Soldier Louise--first week

My first weekend of, so very much to tell, I’ll tell from the very beginning…hopefully I don’t forget any of the important stuff. The problem is every day is at least 18 hours long so you do so much each day, but I’ll tell you that soon! 

 

Pre-Day 1

Last week of civilian life consisted of stressing, ringing Mahal people every single day, talking with my new friends who are doing the same thing, stressing with my new friends, running, sprinting on the soft sand beach with an extremely fit new friend (rather fun), and the very last few nights a steak meal and last beer of freedom. 

Day 1

Was meant to arrive at 8am (though the Mahal guy only rang me at 4.55pm on Thursday afternoon—equivalent to Friday afternoon, exactly the very last possible moment.) so arrived at 7.30…. Everyone knows my talent for getting lost, so not only had I already made the route so I knew it by heart, I left early.  Was tired and hungry, too excited to sleep the night before and too rushed to eat in the morning.  Met with my friends who also had arrived early, lined up to say “look here I am” and sat to wait for our names to be called. After my name was called i jumped on the bus which took  me to Bokom. Bokom is the induction centre basically. There we spent the entire day which consisted of oh so much confusion; little did I know that would be everything from then on.  Minus the large portions of time walking to ‘ruk shum, yashar’ (just there, straight) which was never just there and infact was usually not even straight down the corridor, the day consisted of the following:

• Id photo 
•  Dna (they stabbed our finger, like for checking blood pressure, but then squeezed it for 5 minutes consistently rubbing it on carboard to soak it up….this ended up being the most painful thing of the day)
• Vaccinations (enourmous needles, given whilst a line of people watched)
• Small blood test (to put us on the bone marrow register—this was optional)
•   Interview to give bank details etc
• Teeth x-ray (for ID)
• Finger and palm printing (ID again, this was really fun) 
• And then of course, uniform. I got the following; 3 formal uniforms, 5 white shirts (for under formal), pair of boots, 4 pairs of socks, biuret (plain green to tell the world that you’re brand new), belt, and a bag of random things which included pepper spray,  toothbrush, ear plugs and I have no idea what else.

After that we basically just waited. Sat all together (little did I know it was the last time I would be able to talk to my new friends since they were all boys) for about 3 or 4 hours we were waiting. It turned out we were waiting for all the other people from all the other places to arrive and finish their id etc. Even people from Haifa etc, that’s because Bokom is the main centre so everyone had to come. Our lunch though was DELICIOUS num num num.

We jumped on the bus then to go up north to Mikve Eilon, our home for the next 3 months. The girls I was on the bus were 95% Russian, a couple of americans, 2 other Australians, a couple of English girls and then a handful of random other countries. Found out where later! (Italy, Cuba, France, Parugay, and I’ve forgotten where else.) It turns out though that the Russians aren’t all from Russia, there are heaps from Ukraine, even Armania, Kazakstan (other stans…), they just all speak Russian.

 I actually can't remember what we did on base... For sure i slept on the base there though, i guess we put our bags in a pile and then moved off to eh, can't remember. Maybe a induction lesson. The main point is that everything and i mean EVERYTHING was in hebrew. 100%, even 1 on 1 interviews in hebrew. There was simply no option for english. That night we only went to bed at 11.30 or something, so clearly it was a full night of activity i just can't remember what.

Rest of the week

 I'm lumping the rest all together because i don't remember what happened when. But what you need to know is, a lot of lessons where i understand about 1/4, a lot of sitting and really trying hard to keep my eyes open, going through different periods of tiredness (stages go, super slow, eyes closing by themselves, hysterical and very serious). Especially the hysterical stage does not work too well when you look around and see everyone else having the same eye shutting problem. One day i could not stop laughing i got thrown out, then when my mefakedet (commander), asked me what was so funny i honestly had no idea. Even funnier though was she was saying "do i laugh when you speak to me" but unfortunatly the word for past tense laugh and past tense remember are very similar, so my tired brain went to "do i remember what you say when you speak to me" so i'm there going ken ken (yes). 

We met different people, including the rasap, this girl who honestly looks 15 if that but with such an indredible glare. I'm not really sure what rasap is in english but higher than the commanders so i don't know an officer maybe? She made us run from 2 lines, to a chet (in the israeli army absolutly everything is in chet which is a letter in the alphabet) about 50 times. Made us do pushups and basically just showed us she was in charge. I actually enjoyed it found it hilarious all the sprinting from one spot to another but all the girls were whinging. OH GOD. The girls....how did i not say this yet?  actually another subheading later. prepare yourselves.  Hmmm what else did we do this week, let me think....... Ah had some lessons on guns (we get one on sunday), talks from different commanding people can't remember on what...as i said i don't understand too much yet. Got the rules, got told what is asoor (forbidden!), got told about 100 times it's forbidden to hitchhike. Even got shown a horrid video in which a soldier tramped (what they call hitchiking) and got killed...i say horrible because of the acting. Horrific to sit through. 

But basically our week consisted of lining up and putting our bottles next to our feet and attempting to make them all line up straight (because of the russians that hardly ever worked), standing in a chet, yelling the time, yelling ken hamefakedet alot, me losing my voice a little, having no time to do anything and bonding. 

The Girls:

 So...i did not realise how much culture effects people. And this is not 100% a perfect reflection of each individual russian. But so so pushy. example: we get 20 seconds to run from point a to b, stand in 2 straight lines with our bottles straight all whilst yelling the time (first in ten second intervals from 1 minute but then 10,9,8...) they will walk and then right at 3 seconds push in infront of you. Simply because they want to stand next to their friend, not caring at all that it screw up the entire line, that we don't have time and that there is a perfectly good spot at the end of the line. When i say push i don't mean squeeze in i literally mean push. The most frustrating thing though is they don't speak english, and  my hebrew isn't good enough to effectively yell at them. That is just a small example, there are many many (oh so many) more, but lines apparently are not used in russia or the surrounding countries and ultimatly they come off as very rude. But saying that, i've made friends with two russian girls who are just amazing. (neither of them do the pushing thing...) Michelle she speaks quite good english but we decided to only talk hebrew to each other to learn faster she's amazing (and also so cool...her eyes are different colours!), then Svetlana--i think she does know english but we also only talk hebrew. Unfortunatly her hebrew is amazing and mine is well....not so much that way. 

The rest of the girls are fine. I have made some great friends already, it's just that everyone is there for different reasons. Most girls have already been in israel for 2 or so years, they've already done ulpan (hebrew school), and alot are basically fluent. In fact, my hebrew is amongst the worst.  A lot of them want to do jobnik jobs (a jobnik is an office position, or that sort of thing), and there has been so much whinging and whining over what i see as absolutly nothing. I mean, the mefakdot aren't even giving punishments at all yet, (which by the way...i hate. i figure if they make us do pushups thats training at spaced out intervals!) 

The Food:

They say that most girls gain alot of weight in the army because of the food...i see why. Everything is excedingly super salty (funny to see people put MORE salt on top), they have cake at every meal and it is all carbs. I on the other hand think i'll end up losing weight, why? I don't particularly like spongy cake therefore haven't had any, the food is so salty that it's not appealing so every meal i basically only eat cucumber, tomato and white cheese (israeli thing i think, not exactly sure how to explain it). 

OH but worst of all, there is no coffee.....if you've met me you know i love my coffee and how hard none at all must be, i'm sure my body is thankful for the break though, no coffee no alcohol and healthy food...not too bad. 

Hebrew:

Day one i understand around 2%, and each day that increased by 2%. It is very different depending on who's talking but i think that give it a few weeks and i'll understand enough to be fine. Saying that, the mefakdot talk in a very simple way, repeating alot and using alot of gestures...so it is very good environment to learn...but i guess that;s the whole point of the ulpan at mikve eilon. 

It was pretty funny though, yesterday we got to go "home" for the weekend (or really just for saturday), woke at 3am and i was so tired that even talking english i would accidentally use hebrew and not even notice. In fact we had to go shopping to get things that i had no idea previously that we needed (i went with another girl from my group), and i was talking to the shopkeepers without any breaks (well ok...maybe a few) almost like my tiredness was effective to get rid of the barrier of worry about getting it wrong. 

Expectations for the coming 2 weeks:

The next two weeks we're on base, it's called a shabbat... because you're on base for shabbat. I expect things to step up. Physically i hope we'll  do more, i hope their will be punishments for things i hope it will feel more like an army and less like a school camp. I expect sadly that the food will remain horrible, that i will increase my hebrew skills, that i will learn to (excuse my english), shit, shower and polish my shoes without too much problem in 7 minutes. That i'll break the communication barrier with the russians and that i'll have a great time. 

Overall:

Even though this blog consisted of alot of "bitching" i had an excellent time. It was very hard mentally; it's very frustrating to not understand what someone is saying to you. It was tireing (cured by a 11 hour sleep from 22:30 last night, but great. I can't wait though for my hebrew to improve and to move to a unit where everyone wants to be there and there is motivation. That's what is lacking now, no one is motivated, they don't want to be there infact someone told me that alot of people purposelly fail their hebew test so they can spend 3 months of their service doing lessons they already know. But i've got my initial gibush (they physical and mental test if you want to do a combat unit) in october and for sure after that everyone that's in a combat unit wants to be. 

Sorry for the length of this, hopefully i didn't bore you... if it's any consilation next time will probably be double the length (2 weeks worth...though that depends on what i remember!). 

Lots of love 

(oh am currently staying at daniels...trying to find a place to live permanantly-for the few days i'm home every month-not as easy as you'd think with one hour to make calls and shower a day always around 10pm.) 

Your soldier, Louise.