Shirit's Awesome Adventures: Jerusalem, Shmirah, Jerusalem

Let's go back in time, to about three and a half weeks ago, after Shavuot. I met up with my pluega in Jerusalem, at Yad Vashem. We split into groups of Russian, English, and Hebrew, and began the tour. It was very special to be there and be representing not only the IDF but many of us were descendants of Holocaust survivors (myself included). I got stopped during a break by a tourist who wanted to know why soldiers would want a tour in English. I explained to her that we were new immigrants and in a Hebrew course. She was very shocked but visibly pleased that the IDF takes care of its immigrants so far as to teach them the language. I agreed with her and went on to say that the course I am in is the only one of its kind in the world, of any military. We finished the tour and went outside to take in the view and started walking over to Har Herzl.

Har Herzl is the central national military cemetery in Israel. At the very top, of course, is the grave of Theodore Herzl, who is said to be the father of Zionism. The ring of graves on the level below hold Prime Ministers and other important Heads of State. The bottom level (the biggest) holds space for any soldier that died during service (even if it was a car accident or illness). The interesting thing about this level is that all soldiers are considered equal. There are Chiefs of Staff buried next to First Lieutenants, who are buried next to Major Generals buried next to Sergeants. The only order is chronological, so many times they are grouped by war. There are also sections for those who died during their illegal immigration back during the British Mandate, soldiers missing in action, and an entire memorial for those killed in terrorist attacks. We toured by tzevet, led by our mefakdot. M gave us a brief history of most heads of state (we had just learned about Herzl in our Zionism class), and took us to all the important places to see and visit. We placed rocks on whatever graves we chose. When I saw the Hannah Senesh grave, I suddenly realized it had been exactly a year (a few days off, the same week) that I had last been to her grave with Birthright, and sang to her and imagined what it would be like to tour this incredible place in an IDF uniform. When we finished visiting the terrorist victims memorial, she threw us all off guard by telling us a personal story of a boy she went to school with who was in the Maxim restaurant bombing in Haifa over ten years ago. He lost most of his family and his eyesight in that attack, but she told us how he continued to be a funny and strong-willed person. We were all on the verge of crying while she told that story (of course including M), but there was an unspoken promise of "I won't cry if you don't cry." Near the bottom, and subsequently the end of our tour, were the newer graves, and I stopped by Michael Levin's (a famous American Lone Soldier that was killed in action in the second Lebanese war). A year prior, it was at his grave that I really pictured myself as a soldier, and this time I wanted to complete the circle. I left him a rock, and we finished the tour.

I left Har Herzl with some of the girls to go enjoy the rest of the Jerusalem day. We headed over to the shuk and found ourselves in a tiny coffee shop. Galya told us this shop handmade an Egyptian drink called sahlab, and she had her heart set on getting some. We decided to hold off on ordering anything until we tasted what she had been raving about the whole way over. It was a lot more like a pudding, and made from orchids, but still incredibly tasty. Most of us ordered our own (mine without coconut), and they were so delicious. All of a sudden, Galya insisted that she take a picture of me, to document my first sahlab for my blog. I was in complete shock, and it was really cool to know my friends have been reading it. They said that they love being able to go back on things that they might have forgotten from our long days (that tend to run together) in the army. After the cafe, we headed inside the shuk and decided to find the best cherries around. We ate so many cherries tasting them from vendors, we almost weren't hungry anymore, but when we finally decided on what kind to get, we finished the half-kilo in just a couple hours. We also figured we should probably get a real meal, so we ended up with some amazing felafel on our hands (and in our stomachs!).

This was about 10 minutes after the purchase, half gone

We met up with Galya's seminary friend and went over to Ben Yehuda to grab some more coffee. Shani was heading home soon, but Galya and I wanted to get out of our uniforms. We wanted to change in the bathroom, but it was way too small. The bathrooms were up on this balcony above the cafe so we took turns guarding the stairs while we changed into civilian clothes. The patrons below had watched us all go upstairs, and then heard us giggling and moving around. There was even a couple right at the bottom of the stairs that we eventually figured were trying to break up, but were distracted by the fact that these two female soldiers suddenly emerged as a couple of 19-20 year old girls. We hung out there for a while, and then after Shani left, decided to visit the seminary over by Emek Refaim. When we arrived, I introduced myself and said where I was from. All the girls pointed in a direction and said, "Oh! She's from Nashville, too!" The girl turned around, and it was a girl I had gone to elementary school with. Her dad, a rabbi, had done my dad's eulogy, even. I was in shock to see her, but so excited to see each other after about eight years. It was truly incredible and a once in a lifetime kind of surprise meeting. The worst part was that she was about to leave in a couple of weeks, before I finished shmirah. We talked for two hours about everything. I was so sad when I was going to have to leave, but it was so great to see her. The next morning, I met my stepbrother Moshe for coffee and then headed home for the weekend.

When we returned on base the next Sunday, we had packed our bags for two weeks. We spent Sunday through Wednesday preparing for shmirah (guard duty), studying lots of Hebrew, and enjoying our history of Israel classes. I had talked to M quite a bit about my future in the army the week before. Together, we realized the best direction for me was to train for combat and from there push to become a medic. I've decided that I really want to be in the Totchenim (artillery) unit. I learned so much about it and I would be so incredibly proud to be in that unit, and that I would have an extremely meaningful service there. M put me on the list for a special female combat soldier interview with the placement officer.

Sunday, the girls that signed up for combat started our weekly combat training, which was fantastic. We started off with a 2K and a little strength training. In the middle of the week, me and three other girls from the machlaka had been chosen by the mem mem (mefakedet of the machlaka) to run a driving safety program for her. On Tuesday night, I was surprised by M with confirmation that my request for a day off had been approved. Thursday morning, I left early to go to Jerusalem to see my stepmom Jill. It was exactly what I needed to see her, as I had been missing my dad so much lately. That evening, I met up with some kids from Nashville on a two-week exchange program called GetConnected. While I was waiting for them to show up, I was walking on Ben Yehuda, talking on the phone, when I saw some red hair and a face I thought I might recognize. When she turned her face towards me, I almost dropped my phone. The last time I had seen this girl, a childhood friend, was at my dad's wedding. Once again, Jerusalem had reconnected me with a person from my past life. I eventually had to continue on to meet up with the kids, but it was incredibly crazy and awesome to see her. I arrived at their hotel, and saw my friend Hadar (the shlicha). She was a chaperone on the trip, and all of a sudden she was handing me things from my mom. In addition, there were a bunch of letters that she said were from Akiva kids. I knew that if I read them then, I would cry. I knew they were all from kids I had been in camp with, guarded at the pool, taught them at Hebrew school, or even their whole lives. We all went out and had dinner together, and it was extremely emotional to be around people from home, on uniform. Hadar said she's coming back in a few months, so I'm really excited for that!

I came back to base Friday morning, just in time for an emergency drill. As soon as we finished, we were released for Shabbat. What that meant was that there were a few meals and activities that we had to report to, but outside of that was free time. I had shmirah at the same time as dinner, so I didn't get to enjoy from what I had heard was the best meal available on base. (Of course I ate, but in full gear and before everyone else came in and started singing.) That night, I had shmirah at sundown and again at sunrise. It was actually not as bad as it sounds. Other than that, we enjoyed Shabbat and rested plenty. I read the letters the kids sent with Hadar, and just like I predicted, I cried like a baby. The letters were so simple but perfectly sweet. Around the afternoon, we were called out of the rooms. We figured it was another drill, but as it turns out there was a huge fire on base that the girls on the emergency team had to go help with. It was absolutely crazy, but then we went back to our Shabbat routine and rested up for the week ahead.

We started, and continued, the week with shmirah. It was mostly normal, except it was "Shavuah Ivrit" or Hebrew Week. We had a contest between the tzevets by writing essays and letters, making posters, and doing presentations. In the end, the points weren't counted completely right (they left out some points that our tzevet earned on the last day, at least), but a tzevet from machlaka 1 won. I spent the whole week translating the letters from the kids into Hebrew. On Thursday evening, right before our last night of shmirah, I got to hand out the letters to the girls in my machlaka. All the girls really loved them, and it gave us that last wind we needed to get through until Friday morning. On Friday morning, we were woken up an hour early with what we thought was another fire or drill. We asked the mefakdot, "Is everything okay??" and they responded, "NO! There's a masa!" So we had to get dressed in full gear, put mud on our faces, and go on a surprise morning masa up a nearby mountain. It actually wasn't too bad, and at the end, right before we raised the flag that morning, we each received a Tanach (Jewish bible). There were also New Testaments (we don't have any Muslims in our pleuga), but tmost of he Christian girls were okay with a Tanach. As soon as we got back, we switched guards for the last time and had a chance to wash our faces before class.