Sorry I have not posted in so long... been busy! Two months have passed already! Can you believe it? I really can't. Last I remember I was getting my uniform and looking at how I had nothing on it and felt so new.... oh wait I still have nothing on it. But two more weeks and I will! My swearing in ceremony is coming up, we get some things on our uniform and take home our gun. If anyone is in Israel May 26th let me know!
Alright, what has been going on since my last post... a lot. I mentioned that we had got our guns and started shooting? Yeah so we did a lot more of that, different excersises, some fun, some not so fun(hard). I almost left for a medics course last week. They heard that I was a medic in Israel and in America so they assumed that I would love to leave everyone for four months and do a course. At first I was on the list until I told my officer that I didn't want to and he fought for me to get off. Would not have been fun.
Oh almost forgot! Pesach was great! Thanks to friends and relatives, I had a great time, with good food and good company.
The shabbat following Pesach we closed as a plugah (brigade, I think) to do guard duty on the base and other places. So luckily my group got placed on our current base and we were able to stay in our own rooms and shower! Others were not as lucky. The shifts started out okay, I think we were doing 2 hours on active duty, 2 hours as the group ready to go in any incident (have to wear full uniform including boots always) and than 10 hours off. It wasn't really 10 hours off as we are still in basic training. They had us tie all of our equipment together and cover it up protecting from glare and what not. However, 20 or so guys left us on Sunday for different reasons (medic course, kitchen duty, other courses) leaving us with maybe 18 guys to complete the same amount of shifts that 40 people were doing. The shifts changed to 2 hours on active duty, 2 hours on ready, 2 hours off.... this includes all hours of the day. I don't want to complain, but I was never as tired as I was last week. I fell asleep standing up in formation one time. Ha my officer noticed and clapped me awake. Thank G-d b/c I was about to fall. Anyways, it was exciting a few times, I had some suspicious cars try to get into the base and we rejected them. Ten minutes of excitement for about 60 hours or more of guard duty... haha.
We finished the week and got off for shabbat, which I spent in Chaifa at Rachel and Yoni's new apartment! They have a bedroom for me now! So exciting. We barbequed Saturday night and are barbequeing again now for Yom Haaztmaut. We all went on a hike (including Chama and Avi) today through Carmel Park in Chaifa. Was very nice. We saw a lot of cows close up, horses, goats, etc. Kinda weird what they were doing down there b/c cows can't go downhill right?
Going back to Jerusalem tonight and heading back to base for two days and than off again for shabbat! Ask me why we get off so much for shabbat... b/c my unit(Kfir) has no money. So they choose to spend the money they have on days that we can actually work unlike Shabbat. This past Sunday we had a culture day with my unit in Akko. We went to the underground prison there. Afterwards we did something really cool. We visited the druze village of my commander (he is druze in case you didn't get that). He showed us around and took us to the house of a commander who died in the Lebanon war from his village, he said he was his role model. It was cool to see how much they like and respect soldiers there. Look up the religion. They are the best Arabs out there.
Again, if anyone is in Israel May 26th! Let me know, I have to save places. Bye for now!
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Monday, April 18, 2011
Masa 4 - Shavua B'Shetach
Last week started out really cool as we had a surprise Masa (hike wearing full gear) 4 (4k). At the end of it we got the cover for our dog tag. It says our unit and our entry date on it and has a picture of our unit symbol. Then on Thursday all the lone soldiers in kfir (my unit) went to a 'day of fun' at a hotel. I pretty much tried every form of water therapy there was there. There was a Turkish Bath, sauna, steam room, indoor/outdoor pool, jacuzzi, homemade baked goods for breakfast, and homemade chicken and meat for lunch (all provided by the Michael Levin Lone Soldier Center). It was really relaxing and after the program ended we went straight home! I stayed at my friends apartment that night so I could sleep a little later. Then for shabbat I was at Shlomo and Malka and fam and had a great and restful shabbat.
This week started off with us quickly getting into things. Usually Sunday is kind of a do-nothing day because everyone is still coming back to base but they took us right away to base and we quickly changed into uniform-b. We got all our equipment in order, preparing to go to the shetach (desert) right away. That day they had a class on the radio which the "non-fluent in Hebrew" speakers had already had so instead we became the Samal's (one of the officers) workers for the day. The entire day we had to carry stuff up and down the hill to the Shetach in the heat of the day. It was hard work and we didn't get dinner afterwords until really late bc they forgot about us. Also we got to sleep later than everyone else because we had to stay by all the stuff until one of the kitot (smallest group) came to the Shetach to guard the stuff (they slept there that night). So the mefakdim (officers) were pretty annoyed but what can you do! Tough luck. We still woke up with everyone else and went to the shetach really early to start shooting. From Monday morning until Thursday afternoon we were in the Shetach shooting. We slept in small tents, three to a tent to keep warm. It was hard the first night to fall asleep because of all the rocks poking into my back but eventually I acclimated to the environment. During those days we did runs with our gear, without gear and we did a Krav Maga (martial arts for military) lesson. We learned how to fight with our gun (without bullets) in that lesson and ran a lot. I by accidently forgot my years of training from my parents to burp with my mouth closed and the madrich (teacher) heard it and made me do 40 push ups. However I thought he said 20 so when I stood back in line it was too soon and he noticed and made me do 40 more. woops. Let that be a lesson to people! When your parents teach you manners it pays to listen.
Following that we continued to 'target' our guns. Each time you would shoot at the target 25 meters away, and if it was off you would have to adjust it. We did other cools exercises and what not. It was difficult but there were the fun moments. At one point we all were dancing in the rain (Machlaka Beinish... what you gonna do) and we had a kumzitz one night until the officers told us to stop.
On Thursday we packed up, went back to base, ran a couple miles, and then showered for the first time in a week! I figured I had water points saved up from not using water the whole week so I took a nice shower.
These past few days I've been staying in Chama and Avi's vacant apartment (they all went to America without me!) and no... I have not burned down the place. For the seder I am going to a friend in Chashmonaim. Its my first Pesach in Israel! Forced to stay b/c we are closed on base for Wednesday and Thursday.
Its cool being in Israel at this time. I bought food earlier and brought it back to the apartment, when I realized I may have just been eating Chametz in their apartment I got worried b/c it was already cleaned but I looked at the food and it was all kosher for pesach! Who woulda thought.
If anyone is in Israel last week of May come to our tekes (ceremony)!
Chag Sameach!
This week started off with us quickly getting into things. Usually Sunday is kind of a do-nothing day because everyone is still coming back to base but they took us right away to base and we quickly changed into uniform-b. We got all our equipment in order, preparing to go to the shetach (desert) right away. That day they had a class on the radio which the "non-fluent in Hebrew" speakers had already had so instead we became the Samal's (one of the officers) workers for the day. The entire day we had to carry stuff up and down the hill to the Shetach in the heat of the day. It was hard work and we didn't get dinner afterwords until really late bc they forgot about us. Also we got to sleep later than everyone else because we had to stay by all the stuff until one of the kitot (smallest group) came to the Shetach to guard the stuff (they slept there that night). So the mefakdim (officers) were pretty annoyed but what can you do! Tough luck. We still woke up with everyone else and went to the shetach really early to start shooting. From Monday morning until Thursday afternoon we were in the Shetach shooting. We slept in small tents, three to a tent to keep warm. It was hard the first night to fall asleep because of all the rocks poking into my back but eventually I acclimated to the environment. During those days we did runs with our gear, without gear and we did a Krav Maga (martial arts for military) lesson. We learned how to fight with our gun (without bullets) in that lesson and ran a lot. I by accidently forgot my years of training from my parents to burp with my mouth closed and the madrich (teacher) heard it and made me do 40 push ups. However I thought he said 20 so when I stood back in line it was too soon and he noticed and made me do 40 more. woops. Let that be a lesson to people! When your parents teach you manners it pays to listen.
Following that we continued to 'target' our guns. Each time you would shoot at the target 25 meters away, and if it was off you would have to adjust it. We did other cools exercises and what not. It was difficult but there were the fun moments. At one point we all were dancing in the rain (Machlaka Beinish... what you gonna do) and we had a kumzitz one night until the officers told us to stop.
On Thursday we packed up, went back to base, ran a couple miles, and then showered for the first time in a week! I figured I had water points saved up from not using water the whole week so I took a nice shower.
These past few days I've been staying in Chama and Avi's vacant apartment (they all went to America without me!) and no... I have not burned down the place. For the seder I am going to a friend in Chashmonaim. Its my first Pesach in Israel! Forced to stay b/c we are closed on base for Wednesday and Thursday.
Its cool being in Israel at this time. I bought food earlier and brought it back to the apartment, when I realized I may have just been eating Chametz in their apartment I got worried b/c it was already cleaned but I looked at the food and it was all kosher for pesach! Who woulda thought.
If anyone is in Israel last week of May come to our tekes (ceremony)!
Chag Sameach!
Sunday, April 3, 2011
New Experiences... 3 weeks
Hello everybody.
3 weeks of the army have already passed. Time has been flying! Starting the second week we got right into things. Met our officers, our actual groups, broke down into smaller groups etc. We started running. The first week we ran about 2.5 k (1.8 miles or something like that) not at all a lot but it was difficult for a lot of people. Basically the first week was an adjustment week, they were not harsh on us so as to let us acclimate to things.
Starting the third week right away we started pushing. We did the bochein maslul (fitness test). At first we went through it with the teachers because it requires instruction. Parts of the test include jumping over a wall, climbing up ropes, crawling, monkey bars etc. It was extremely fun and hard. When I got to the end the first time, apparently my face was bright red because people were asking if I was about to pass out. I got back to my mefaked (officer) and he told me to do it again (yeah... I know...). So I did it twice, almost got stuck at the rope part because I had no strength left in my legs but passed it and made it to the end again. We all thought that since we had done this on Monday ( I could be getting the days mixed up... theres only two days in the week for me day I go home for shabbat and day I come back :-) we would get a break or something but the next day we did the fitness test. Eventually everyone has to pass this test to stay in a combat unit, it consists of 2k, pushups and situps. I did fairly well on the 2k, getting 8 minutes (6:24 mile) and finishing 15th out of 42 in our group. Thats good enough to pass but on the pushups and situps you need 75 and 86 respectively but I only got 31 and 57 (its all in a row). Kind of annoying because I know I could have done more situps and probably more pushups but in the moment you are nervous and it was hard to come through.
The next day early in the morning (6:30 or something) they told a couple of us that we needed to go to ulpan (language classes) for the next three days. I was actually really annoyed because we were getting our guns that day and I was excited. Plus the ulpan was a waste of time in the beginning and most people there didn't even speak a word of hebrew. Don't know if I'd give them a gun if I was in charge, but who knows. However, it turned out that one of the days in ulpan they taught us about the gun and took a while to explain it (in hebrew still) so it was very useful and we didn't have to carry around the guns without a strap for two days ( we had to earn the strap). All in all ulpan was very chill and the guys back on base didn't do anything real during the daytime anyways besides for classes. Really it was good that I was off my feet all day because that night we had a "krav maga"(self-defense class) and there was not much self-defense being taught really just a bunch of sprinting and pushups. They crammed a lot of people into a really small space so while we were sprinting people were getting hit and bloodied. At one point two people, one on either side of me used me as a starting point and pushed off my shoulder and I hit the ground. I was really annoyed because it hurt my knee so when I passed one of them the next time I hit him in the face (made it look by accident because everyone was doing it, not a violent person it was just necessary alright?). It was intense because the madrich (teacher) was yelling the entire time trying to intimidate us. Lets just say I was happy when it was over after about an hour or so of that.
So wednesday, the guys in the ulpan got our guns and prepared for the masa (um... translation is hike maybe? I'll explain it don't worry) that night. It was a 3k (2k=1.25 miles so about 2 miles) masa and the first one for us so it was very exciting. We got bullets to fill up the cartridges with to make our vest heavier for the masa and filled up some canteens. You know, running 3k isn't hard, running it with a lot of extra weight, well it gets difficult. At one point during the masa I grabbed a guys vest and someone got he from behind as he was passing out and we pulled him the rest of the way. It was a lot fun. Plus post masa for dinner they had pepsi and RC Cola, woohooo. Haha.
Then, Thursday was a relaxed day in Ulpan again. We had some tests but I passed them, no worries.
We "went to sleep" (why the quotations? because not actually, I stayed an extra hour because I had shmirah/guard duty soon anyways) at 8 that night because we were waking up at 1:30 Friday morning to leave for shabbat (weekend).
I went to the Hubschers for shabbat, had a great and restful shabbat and came back with clean laundry! So excited that I have sisters and cousins to prevent me from smelling up the place.
Starting this week we are learning how to shoot the guns (m-16) and moving things along quickly.
All in all everythings going well. The army is enjoyable sometimes but difficult and tiring most times. I just keep in mind that everything is making me into a better soldier and thats how I get through the tough parts. We will see how the next couple weeks end up being!
Shavua Tov.
P.s. my apologies for the poor writing with the run-on and fragment sentences. short on time!
3 weeks of the army have already passed. Time has been flying! Starting the second week we got right into things. Met our officers, our actual groups, broke down into smaller groups etc. We started running. The first week we ran about 2.5 k (1.8 miles or something like that) not at all a lot but it was difficult for a lot of people. Basically the first week was an adjustment week, they were not harsh on us so as to let us acclimate to things.
Starting the third week right away we started pushing. We did the bochein maslul (fitness test). At first we went through it with the teachers because it requires instruction. Parts of the test include jumping over a wall, climbing up ropes, crawling, monkey bars etc. It was extremely fun and hard. When I got to the end the first time, apparently my face was bright red because people were asking if I was about to pass out. I got back to my mefaked (officer) and he told me to do it again (yeah... I know...). So I did it twice, almost got stuck at the rope part because I had no strength left in my legs but passed it and made it to the end again. We all thought that since we had done this on Monday ( I could be getting the days mixed up... theres only two days in the week for me day I go home for shabbat and day I come back :-) we would get a break or something but the next day we did the fitness test. Eventually everyone has to pass this test to stay in a combat unit, it consists of 2k, pushups and situps. I did fairly well on the 2k, getting 8 minutes (6:24 mile) and finishing 15th out of 42 in our group. Thats good enough to pass but on the pushups and situps you need 75 and 86 respectively but I only got 31 and 57 (its all in a row). Kind of annoying because I know I could have done more situps and probably more pushups but in the moment you are nervous and it was hard to come through.
The next day early in the morning (6:30 or something) they told a couple of us that we needed to go to ulpan (language classes) for the next three days. I was actually really annoyed because we were getting our guns that day and I was excited. Plus the ulpan was a waste of time in the beginning and most people there didn't even speak a word of hebrew. Don't know if I'd give them a gun if I was in charge, but who knows. However, it turned out that one of the days in ulpan they taught us about the gun and took a while to explain it (in hebrew still) so it was very useful and we didn't have to carry around the guns without a strap for two days ( we had to earn the strap). All in all ulpan was very chill and the guys back on base didn't do anything real during the daytime anyways besides for classes. Really it was good that I was off my feet all day because that night we had a "krav maga"(self-defense class) and there was not much self-defense being taught really just a bunch of sprinting and pushups. They crammed a lot of people into a really small space so while we were sprinting people were getting hit and bloodied. At one point two people, one on either side of me used me as a starting point and pushed off my shoulder and I hit the ground. I was really annoyed because it hurt my knee so when I passed one of them the next time I hit him in the face (made it look by accident because everyone was doing it, not a violent person it was just necessary alright?). It was intense because the madrich (teacher) was yelling the entire time trying to intimidate us. Lets just say I was happy when it was over after about an hour or so of that.
So wednesday, the guys in the ulpan got our guns and prepared for the masa (um... translation is hike maybe? I'll explain it don't worry) that night. It was a 3k (2k=1.25 miles so about 2 miles) masa and the first one for us so it was very exciting. We got bullets to fill up the cartridges with to make our vest heavier for the masa and filled up some canteens. You know, running 3k isn't hard, running it with a lot of extra weight, well it gets difficult. At one point during the masa I grabbed a guys vest and someone got he from behind as he was passing out and we pulled him the rest of the way. It was a lot fun. Plus post masa for dinner they had pepsi and RC Cola, woohooo. Haha.
Then, Thursday was a relaxed day in Ulpan again. We had some tests but I passed them, no worries.
We "went to sleep" (why the quotations? because not actually, I stayed an extra hour because I had shmirah/guard duty soon anyways) at 8 that night because we were waking up at 1:30 Friday morning to leave for shabbat (weekend).
I went to the Hubschers for shabbat, had a great and restful shabbat and came back with clean laundry! So excited that I have sisters and cousins to prevent me from smelling up the place.
Starting this week we are learning how to shoot the guns (m-16) and moving things along quickly.
All in all everythings going well. The army is enjoyable sometimes but difficult and tiring most times. I just keep in mind that everything is making me into a better soldier and thats how I get through the tough parts. We will see how the next couple weeks end up being!
Shavua Tov.
P.s. my apologies for the poor writing with the run-on and fragment sentences. short on time!
Friday, March 18, 2011
The first................ two days in the army
Yeah I know what you're all thinking... "That's nothing", or "I could do that", or "He should ask for his money back". Well let me put an end to that thinking right now, its hard standing in lines all day and marching. No really, we had something known as 'fake' training, its to slowly break in to the army (if that sounds at all plausible). So we do not have our real officers and therefore nothings as serious as it should be. The only thing that was actually one hundred percent real with a guy yelling and scaring the living day lights out of everyone was the uniform officer. He is in charge of making sure no one violates the dress code and if you do its a fine. They claim there are army police walking around everywhere waiting for you to mess up but I have never seen them. This has come to make me think that they walk around disguised as normal people and the second your shirt is out of your pants or shoelace hanging down the boot instead of tucked in... they find you! Everything so far has gone well, received our uniforms/everything else and we started learning proper formations and 'greetings' to commanders/officers. I have successfully hurdled the language barrier, with the help of friends (8 English speakers in our group), we usually get the gist of things. We got off Thursday afternoon because of the fast and are off till Monday afternoon because of Purim in Jerusalem! So my break is longer than the actual days I was in the army. Even though we didn't do any intense training I was still so tired. In the meantime I am staying at my friend's grandparents and walking in between there and my sister and brother-in-laws transferring stuff and what not. I know... free buses, but you have to wear the uniform and my jeans and naot are a lot more comfortable. Anyways, this shabbat I'm going to be with Yeshiva but eating out for meals. Oh and by the way, for all those that think the army is a dirt pile, we cleaned our rooms (we stayed in it two nights) four times, each time sweeping and scrubbing with soap and forced to shower every night etc. Now it could just be (most probably is) that they had nothing better for us to do, but still, good sign for all those moms out there who worry about their sons never having clean fingernails again after the army.
Shabbat Shalom!!
Shabbat Shalom!!
Monday, March 14, 2011
Roller Coaster Ride
A day away from my entry into training, I feel it is an appropriate time to reflect on the past few months.
Starting in mid-January I had decided that I was going to exercise my right as a lone soldier and accept money to rent an apartment. I planned on living in Chaifa with my sister and brother-in-law. People in yeshiva found out where I was going to live and convinced me that it would be too difficult to get up to Chaifa every time and that I needed to be in Jerusalem. So I joined some friends and we started to look for apartments. In the beginning we tried with agents but swore them off as they were no help and just wasted our time by taking us to a place different than the one we wanted to see (always ended up being a dump, since they were trying to get rid of the hard ones).
Lets do the math. The army gives each lone soldier 1050 sheck. We had four, so that is 4200 sheck. After finding out that that was not nearly enough once you add on maintenance fees and house committee fees, we added on two more people. Six people is 6300 sheck. Seems like enough right? Wrong. Here are the following issues that could arise: Owners do not like the fact that the people renting there apartment are young and soldiers, or they do not want this many people in a three bedroom or even a four bedroom, or they raise the price originally advertised because the more people the more potential for wear and tear..... all of these problems arose. After looking at 20 plus apartments, we were ready to throw in the towel when out of no where someone emailed me with an apartment. I had emailed this place when we only had four and passed up on it because it was too much money. However now we had the people, we had the money, so we went to see it. It was perfect, furnished, center location, nice and clean and spacious. I spoke to the landlord and he (hold your breath) had absolutely no issue with the fact that we were soldiers, young, or five people (we did not add on the six yet, sorry for the incorrect info). However he did raise the price, but it was still within our price range so we were ready to sign. A month before our entry date we thought we had an apartment and were set.... we were wrong. The landlord proceeded to take us on one hell of a ride for the next month. Initially he showed us another apartment, we reluctantly agreed to see it and it turned out to be great too so we asked to see the contract. Getting the contract, the correct contract (he sent us a 'fake' one, why? I don't know) took us 2 weeks. Within those two weeks I probably called the guy four times a day. He was driving us all nuts, at times we thought we had lost the apartment and even started looking again. But none of us any will power left to make another trip through the hills of Yerushalayim only to be disappointed on the other end. So we stuck with this guy. Big mistake. He raised the price 1000 sheck, and than knocked it back down 500 to 6500 sheck. Still this was a great price because it included heat, ac and house committee fees. Then came the excuses, the landlord claimed the owner was not getting back to him, or said he would send the contract right away but would not. After wasting a lot of minutes pestering the guy he finally sent over the contract. Everything seemed fine, now we just had to meet. Little did we know there were a few conditions he would throw on us at the end. In addition to dealing with issues with him, we had some internal conflicts over the amount (3200 dollars) of the security deposit. Split between six people it came out to 533(.33 repeating) dollars (for those without calculators) a person. The amount was a steep price but we had to pay it to get the apartment. We were unable to get a commitment from everyone to pay the amount. So when we finally got the meeting with the landlord this past Wednesday, we walked there without knowing exactly what we were going to do. Ultimately, the landlord would not accept our amendments- we wanted to insure we would get the security deposit back if we did not damage anything and if we did we wanted to see the receipts, and we wanted to obligate him (he told us originally he would for sure do it) to provide us with six beds- and would not put them into the contract and he wanted us to pay him in cash. With these new pieces of the information thrown onto us, it made the internal conflicts look that much worse and after deliberating for an hour we scrapped the deal.
I have come full circle now. As of now I am in three places. The bulk of my stuff is at my friend's grandparents and my clothes and essential items are at my sister and brother-in-law's in Yerushalayim. In the coming weeks I will be transferring most of my clothes to my sister and brother-in-law in Chaifa where I will be kind of living for the next two-three months. After that I will either be continuing to live in Chaifa with them or moving in to an apartment in Jerusalem with two other guys from Yeshivat Hakotel (older guys).
These past months have been a huge learning experience. Extremely painful and definitely turned out to be a huge waste of time but we all learned a lot. I for one learned about how I react in extremely stressful situations, situations that will strongly influence my life for the next year and a half. I think although I have no definite place to live now, I came out of this situation still intact, ready and excited to start training. Thanks to my great friends and my amazing sisters and brother-in-laws, I am definitely not short on places to go for the times I am off.
Thus ends the apartment saga... for the time being.
Having asked almost every person coming from Philly to Israel that we know to bring something for me (thank you!) and last minute shopping by my Mom and Dad (:-)), I think I am set to start tomorrow.
For a lighter topic, this past shabbat was spent with my family in Israel (thats all one noun, no potential for a comma between family and in Israel) and was a great way to spend my last shabbat before the army.
I will try to update my blog as frequently as possible in the army.... wish me luck!
Keep in touch.
Starting in mid-January I had decided that I was going to exercise my right as a lone soldier and accept money to rent an apartment. I planned on living in Chaifa with my sister and brother-in-law. People in yeshiva found out where I was going to live and convinced me that it would be too difficult to get up to Chaifa every time and that I needed to be in Jerusalem. So I joined some friends and we started to look for apartments. In the beginning we tried with agents but swore them off as they were no help and just wasted our time by taking us to a place different than the one we wanted to see (always ended up being a dump, since they were trying to get rid of the hard ones).
Lets do the math. The army gives each lone soldier 1050 sheck. We had four, so that is 4200 sheck. After finding out that that was not nearly enough once you add on maintenance fees and house committee fees, we added on two more people. Six people is 6300 sheck. Seems like enough right? Wrong. Here are the following issues that could arise: Owners do not like the fact that the people renting there apartment are young and soldiers, or they do not want this many people in a three bedroom or even a four bedroom, or they raise the price originally advertised because the more people the more potential for wear and tear..... all of these problems arose. After looking at 20 plus apartments, we were ready to throw in the towel when out of no where someone emailed me with an apartment. I had emailed this place when we only had four and passed up on it because it was too much money. However now we had the people, we had the money, so we went to see it. It was perfect, furnished, center location, nice and clean and spacious. I spoke to the landlord and he (hold your breath) had absolutely no issue with the fact that we were soldiers, young, or five people (we did not add on the six yet, sorry for the incorrect info). However he did raise the price, but it was still within our price range so we were ready to sign. A month before our entry date we thought we had an apartment and were set.... we were wrong. The landlord proceeded to take us on one hell of a ride for the next month. Initially he showed us another apartment, we reluctantly agreed to see it and it turned out to be great too so we asked to see the contract. Getting the contract, the correct contract (he sent us a 'fake' one, why? I don't know) took us 2 weeks. Within those two weeks I probably called the guy four times a day. He was driving us all nuts, at times we thought we had lost the apartment and even started looking again. But none of us any will power left to make another trip through the hills of Yerushalayim only to be disappointed on the other end. So we stuck with this guy. Big mistake. He raised the price 1000 sheck, and than knocked it back down 500 to 6500 sheck. Still this was a great price because it included heat, ac and house committee fees. Then came the excuses, the landlord claimed the owner was not getting back to him, or said he would send the contract right away but would not. After wasting a lot of minutes pestering the guy he finally sent over the contract. Everything seemed fine, now we just had to meet. Little did we know there were a few conditions he would throw on us at the end. In addition to dealing with issues with him, we had some internal conflicts over the amount (3200 dollars) of the security deposit. Split between six people it came out to 533(.33 repeating) dollars (for those without calculators) a person. The amount was a steep price but we had to pay it to get the apartment. We were unable to get a commitment from everyone to pay the amount. So when we finally got the meeting with the landlord this past Wednesday, we walked there without knowing exactly what we were going to do. Ultimately, the landlord would not accept our amendments- we wanted to insure we would get the security deposit back if we did not damage anything and if we did we wanted to see the receipts, and we wanted to obligate him (he told us originally he would for sure do it) to provide us with six beds- and would not put them into the contract and he wanted us to pay him in cash. With these new pieces of the information thrown onto us, it made the internal conflicts look that much worse and after deliberating for an hour we scrapped the deal.
I have come full circle now. As of now I am in three places. The bulk of my stuff is at my friend's grandparents and my clothes and essential items are at my sister and brother-in-law's in Yerushalayim. In the coming weeks I will be transferring most of my clothes to my sister and brother-in-law in Chaifa where I will be kind of living for the next two-three months. After that I will either be continuing to live in Chaifa with them or moving in to an apartment in Jerusalem with two other guys from Yeshivat Hakotel (older guys).
These past months have been a huge learning experience. Extremely painful and definitely turned out to be a huge waste of time but we all learned a lot. I for one learned about how I react in extremely stressful situations, situations that will strongly influence my life for the next year and a half. I think although I have no definite place to live now, I came out of this situation still intact, ready and excited to start training. Thanks to my great friends and my amazing sisters and brother-in-laws, I am definitely not short on places to go for the times I am off.
Thus ends the apartment saga... for the time being.
Having asked almost every person coming from Philly to Israel that we know to bring something for me (thank you!) and last minute shopping by my Mom and Dad (:-)), I think I am set to start tomorrow.
For a lighter topic, this past shabbat was spent with my family in Israel (thats all one noun, no potential for a comma between family and in Israel) and was a great way to spend my last shabbat before the army.
I will try to update my blog as frequently as possible in the army.... wish me luck!
Keep in touch.
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Wishful Thinking
Hey! Seeing as this is my first post, I'd like to thank a couple people. For starters, thank you to Yoni for introducing me to this blog site. Thank you to the bosses in Yeshiva for the electricity, you just never know here. Also thank you to Youtube for entertaining me while I type this.
Now to business. As lone soldiers, we get certain benefits. Things that seem insignificant to most but are so crucial and exciting (to use) for us. So a bunch of people found out that the army had already put on our I.D. card 120 sheck to spend at your friendly neighborhood supermarket. The catch was that you had to spend it before March 1st (that meant two days to spend it) because they give you monthly and there is no carry over. However when I went to cash in on this 'free' money and buy some assorted snacks to last me the week, it didn't work! In fact when I found out that it had worked for others who have the same exact dates/unit as me, I went again thinking it was a one time fluke... but it didn't work again! Twice I was dethroned, thinking I had the chance to go on a 120 sheck (approximately 30 dollars) shopping spree only to end up walking home empty handed. I tried to console my sorrows by buying an ice tea at the local market but it just wasn't the same. I mean, what does this mean? Does this mean I have not officially joined the army? Should I be worried that maybe they don't know I exist? It just boggles the mind. Well now the month of February is over and March has begun. I plan on testing the card this Friday at a supermarket near the central bus station as I make my way up to Chaifa to visit Rachel and Yoni! Whether I will be successful or not does not matter, because in the end I will have Shabbat to console me!
Last week those of us going into the army before Purim celebrated Purim Katan (its a long explanation... lets just say there are four Purims this year! Its insane) at one of the guys apartments. We bought a 160 sheck (around 40 dollars) salami, got some chummus and pitas and feasted. It was a lot of fun... and we were back in time for night learning! Is that jealousy I sense? I know... I know.
So between learning with Michael in the afternoons via skype and with my last remaining chavruta (learning partner) at night, I've been brushing up on the classics. Lord of the Rings (extended version), Gladiator, Robin Hood Men in Tights etc... and Seinfeld! I believe I have nine seasons worth on my laptop... its amazing right Abba? I realize I've seen most of them but they always put me in a good mood. Considering the loss of a potentially amazing shopping spree, I need it! Now to eat dinner, I'm guessing Kugel and Rice with chummus on the side. Its everywhere.
Now to business. As lone soldiers, we get certain benefits. Things that seem insignificant to most but are so crucial and exciting (to use) for us. So a bunch of people found out that the army had already put on our I.D. card 120 sheck to spend at your friendly neighborhood supermarket. The catch was that you had to spend it before March 1st (that meant two days to spend it) because they give you monthly and there is no carry over. However when I went to cash in on this 'free' money and buy some assorted snacks to last me the week, it didn't work! In fact when I found out that it had worked for others who have the same exact dates/unit as me, I went again thinking it was a one time fluke... but it didn't work again! Twice I was dethroned, thinking I had the chance to go on a 120 sheck (approximately 30 dollars) shopping spree only to end up walking home empty handed. I tried to console my sorrows by buying an ice tea at the local market but it just wasn't the same. I mean, what does this mean? Does this mean I have not officially joined the army? Should I be worried that maybe they don't know I exist? It just boggles the mind. Well now the month of February is over and March has begun. I plan on testing the card this Friday at a supermarket near the central bus station as I make my way up to Chaifa to visit Rachel and Yoni! Whether I will be successful or not does not matter, because in the end I will have Shabbat to console me!
Last week those of us going into the army before Purim celebrated Purim Katan (its a long explanation... lets just say there are four Purims this year! Its insane) at one of the guys apartments. We bought a 160 sheck (around 40 dollars) salami, got some chummus and pitas and feasted. It was a lot of fun... and we were back in time for night learning! Is that jealousy I sense? I know... I know.
So between learning with Michael in the afternoons via skype and with my last remaining chavruta (learning partner) at night, I've been brushing up on the classics. Lord of the Rings (extended version), Gladiator, Robin Hood Men in Tights etc... and Seinfeld! I believe I have nine seasons worth on my laptop... its amazing right Abba? I realize I've seen most of them but they always put me in a good mood. Considering the loss of a potentially amazing shopping spree, I need it! Now to eat dinner, I'm guessing Kugel and Rice with chummus on the side. Its everywhere.
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