Very random weekend

We woke up at 3AM in order to get home for the weekend!!! Left base at 430AM and ended up at home by 1PM. Before I got to the kibbutz I stopped off at the supermarket to buy food. As I was shopping some random person came up to me and asked me if I was a lone soldier and if I had a place to eat for shabbat. How did she know that I was a lone soldier who didn't have a place for shabbat? Well I kinda stick out like a sore thumb. A soldier doesn't really go shopping for food alone in uniform 4 hours before shabbat unless he really has to. If you know me, I only go shopping when I REALLY need to. I had no food, and therefore really needed to shop. I politely declined because my buddy Jon was visiting me on my kibbutz for the weekend. It's not uncommon for that to happen. People are really nice to soldiers.

After a long night of partying I actually decided to do something besides sit around and waste time on the internet. I haven't really ventured around the neighbourhood and I figured since someone came to visit me we should actually do something. I'm usually too tired and lazy to do anything. So just like that we decided to go for a hike up the Gilboa mountain. It had rained the day before so it was a bit muddy, but that still didn't stop us. There was nobody around and as we started walking through the farms to get to the base of the mountain there were 2 cars that passed us. Jon and I were both wearing AEPi t-shirts and the guy in the second car rolls down his window and yells AEPi!!! He was in AEPi in Vegas and a very hilarious and random encounter. At what point do these random encounters stop being random? It seems that every corner I turn I expect to bump into someone I have some sort of connection with. The hike was pretty awesome and long - 3 hours in total, but the view was definitely worth it!

My backyard! Thats my kibbutz to the left of my head.

Before we went on the hike I got a call from a friend, Dan who is in Israel on Birthright, but I was surprised to hear that it was a different friend on the phone, Cliel (an avid reader of Kaldors Korner I might add) who I didn't know was also here. So just like that I decided to go back to Jerusalem with Jon to meet up with them at night at Ben Yehuda Street. Whenever I go to Ben Yehuda Street or the Old City I am always on the lookout for people I know. There is rarely a time I go to those places and don't bump into someone I know. In fact, I get disappointed if I don't bump into someone I didn't expect to see. So not so surprisingly, I bumped into someone else that was on the birthright trip that I knew.

So that was my weekend of very random encounters. I'm sure I will bump into people again tomorrow when I tour Jerusalem.

Camping with the army

Sunday it was back into the field for 4 more days and 3 nights of more shooting. This was week 2 of 3 of shooting and we practiced the 3 shooting position - standing, kneeling and lying down. We also practices gun jams and changing magazines. We shoot from 25 and 50 meters during the day and do the eact same exercizes at night from the maximum distance we can see the target (appx. 15 meters). My shot is pretty good and I have been hitting the target most of the time. It takes time to get used to holding the very uncomfortable positions for a long time.

By the third day of Chanukah and being back in the field with shitty food I was really craving a sufganiyah (jelly donuts you eat on Chanukah). During Chanukah the army gives out sufganiyot but I didn't think that they were going to give it to us out in the field, but I was really fiending one. In the middle of the afternoon I suddenly saw an oasis in the desret - no it wasn't water, but the Chabadmobile with sufganiyot blasting hassidic music! We got a break from the day (we don't get breaks. EVER. PERIOD!) to eat sing and dance to Chanukah tunes. Kol hacavod כל הכבוד to Chabad for finding us in the middle of nowhere! It definately cheered up our day! The next day we got our sufganiyah from the army and the one from Chabbad were much better! We lit the Chanukah candles every night, and it was really cool to be lighting them in the field when it was pitch black with nothing around - only sand and stars.

We had another masa - this one 4km in 45 minutes and it was much easier than the one before because I wasn't carrying the 10L jerrycan of water on my back. After each masa we get add-ons to our uniform or our equipment - the first masa we got our gun, and now we got our tag to wear on our shoulders that signify what unit we are in. During the course at Mikve Alon I had the Education Corps tag and for the past 3 weeks I took a step backwards and was without a tag but now I have one signifying I'm in kravi so that is pretty awesome.

So whats it like going 'camping' with the army? Well its nothing like going camping for a weeknd with your buddies to sit by the lake drink beers and have a BBQ. You can't take your cellphone with you and ther eare obviously no showers so that means we really don't need an hour of free time every day. In the field we get half an hour - enough time to make your sleeping bag ready, brush your teeth and take a piss - aside from that there really isn't anything else to do when you can't even see anything. As usual, we get our 6 hours of non consecutive sleep (we have to do half an hour of guard duty throught the night). Our 18 hour days really do feel that long. Even meal time is no break - there are 20 vultures trying to eat from the same few cans of food and couple of loafs of bread. If we are lucky we will get half an hour to eat. There is always something to do and are never given any breaks. Fix this, clean that, move thos rocks, why are those kitbags and vests always out of order!?!?! During the day it gets quite hot, but at night it is FREEZING! We are totally out in the open so there are no building to block the wind, or fires to keep us warm. We sleep in 2 person tents and we make it fit 3 people for warmth.

We gave in our sleeping bags for real cleaning which was a real shame on the waste of water used to clean them. They were clean for about the 1.5 seconds while someone threw it from the truck and before it hit the sand. It would have been ideal for them to give us new ones when we returned to base, so we could use them but then again what the hell do I know? I'm only older than everyone and have a university degree, but I'm still the scum of the earth on the base because I'm just in basic training. The next day when we got back to base we got new sleeping bags again - again, a real shame on the water. Additionally, changing clothing is a complete waste of:

• time - spent looking for your clothing (especially in the dark) and changing while attempting to not drop your clothing into the sand.
• space - I can barely fit the things in my kitbag that I need, yet alone any extra clothing.
• water - used to clean the clothes ( there is a really bad water shortage in Israel, so its even more important to conserve)

On the one hand its a waste of a lot of resources to attempt to stay clean but it seems the only 2 things that really matter are that you are clean shaven and your boots are shined. Being clean shaven I'm willing to accept, but I think its absolutely ridiculous to be shining my black boots at 5AM in the dark when I can't even see them! Additionally after I take 2 steps or if there is a gust of wind my boots are dirty again! They say its all about discipline but I say its ridiculous. At least we only have to do it once a day. On base there are days when we have to fix our boots 4 or 5 times.

Until now, most of the time we have been carrying around our gun, it has prety much been a hunk of metal in the shape of a gun. It really isn't a gun yet if your not given any ammo. On Wednesday we were given a strap in which to secure a magazine to the side of the gun. So now we have the responsibility to carry around a gun and ammo all the time, not just a hunk of metal.

In 2 weeks my parent are coming to visit me, which is very exciting. I haven't seen them since I left for Israel 7 months ago. They are coming for my swearing into the army ceremony. I already had this ceremony as part of the ulpan course at Mikve Alon, but it's a much bigger deal and bigger event for combat soldiers. If your in the area (and by area I mean country) you should come and show your support for the shiryonairim of November 2009 who will be keeping Israe lsafe. It's also a great chance for you to see me and meet my parents. The ceremony is Thursday January 7th in Latrun. Call me for more details.

It has been a long 12 days on base, but finally I get my 2 day weekend before I spend another 12 days on base (most of it in the field again). We have a day trip to Jerusalem, one week at the shooting range and then the second week we start doing exercise in the open field - not at the range.

Once again, if you haven't already become a fan of my blog on facebook, here is the link http://facebook.com/kaldorskorner

First week of kravi basic training

Getting back to base was a pain in the ass. I had to run to the bank and therefore didn't have time to meet at the regular meeting place. I took 3 busses and 6 hours of travel to get to base. I stayed up too late Saturday taloking to friends back home (7 hrs behind) so I was exhaused all day (I'm constantly exhausted so not that this is any different). Since all the buses are always jam packed on Sunday mornings with all the soldiers returning to base, I couldn't get a seat on the last 2 legs of the trip so I was stuck in the aisle. The good thing is that it is socially acceptable for soldiers to lie down and sleep in the aisles of buses - in fact it was more comfortable because I could fully stretch out and use my backpack as a pillow.

Monday I made a new best friend - my gun. I take care of it, clean it, sleep with it under my mattress and take it everywhere with me (I don't get to take it off base just yet). Siryonairim (people in shiryon) get the M16 with the shortest barrel length so that there is room for it in the tank. It's much less awkward than the long M16 we got at Mikve Alon.

On Tuesday we went into the field for 3 days. The first day was spent mostly loading up the truck with everything we needed and setting up the campsite. We also spent a lot of time gathering rocks to make paths. It was really hot during the days and freezing cold at night. We had our first masa (hike) - it was a piece of cake and more like a 3km night medium paced walk through the desert. There were some people that were really struggling, but even with a 10L jerrycan of water on my back I wanted to go farther and faster. Afterwards there was a ceremony which officially starts our journey to becoming לוחמים (fighters). The rest of our time in the field was spent at the shooting range and eating shitty food. I blogged earlier about the shitty battle rations and the loof, but now we got better food. All the food is fresh - fresh right out of a can. We get canned tuna, pickles, corn disgusting rice something or other wrapped in vine leaves and drowned in oil, pineapples, chocolate spread, jam, ketchup, halva and bread. It's still shitty food, but the corn and pineapples are a big improvement on loof especially when we eat the stuff for every meal. It's no longer breakfast time/lunch time/ dinner time - its meal time. I was never much of a tuna fan to begin with, and its especially not tasty drenched in oil right of out the can. I was looking for ways to improve my sandwiches - with the limited combination available I have concluded that tuna, corn and chocolate sandwiches work best. Yes- everyone else was also wondering what the hel is wrong with me. Chocolate and pineapple sandwiches are amazing, but I found out that tuna and pineapple was an experiment gone terribly wrong.

I have also concluded that sandwiches were invented in the desert. If you put tuna on a piece of bread, you have a tuna sandwich, right? In this case you are subconsciously neglecting all the sand your eating. It's much easier to say your eating a tuna sandwhich than eating a tuna sand wich. Also the word wich could be confused for a question, as in tuna sand which? To make things clear, they are called sandwiches (or in hebrew sandviches). Additionally, if the sandwich was invented in a rainy area it would probably be called mudwiches. If your thinking I'm more crazy now after drawing this conclusion in my defense I'm writing this on shabbat on base where there is nothing to do. I'm not saying that I'm not crazy, but please take this into account. Basically the main point I'm trying tom ake is that there is sand EVERYWHERE!

We have a very back asswards way of 'cleaning' things. After coming back from the field late on Thursday night and were ready for bed. Instead of going to bed, we got the standard 7 minutes to change into our uniforms for what became a לילה לבן (white night - staying up all night) of cleaning our equipment, and pushups. So to clean our equipment we are given x minutes to clean a specific item and run to put it in our rooms. So here is where the back asswardness comes into play. We were given 4 minutes to clean our shovel and tent pegs and put them in our room (It takes 1.5-2 minutes to run to the room and back). The specific way of cleaning these items are with oil, which I think is a bit excessive and unnecessary when you take into account how we 'clean' our jacket, vest, backpack and kitbag. We were given 4 minutes to clean our kitbag with no specif orders on how to do it. I had enough time to smack it against the dirty wall and ground creating more dust and dirt before I realized I had to sprint to put it in my room. We spent 6 hours cleaning the equipment, rooms, running and pushups. We got breakfast and were sent to bed at 530AM. We woke up 6 hours later (because thats all the sleep we need, according to the army) and did our physical test (pushups, situps and a 2km run). After eating crappy food for 3 days and staying up all night doing a physical test was not what I wanted to do after only 6 hours of sleep at 1230 in the afternoon in the desert.

After a long hard week we lit the CHanukah candles for the first night of the holiday and went into Shabbat. This means that I have time to talk on my phone, listen to music, sleep and blog. There really isn't much else to do but its a great break from the week. the food on Shabbat is better than the regular days and much better than the battle rations. The best part of Shabbat is that they are not allowed to give us orders!

Welcome to kravi!!!

This week I joined kravi (combat) in shiryon (armored corps) and am now a lochem (fighter) in the IDF!!! Finally after six and a half months in the country I'm starting to do what I came here to do!

Okay, so I'll just answer the most important questions right off the bat, but this doesn't mean you can stop reading!
No I don't have a gun yet - I get it next week - the shortest M16.
No I don't get to take it home next week - only after basic training (3 months)
No I don't have a tank yet. In 3 months after basic training we start learning about the tank, until then its just general infantry training. But I will be in a Merkeva Mark 3 BAZ. There are 4 jobs in the tank (commander, driver, gunner, loader) and after basic training I get told what job in the tank I get.

So on Sunday I went back to bakum to trade in my red boots for black ones. After a week already it hurts to sit, stand, walk, run and even just to have my feet in the boots. My base is about 350 km from where I live and and about 60km from Eilat, which is as far south as you can get. It took me 6 hours to get home, and I think I made excellent timing. The living conditions have improve. I live in a ROOM with 9 people (I'm emphasizing the word room for all my friends in Nahal who now live in tents). Also we get air conditioning. I sleep on the bottom bunk of a bed that doesn't have a metal bar perpendicular to my body across the middle of my back. I have a personal light at my bed and an electrical outlet of my own. Additionally, the food is better.

Other than what seems to be the hotel like living conditions, it has been the past 3 months that now seem like a vacation. They take no bullshit anymore. When standing in formation you can't move an inch - sometimes for up to half an hour. Unexpectedly without knowing a mefaked will whisper very loudly in your ear from behind telling you to stop moving. At mikve alon we had mefakedets (female commanders as opposed to mefakeds which are male commanders) and they tried to act tough but they really weren't fooling anyone - they are too nice to be mean. Now I have a Samach (mefaked machlakah) who I don't think could crack a smile if his life depended on it.

In my machlakah of 29 I'm the only lone soldier and also the only one who doesn't speak fluent Hebrew (not that I'm anywhere near fluent). After a week my brain has been hurting from having to pay attention all the time to what they are saying. It's difficult to learn whats going on in the army and also to learn a language at the same time. It also doesn't help that they speak a mile a minute. Luckily I understand enough words in each sentence to know what going on through the context. I don't know what language they were speaking to me at Mikve Alon, but for arguments sake lets call it Hemilon (HEbrew at MIkve aLON) which seems to be a mix of easy hebrew words, english and slow talking. Everyone is helpful and tries to help me with my hebrew which is good. A few more weeks and I will really get the hang of the language. My mefaked seems to be a pretty chill guy and similar to me - he's also a lone soldier from Brazil and he said when he came he had a hard time with the language as well, so he seems to understand where I'm coming from.

I only get 6 hours of sleep now (compared to getting 7.5 hrs at mikve alon) and that interrupted sleep because on occasion we have to do 20 minutes - half an hour of guard duty during the middle of the night. Also my hour and a half of free time has now been shortened to an hour and in that time I have to shower, brush teeth, shine shoes, and organize the room for bedtime.

I also feel very old. I'm starting the army at 24, and I think I only had one conversation this week with someone older than me - the mefaked of the pluga, and even he might not be much older than I. Everyone has a private meeting with the commanders in order to meet them and introduce yourself. The mefaked pluga was in shock and baffled to find out that I'm just starting the army as a volunteer at 24 and that I already have a degree. At Mikve Alon I didn't really feel it because there were people like me who came to serve at an older age, but there aren't many or any in shiryon that I have encountered yet. My commanders are 21 and everyone in basic training like me is 18. Most people are shocked to find out im 24, but are still very helpful and nice.

Aside from getting adjusted to my new setting, the first week was pretty boring - equipment checks, learning how to do the day to day stuff like making our beds and keeping our rooms clean to their standards, meetings with the commanders, and other general 'welcome to the army' knowledge. They did however put on an awesome demo for us where a tank drove around and blew shit up - in 8 months I will be able to do the same!

So here is a bit of information on what I learned about the part of the army I have joined. I am in the 188th armored brigade, which is called barak (lightning). My brigade is part of the Northern Command, so after I finish with my training I will be stationed back up north with what I consider to be a more beautiful part of the country. I've barely even started yet, and I'm already sick of the sand! There is a lot of history within my brigade, as it has been involved in almost all the wars. During the Yom Kippur War in 1973, the brigade was nearly wiped out while defending the Golan Heights against the Syrians. In Operation Cast Lead almost one year ago the brigade was the first one to enter Gaza and the last one to leave. Two famous people that served in my brigade is Zvika Greengold who was awarded the medal of honor for his efforts in the Yom Kippur War, and also Gilad Shalit, who is still being held captive by Hamas who was captured in July of 2006.

Next week we get our guns, go out into the field to start training and I'm on base for Shabbat, so I'm there for the next 12 days. We have our basic training schedule, and between now and the end of February I only get off base for 6 Shabbats (thats assuming I don't screw up and am forced to stay as a punishment for one of them). Yea, my thoughts exactly - that sucks!!! So my next update will be in 2 weeks time and I'm sure I will have a lot to talk about.

חג שמח and happy Chanukah to everyone!