Being 10kg heavier

What a week...as a friend nicely put it, being out in the field really helps you appreciate the little things in life. things like; not feeling like your going to die from cold, food other than tuna and white bread, food without sand in it, showers, deodorant, sleep, a bed, cutlery, soap-infact washing your hands at all, toilets, the list is fairly endless.

So yes, as you can guess we spent the week out in the midst of the desert. Comical thing though, the "midst of the desert" was really only about 6km from base.

The entire week we were in full uniform, vest (and 5 full magazines included), and of course gun. The idea of the week i believe is to experience a bit what it would be like to be in combat. For instance, you don't use deodorant because of the smell. Upon hearing this i obviously smartly asked but if we don't use deodorant WE smell. Unfortunately my Mefakedet had a good answer too... We smell if your within a few meters range, the smell of deodorant can carry. The same rule applied for smoking (there really were some girls dying there).

I was given the responsibility, and honour (though i wanted to kill it about 10 minutes into this so called honour), of carrying the radio the whole time. Fun you say? not so, not so at all. Let me explain. The radio is a boxy thing, fits in the back of the vest no problem. What is the problem? WELL, it weighs 10kg, that's one. But the biggest problem of all, is that carrying the radio the whole time, really is the entire time. Sitting down for lessons (yep we had lessons in the field),  to eat, to crawl, to dig the holes we slept in, absolutely everything is with this box on your back. Which essentially means, there is no rest. Saying that, sleeping with the vest on was pleasantly not too bad for me, because in that case i had to take the radio out. Because of the drastic change it was almost like i had nothing on at all.

Apart from the previously mentioned things, we did some fun stuff in the sense of moving position everyday. Also not as easy as you may think. Every person had as well as their vest and stuff, a small backpack crammed full with clothes, tent, blanket, sleeping bag, shovel, jacket, and a couple of other things. These bags ranged from weight and guess who's lucky. Mine ended up weighing so much i had to get 3 people to help me put it on my back. Now, this is sounding fun yes? It gets better.
We had two girls throwing up, from pneumonia or a bug who knows. What that meant though was that they could not carry any of their stuff. Please add more weight onto my back!
But we didn't simply walk (through soft sand by the way), we walked a bit, got down into ground shooting position (not so important the position, important bit is on your belly on the ground), back up. Well...may have looked hilarious from the side, and yes i did giggle quite a bit. I literally couldn't get up alone.

Each day we did some sort of run, without guns just regular, and then with vests and guns. The difference is incredible. However even with the vest i was without the radio so it was almost a rest!

The week ended with Parents day on base, or should i say parents few hours on the base and day of cleaning leading up to Parents day. But when i say cleaning i don't particularly mean cleaning in the normal sense. At one point, after straightening long rows of chairs for about an hour we were given the task to pick up any rocks which cast a shadow and throw them to the side. Apart from this being extremely fun, WHAT THE HELL? the base is in the desert, there are only rocks there. This was quite easily the stupidest task i have ever been given.
For Parents day, little sister Amy came to visit. Proudly showed her around even introduced her to some of my Commanders, Officers and my Sergeant (giving the background, he never smiles ever... who then of course greets her with an enourmous grin). Unfortunately the little one doesn't really take the place of a proud parent, but still pretty awesome that she was in Israel and able to come!

Appears it was rather sunny.... Check out the muddy boots (i'm fairly convinced we walked through sewerage)

Anyway, this week coming we are also camping out so i'll have to just wait for sandless food and showers. We have week of shooting. I am expecting shooting all day everyday, let's just wait and see what Morpheus can do apart from dig me in the back when i'm sleeping. 

Just before bedtime

So, a very brief update as I am writing this on  my brand spanking new. Who unfortunately is slightly too complicated for my simple mind!

Let me just say, what a week!

currently there is absolutely no energy left in my body,my back really really wants a massage (hint,hint )  and I'm 100% happy.
we returned to base today after shavuah sadaut (week in field) it's a week were we're immersed in the field.
Explain that one after!

In fact I'll explain everything after, I only have time now because I sneaked a shower during lunch time!! And my sha tash is soon up!

So until next update( this weekend!)

לילה טוב.

Feeling like a failure and having an incredible time

This week didn't particularly start out on a great foot. 

After the usual putting everything back together screw around; all the girls who finished the oketz gibbush were stood in a chet. The mefaked plugeut came and explained all the boring stuff, and told us that he would read the 16 names and that at the end all the girls who's names weren't called would walk back to rest of the group. At this point my heart was beating so fast i honestly thought it would explode. Feeling quite sick, i listened as he read the names out. At a crazy fast pace i watched girls go up all the time thinking "hmmm, there aren't many places left". Then he read the last name out. I was not called.
Walked back to the group in a bit of a state of shock, stayed in that state for 5 minutes and then it hit and i burst out in tears. I quite literally exploded. 

I can honestly say, after the gibbush i said i didn't know but i was 95% sure i'd gotten in. I mean, physically i did well at the gibbush. I assumed i got in and so did the girls who did the gibbush with me. So when my name wasn't called i really didn't know how to handle it.
Cried a bit with a friend who also didn't get in and we figured out something really very interesting. We were crying because not getting in meant we "failed" and that we had to now tell everyone. I do not think that those are good reasons. Not at all. 

After the initial shock i put it all into perspective and realised Caracal as a unit suits me and my personality better. Caracalists (not sure if you're allowed to say that...) are known to be a little crazy.Have a screw loose  in the head, they have rabak. Rabak is a hebrew slang word that doesn't really have an english translation. It sort of translates to enthusiasm but it's like super enthusiasm for everything. 

Aside from that bit of news, this week was amazing! We were in Shetach (field). Camping out in little tent thingys eating tinned food (there was NOT enough), peeing outside (always a highlight), but mostly shooting. Learning that the things we carry around with us are in fact rather powerful. 

I however, as well as firing guns, threw a grenade. Remember how i said my heart was going to explode from beating too fast on the news from Oketz? Well times that by 10. Running to the throwing platform with a real grenade in my vest then doing practice throws all with a real grenade Oh MY GOD.  Not only that, but we did this practice of what to do if a grenade is dropped live inside the platform. So when that happens you run outside counting 21, 22, 23 then hit the ground on your belly; legs crossed and hands on your head. Great, did that...kindof on my side not putting my weight on the grenade. Then the Mefakedet Machlaka jumped on me. Full weight on top. I was screaming inside my head "ARE YOU CRAZY? I'VE GOT A GRENADE IN MY VEST". I guess that's why they have a safety pin.... Anyway, i can say throwing grenades was the scariest thing I've done so far in the army. 

Shooting was fine. There isn't much kickback (that i can feel), and it's a lot easier to aim with the scope on top. I really got to see what Morphias (that's my gun), can do.  

Aside from that, the week went rather quick. 

Things that happened in shetach:

Some friends and i, and our sleeping bag
filled with other sleeping bags, nicknamed "casper"

• I was freezing cold, even with thermal pants, 2 pairs of socks (difficult with boots that are too small-still waiting on replacement boots), two long sleeve shirts, uniform and a beanie. 
• I was constantly hungry--there really was not enough food
• I crawled around a lot--we did a lot of practice with positions of shooting. 
• and a funny story; was around the middle of the night when somebody pokes their head into the tent and shakes my leg. me "what?", person "who's this", me "louise" person "it's the mefakedet machlaka" me "yes", her "where's your gun", me "inside my sleeping bag", her "where are the guns of the other two" me "i don't know" the end. Lovely middle of the night conversation. 
• OH and sleeping uncomfortably between two girls in a tiny tent with my gun poking me in the side all night. 

Our shooting range.

Doing alot of running and a little bit of dying.

Apart from regular not so interesting army stuff (lessons, cleaning, yelling, running...) this week was a very big one for me.

I did the gibbush for oketz. 

Started on tuesday night with filling out medical and personal forms. Filling forms is of course always an incredibly fun activity. Begins with the following: "i need help...." 

They divided us into groups, yelled at us a bit, made us change into shirts and hats with numbers on it (I will never forget my number: 8). Following us having to down our meymiahs, put our phones and watches into a bag so we had no record of time whatsover, without brushing our teeth we were put to bed. A pleasant send off to sleep. "TUSU 30 SECONDS TO BE ASLEEP IN YOUR SLEEPING BAGS". tusu by the way, was the most used phrase. Hilariously it means fly. 

Girls complained that they couldn't sleep because of the hard ground, and the mass amount of water that we had to drink right before bed. but as usual, i was fairly fine. A great talent i inherited from Dad, the ability to sleep under most any circumstance. 

Morning started similar to night, "TUSU 30 SECONDS TO BE IN FULL UNIFORM AND IN A CHET". i was so much so still asleep that my hands were shaking from moving too fast.  But then the physical started, and i was very much awake. 

All activities of the day were long (tortuously long), nearly vomit inducing, exhausting and well...hard.
physically i did ok  i think. I mean, apart from dying a little every time. I came in the first 5 finished 95% of the time. The whole day was done in mud, which was less fun then it could have been. It meant that everytime you ran, you ran with extra (what felt like 100kg) weight on your feet. It was also incredibly slippery, most everyone fell spectacularly as they ran.

The personal interview i did at the end of the day went well. I mean, i'm not sure how great all my responses were, but it was fun. In fact i did krav maga for them. Weird right? But it was fun.

There were 42 girls that went to the gibbush and i think something like 35 that finished. Originally i thought that wasn't too bad, meant i had a pretty good chance of getting in. But these weren't 35 sweet little girls. These were 35 crazy warriors!   If i get it or not i'll be ok. I really did give 100% there is no moment that i can look back and say, hmmm i should have pushed that little bit harder. Obviously i wish my hebrew was a little better so i could have given more leadership. But my hebrew is what it is at the moment, and that's just part of me at this moment in time. 

Tomorrow what my future is, cross your fingers for me! 

Unwritten Laws of Lochemim

So, as my days of being a lochemet have increased i've become aware of a range of unwritten laws that everyone knows and obeys. They're so odd, and foreign that i just have to share. Basically we keep them because if we don't its Padicha (embarrasment).

1. Fighters never wear their Madim aleph jacket.  It's big and poofy, and no matter how cold it is, fighters do not wear it. On base however you wear your madim bet jacket no problem
2. Fighters always wear the sleeves of their madim aleph rolled up. Same rule applies as the jacket, no matter how cold; sleeves up.
3. Fighters don't put the two stripes on their uniform - that's for jobniks. In the army, there are stripes that you put on the side of your arms to show your rank. Two stripes means you've been in for a year and three is i think a year and a half. It's not very important the meaning, the important thing is fighters don't put the two stripes on....it's padicha.
4. Big bags are to be worn like they weigh nothing, preferably with only one strap. Definatly without doing up the hip strap.  no explanation needed.
5. Being a fighter gives you special permission to sleep on random people's shoulders on the bus. Ok, i made that one up, but the number of times a soldier has fallen asleep on my shoulder, woken up and said nothing is crazy.

Some stuff i probably should have said day 1...

So, i realise that i often use hebrew words when actually nobody really understands them.
Because of this, this post is really just a dictionary for future reference.
Most of these are words i never use in english, so i stole a bit of the translations from the net...all correct though!
 
 Names
Chayal boded (chayelet bodeda) - (חייל בודד) lone soldier, without family in israel (or not in contact with family in israel)

Cita (כיתה) class

Tzevet (צוות) team

Machleka (מחלקה) platoon

Plugah (פלוגה) company

Gdud (גדוד) battalion

Chativah (חטיבה) brigade

Sayeret (סיירת) special forces

Mefaked(mefakedet) - commander
Machlaka - platoon
Pleugat - troop
Chet (ח) - a hebrew letter
Gibbush - i think the word means something along the lines of get to know, but when i use it it means the test. A physical and mental test to weed out unqulified soldiers.

Mishakit Tash (מ''שקית ת''ש) in charge of soldiers' personal affairs

Mishakit Aliyah (מ''סקית עליה) in charge of translations

Kravi (קרבי) combat

Lochem (לוחם) fighter/warrior

Training              

Bach (בא''ח) training base

Tironut (טירונות) basic training

Masa (מסע) hike, forced march

Shetach (שטח) field

Sha Tash (שעה ת''ש) hour free time

Buchan Maslul (בוחן מסלול) kilometer run and obstacle course

Baror (ברור) physical test of pushups, situps and 2k run

Equipment

Neshek (נשק) weapon

-Amidah (עמידה) standing

-Kria (כריע) kneeling

-Shchivah (שכיבה) prone/lying down

Cadoor (כדור) bullet

Rimone (רימון) grenade

Casdah (קסדה) helmet

Maymiyah (מימיה)    army water bottle

Alunka (אלונקה) stretcher

Minot krav (מנות קרב) field rations

Diskete (דיסקית) dogtag

Madim aleph/bet (מדים א/ב) uniform dress/combat

Kumtah (כומתה) beret

Seicah (סכה) pin

Choger (חוגר) military ID

Life

Kav (קו) line (operational)

Imun (אמון) training

Shmirah (שמירה) guard duty

Mitbach (מטבח) kitchen

Krav maga (קרב מגע) IDF's hand-to-hand combat training

Mitvach (מטווח) firing range

Tekkes (טקס) ceremony

-hashba'ah (השבעה) swearing-in

-kumtah (כומתה) beret, at the end of advanced training

Sha beitziyah (שעה ביציאה) hour punishment to leave base

Yom Siddurim (יום סידורים) day to take care of personal things

Bettim (בתים) medical leave on base

Gimmelim (גימלים) medical leave off base

Madas (מדס) exercise

Slang

Tzair (צעיר) young, inexperienced

Pazzam (פז''מ) experience (or served time)

Tzahove (צהוב) yellow, straight and by the book

Shpitz (שפיץ) great soldier

Tash (ת''ש) chill, relaxed

Mitztayin (מצטיין) outstanding

"Kama ode" (כמה עוד) "How much more?"

"Ad matai" (עד מתי) "Until when?"

"Eifo kulam" (איפה כלעמ) "Where is everyone

 

Jumping over walls

One word to sum up the past two weeks: Exhaustinglyawesomelyfun

But then of course, there's a reason that this is a blog, and not a one word sum up (even if that's not really one word).  Exhaustinglyawesomelyfun doesn't really give a good picture of what's been going on.

The standard apology applies as always; "i'm sorry, i've got no real idea what we actually did in two weeks". Aside from that, let me fill you in!

The first few weeks of basic training i believe (because i'm clearly an expect having done it twice), are there just to break you down. It's a lot of very small times to do things, a lot of yelling at you, a lot of run there and back, and a lot of letting you realise that you really have no control of anything anymore. It was interesting this time to see everyone cope with the change from being in control, to having a small bracket of time for even going to take a pee. So, aside from a lot of cleaning areas in very small amounts of time (or long amounts if you keep getting 20 seconds to roll up and tie the sides of the tent-in 20 seconds you do half a roll...which you then have to redo because you drop it) The two weeks were broken up into three main categories:

1. Learning stuff
2. Doing stuff
3. Counting stuff

But before that, a little about the soldiers the base and the ones in charge.

The soldiers:
Put together a bunch of 100 girls and you're going to have a bad apple or two, it's simply statistics, in this bunch however you really have to search hard. As well as 100 girls (i'm making up numbers here), there are around 22 boys. The boys at first (i believe) were a little bitter, it's basically no boys dream to grow up and be in caracal (why, i don't fully comprehend, probably just stigma) but as the days went on it defiantly grew on them. The girls, i sum them up this way: picture your typical cute, girly isreali 18 year old, now take her make up off, put her hair up in a pony tail, put her in a uniform and watch her drop down and do 20 pushups without complaint. The girls here are sweet, tough and most of all incredibly patient.  They giggle often at my accent but always assuring me that their laughing out of love, i of course assure them that i have no accent, to which they repeat what i've said in a strong American accent. hmmmm.

The base:
Not the most beautiful place in the world i'll give you that. Located in the desert it's rocky, sandy, windy and bare. We sleep in giant tents (which don't always have lights). Basically it's no Michve Eilon with a beautiful view, buildings, numerous trees, grass, shower curtains or edible food...but it is my home for the next month and a bit so i'm getting used to it!

The ones in charge:
My Mefakedet: the first ever Arab Christian woman to be a commander in a combat unit...yep that's my commander! A funny one, laughs alot, doesn't believe in distance between soldiers and commanders, and told me her birthday (i'm older!). Pretty great.
There are some real scary ones though...one who doesn't smile even when it appears impossible. For instance: We were in our lines outside the food hall when i asked to blow my nose. Unfortunately i didn't know any of the words so i said "attention mefaked..." then made hand gestures. Well everyone was laughing (apparently that is hilarious!), but he without a hint of a smile said, leave the lines then ask to join after. tough cookie that one!

Learning stuff

As always we did a lot of lessons. Lessons on rules, on army structure, on drinking and driving, on micro tavour (our guns), on the oldest radio communicator alive (that's probably not what it's called), and also sort of discussions on why we wanted to be fighters.

Some lessons were easier to understand then others, i have major problems understanding when men speak hebrew (cant' tell you why) and also for some reason our assistant troop commander (the cutest little girl...expect she's kinda badass!).

For that reason myself and another 4 or 5 new immigrants received special lessons. Special in the way that essentially it's the same lesson as everyone else gets, it's just we have more time for it and they are able to explain things every few minutes. It works really well for me, as i can't fall asleep if it's only 5 people in the class!

 

 

Doing Stuff

 

We did alot of fun stuff in the two weeks too. Some of it frustrated me to no end.,...but fun none the less. Firstly there was the baror (essentially a fitness test to track progress), there were large portions of pushups outside of the food hall, there was trying to jump over a wall -took me many many fails but when i finally did it, wow was i happy! climbing up a rope, again many fails (i couldn't get the foot technique down) when i finally made it to the top though i was on top of the world!

But wait, the wall and rope are part of a bigger picture. Their part of a test we do, i don't know when, called the bochal maslul. It's a big obstacle course (I KNOW< HOW FUN!) that we have to do wearing all our gear, vest, helmet gun. At the moment we are practising just as is. but it's the most fun thing i've done in a while. there are monkey bars, tunnel thingys, a big pyramid thing that you walk up and down, the wall, the rope, and quite a few other things. Something weird, when we were practising the other day the mefaked machlaka (platoon commander) gave me a gun, told me to take care of it and let me continue practising all the activities with the gun. Probably i was just the first soldier she saw, but made me rather happy!

 

The weeks ended off with a masa for our unit tags.  that's caracal. Not an especially long masa (2 km), easy in fact apart from the pace. We did it so fast that you were running every few meters. Odd for a masa, we did it without our guns and sadly also without a flag. Next time it won't be so easy...not even slightly!

At the end of the masa we had a little ceremony for receiving tags, i was really shocked to receive my tag from the mefakedet machlaka (platoon commander) with a personal message written on the back. Will get back with full translation (the Hebrews a little above my level). 

 

 

Counting things

At the start of the two weeks we received our base equipment, including our base uniforms. Brilliant you say; hmm yes and no. Yes, as our home uniforms are very hot, and rather uncomfortable to run in. No, the army does alot of counting. I think 3 or 4 times we had to take all our base equipment out for a check. That's not a simple thing let me tell you. You have to put all the blankets on the floor in a neat chet, then put all the equipment on it with each thing in its place. this whole process is done in small times (duh), and ultimately it's a pain in the ass!

 

A small thing i forgot; Morphias. Who or what is Morphias you ask...well he is my gun. I think anyway, haven't fully settled on a name yet. Photo's to come. Brand spanking new and simply beautiful...if a gun can be beautiful. Haven't decided yet. Morphias will be my personal gun until the end of my service. After a certain amount of time...i don't know exactly how long, he will be coming home with me as well. As all combat fighters take their personal guns home as well so they are ready at all times.

 

To sum up though...

 

The past two weeks were great, i'm really extremely happy that i've arrived where i have. At times a little hard with the language, but even then the majority of the time i'm able to join in, which is defiantly a relief.  At the end of the first week my entire body was in pain and i was convinced that in a very small period of time i would look like this:

 

 

But I'm pleased to report that no, steroids are not part of the army diet..oh don't get me started on what is in the army diet!

 

That's about it,

Lots of love,

your ginger fighter.





Thanksgiving.

So, they let us go home after one day on base. What the hell?

I'm hardly complaining- got to attend two thanksgiving dinners. But wait up, let me explain a little about the base and the girls, and well everything.

SO, exactly the same as my very first day at Tel Hashomer (the place where all new enlistment soldiers go-is that how you call them?) A hell of a lot of waiting. I'm talking hours and hours doing absolutely nothing. Really, all that got done that day was a uniform swap and a needle. I think, and i'm not entirely sure, but i believe that they gave us hepatitis A. I  prefer to believe that it's some sort of super cells which cling to our regular cells and thus strengthen all combat soldiers, making the IDF an army full of super human fighters. Let's go with that one!

My new uniform, well it's great to say the least. May be a little big...i was going for the i'm cool and wear baggy pants look. I"ll get them taken up soon enough. Actually i have to, there is SO much leg left tucked up inside it's ridiculous. How tall do they think people are?

The boots i'm sure will be incredibly comfortable...will be are the key words here. Currently, not so, not so at all!

The first day on base was also rather similar to at Michve, basically just getting all the paper work out of the way. Meeting with the Mishaket tash (army social workers), nurse's, all that jazz. On this base, i also met up with a girl who was the hebrew teacher, exactly the same as my old hebrew mefakedet, but without any distance. So, excitingly it appears that i will be getting some more hebrew help, because obviously i need it.

Apart from all the paper work, we did a little tour around base. Oh so fun, you march everywhere. Outside of our little section of base that is, marching around. I'm sure in a very short time i won't think it's so cool..but right now-awesome! Also, the distance between us and the Mefakdot is very different. I mean straight away our temporary mefakedet told us her full name, where she's from, how old she is and why she wanted to be a fighter. Even when we address them we don't say "attention, commander" we say "attention, commander (name)". Which kind of sucks for me because everyone appears to have hard to pronounce names!

Already we did a heap of pushups, she just throws a rock in the air and we have to be on the ground by the time it hits, then do pushups together. Nicely, she does them with us.

On our tour around base we saw a bit of the work out section, and i am so excited. There are ropes to climb, a wall to jump over and heaps of pull up bars. Of course i can't actually do any of those things...but hey. Still exciting!

Tomorrow i'm off to base, which is near Beer Sheva--ugly and massive...not at all like michve! We will definitely be closing the shabbat so i won't be able to update for 2 weeks..and it will be another "eh, what did i even do" updates. Apologies in advance for that.

The thanksgiving dinners.

Alannah's Thanksgiving:

Alannah is a good friend from Michve. She invited us (a bunch of Michve girls) up to her house for dinner which sadly i was not going to be there for, as i was to be on base. Was very exciting to call her Wed arvo when i found out i was not to be closing shabbat and therefore could go. The dinner was delicious..even if a little strange order wise.  Alannah screwed up cooking the chicken a little, and pulled it out undercooked. So we ended up eating the salad, mashed potatoes first, dessert second, and chicken last. Saying that, i'm not complaining at all...it was delicious and hey kept it interesting!

Daniel's Thanksgiving:

I have literally never seen so much food, or drink, in my life. Daniel made a ginormous turkey, potato's and a glutenous Macceroni cheese (I myself helped make that, there was about 1 kilo of cheese and a whole thing of butter in it) But everyone brought a heap of food and alcohol... this picture doesn't do it justice, at all.

Anyway. until next time...when i'll know what to expect from a combat unit! eeeeppp.

Your fighter with red boots,



OH. talked with a mefakedet Oketz, will be talking to her more on sunday. She told me the gibbush will be in a few weeks and that my hebrew is not at all a problem. Literally, she said absolutely not.  Perhaps i'll know more next time!

a brief midnight update

What could i possibly have to say at midnight that can't wait a second longer? (though, amusingly it's now 12:12, so therefore i waited several seconds longer...)

Well  i can't wait any longer because this is the last time, for a long time that i'll have a computer. The reason for this.....

I got into Caracal. :D :D

"But Louise,  What is Caracal?"
Caracal: a male-female combined infantry combat unit. With 4 months of 05 basic training (consider that Michve was a ridiculous 02, and the top units are 07. Though of course being Israel they only have: 02,03,05 & 07--or something like that). So 4 months of that, then 2 months advanced 07 training.
The Important thing though, is that from Caracal i can do the Gibbush (the test) to do Oketz. My end goal.

Tomorrow i go back the Tel Hashomer, the place where everything started, like day one. I change my uniform for the male uniform (the cool one with pockets-yep i'm super excited just for that), get new boots, apparently get another few injections; of what I've absolutely no idea. Then i'm off to the base.

Sadly at this time, the base is down south. Which seems a bit silly to me. It means that our basic training is going to be broken up (hopefully not...but i assume it will) with code red sirens. I suppose it'll add to our running!

I am extremely excited, but let's face it, a little nervous. As far as i know, i'm the only one from Michve (unless their are some guys...but i doubt it) going. That means, i'm probably the only one who struggles with hebrew. And as i said before, Israelies speed exceedingly quickly. I guess i'll be learning even more hebrew very very soon.

Looks like i'll be on base until dec 7 (on the phone they just said bring at least 2 weeks worth of clothing). So, until then.....

wish me luck!

Your, now combat, Louise

The inbetween time

Interesting time right now.

Finished up at Michve Eilon... with a big long ceremony (well practiced for--literally practiced for days. The sunburn v on my chest goes to prove that)
Quite a fun/weird last few days. Aside from all the ceremony marching practice we also had our long expected day of distance; or in this case more of an hour of distance. Basically where we find out that our Mefakdot are indeed human. Surprise surprise, their regular girls our age. Mine ended up being both 20... so that was indeed a surprise.
For the rest of the period that we were at Michve our Mefakdot became celebrities of sorts. EVERYONE wanted a photo with their mefakdot.

I being my super "i think i'm too cool" way, only got one mefakedet...but better than none right?
Photo on the left is me>mefakedet (jessica) > Eris (friend from Norway!)

After the ceremony, in a state of high we received long awaited papers stating jobs. Though in the case of Mahal people we received papers saying: "go to Bokom (place i originally went to for medical test, interview...all that). What it also said though. was that i'm Lochemet. I PASSED THE GIBBUSH.
Funnily enough i didn't fully comprehend for the first minute. Until Mefakedet (jessica...too weird to call her straight out Jessica) said "eh louise, you can smile you know." i didn't stop smiling for the next hour or two! Grinning like a lunatic really.

Still to go i have my interview on sunday. There i need to tell them exactly where i want to go, that i am completely set on Oketz and blah blah blah.  SO, not all set yet.

What else. OH yeah. Gaza.

So, on Wednesday Idf launched Operation Pillar of Defence. Since then, 550 rockets have been launched towards Israel.. 4 of those to Tel Aviv.
You wouldn't know it at all, Tel aviv has a very special Tel Aviv bubble. As in, normal life continues...If you didn't have the news you wouldn't know anything was happening at all. That is, except for the sirens. And, on that note..only heard 1 of them (i think there were 3). Their really not very loud at all. The second siren we had the music too loud, and then the third just 2 hours ago, we were in the parking lot of Dizengoff Mall. Drove along thinking "there do appear to be alot of people down hear near the stairwell...don't think there was a siren do you?". Yep.


So, right now just hanging at Daniels. Reason i haven't gone back to my place in Petach Tikva..Well laziness mostly! Though, if i do go back, my room is a bomb shelter so i'm all set!

Keep you updated!!
Lots of love, Louise.


OH> forgot to mention (how horrific) I saw Julie and Tony for Friday, Sat and Sunday (yep, got the day off sunday) Was really lovely to see them. We didn't really get up to too much, but was lovely all the same. All though, of course was a bit awkward. In jerusalem they stayed in a hotel with signs all over "welcome to Palestine." "Tour Palestine". Fine usually, but i rocked up in my army uniform. Hmmm. Wasn't actually an issue but i wouldn't like to try it again today. Not with the whole Palestine issue happening. That's a bit interesting.

Last full week of hebrew course.

Nearly finished. OH GOD. 
Soon enough i'll be in the regular army, no more days filled with classes a real unit. With Israelies talking at super speed. The same girls that i'll be with for a at least 2 years. 
Actually....that sounds kindof great!

 And here we finally have a photo of  my entire group. Including my two mefakedot... I love this one the most because of how funny it is. I did think it was a little too sunny to come out nicely. (by the way, the mefakedets are on the left. The tall. blondish one is the hebrew teacher and the one almost behind her making a "the sun is incredibly bright face" is my general yell at you all the time one.)

The first few days of the week were geared towards getting us ready for our job interviews. Being mahal however i didn't have to worry. Which obviously means i worried more...

We finished off our very last zionist classes, our last history classes and even our last hebrew class.

The photo above is from another trip we took which was aimed at letting us visit places that we'd learnt about.

Hannah senesh for instance is an incredible women who we learnt alot about during the course. In the photo we are next to her kibbutz, because of course all the zionistic people back then came to live, build and help on kibbutzim....there was nothing else.

Apart from the last classes and tours the atmosphere certainly has changed. Myself for instance i can feel that i'm different. First i'm speaking less hebrew to english speaking friends, paying less attention and generally not being such a fantastic soldier. I can guarantee i will not be getting a best soldier award.
I'm not really sure why I'm acting differently, like a switch was flicked but something certainly changed! You'd think the fact that i noticed it would mean i can change it back...but apparently not.
Received 3 1/2 hours punishment for the last 3 weeks just yesterday. THAT IS SO MUCH.

On the course though, i won't lie and say i love my group or that it is all fantastic. But i have become very comfortable at Michve and though i'm very much looking forward to my new unit. I am nervous. Overall we've got a really good bunch of girls, and really my mefakdot are awesome.

SIGH.

Right now i'm with Julie and Tony (so cool right). Even got given tomorrow off army to be with them.
Tuesday i've got my ceremony, as before i beleive that no one will becoming. But i've been thinking, its ok. I've got friends, i did always know that that would be the hard thing about being a lone soldier. Because lets face it, most of the time i don't see any difference. But on the ceremony ,eveyone has someone...and you dont have anyone.

On that note.
on the day of the ceremony I'll be given my paper saying where and when i need to report to someone to have my interview for jobs, i'm really hoping i get a few days off because i want to go into my next unit (which hopefully is Caracal--to begin the path to Oketz) with full energy and give my absolute best.

Tell next time....
All my love, Louise

An unfinished, unedited update...(which is now finished!)

I apologise in advance for the length of this update...and of course for the fact that it's unfinished and unedited...i ran out of time but figured it was better to post something rather than nothing. I shall try to finish on my phone on my bus back to base in the morning, but knowing me i'll end up sleeping instead! Apologies...

Of course, also for the mass of things that i've simply forgotten. In fact it's always so strange to look back at a period of time in the army; in this case 3 weeks, and realise that the amount that you actually remember only makes up a few days. I have absolutly no idea what i did for the entire period of time, i guess something interesting...(perhaps)

Week 1:

Arrived onto base with a bag bigger than me, with clothes enough for two weeks. A half day filled with classes, followed off by what i clearly remember to be one of the best sport sessions we've ever done. Why do i clearly remember this? Well the next morning i woke up in pain. "good" you say. Hmmm not so. The next morning i was told that i would be heading to another base for a 24 hour gibbush. Awesome. Going to a gibbush to prove your strengths whilst all your muscles are in pain and weakened.this is always such great news.

The gibbush though was actually rather excellent.Though at the beginning they very nearly didn't let me participate due to me accidently ticking no to "have you had 7 hours sleep"...that was a small stress indeed.

 It was amazing to meet all the girls with similar interests, but incredibly daunting at the same time. Basically because up until that point whenever i spoke hebrew to anyone it was with people at base (who either are also learning, or are mefekedets who are used to understanding what must sound similar to baby speak) or to my friends (who are very patient with me). The girls at the gibbush however speak at a crazy speed and mumble 100% or their words together. Put me up against one and i may be able to communicate-maybe-but a group of them all talking at the same time. WOW.

That's actually the thing that i found hardest from the gibbush, the communication. Physically i really think that we didn't do too much. We did;

•  the standard test of pushups and situps (as much as you can do properly up until 48 and 86-proudly i did the max! 
• an activity that i'd half been expecting-i read quite a few blogs of lone soldiers before i came here. Like so: They split us up into two groups (so about 5 in each group) give us one shovel (but not a normal one at all, a mini one about the length of an arm with the blade bending itself constantly-clearly got to me!) and made us dig under a string which was about 20cm off the ground. You had to dig under the string to make space to get under. However; 1) each space was only ok for 3 girls, therefore needed 2 spaces. 2) with only one shovel hands had to be used (fun as we were digging rock) and 3) if you touched the string you had to tell the mefakedet and then go to the back and do 20 pushups. As expected i ended up doing around 100 pushups therefore my arms where similar to jelly. We must've been digging for around 20 minutes, but i think it was good. I have no actual idea what their looking for in an activity like that, but it's like this. At the start the girls had the shovel so i was digging like a crazy person with my hands. After about 2 sets of "oh g-d i touched" pushups i was finally handed the shovel to assist. From that point on (apart from the times i was doing punishment pushups) i was helping by shoveling like a mad person. My arms were shaking, sweat dripping everywhere (a beautiful site i'm sure) but not once did i break for even a second. I'm also not sure if it's a good thing at all, but at one point the mefakedet said i wasn't allowed to speak anymore. I am hoping that's good.... maybe was showing too much commanding role or something!
• After that we did this crazy crawling activity. Not too much to it aside from crawling around on elbows and knees for again about 20 minutes in groups of 3. My group was really great, myself and another girl started a call "smal yamin, smal yamin" which actually really helped us all to get through. And we worked well as a team... at least i think so. 
• we did a bunch of team work activities which were really difficult because of language but as before, i have no idea what their looking for. Whether we had what they wanted or not who knows. 

The thing with the gibbush is that the whole time there are a team of at least 5 people analysing your everymove. 

Up until today (nearly 3 weeks after), i still have no idea of the result of the gibbush...but ultimatly what can i do. Pass or fail, it's over and is what it is.  If i didn't pass i will redo it next round of gibbushim but in the meantime go to a non cravi unit. As i've realised there are millions of jobs that i can do, so to be open minded is advantageous. Saying that, i'm still set on oketz. And won't stop until i get it. (how's that for open?)

The very next day i was given a yom siddurim to look at an army apartment. FINALLY.  which was so much better than it sounds because back at base the girls had started guarding once again. Infact they'd started the second day of my gibbush. Let me tell you now, arriving back onto base after everyone has been guarding around the clock and are therefore all tired and grumpy is a killer to a good mood.  Which pretty much raps up the rest of the week, guarding and hebrew lessons. What fun. 

An interesting thing that occured; met a mefakedet from karacal on base. Had a rather interesting, long chat with her about the unit. Seems like fun... hard work very hard work, but fun. Infact she said she'd check if i passed the gibbush for me, but in true israeli style never actually did. Which i think i'm actually ok with, wouldnt've have been fair to know before everyone.

Week 2

The second week was similar to the first (surprised?) except that they decided to pack absolutly everything into it that they possibly could.  Aside from guarding around the clock we had a slight scare because of something that occured on a nearby base. I'm sure none of you heard anything about it on the news, but 4 masked men somehow got onto a base, tied up someone and stole 4 m16's. Because of that we doubled the guards at one position and, well actually that's about all we did. OH also, i wasn't allowed to leave my gun with the rasap (crazy girl in charge of alot), and go for a run. So that sucked. 

Ended up caf caf one day which was actually one of my favourite days. caf caf is basically wearing all the gear, all the time with 5 magazines of bullets instead of 3. You work in a team of 4 and if you get a call of hakbatza you have to sprint to hamal (sort of the central control office thing), or wherever your needed in 3 minutes. It was so much fun though, and to be honest, kindof loved having the free hour and not worrying about showering. So very chilled and worryfree. Even sleeping in full uniform (boots and all) was fine. 

We ended off the week with a masa, the army likes to end every big event with a masa and a chet with pushups. Except that in the case of michve eilon the hike was something like 4 km's..still rather fun, won't lie. and funny, in the chet with pushups very few of the mefakdot could actually do them. Made me giggle anyway.

the day of the hike was quite an interesting one for me. I had a stroke of stress, or something like that anyway. I was a mess in an all around grumpy mood. Answering smartly back to my mefakedet tironout, telling my mefakedet ivrit that the whole thing was a waste of time. Doing a classic louise, I feel sad so i'm going to make you feel sad. Not my nicest trait at all. Had a half hour cry to my good friend manorina which was incredible, sometimes it really does help to just cry! then even more talking and crying with other friends but that's not all.
In the chet of the rasap (we have it everynight after hour free time, before bed) i was told to go to the line of attention. (Downstairs near the area of mefakedets, literally a red line where you stand at attention and yell "attention mefakedet") out comes my mefakedet. Someone had told her i wanted to speak to her (which i did, i wanted to apologise for being a tool), but that ended up with me being a blabbering mess, sobbing for half an hour. Did i mention how patient these mefakdot are. To understand my hebrew is hard at the best of times, but inbetween my crying that must be impossible. It is SO frustrating to struggle to explain how you feel in a foreign language when you know 100% that the person you're talking to is fluent in english. That really sucks

We finished off the week with a hebrew test, which took the stress out of everybody. The test was apparently the same one that you do on the tsav rishon... i however never did a test. I do remember them trying to talk to me in hebew alot, but not understanding anything. i guess if i did the test originally i got a 0.  Came out of the test on base feeling like i'd done terribly, chatted to my tester alot but understood very little of the sentences that i'd had to read, and done badly at the activities i'd had to do. Apparently everyone felt the same...which is strangly comforting. But like the gibbush, can't do anything about it now. Take comfort in that at least.

To finish this off...... (rather late)

The weekend of the second week i moved into the new apartment, still need to take photos to show but a really nice place. 5 other girl soldiers living there, i share a room with one. All good. Ultimately it hardly matters because i'm hardly ever home!

The interesting part of the week was that we went to Jerusalem We toured around Mt Herzl, Old city and Yad vashem. Did some silly (but fun) women self defence class which was clearly geared up to give women self confidence to say no...but was just entertaining to me considering my background. 

Yad Vashem was done at super speed, 2 hours or something only, but we were suplied with a guide that spoke english (the whole course broke up into russian, english or hebrew). As expected was very emotional and interesting i even got the chance to tell Grannies story to my group. 

The best part about our trip to Jerusalem though, was the old city. We were a tourist attraction. Which just seemed so bizarre. I clearly remember going through the old city and sneakily taking photo's of soldiers last time i was in Israel. This time people where doing it with us. At the end of the day we finished by doing a large chet with the whole course in front of the wailing wall. During the ceremony as well as singing hatikva (sadly very very out of time with each other) we were handed army issued tanach's. My very first! 

Ultimately it was a very powerful experience. I've actually dreamt of having an army ceremony in front of the wailing wall since i decided i wanted to join the IDF. 

An insufficient update

A short update to apologise for not writing a proper entry this weekend.

Interesting things to come of the past two weeks:

1. Did my gibbush 
2. Learnt some hebrew...what do you know
3. learnt some history
4. Had a breakdown
5. Got an apartment!

Really apologies for not writing anything this weekend, just got home to my new apartment 20 minutes ago and had to try to organise my things; louise style. So therefore move everything OFF the bed. Luckily i got given bedding...but that's also to come!

Until then here are some photos...more fun anyway than reading my thoughts.

but also please feel free to ask specific questions, that way i won't rant for hours about my general life in the army. 

Being religious and burning men...

Hello and Chag Sameach to all,


Whenever i try to start to write these things i always go through a 5 minute period of staring blankly at the screen thinking "what did i actually do"...and today is no different! So to aid me in the writing i've got triple j (australian radio) on my headphones and sugerless black tea (you never get it sugerless here, they enjoy 2/3 suger 1/3 tea). Wish me luck!

Holidays In the Holy Land

Since i wrote last, Israel has been plagued with holidays--most that i've never celebrated before in my life! Yom Kippur though was the strangest for me. I'm not sure if i've said this before but Daniel's apartment (where i'm STILL living--thanks idf for aiding me in finding a home) is right in the centre of town. It is a busy hussle bussle location active day and night 24/7. With that background you'll understand why it was so bizarre on Yom Kippur, it was zombie movie style quiet. No cars at all, and a select few people walking or riding outside.I spend the majority of Yom Kippur sitting on Daniel's balcony just thinking and i swear it was so quiet i could hear my thoughts out loud.

Sukkot started soon after the end of Yom Kippur, something i didn't notice at all. Me like i'm sure most people hardly celebrated it at all. I did however go up north to Tiberias to meet family, (the cousin of my Uncle, Ellie) Though with them we didn't exactly eat in a sukka or say any blessings for whatever it is you're meant to bless on sukkot we did eat. Oh we ate, and that seems to me like a holiday celebration; family together, food and catching up--what else do you need?

Staying with the family up north was really good for me actually, i spent the whole time talking (or trying to talk) hebrew. Infact i even played monopoly in hebrew with the kids, though i did have to get them to read my chance cards, that's a little too hard to do to children standards (much higher than adult standards!)

The perils of 10 hours of class a day  

When we arrived back on base it was straight into study, which i guess made sense, a short week after all (tue till fri morn). What we're covering at the moment is very basic and i'm hoping that we're only doing that as a basis for the rest--the hard hard stuff to come soon. What we study is basic but the rate at which we study it is not. A topic that you'd usually spend a week on, we spend 10 minutes so we learn alot very quickly. How the teach is good i think, we spend long hours in class (with small breaks inbetween), and before all meals when we're in shloshots (3's) lining up outside the food hall we usually will recap to everyone what we learnt in those lessons.  I have a sneaky suspicion that they only get us to do that as a time filler but even so it is very useful to recap and to actually go back and think, "hmmm what did i learn". I am yet to go up front and tell everyone--for some reason i seem to not be able to talk at all when in front of crowds, but i guess that the only way to get over that is to push through and do it anyway. I actually only thought of that now, came to that decision. So I promise now, next time i write i will have talked infront of everyone that'll be good practice.

Being all religious and stuff

So, told a slight untruth before i did celebrate sukkot a little. I ate all my meals in one on base. Mostly because it was something new, and a really nice atmosphere....but hey also a mitzva (however that works!) The only bad thing about that was they made us get our food then stand outside in a chet with our trays whilst we waited for everyone. Kinda embarrassing to wait outside with your food slowly getting cold and even more disgusting when everyone else just goes straight over to the sukkot.  On that note, we've all noticed that they are very very strict on our course, even though based on what we see day to day we are the best behaved from them all. For instance when we were standing in our discipline chet on thursday evening (this is the chet were we get addressed by the mefakedet hacors and she tells us individually how many hours punishment we have) we were right infront of the boys course. Can't remember the name of their course but its the same as ours....but for boys.  We're standing there straight getting in trouble ever so often for whispering or moving without permission whilst the boys and jumping on each others backs, scratching their bits, yelling and being exceedingly rude to their mefakdot and not getting in trouble at all. It's like we're already good so they be stricter just because they can...who knows? Though actually someone gave a reason that seemed legitimate to me. Our course consists of a majority of Olim Hadashim (new immigrants) so they are very strict so as to break us, in case we think we're gods gift to the army--being new comers and volunteers. As i said, not too sure of the validity of that logic but it's one explanation!
Back to the religious stuff, on thursday i got all religious (not really) and shook the lulav and etrog even said the blessing! woo woo. Can't say i felt any miraculous warm God loves me feeling afterwards, but it was pleasant. One of those things, why not do it? Takes 5 seconds and doesn't harm anything or anyone.

 Burning Man

The man, as he burnt

The friday i got off base was also the second day of Israel's second burn, named Octoburn.
Burning man is a large
festival which takes places in Nevada dessert America. It has an ideology in a way, the whole idea is to break the restrictions of everyday life, to do whatever and just be happy. Pictures from the festival always feature people wearing crazy clothing (or not much clothing) and doing incredible weird things.
All over the world people have regional burns to keep the spirit going and that is what we did on friday. Hof Hobonim become a small city on the beach with what Haaretz said was 1200 people, i think perhaps more.
It was a crazy small city which was alot of fun! Though it actually wasn't at all what i expected.
I took a lift to the burn with Natasha and two friends of hers, which was really lucky as i'd only rang her 10 minutes before they left...invited myself to their car. We didn't have a tent as we all assumed we'd party all night, and as i only knew i was leaving 10 minutes before i did i didn't even have any food or drink. Oh yeah, one of the main things of burning man is the gift of giving. So it's alot of giving people food and drink just because you can, the gift of gratitude. Of course because of this i wanted things to be able to give, doesn't have to be much but just to be able to give things away to people can be really lovely.
On the way we stopped in an arab village to buy some supplies....unfortunatly an arab village meant there was no alcohol at all. So we went into this festival with nothing (well natasha had like half a bottle of vodka for 3 people,). but it didn't matter at all. I got a couple of drinks from random people and that was all...same as i'd assumed we'd be partying all night i assumed it'd be largely alcohol induced, in the end it really didn't need to be.
Met up with my friend Nir for abit but he looked alittle like death on legs, super sleepy i mean. So confidently i announced "you go to your tent and sleep, i'm going to hang out and meet people, when you wake up later come find me". It wouldn't be too hard as i'd taken his vest which was lined with flashing red fairy lights...i was highly visible! Now, i'd said this even though i did feel alittle worried. Slightly that i'd end up sitting alone in a tent of people thinking, hmmmm well this is crap. But harden up i did and walked confidently into a tent sat next to someone and started talking. And that is pretty much how the night went. Met some people, then some more... in the end i was with 3 guys  (none from the first batch of meeting people) who may or may not be meeting up this evening for bbq.

The octoburn was an amazing experience but when israel has it's next regional burn i need to be there more in the day, i feel as though thats when it goes crazy!

As for here, we've got yesterday and today off as well for Simcha torah...so many holidays! I'd taken the opportunity which holidays supplied us to go to jerusalem and meet with friends. Little did i know how much that'd walk me down memory lane. It's crazy, the security guy at the bar myself and all my Aviv friends used to frequent even remembered me!

But now i'm back in tel aviv, sleeping enough to catch up on two nights of 2 hours of sleep each night...and then a little extra! As i said, perhaps tonight to a bbq, but either way tomorrow morning bright and early back to base.

Until next time, chag sameach and lots of love,

Louise


OH i totally forgot to mention, sat morning of burning man i come back to "camp" where natasha and that slept only to be told "we lost the car keys". ONLY friends of mine could do somehting like that! In th end they got a taxi to bring the key from tel aviv all the way up north to hof habonim (that's like an hour and a half drive).
On the note of losing things, i didn't lost my glasses. I knew it! My friend had accidently taken them. So get them back soon enough. but relief!!!

Closing shabbat with bed bugs.

pheww. finally i'm home, or the closest to home i've got right now. two weeks on base, hmm that's something i'm going to have to get used to...

There is alot that gets done in 2 weeks on base, and as usual i'm sure i'll forget the majority of it...but here goes anyway....

Manny and I on our chilled shabbat (just after floor yoga)

Ultimately our time was made up of "training" for שמירה (guard duty) and then consequently us doing שמירה. It was interesting...not always so much fun, but good anyway. 

Blog update: I am currently at Daniel's apartment and literally 5 seconds ago said "can i have ice-cream, look how much blog i've written...like a sentence" 
Daniel laughing "yes, no ice-cream till you finish your blog". 
if that's not motivation i'm not entirely sure what is! 

Our training was more of 4 or 5 lessons regarding how to guard, and what to do if stuff goes down. And here it is: you guard in 2 hour shifts (a bunch of different places, some with walking some with just standing), 24 hours a day the base is guarded by us. We guard wearing our vest, 3 magazines-each with 29 bullets, a helmet (heavy!), 2 maymiya's (that's the army bottle, only about 750ml), our gun, and of course the obvious stuff...dog tags, army id, and uniform...but stupidly our hats aswell...at night! what is the use of that?

I guarded in total something like 9 times, all throughout the day/night or perhaps more...who knows? 
In-between guarding shifts we did alot of things that were quite obviously just time wasters. Repeating lessons (had tests coming up), free time in the form of sit here and wait.  

Half-time ice-cream break 

ok break time over...

What i forgot to mention was that before we did guarding duty we had our shetach. Which was basically a day where we went to the shooting range and did a little of running around, a little jumping on the ground into positions. To be honest it was a lot of fun, but quite tiring. 

As it turns out i'm not such a bad shot..which is a good thing i would say. But anyway, in Oketz we will defiantly do a lot of practice...a lot lot more than we did here. 

We did do a hell of a lot of other stuff, lessons, tests, running around, eating bad food and yeah we also had shabbat and rosh hashannah here. Which broke up the 2 weeks up very nicely. For all the days we had off apart from a morning, afternoon and evening chet (which could be in pajamas), we had free time (and guarding)...meals were substantially better...there was even red meat. I may have gotten so excited that i piled my plate with only meat and demolished it all. 

what to tell...? My guarding was mostly rather boring as Dad and all you guys in Csg will know, it's a lot of standing there trying to remain alert when its just so easy to tune off completely. Which also was quite nice; to have 2 hours to yourself (some positions were a single person guard) to think and just be alone..that was nice.  One day though i was guarding at a point where you can see the roads at the bottom of base, the bunker and the yamach (where all the tanks, and a second gun storage shed are) this was at about 9pm...And i saw a car turn off the road into a field which i wasn't completely sure about. The car was driving very slowly and eventually parked and turned its lights out. Being not completely sure i radioed through and explained as best as i could. 

Svetlana and I, leaving base (happy times)

The story ended with the mefakedet hamachlaka and mefakedet hacors both running over to investigate what exactly i was on about. It was very dodgy, 4 cars all doing the same thing and then a torch light in the area quite close to the base border. Ultimatly it was nothing, probably just a bunch of young guys meeting up to smoke or something. 

I bet your wanting to know what i'm on about with bed bugs...here goes. Everyone's body is covered in bites. the end. Maybe it's solved now, we all gave back our army blankets (lovingly called scabbios's...quite literally after the disease) and moved rooms. Though i kind of think the room move was already going to happen. I think maybe they sprayed, i mean i don't think i got more bites the past few nights...it is kindof hard to tell with the multitude i already had!

I'm actually having alot of trouble remembering what exactly we did the 2 weeks on base, so if i remember i will write another blog titled "important stuff that i forgot" (don't get excited...hard right?)

This is 1/4 of the whole group--ceremony held at Akko Prison Museum

As for the fun stuff, yesterday we had our ceremony to mark the end of basic training.It was held at the Akko Prison Museum a really interesting place, we had a tour before! The only problem was that it was hot. Very hot, stood for 3 hours or something in direct sunlight, could actually feel sweat dripping down our backs, and no one had water. In the end parents and family started to hand us water...even though we weren't their kids. Which i am very very appreciative for, i think otherwise some serious cases of heat stroke would have been had. 

The ceremony itself was hard, i was standing right near all the family and friends, which consequently was at the opposite side from the speakers...Turns out that i understand even less if i can hardly hear and there is a lot of other talking happening around me. So that sucks a little. 

The swearing in was hard as a lot of the words were difficult. Unfortunately i'm not able to find a word for word translation, but here's what i took the oath to mean (and therefore what i swore to, for me). "I give my word to serve Israel, to loyally and unconditionally love the land of israel, to follow the commands of my superiors, without question, and to use all my strength, even to sacrifice my life in the defence of the homeland and the freedom of israel." This was said all together and after we went soldier by soldier, line by line up to the commanders in charge, held a gun in a special way (wish i had a photo...) and a tanach (or whatever your religious book was) over your heart. This was followed by different mefakedet hamachlaka's (i think) saying group blah blah do you swear and us yelling at the top of our lungs "ani nishbaat" (I swear).

Ah yeah. Before the swearing in ceremony a soldier from each tsevet was awarded for going that bit extra, for being the best soldier in that sense. Of course that doesn't mean they are better, just that they stood out more or something.  I was very happy to be awarded that for my tsevet. I did most things, but some things were hard. I just never thought they noticed,...i guess it's true, the army notices everything...It is a great relief though to know that they all knew my name because they thought i wasn't too bad. not just because i'm the only ginger or incredibly naughty or something like that.

ON THAT NOTE: in our break time the other day, i discovered a mefakedet just sitting there watching us...apparently that happens every break. I need to watch what i do!

Well in general life, hopefully this thursday i'll be getting my army apartment. I spoke to the misha kitash (like the army social workers), about it, and pretty much i go see the place, if i like it it's mine. That'll be great really, they are apartments in regular places (this is cholon--near tel aviv), with 6 lone soldiers, 2 to a room. get given groceries twice a month and everything is paid for. This i think suits me perfectly, if i'm only home 3 times a month it makes no sense to rent a place...no sense and no way!

Anyway, i'm off now...daniel has curtains that require putting up. 

Wishing everyone an easy fast tomorrow, 

Lots of love, 

Louise