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!!
Friday, March 18, 2011
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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