back at Maryland, I definitely felt more afraid to walk outside my Commons building at night than I do in East Jerusalem. Those e-mails from campus police about the armed robberies taking place right outside my window (”the 4300 block of Knox Road”) are a constant reminder of just how dangerous life in Maryland is.

At least to get onto my campus here in Jerusalem, you have to have an ID or a special visitor’s pass, and you have to go through a metal detector and bag check. I shudder to think of the random criminals walking around the University of Maryland campus and surrounding areas unchecked after dark. That whole “but our buses don’t blow up” argument has been, in my mind, more or less a moot point since Sept. 11.

I am not nervous getting on inter-city buses here like I am taking Greyhound in my native Tennessee. Even the seediest elements of Israeli society just can’t compare to home-grown American criminals!

“Well, what about being a stranger in a strange land?”

But I hardly feel like a stranger here! According to statistics released last week on Yom Haatzmaut (Independence Day), a full 33 percent of Israelis are olim, or immigrants to Israel. Hebrew University is incredibly diverse and full of Americans, not to mention Hispanic, French, Russian, and Italian Jews, and those are just the nationalities represented on the fifth floor of my dorm.

I feel just as comfortable finding my way around Jerusalem as I do in Washington, if not more so. Of course, I’m not a native Hebrew speaker, which is frustrating at times, but most Israelis are either patient with me or give up and switch to English. Either way, even when I feel foreign, I don’t feel “strange.” I’m just another participant in the ingathering of the exiles on which the state of Israel continues to be built.

“So just talk about the whole Study Abroad experience!” According to the Study Abroad office, “Study Abroad increases awareness of other cultures.” This is definitely true. I read the weblogs of people studying in places like Senegal and Cairo, which describe the local customs and quirks of those places and how they differ from American culture. But in Israel, the local customs are my customs, the holidays are my holidays, and the food is my food!

I identify with the element of Israeli society that makes blessings upon waking up in the morning because I do it too. Here, I don’t have to explain to teachers why I cannot come to class on Passover because they don’t come either. The national holidays are ones I celebrate in America too, but here the whole country celebrates with me.

And best of all, at Hebrew U, I can eat in any of the dining halls, knowing that they are all kosher, unlike at Maryland, where I am resigned to a diet of ice cream and vending-machine fare.

Unlike my friends who spent their spring breaks abroad country-hopping through Europe, I spent mine city-hopping from friends to family to more friends. Instead of spending weekends discovering pretty towns and beaches with my American friends, I spend them all over Israel with Israelis. If I ever get lost, I know that help is just a phone call away.

I guess this article was so tough to write because I don’t feel like I’m abroad at all. I feel like I’m home.

Talya Levin is a junior communication major studying in Jerusalem this semester. She can be reached attalya82@yahoo.com .