They took the 30ish of us off the bus and started talking to us in Hebrew (obviously). Our group consisted of mostly foreigners, like myself and new immigrants where are in the country for about less than 2 years. Luckily my understanding of Hebrew is good enough to understand what was going on, otherwise I would have been in big trouble, like a lot of people there.
Similar to sitting on the bus and waiting most of the day was spent sitting and waiting or standing in lines and waiting. Aside from asking for my banking information so they can pay me and letting me go home at the end of the day, the processes seemed a lot more like jail than the army. Additionally we didn't know that we were going home at the end of the day until the end of the day. Mugshots, haircut, fingerprints, x-rays, DNA test, immunizations, medical questionaire, interview, clothing and lunch all seemed to be processes that one would also go through if you were going to jail.
One of the things I needed to do was to speak to a doctor to try and get my medical profile raised in order to be in Nahal (the name of one of the infantry divisions). Due to the fact taht I told them I have asthma the options I was given were tanks or artillery. Apparently answering yes on a medical for to the question 'would you like to see a doctor and learn more about your profile?' is not enough to see a doctor. After I turned in the form (filling it out was hard enough - the form was in hebrew and russian) I was given a peice of paper and sent around the corner. That guy took the paper and sent me downstairs. There I saw a warehouse full of clothing and not a doctor. So I went back upstairs and said that I wanted to see a doctor. The soldier said 'it's okay, just go downstairs'. To which I responded in a louder voice how rediculous this process is considering the way I filled out the questionaire. After some more arguing he sent me back to where I filled out the form where I went thru the same conversation with that soldier. 45 minutes later I see a doctor, and he said that he would refer me to a specialist who would be able to raise my profile.
Next I went back downstairs where they gave me a huge bag full of clothes and boots and told me to get dressed. I then spent the next hour trying on different sized boots. It's not like a shoe store with different styles, they just have differetn sizes. I have rediculously wide feet so its always been hard to find footwear that fits. I was one of the last people in the group to get dressed and was waiting for the soldier to tell me to move on to the next station. It's approaching 2PM and we are still waiting - at this point I'm starting to get restless because they have not fed me yet. The soldier then calls me and tells me to go back to the warehouse and tell them I am supposed to be #4. I go back and tell the soldier who ten looks at me like I'm from another planet and asks me what does that mean. As I giver her the shocked are you joking me look while I tell her I don't know what the heck is going on - I don't speak Hebrew. Apparently #4 means go over there and take off your red boots. For the next 5 minutes I'm standing there in my socks with boots in hand saying what do I do now, and what do you want from me? Someone finally took my red boots and gave me black ones (red boots are for nahal and black is for everything else). Even though I'm not in nahal I wanted the boots because apparently its a massive hassel to have to swithc boots for any reason. I tell them to give me back the red boots. This caused a problem that required 6 people to solve, as there was a large crowd around me. Someone asked me if I was in mahal (foreign volunteer soldiers) I say yes. He then asks me if I'm in nahal to which I said yes (even though I'm not yet). After waiting for 10 more minutes they take back the black boots and give me the red ones I was originally wearing. Score Alex: 1, IDF: 0. I get back to the end and as I'm explaining to the soldier that after half an hour the end result was absolutely nothing another person comes from a distance and asks the soldier that I was talking to if the group of us waiting had eaten yet (its 230PM). I yell back to her that we are starving and haven't eaten. To my happiness lunch was much better than I expedcted - but I'm sure the fact that it was already 230 and starving definitely had something to do with that.
After lunch I sat and waited. About an hour later the small group of people that were waiting with me before lunch all showed up with black boots on instead of the red ones they were originally wearing. They were pissed off (rightfully so, they were actually going into nahal) - I smiled and laughed. After 2 hours of waiting I was finally called. They took us to get our stuff that wehad checked at the beginning of the day and took us over to busses. At this point we still didn't know if they were taking us to the base up north or if we were going home for the weeekend. They started to explain to us the basic rules for soldiers conduct while off base and the proper dress code. Tehy also told us where we had to meet on SUnday morning and how to get there. They put us on a bus drove us to the central bus station in Tel Aviv and let us go home! After a very long day I got back to Rehovot by 7PM. I checked the internet to see how to get to Carmi'el by 930AM on Sunday and I need to be out of the house by 6AM - CRAP!
It was great ot have a long weekend after only one day in the army. For the next 3 months I get the majority of the weekends off - however they define weekend
as leaving base Friday morning and I have to back on base Sunday morning. Despite the weeekend I am eager and excited to go back for my first week!
Alex,
ReplyDeleteLittle red riding boot.
Wait, I have a thought. Wait. Soon.
One minute. What time is it there?
Love, Tibor.
Wait.