The last few weeks have been very busy. I started with a short but long week, with some problems with my gun and being behind everyone. My maflag (the officer in charge of the 611 group in the battery) ended up zeroing my gun for me to save time, so I caught up a little to the group, but not completely. We had our first real masa with the mefakdim, and earned a laminated piece of paper with our tzevet's motto ("Together we win, alone we fail"). We were in the shetach the whole week, so we didn't know anything that was going on in the world. When I got home, I went to visit my friend Emily's family's house after not seeing her for a couple of years! It was awesome to finally meet her brothers and sister, catch up, and speak in Hebrew (which threw her off).
 |
| How we sleep on non-public transportation |
 |
| Gil, be jealous! |
We learned some really cool stuff the last couple of weeks, but I'm realizing how hard everything is for me. I'm not in as good shape as everyone else (mostly lacking upper body strength), I'm not a very good shot (although I am improving significantly), and sometimes I get frustrated because on top of everything, the Hebrew is still very difficult. No matter how much I am improving, or how fast, sometimes it makes the simplest things much more complicated. Sometimes I think how much easier the whole experience would be if it was in English. And it would be, but every day I feel more comfortable with Hebrew, so I know that I will eventually get there. For now, it just makes things either really annoying because I am constantly asking for explanations, or really funny when I make mistakes. The other day, we had grapes (anavim) at lunch, and I tried to ask if anyone didn't want theirs, but it came out asking who wanted to give me their avanim (rocks). My friends promptly threw small rocks at me. It sounds horrible, but it's kind of a sign that we're comfortable enough with each other to trust that having rocks thrown at you is an act of love. Also, it wasn't until I realized what they threw at me that I realized my mistake, so they're also teaching me (in their own strange way).
I left for a few days and the weekend last week because my stepbrother got married! It was nice to see some family, and also to hang out. I ended up missing the first couple of days of shmirah, but apparently I didn't miss anything too big, except a masa. When I got back on Sunday, I went almost directly to my first shift (outside of Michve, shmirah is four hours), so it was a kind of calm way to ease into being back on base and reflect the time I had off. Monday night I took part in a make-up masa, but I was the only one who missed it for reasons other than health, so it was just me and the mefaked. My mefaked was in charge of the exercise lesson for the day, so it was another one from my palga, but this mefaked is also very tall. So, without much of a fuss (except for him telling me I wasn't walking fast enough, even though I ran most of the way), the two of us did a "quick" masa and got it over with. When I finished, I had another guard shift, which was extremely difficult because my legs hurt from a masa, plus not sitting for a few hours, plus only being allowed to sit a few times for a few minutes during shmirah. I was so happy to go to sleep that night! The next day, during breakfast, the mefaked that took me on the masa reminded me that even though the masa was difficult, I had passed and earned a kis pakalim (a wallet to hold papers like HaTikva, what to do in a fire, and I also have a picture of my machlaka from Michve). When we went to pack for the shetach, my friend said, "Oh, I forgot! The mefaked wanted me to give this to you." So she tossed it across the room and I caught it, thinking how unceremonious, but just happy I have my first thing proving I am a part of gdud 611 and proud I earned it (even though it stays in my pocket all the time).
 |
| selfie-ception |
 |
| Israeli weddings are hardcore, I wanted to join her by the end! |
 |
| Perpetually hot and sweaty |
Despite how difficult everything is right now, I'm so happy with my group. It's an amazing group of people, an awesome staff, and a really special experience we're all going through together. We have as much fun as we possibly can, sometimes even making the commanders laugh so hard they have to walk away. And sometimes they make us laugh so hard we cry. The samalim (sergeants) are in charge of the shooting ranges, who comes in and who leaves, and when we have to go in between ranges, they make us bring gifts to the other samal. So far, I've had to bring two plates, a plastic knife, a secret message, and a stick in a plastic bag that I had to say was the Tree of Life, but the best was when someone complained about it. My samal built a giant paper cell phone with an antenna and even drew buttons on it and told the guy to take it to the other samal so he could "call" him. We might be in the army, away from our families (me a little more than the others) and going through really difficult daily challenges, but we are a family and do everything in good humor.
 |
| I may not be in college, but I can still eat pizza at 7 AM with my friends at the bus station |
In two weeks is my tekes hashba'a, or swearing in ceremony (yes, I already had one at Michve). Unfortunately they only gave me one invitation, so some friends from the kibbutz and Haifa are going to meet up and go together. I'm very excited, anyway! It's going to be very cool and I will get to go home after. Next weekend I'm going to visit my friends in Jerusalem that I haven't seen for a long time! Life in the army is a crazy whirlwind, but I am loving it.
