Mechinat Lochamot (Female Fighters' Preparation)

Last week, as I mentioned, I went to the Bakum. I ended up going on Wednesday (when I found out I got into Totchanim) and then again Thursday (when I switched my uniform and boots), but being sent home at the end of the day. I got an extra vaccination (required for combat soldiers) and met some of the commanders. After, I went home and enjoyed my weekend on the kibbutz, at the pool and sleeping.
Sunday, I made my way down to my new base in the south. There is not much to tell except there is a lot of sand and we are just girls right now. The first few weeks of us being there is like a prep for the female combat soldiers so we're more on par with the boys when they arrive for training. It's very weird being around Israelis and at 20 I am the oldest soldier right now!



Since we are on the training base for Totchanim, of course there are practice ranges. We are slowly getting used to hearing BOOMs periodically. Last week was just fun because we hung out, learned about Totchanim, and prepped our gear (I have a vest and helmet that are just my size!). We are also doing a lot of exercise. We run every day, in addition to at least one other activity. It's army tradition to do push-ups before each meal, but we convinced our commanders to let us practice rope-climbing instead. It's actually a lot of fun to just hang off the ropes! We also practiced an obstacle course, and I didn't do very well for most of it, but I did jump over a wall. My friends and I are going to be doing a lot of push-ups together because it's mainly the arm-strength exercises we have trouble with.
We are being monitored because their selection process has already started. We can be told that we aren't fit for Totchanim or even combat if they decide. A bunch of girls have already quit, and I think it's a shame, but the army is what you make it. If they believe they won't have a good time there, there's no way they will succeed. Most of these girls are going to make it all the way to the end, and I hope I'll be finishing with them!
I was completely convinced we were closing Shabbat, but we went home for the weekend on Thursday! I wasn't feeling well so I slept most of the weekend and hung out with my family and their new dog, except for Thursday night when my friends got married. There were a lot of empty tables because they didn't know how many people would be able to come due to the reserve draft.
It's really cool watching all of my friends in Tzanchanim (paratroopers), Nachal, Golani, Kfir, (ground soldiers) and so on, doing their training and knowing that I will be doing the same things in a couple of weeks (and have already started some of it). Totchanim is the most like those units, except they are closed to girls. I am so happy with my choice and with my unit, I cannot wait to start my real training!



Dancing bubble wrap popping party

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The End of Michve

Well, on Sunday I went to my kravi (combat) interview, and didn't think I did that great. The other girls and I traveled back to base together and almost immediately went to practice for the tekes. It was crazy hot, and we were stuck in our aleph uniforms.

Our official tzevet photo, mefakdot included

Monday was a rough day. This guy called a kztin miun, or a placement officer, basically hands out sheets of paper to each girl with a list of suitable jobs and then calls them in to have a 90 second conversation with them about what they want to do. I didn't get a job listing (called a manila) because I was already in the running for kravi. But because our Hebrew is on a lower level than most Israelis, most of the jobs that girls got were less than desirable. And the officer didn't particularly enjoy traveling all the way to our base to talk to a bunch of girls who didn't particularly enjoy what he was saying. Like I said, it was rough. A lot of girls came out crying, which was hard to see. I knew that if I didn't get into kravi, I would have to go through the same process, but none of my friends would be there with me, like I was there for them. So I just prayed karma would get me through it, and that these girls' karma would get them different job placements (which actually happens all the time, you get assigned jobs that aren't necessarily listed on your manila). That was most of the day. Most of the boys were at the tzanchanim (paratroopers) gibush (challenge/test), so we didn't have marching practice.

Tuesday was awesome. We spent the whole day just finishing up Hebrew classes, Israeli History classes, everything, and, of course, a LOT of tekes practice. There was this energy in the air because we knew that by tomorrow we would do what is called "breaking distance," which is where the commanders, sergeants, and even the mem mem would tell us their names and a little about themselves. But then, we found out 40,000 reservists had been called up for the operation in Gaza, so a bunch of girls got permission to call brothers, boyfriends, and cousins to find out if they were going. After dinner, my friend and I were on the phone, and then when we finished, MN called us into our tzevet's classroom. There were T-shirts, and lots of letters and notes on each of our desks, which were placed in a circle. We talked about what we knew about each of the mefakdot (all three of them), and stories from our perspective and their perspective from throughout the course. We were all so giddy and kept giggling and not really knowing what to do, because all of a sudden, instead of MN, MH, and MO, they were N, H, and O, not to mention trying to learn all the other mefakdot's names as soon as we left our classroom. Then, we broke distance with the samelet, the mamachiot, and the mem mem. It was such a weird feeling, and I still think to this day I haven't called the mem mem by her name. The second the samelet started to speak, everyone flipped out and started shrieking and clapping, because we knew the least about her and basically treated her like an all-powerful being (well, who's to say she isn't?). All in all, it was crazy fun. So I was on my way to the barracks, telling my mom about my day, when N called me over. I hung up, and she told me I got into kravi! I called my mom back almost right away. I spent most of my free hour just hanging out with mefakdot, getting to know them and sharing stories from the course.

The awesome shirt for our pleuga

Wednesday was the tekes. We spent most of the day practicing, and then when the time came, everything went smoothly. When I first marched in, I saw my kibbutz friends dancing to the (army marching) music in the back of the crowd, so it made for a lot of fun during the whole thing. I wanted to be taking pictures of THEM. N, H, and O took off my shoulder tags, which was one of the more exciting moments of my life! I hugged them right away, which was also something I had never done. At the end, we spelled out a sentence that translates (loosely) to "Our Generation, Our Obligation." Then, we gathered in a huge circle and threw our berets up in the air, which turned out really cool because we had tied blue and white crepe paper strips to the inside. All in all, I was so happy to see all my friends (Ayelet came all the way from Jerusalem, my friend Peleg came, and Sheffy, Allan, Tally, Tamara, and Dikla came from the kibbutz!), and introduce them to my friends on base.

Tzevet Gefen

I was slightly excited

Ahhh 

"Our Generation, Our Obligation"

We were woken up 20 minutes early on Thursday morning and were told to get dressed and be downstairs. We scrambled around, and when we got down, they split us into two groups: one large group, of the majority of the pleuga, and then a group of about ten girls (including myself). They explained to us that the big group was being sent to the south to help the Home Front Command hand out flyers and help old people in the bomb shelters. Our group was being sent home, as we were kravi soldiers and girls whose parents were in the country. We went to breakfast, cleaned the rooms, and distributed whatever undershirts and snacks we had to the girls going south. We said our (long) goodbyes, and then brought down all of our gear to be turned in. Right before we cleaned the classrooms, the other girls finally left. It was really hard to say goodbye because we weren't sure of the next time we were going to see them. When we finished cleaning, they told us that it wasn't safe for anyone to leave the base at the moment, so we needed to sit tight. We watched movies and ate all the goodies my friends had brought me. It was very nerve-wracking. Some girls got permission to leave because they had someone come to pick them up directly from the gate. The rest of us ended up staying overnight.

The next morning, we were sent home, and told to return to base the day before we were supposed to be at Tel HaShomer. So I had free days on Sunday and Monday! That day, I ended up having coffee with my friend Rachel and N, which was so cool to come home and say, "yeah, I just had coffee with my commander, no big deal!" But honestly it was really nice to just chill and have non-base food (and coffee). It was strange that we had only stayed one extra day, but it felt like an extra week.

During my free time, I mostly hung out, got ready, went to the pool, ate with my family, cooked, and enjoyed being on the kibbutz, my home. I even went to a bar mitzvah, which is very different from what I was expecting. It's a class-wide thing, almost like a graduation, but each family is separated and feels a lot like a wedding. The whole class did a play together, which was very cute. The next day I went back to Michve Alon to sign some papers and mostly ended up hanging out with people there. So, that brings us to today! I am writing this in the early hours of the morning so I can arrive on time this afternoon. I don't know the next time I'll be coming home, so I will take lots of notes while I am there so I don't forget anything for the next blog!

Wish me luck today!

There's a new puppy on the kibbutz

Gilad, Eyal, and Naftali

This was my last full week at Michve Alon, so we spent a few hours every day practicing for the finishing ceremony next week. There's a lot of marching, turning, and trying to be in sync without being able to see each other. The setup is split by pleuga, machlaka, then height. So I'm in the last group to enter, but in the front line for the main formation. It will be a really good ceremony, I hope. At the end, MN will take my shoulder tags (the black and red stripes) off, and we'll officially be "graduated."

Machlaka 2, right before leaving on our last Friday

Our last kravi workout was this week, and even though it was really hard it was completely worth it. We felt amazing at the end, but the next morning I woke up with some pains in my ankle and realized I had probably sprained it during the run, but it's already healed. I sat out the workout for the whole pleuga the next day, and one ceremony practice. During that practice, I saw how awesome our pleuga looks. The ceremony is for the whole course, four pleugot, and we are definitely the most in sync with one another. The boys have a harder time with marching to the beat, but some of them just don't care. When the whole course marches in a circle, I saw this guy dancing instead of marching. His samelet came up on his side and tried to get him to stop, but he kept dancing while she was talking to him. By that time, they had gone to the other side of the circle and I didn't see what happened, but when they came around again, there was a whole where he was supposed to be marching. I'm pretty sure she told him to get his act together or sit out, and he chose the latter. There were a couple other girls sitting with me, and we almost peed ourselves, it was so funny!

There are three new pleugot in our neighboring buildings, two of which are for boys going to combat that made aliyah but their Hebrew is fluent. One of the boys there is my friend from my ulpan, who is also now a Lone Soldier on the kibbutz. There are three of us from my ulpan, another one who is working until his draft to Michve Alon next month. It's so much fun having "family" on base, even though we can't really see or talk to each other, except if our free hours before bed align, and even then it's on the phone. 

We also had the opportunity to retake our Hebrew tests, the same ones we had at the Tzav Rishon, to bring up our official scores. Before I went in, MN and MH (my Hebrew teacher, yes, her name starts with H) gave us chocolates and notes to wish us luck. Mine was a bit of a mess, as I misunderstood the directions she had given me when I had to write sentences. I had to redo part of it and at that point, almost everyone had left the room already. The test-giver saw I was having some trouble and was a bit frustrated, so all of a sudden she asks me if I want a cookie. I was confused. All of a sudden, she pulls this grocery bag out of her purse and is offering a package of cookies. I started laughing so hard, but pulled myself together to eat the cookie and finish my test.

If I hadn't mentioned it before, it has been really fun to learn at Michve. With MN, there were tironut classes to learn about guns, gas masks, camouflage, etc. She also taught us Tzionut, which was all about Israeli history and culture. Most days, those were my favorites because she is just an amazing teacher. Her energy would fill up the room and I would just get pulled in, wanting to learn more and more. Of course, there were also Hebrew classes, taught by either MH or MO (MO is the private teacher, for if we need extra help). Some were straight out of the book, which was hard because we are perpetually tired and most of the course we didn't have a working air conditioner in our classroom. Every once in a while we would learn about an Israeli song (usually very modern, but also a lot of Arik Einshtein), which was always fun. we also played some games to strengthen vocabulary or grammar. As the course went on, the mefakdot began to let our tzevet use our phones in class for faster translations of words from texts, which was a big sign of trust, but mostly I just used the hard copy dictionary.

This past week we finished the book, so on Thursday we took our test, and then started another class. We talked about phrases in Hebrew and translated them to our languages. We also listened to some famous songs that were written in our languages and then translated and covered by Israeli artists ("What a Wonderful World"--> "Achla Olam"). We then chose our favorite songs in our language to translate to Hebrew. I translated a Carrie Underwood song ("Cupid's Got a Shotgun"), which was so much fun, but hard to translate the phrases and hunting references. I had pulled up the lyrics on my phone's internet, and was using the dictionary to translate faster. All of a sudden, a call comes in. Now, it was too early for anyone in the States to be calling, my friends in Israel know not to bother calling me during the week, and there was no caller ID (a blocked number). I knew it had to be the army calling, and I knew why. I showed MH the phone, and she let me go out into the hall to answer. It was the army calling me to invite me to my kravi interview on Sunday! I didn't stop smiling for the rest of the day. Tonight I'm traveling to stay with Eliana and Shmu to be at Tel HaShomer early tomorrow morning. I'm so excited, and my mom even told me to call her as soon as I finish, no matter what time of day it is.

The tag of Totchanim

As fun as this week sounds, with all the jokes and silliness and exciting news, it was also incredibly difficult. At the end of practice on Tuesday, the Rasar (high-up that is in charge of ceremonies and such) announced to us that the three teenage boys that had been kidnapped by Hamas 18 days earlier had been found. We started to cheer and clap, but he stopped us. We impatiently waited for him to tell us why we shouldn't be happy. He added that it was their bodies that had been found. It was like a stab to the heart. Many of us cried. We lowered the flag for the day, and were told to separate into chet formations with our machlaka. The kravi girls were pulled aside and told we had our workout that night, in a half hour. I called my mom and told her, which I hope I will never have to do again, but know that this is my new life. In this particular situation, they had stopped showing the World Cup to broadcast the news, and the Rasar was not going to stop our practice to tell us. But I still know that in the future we are among the first to know, which lays the responsibility on us to call our loved ones to make sure they know we are okay. And then the focus shifts to the families that lost their sons, and we all mourn together. We dedicated our last kravi workout to their memory, and pushed harder than we thought possible. In a couple of weeks, we'll be training in our kravi units (hopefully), learning how to protect the people of Israel.

This post is dedicated to the memories of Gilad Shaar, Eyal Yifrah, and Naftali Fraenkel, for the laughs that were stopped too soon. Your families are in the prayers of all the nation of Israel and Jews worldwide.