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.