When junior Shahar Dahan visits his grandparents in Giv’at Shmuel, Israel, a small suburb of Tel Aviv, he tries not to go to sleep at 3:00 p.m., which is his usual arrival time. Instead, Dahan does his best to avoid the jet lag caused by the seven-hour time difference by staying awake until late at night, local time.

Dahan visits Israel, his birthplace, every summer with his family for 6 to 8 weeks, usually starting in July.

Dahan’s grandparents make occasional visits to the United States for special occasions such as family Bar Mitzvahs or the birth of Dahan’s youngest brother.

When he isn’t spending time with family, Dahan often goes out in the morning. But by 11 a.m. it’s too hot to be outside. Dahan usually spends this block of time indoors, in shopping malls. Starting around 5 p.m., people begin to go back outside. At this time, Dahan sometimes goes to a beach until sunset, then goes back home.

“There are amusement parks, water parks and movie theaters. I saw ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1’ and ‘The Dark Knight’ before they came out in the United States,” Dahan said. “[You can do] whatever you would do here [in the U.S.]. It’s just a different place.”

Yet, for all of the similarities in everyday activities, Dahan still recognizes a cultural difference.

Once, Dahan was having dinner at a restaurant in Tel Aviv with his grandfather when a man they didn’t know sat down next to them to eat. Instead of politely asking the stranger to leave as many Americans would, the group started a conversation together. According to Dahan, this type of interaction is completely normal in Israel.

“The people there just have a different culture and do things a little bit differently in general,” Dahan said. “They’re more willing to talk randomly, but if you don’t know them, they’re a lot ruder until you start to talk with them. Then they’re a lot more open and friendlier. As opposed to everyone here saying, ‘Hi, how are you?’ and that’s it, it’ll be nothing or a really long conversation.”

During his annual visit to Israel, Dahan usually makes one trip to the nation’s capital, Jerusalem, which is about an hour away from Tel Aviv. Even though Jerusalem is better known and has twice the population of Tel Aviv, Dahan considers Jerusalem less modern and built up than Tel Aviv.

“Just as a comparison, [when comparing] New York City and Albany, you hear about New York City more,” Dahan said.

While in Jerusalem, Dahan generally goes to a market or takes a tour. Last year, Dahan and his family went to the Old Wall of Jerusalem as well as the sewers that King David went into to conquer Jerusalem.

Although the country is currently at war, Dahan doesn’t believe the war gets in the way of everyday life in Israel.

“Arabs and Israelis live fine side-by-side. It’s just the people specifically in Gaza or people specifically in the West Bank [who are most affected by the war],” Dahan said. “When you’re there, [the war] is on the news every single day. Whatever happens, happens. It’s on the news, but people still just go on living.”