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!
Monday, April 18, 2011
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!
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