Masa Mem-Mem

This week we were stuck on base again for shabbat - 12 days on base. Now that we are halfway done the 3 month course we are in the thick of things and in the classroom a lot learning hebrew. The classes are really boring because we go really slowly and I understand just about everything being taught. I am so bored that I have resorted to reading the Hebrew-English dictionary in class (I finished 50 pages and am now on the letter 'C'). I writedown new words and study them later. Because of my boredom they have finally started giving me private hewbrew lessons. I learn more in the 30 minute class than I do the rest of the day.

We had our second hike (masa) which was approximately 7km. The hike was a lot of fun - we did it in the evening so it was dark and the terrain was very hilly. The hike didn't start out so well - just as we started, the samelet shouted azar - which translates to grenade (dont worry - its not real) so we all had to jump on our stomachs and cover our heads. The next thing i feel is the weight of the largest guy in our machlakah jump on top of me.
Later into the hike we had to jump on our stomachs in shooting position. We were in a thorny area and it felt like I had jumped into a thornbush crotch first. As everyone was swearing in pain our female commanders were telling us to be quiet and stop acting like girls. They obviously didn't understand the pain. They made us get up and do it again. I took a few steps backthis time but the end result was still the same - a lot of pain in the crotch region and everywhere else.
The highlight of the masa was towards the end. The entire time we are walking our eyes are always on the ground in front of you so you can see what you are stepping on so you don't twist your ankles (which almost happened about 50 times). All of a sudden the ground got softer and it felt like we were walking through crap. It also smelled like crap. The nextthing we heard was 'moooooo'. Everyone looked up and some people were shouting while others were yelling 'shhhhhh!!!'. We werer walking right through a cow farm with cows only 20 feet away from us on both sides. We tried our best to walk quitely as not to disturb them during their sleep and mating. Yes, you read that correctly - we walking in on 2 cows having sex.
We had guard duty again, bt this time luckily only for one day. I had 2 shifts: from 6-8PM during dinner and free time and then again from 2-4AM. We also had another emergency drill, where this time I slightly twisted my ankle. So during shabbat - instead of having fun playing soccer or football I was stick in my sauna-esque room (its a heat wave now) trying to keep my weight off my foot.