Not too much to report--don't worry--this was a very short week, only sun till wed but it was a very hot and grumpy one.
The big ass gun:
Sunday began rather early for me as i had to leave Daniels at 5.30. Luckily for me i managed to convince him to drive me...even though, and again you won't beleive it, I got us lost! hahaha you'd think i'd learn. But nope. Did a little sprinting to get to the train, was to meet my friend on there but all is well and good...thank god i'm a lucky person.
We were to meet at Carmel at 10am, and stress free arrived early, which was really lovely because it meant i could see the boys. Ok i'm not exaggerating here, i never ever see them on base. The army has made extreme measures to keep boys and girls seperated...at Mikve Eilon anyway. But yeah, it was lovely to see them to catch up...from what i've heard they seem to get very different treatment than the girls. More like you'd imagine it should be.
At base we did the usual waiting around, little bit of running in lines, little bit of shouting, little bit of me saying lo ivanti (i don't understand) and a little bit of me feeling a lot of sorry for my sleep deprived (perhaps still a little shicka) self. Actually it was really quite hilarious.. so my tzevet (group) i'm not particularly fond of. I won't say its because their mostly russian, because as i said i do have russian friends which i really really like! but it's more because of our communication. It's like we can not do anything at all succesfully. But i decided i'd talk to my mefakedet and ask to change. I thought i'd ask to move to tzevet 1 (i'm in 2 now) because their based on hebrew levels. that's right you heard me, i'm in 2 not bottom!!!! Thought to ask that, but really because i like the people more. Our conversation went like this:
Me "hi, is it possible to change to tzevet 1"
Mefakedet "why?"
me "the hebrew is too hard, i understand nothing, you talk too fast and i understand their mefadet better"
Mefakedet "NO, their based on the tests and interviews you've done and you did well...well done"
Me "i have no idea how"
Mefakedet "louise you're doing well, tell me when i'm speaking too fast and i'll slow down"
Me "all the time"
blah blah blah
The problem with this conversation is that my hebrew improves ten fold when i'm drunky or super tired. i was a little of both so that conversation was fluent. too bad it's not all the time!
Oh on that note, after we left the army last week Yasmeen (a friend) and myself went to buy the essentials that i didn't realise i'd need. for me that's an extremelly manly watch, long running pants (but not tights--do you know how hard it is to find something like that?) and i think that's all i got. But i was so tired (i'd woken up at 3 that morning) that i was chatting away to all the shop people in hebrew, no problemo...well i mean felt like no problemo...meh.
Eh, what else did we do on sunday..yep got our guns. Sounds fun. It's not. Their heavy, big, irratating, and in the way. Oh and you have to take it everywhere. I mean in the shower you have to leave the curtain open so you can see it 30cm's away from you. You sleep with it under the matteress...oh funny story. When i sleep in the army i don't just sleep i pass out. So i had put it under the matteress and usually i sleep next to it kindof..this night half my body was on it...i;d planned on moving...princess and the pea (almost!)
The rest of the week was alot of lessons, alot of running for no point, alot of crankiness and also 2 talks in my group about how we'd fix our situation (of not getting it together)...they mostly ended with we need to only ever talk in hebrew...always follwed 5 mins later by russian. Yup.
Did some laser firing, not sure the point of that...like a normal gun but with a laser thingy at the end...but hey 6 out of 6 (though i'm pretty sure the first one didn't hit and she let me do an extra one)
Did a fitness test thingy, as much as you can do from 86 sit ups, 48 push ups and a 2 km run. i was fairly pleased... did 86 sit ups (could have done more!), 34 push ups (should have pushed harder), and came 2nd in the run. Which is all well and good but next time i need to come 1st to improve. Ah the pressure!
A little gun krav maga...too much talking and not enough actually doing anything. Eh some other stuff...oh yeah this was fun: we did first aid. YEah. that's right turns out its a bit harder in hebrew.
Food again was horrific, though my friend (maya)'s birthday was sunday so she brought cake (hey i've got no oven to bake one with), so that was nice! But overall i'm having a great time. A little freaked out that all the mefakdot know my name... my friend Shayna was saying that at night they all go through their notes of the day (at 1.14pm maya forgot her bottle, at 2.34pm louise had her gun around the back of her. etc etc) so i had a freak out about why they knew my name. do i always do bad things??? i really hope it's for good reasons. I mean apart from my laughing outbreak i think i'm a pretty good soldier. Though i do have a LOT of trouble staying awake in classes. Saying that, they never tell me to stand up, i always ask first. so at least they'll know i'm trying my hardest.
But i'm at Aviva's right now. Aviva is a friend of Grannies.. i stayed with her last time i was in israel..was so excited to see her and the family again. Tonight we're going for dinner at her son's house. So i must get ready.
Tell next time (which is deffinatly 2 weeks this time)
Sorry for the lack of photo's there are a few from base but not on my camera...need to round them up. (how do you say photo's in russian?)
Oh, funny thing i forgot. Yesterday was our yom siddurim which is basically a day you get every 2 months to organise things. Go to the bank blah blah blah. My mefakedet rang me at 8am and basically told me to get moving...apparently i do NOT understand much when i first wake up. But then we were on the phone on and off all day. She even ended up talking to the phone company for me. So nice. was funny to tell them though "eh, can you speak to my mefakedet please".
that's my Louise!
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