Hashba'ah (Delayed)

I tried posting this two weeks ago, but it didn't work, so here it comes!

This is how I came home last time:

And this is from the beginning of this weekend:

Yup, we got all dressed up in our aleph uniforms for the swearing in that you would never guess what we actually did the last two weeks. Early last week we did the masa samal and earned our gun straps. After, we thought we were headed back to base but they took our watches and we ended up being blindfolded and taken wayyy out in the desert for sada'ut, or field training. Any shetach that we have done before is nothing compared to what we did those three days. We were constantly on guard, only took (really) a few minutes for every meal, slept less than an hour each night, and even had practice operations. It was one of the hardest but one of the most fun things I've ever experienced, somehow. We had no underwear, toothbrushes, nothing for three days, but became closer as a tzevet because we learned to read hand signals and speak with just our eyes. We wore camouflage paint on our faces and within a couple of hours our brand new gun straps looked like we had them for about a year already. The last night they made us crawl about 50 meters. Now, I'm not very good at most things (slowly getting better), but my weakest area is crawling. And it wasn't just any crawling, we were still with all of our gear (vests, helmets) and anything we were carrying (shovels, canned food, etc.). So I got really frustrated and worried I was never going to make it because I was just not making any progress. But then a couple friends finished and came back to join me. And then some people from my tzevet. And then my mefaked. And then more friends and the rest of my tzevet. By the end, there were at least ten people all in a line crawling with me, and for each "step" I would scream "ECHAD!" and everyone would answer "SHTAYIM!" ("One!" "Two!") and when I finally reached the end I grabbed the glow stick marking the finish line and everyone was shouting and clapping for me. My mefaked pulled me aside and shook my helmet and just said, "Kol hakavod." Which loosely translates to "good job," but literally translates to "all the respect." Either way, I've never been as happy or proud of myself as I was in that moment.

When we finally got back to base, I had the unfortunate realization that it was 9/11. We talked briefly about it, but it was still weird speaking about it with non-Americans and especially not even in English.

Guard duty Shabbat morning, check out my cool gun strap!

Cards against humanity with some English speakers (not just olim)

During and after Shabbat, we practiced for what is called the bochen lochem, which is basically a test to see who is considered a lochem, or fighter. I was extremely worried about the written test because it was material my friends had learned in school or at least heard of before, and I was completely lost. The mefakdim and my friends really helped a lot in teaching me a bit of geography and history, but there were still parts I knew I wouldn't pass, like the bochen maslul, or obstacle course. We did a sort of practice that was a contest between the tzevets, a bochen tzevet early in the week, and even though my tzevet didn't win, we had the most fun and got mentioned for having some of the most rabak (basically enthusiasm, giving it your all). And for one of the shooting tests, my mefaked let me use his gun! He told me to switch with him, and I just said, "can I ask why?" thinking there might be a problem with mine that I didn't know about, but he said, straight-faced, "You deserve it," and then hinted at a smile as I put it on and walked back to the shooting range.

The next day, I worked around base pulling weeds and then worked in the kitchen opening cans of tuna, but Wednesday was the big day of the bochen lochem. I didn't pass, just as I thought, but I'll have more opportunities to try. In any case, it was a lot of fun. I missed the whole afternoon because they needed an extra set of hands in the kitchen, but one of my best friends from a different solelah (battery) was also working there. We're not allowed to talk to each other most of the time, so it was so much fun to hang out for an entire afternoon, even if we were cleaning dishes.

Then, Thursday was the tekes hashba'ah! It was amazing how many of my friends came, my kibbutz dad, my stepmom ended up still being in the country, my best friend from Michve surprised me at the last minute, and even my mom woke up at 3 AM to FaceTime in!! It was nice and quick, no speeches or anything, and then I grabbed my friend Jessie from the special forces to join us for lunch because she is also a lone soldier. It was just a great day, and Jessie and I showed off our bruises, tan lines, and hours of sleep (or lack thereof) to prove how much we are real fighters. 

On the way to the tekes, it was our first time off base with our guns (but we still didn't take them home)

Everyone was taking pictures of me while I was simultaneously on FaceTime with my mom

On Friday I went down to Jerusalem and saw my old rabbi from summer camp in Georgia. It was crazy because the last time I saw his daughter she was about 5 or 6 and now is in high school! It was nice to catch up and see his whole family again. I spent most of the weekend with the Muszkats and also visiting the Weissmans, both of whom I hadn't seen in a long time. Now, I am on my way back to base to start our specialty training! Have a good week :)

I made a schnitzel that looks like Israel!

7 AM Celebratory Friday Pizza

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.

Tironut 2.0

It's been a long two weeks and a new week is starting now. As soon as we got on the buses, those of us trying out for the gibush were separated and told our time started now. Before I got on the bus, I ran into some of my michve friends in infantry units! It's so cool seeing that we are doing the same things and we are all happy. On the bus, these ladies get on and hand out prayer booklets telling us they're going to pray for us. It was funny because there was one lady talking and another taking pictures of soldiers taking the booklets but also really sweet. The gibush didn't actually start until the next day, but we were split up into groups and even moved into rooms separate from the other girls. It was also very strange just to be allowed to talk to boys. We woke up at 3 AM to get started (having to wear these funny hats), and started the physical portion. We ran and crawled for a little over an hour, and then after about a solid 40 minutes of crawling I realized I wasn't having fun anymore, and I was holding the group back when we did group tests. So I tapped out and made some new friends among the other people giving up. We hung out in a tent waiting to go back to base and found a box of rugelach that we dipped into because we had only been allowed a piece of fruit before the tests started so we wouldn't throw up or anything. About half an hour after I gave up, they said the physical portion was done. I asked, "Oh, for the day?" And the testers told us the gibush was only going to be for one day because of the fast day the next day, Tisha B'av. I was a little upset because if I had known it was only one day, I would have made it through just fine, but in the end I knew it wasn't what I wanted and I was just happy for the girls that did make it all the way through. It's still a symbol on base of who did the gibush by who has sand burns on their elbows from the crawling. (Mine's almost healed.) My commander sat me down at breakfast that morning to talk about it, just to see how I was doing and also because every girl in totchanim is curious to know what goes on in the gibushim. I told her I have up because it wasn't fun anymore and that I only went to see if I could do it and what it was like. She thought that was one of the funniest things she had ever heard! And then that was it, I was back with the mechina until we all got assignments. We had a baror, a physical diagnostic aptitude test, like the 3K I had done at Michve. This was also 11 push-ups and 3 kilometers, but we had less time for the 3K. Ironically, I took longer to run it (way more hills at Bislat, another name for my base) but I still passed and was in a higher rank than before (#17 including a few boys who had a lot less time to run it).

Green uniform turned brown from crawling in the sand

On Wednesday, we were split up into our assignments. SIX girls were accepted into the totchanim sayarot (special forces), including an Olah Chadashah I am friends with from Michve!! Then, they called the girls going to MLRS, and finally my name was called. The Masol (who is from Icun) and the commander from Icun came over to our group of girls and said, "Welcome home, 611!" After that, it was a whirlwind. We were assigned new tzevets, new commanders, new rooms, new bet uniforms, even more equipment, and for the first time in my army career I was surrounded by boys. We are doing tironut with MLRS so most of the people there are with them, so there was some confusion for the boys who weren't told their specific assignments.

The next day, we went to the bochen maslul, which is basically an obstacle course. I spent almost the whole time trying to get over the wall. It was very frustrating, but I wanted to show them I wouldn't give up. I tried about 30 times, and my scabs from the gibush actually opened up on the wall, so I left my mark, as they say (it's only even because I walked away significantly bruised). That night, we had our free hour and we're standing in formation, waiting to be released for bed. Then, they told us we had to change to bet uniforms. We were sure we were being punished, but for what no one was sure. We are told to split into tzevets. My mefaked told us to grab snacks and come sit in a circle. So we thought, oh that's nice, we're just having like a nice getting to know each other initiation thing. We arrive with bamba and chocolates in hand, when the mefaked asks one girl if she's tired. She says yes, and he tells her to wake up, good morning. We thought nothing of it. When the meeting was over, we ask him when we are actually going to sleep. He says, "I said good morning, right? Welcome to your first lila lavan." We spent the whole night fixing and customizing our equipment so it fits, is identifiable as ours personally, and identifiable as belonging to our palga (like a machlaka). It really did take the whole night, but the worst was the morning. I was so tired I couldn't understand Hebrew. Thankfully, it was Friday and we were looking forward to sleeping, even if it was on base. We still had some physical stuff, classes, but mostly just wrapped up the week. We received our guns, which are slightly different from the ones at Michve so they are shorter and lighter (my tiny self appreciates that).

The pin for 611, it'll be a while before I have this

Shabbat on base is nice. We had basically a shouting contest with the other battalions outside the dining hall Friday night, and saw friends from before the assignments. Dinner itself was crowded and fun. Then Saturday we all slept in until lunch and talked to our families and friends. It's kinda funny to see everyone in civilian clothes, with a gun strapped on, carrying magazines in one hand and a Coke in the other, somehow also balancing a phone call to their ear.

Reppin UT

After Shabbat, we had a surprise practice masa. It was really difficult, with the most gear I've carried, a lot of running (my tall mefaked's walking is my steady jog), and crawling up a hill. But when we reached the end, there was a huge fire spelling out "Gideon 14," which is the name of our battery. It was very cool and we all really feel like we are finally (well, finally for me. Everyone else has only been in the army less than a month) starting proper training and in general on track to having a place here.

Post-masa roommate selfie!

We prepared to go down to the shetach, but my tzevet got orders to stay on base an extra day to help with some stuff around base, but my group finished early so we hung out and napped. The next day we went down and joined everyone in the tents and at the shooting ranges. Honestly, I am not very good at shooting. I still haven't gotten my gun to zero out, so I'll have to try again this week. Outside of that, we just learned how to protect the camp and how to use and care for other equipment.

The week was rough. Sunday was my dad's unveiling, so I got permission to FaceTime in, and wear my aleph uniform. I was so upset I wasn't there, but everyone there reminded me how proud he would have been.

My Hebrew is improving but still gives me trouble. I have to stop and ask questions, and a few times after am order I end up just standing there, trying to get a commander's attention so he or she can tell me what to do. This week I have a meeting with what is called a mashakit aliyah, who helps soldiers who made Aliyah continue Hebrew classes or in general helps us with stuff we don't pick up on, being foreigners.

My mefaked is very cool. He's honest with us, and makes us want to follow his orders. There is still distance, but it is extremely different. I know his name, where he went to school, and when he drafted. In combat, it's important to have distance but can't be held to as high of a standard as they have at michve so we can know they are trustworthy. Sometimes he even translates stuff to English for me, but I prefer what some of the commanders do, which is explain in Hebrew like they did at michve. It's still strange to hear commanders speak English.

All in all, I'm very happy with my placement, and the people I am with, even if I am about three years older than them (I'm even older than all the mefakdim). I had a good weekend, spent some time at the beach and just relaxed. I'm on the bus to the south now, and will be off base next week, but might go somewhere other than the kibbutz to visit friends.

Just another beautiful day at the beach

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Har Peepee

On our way back to base (let’s call it S) on Sunday, we visited a couple of Totchanim bases to learn about battalions in which we could be placed for our service. It was cool to meet Totchanim soldiers in their active service, especially female combat soldiers doing the same things as all the boys, which is what all of us want and why we chose this service track. Speaking of whom, the boys were drafted on Monday. There are so many of them! At the start of our tironut, us girls will make up only 8% of the draft, which is a little intimidating. They told us a bunch of people will fall from tironut, so by the end we’ll see what the stats are like by then. Anyway, we had a bunch of introductory lectures about on-base healthcare and general stuff like that this week with the boys, and it was funny to see all of them. All of us Michve girls are allowed to sit next to each other during lectures and classes so we can translate for each other, so we sit and speak English, and then boys would try to talk to us upon hearing the foreign language, and we would immediately switch to flawless Hebrew to tell them, “We’re not allowed to speak to you,” and then switch back to English. We’re with mostly Israelis, and one girl who is French-British and made aliyah several years ago, but almost everyone at least understands English. We end up having a lot of conversations where us foreigners will speak Hebrew and the Israelis will practice their English on us, which is really funny to listen to!

I finally have a picture of my new aleph uniform! Still really big on me

The next day, we went down to the shetach (the field) for a night, which ended up being really fun. We practiced some field techniques, like building the meeting tent, digging sleeping holes, and eating manak (m’nat krav—combat meals (tuna, mostly)). Last time I was in the shetach, we were on a base with bathrooms. This time, it was just desert, so we got our first taste of what we ended up calling “Har Peepee,” (har meaning mountain or hill, and peepee meaning, well, you get it). We practiced running and hitting the ground from grenades (rocks, of which we were not lacking), and picking up people with “injuries,” so we all came back with bruises on our knees. When we came back, and it was dark, we went on a practice masa around the base, which was kind of hard because there was more running than the masaot we did at Michve, but we didn’t have guns so that obviously made it easier from the start. When we got back, we did the traditional pushups with our commanders, shouting our loyalties for our tzevet (ironically this was done non-ironically because we almost never separate into our tzevets). Then, smiling despite being sweaty, disgusting (not having showered for almost 48 hours), and exhausted, our commander asks us who wants to go home on the weekend. We all raise our hands, and one girl shouts out, “KEN MEFAKEDET!” (yes, commander!), which causes all of us to laugh even harder. When we manage to suppress giggles, the commander tells us to wear our aleph uniforms in the morning, and then releases us to our free hour (there was a lot of whooping and jumping at that point).

New bet uniform, even bigger than the aleph (but super comfortable), bucket hat included
This was right after the masa, hence why I am so red and sweaty

Thursday, dressed up in aleph and ready to head out, we go to a lecture about and then sign up for the tryouts for special forces. This is the first time ever some of the special forces in Totchanim are opening to girls, so it is a huge deal. Most of the girls want to go to the tryouts, myself included. But I am going to be honest with them in my interview that I am not particularly interested in their battalions, that I am just there to see if I can pass a gibush (tryout, but translates to “challenge”), which I have heard is an experience by itself. In fact, I am trying to go to the battalion that is slightly less physical and some computer work, but in my opinion one of the most important jobs in the IDF. It is called Icun (ee-coon), and they are the ones who notify Home Front Command to do a Code Red siren and in what area. If I end up truly loving this job, I will not push to become a medic. A big part of my reason to serve was to help save lives, and I feel that this job is even more life-saving than any medic alone can be, as every Israeli knows in our current situation.

On our way home

As far as differences between Michve and S (current base) go, they just go on and on. First being that there is less distance with the commanders. We know all of the staff’s names, we have seen our commanding officer hang from a rope while giving a lesson, they care less about letting us see them laugh, and I personally have done racing sprints with the head sergeant (the only male in our group—I won, but I don’t think he was at full speed). Another huge difference is the rules. At S, they check to make sure everyone eats, showers, and sleeps. At first this was frustrating for me because I often skipped a shower here and there at Michve, but I’ve come to enjoy it. It forces me to socialize with the girls rather than talk on the phone for my whole free hour. At Michve, we weren’t allowed to touch other people, not even girls in our tzevet, unless told or in an extenuating circumstance, while at S that rule only applies to boys, obviously. It is a different way of making friends when you are allowed to hug, kiss, punch (lovingly!), or even just to swing your arm over their shoulder. Which makes for stronger friendships faster, and different relationships in general (most girls at Michve only wanted to punch each other if they were angry, we are combat soldiers so it is only to our advantage to be able to take or receive a hit in a friendly setting for when it’s not so friendly). We are the girls that compare bruises in the showers as if they are prizes! (I don’t bruise easily, so I lost, no matter how hard I hit the ground for them. I was on the same level as the girls that didn’t work as hard.) It is a lot of fun being with such a great group of girls, and I’m really sad to know we’ll be separated next week when we go to our respective battalions, even if we are in the same battalion, we could be in different tzevets. What happens next week will determine our entire training, and thusly our entire service. (No pressure, right?) It’s been an awesome experience with these girls and knowing that we’ve been through an intense couple of weeks already, and seen some incredible stuff (the night sky in the middle of the desert trumps pretty much everything I’ve witnessed so far (you can see the Milky Way!)…even the sunrise/sunset were like a real-time postcard, and probably more beautiful than even seeing Masada at sunrise). Despite all this, I think we’re ready to start our training. It’s hard knowing that everybody knows somebody in Gaza right now (some soldiers are going on seven weeks away from home), and we consider a couple days without a shower “roughing it,” and complaining that our training will be 11 days on base and 3 at home (11/3).

Yeah, it's a hard life

See y'all in two weeks!

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.