Way back three weeks ago, we were in Jerusalem/Latrun for our education week. In Jerusalem, we hiked the path (approximately) Herzl took when he first visited and decided Israel needed to be the Jewish state, not Uganda. We finished the tour at the Kotel, but at the last minute there was not enough time and we didn't go in. A lot of us were very upset about that, but the commanders didn't budge and made us get on the bus. We traveled to Latrun, a battle site and Tank Corps museum and stayed there for the next few days. First, we learned about the general importance of Israel, the culture of Israel, then the IDF, and so on until we got back to base and had a class with just our commanders on our daily routine. It was nice to have classes with our palga and commanders and officer (even the samal taught a class), and we had some good discussions. One night, we took a tour of the museum, which was very hard. There is a memorial wall of all the tank soldiers that have died in combat, and they had added 17 names that morning from the operation this summer. We separated and sat down with our tzevets to talk about our own personal view of the army, and specifically what it means to us to be combat soldiers, lochemim. Even our mefaked spoke openly about his experience, telling us he was picked to play basketball overseas but decided to draft instead, without telling anyone until it had already happened.
We returned to base for Sukkot and guard duty (the chief officer volunteered us), and I got to sit in my first sukkah in Israel! It rained that day, which put me in shock because I didn't know that it rained in the desert during daytime. But that day was also October 8, one year since my Aliyah! My friend threw a (small) party for me and at dinner my table in the sukkah made a toast.
On Sunday, I had a birthday and the army gave me two presents: an ultrasound for my ankle after a month of waiting, and my tzevet went to spend a few days on a base at which we could end up. It was so much fun, we learned a lot hands on and got to meet and work with people already in the gdud. It was a lot of work, but it made all of us really excited to be a part of this technology.
Traveling on public trans with all our gear
When we left, we were on base for less than a day before going home for sukkot bet. When I got home, my kibbutz mom had a surprise for me from her (and my mom). She took me to lunch and since her brother in law is the manager, we had a spa day at this hotel in Haifa! It was nice to relax and spend some quality time with just her, and it was cool it also came from my mom. That was day one of four at home that holiday/weekend, but the most exciting. I went back to base on Sunday, but only packed a few things because Monday I went to the airport to pick up my brother!!! That's right, he finally made Aliyah, too! I only got a few days, but it was so much fun being with him and helping him out as far as Hebrew and culture goes. I came back to base and we had been volunteered for even more shmirot (for the fourth time!) but it wasn't so bad. That was the second to last Shabbat before the end of tironut, and today is the last (yes we are closing the dreaded 21).
First day dinner!
During the week we had our last classes and study sessions. I passed the half year mark of being in the army this week! Yesterday I was in the kitchen, but today we are getting together to study for our final test tomorrow. Part is written, and the other part is simulations, which I love because it's exactly what we'll be doing and in general is really cool if you do it right.
Being in the kitchen makes us sleepy and weird, but there's milki so it's worth it.
An update on my ankle: it's not clear if there is a name for what is wrong with it, but if I rest it enough this week I can do a few kilometers of the masa kumta (beret march).
That's about it for now, just wanted to throw out an update before I finish tironut for (twice) and for all!! 5 days til that torqouise!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment