One lense, two lense, red lense, blue lense! There are an infinite amount of lenses to look through during a visit to Israel, depending on the specific place we may be visiting. On icnext’s eighth annual visit to Jeser Elzarka, an Arab village, we were able to see Israel through a completely new lense that we may never experience again. Looking out at Israel from a village such as Jeser Elzarka is immensely different than looking at Israel through the window of a nice hostel in Tel Aviv, and we did both of these on the same day. Because we are all teenagers, we were presented with the opportunity to interact and discuss the culture of teenage life, with those of corresponding ages from the village. We were in groups of five Americans with two teens from the village. We did an activity where we discussed the social lives we live and the differences of the societies we live in. The first prompt we were given was about which family members we are close with- our moms, dads, brothers or sisters. From the Americans in our group, mostly siblings were said but parents were named as well, because we all have strong connections to our families. From the Arab kids in my group, Ons (17) and Hassan (16), their answers were similar in the sense of feeling close to parents, but the closeness was described differently solely because of what is expected of kids our age. Another topic that was discussed among us was how religion affects our lives and in what aspects it does. This topic was especially interesting for me because religion happens to be a big part of my social life because of youth group and synagogue activities. A little bit to the other members of my group’s and my surprise, we picked the same effects that religion has on our lives as the Arab kids did to their lives. During the whole activity, we were having casual conversation and learning a little more about the daily life in a poor, crowded, and developing Arab village. After the discussions, we were challenged to make a piece of artwork together within our small groups. My group, obviously the best group, came up with the idea to have everyone add a small part of themselves to every section in the circle. We each had one color, picked a section to start in, and started to draw whatever we wanted. We kept turning the paper every few minutes, and ended with a product where we had all contributed to each section, so they all had a part of each of us and a pop of every color. Our’s was by far the best at the end when we all presented. The experience was one that I will never forget, one of enjoying, learning, and looking through new lenses.