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I just got back from a mad good trip to Israel. I mean it. It was hecka cool.

In fact, one of the coolest things about it was learning phrases like "mad good" and "hecka cool" from my traveling companions, 14 hecka hip teens from the Bay Area and New York participating in the Anti-Defamation League's Children of the Dream program.

Now, you'd think teens would be teens no matter where they live. And generally, these teens were. But in the rapidly changing world of teen lingo, I quickly learned, geography means a lot.

For instance, while the East Coast teens had a mad good time in Israel, the West Coasters found the experience tight. Naw mean? (East Coast for `You know what I mean?') You feel me? Teens from opposite sides of the country even have their own peace signs.

Of course, at a certain point, I lost track of East vs. West and decided just to focus on the general task of mastering the argot. With so much information to absorb every day of the two-week trip, getting a grip on the coastal differences turned out to be puttin' the two on the 10 (doing too much).

Lingo aside, it was clear my friends operated according to certain universal laws of teen existentialism. Nabila Lester, a junior at Berkeley High School and my personal tutor in all things teen, taught me one cardinal rule. Teens the land over don't get why they have to make their beds in the morning, especially when no one is home during the day to notice the unmade state.

To that, I can only say: on the real (for sure!).

And another Nabila nugget: "The key to being a teenager — don't ever let your mama clean your clothes." Moms are often hecka tired, she explained, and thus prone to carelessly misjudge which laundry should be washed with which.

Speaking of clothes, Vanesha Clacher, a sophomore at Skyline High School in Oakland, once told me I was "fitted." That meant I was dressed nicely, a compliment that made me feel hecka good in my scruffy traveling state.