The Milford Academy, Touring with the family and the hashba'ah

This week we had our survival week, or as the title says The Milford Academy - 'where children are neither seen nor heard'. If you don't get the joke, watch Arrested Development. If you have seen the show and still don't get the joke, shame on you. And yes, I have been waiting a long time to use this joke. We started by digging ourselves ditches so we can pitch our tents lower to the ground. The next day we did exercises with moving and communicating without speaking and creating lookout points where you are hidden. It was really interesting and a lot of fun.

After only one day of that they sent me back to base because on Tuesday I got to go home to meet my parents for the week.I ended up missing a game of capture the flag type game in the evening where each tzevet had to try and remain hidden from the others while trying to catch them. I also missed a 7+1 km masa. That means it was 7km plus 1km while carrying someone on a stretcher. I was upset that I had to miss those fun things but it was good that I got time off to see my parents and my uncle who came for Toronto to visit me.

When I got off base I went to meet my family in Eilat. There was not really much to do there, so we eneded up doing a boat cruise that had a glass bottom so you could see the coral and the fish. On Wednesday we made the long trip up from Eilat to Jerusalem with some stops to sight see along the way. I have seen a lot of Israel, but it was finally nice to check out some sites I had never seen before. We went to Mitzpe Ramon, which is a giant crater in the middle of the desert. I drive by there on my way to base, but I am always asleep, so I had never actually seen it. From there we went to Sde Boker which is where David Ben Gurion, Israel's first Prime Minister lived and is buried. After finishing with politics he decided to move to the kibbutz which is in the middle of nowhere in the desert. His focus was on the importance of the desert and the need to make the desert bloom in order to make Israel stable and successful. His house was preserved to the way it looked on the day that he died. Unfortunately I could not take pictures. From there we went to Jerusalem and spent over 2 hours getting lost and looking for a parking spot.

Ben Gurion's grave in Sde Boker

Thursday was my swearing in ceremony in Latrun, which is the armored corps museum and memorial. I had to show up in the morning so that we could practice standing still and the few different stances we need to be in. The one good thing about the ceremony was that it was short - only 45 minutes, and there was no marching involved. That saved a lot of practicing time considering it was a hot day. I didn't understand most of the speeches or what people were saying during the ceremony, but it was really meaningful to get sworn into the army as a combat soldier and especially to have my parents come from Toronto to see it. After the ceremony we got to take our gun home for the weekend which was awesome.

Me receiving my gun

The next day I took a tour of the Old City with my family. I was strutting around with uniform and my gun, so I felt quite good about myself. The one thing the army does not prepare us for is tourists. What do you do when I'm standing alone talking on the phone to a friend and some tourist stands 4 feet next to me and poses for a picture? Do I have to tell my friend to hold on a second while I take a picture, ignore the tourist, or take out a tip jar? Also, is it my job to know the name of the border crossing to Jordan just south of the King Hussein Bridge? And if that question wasn't hard enough, the follow up question was what time are they opened until and how much does it cost to cross? Do I tell him I don't know, say to him in Hebrew that I don't speak english, or say to him in perfect english 'How the heck should I know? I'm not from here either!'

I go back to the army on Tuesday, so I still have time off which is awesome. I'm going out to restaurants with my family, so I'm enjoying the good meals. I am excited to get back though because I get to find out what my job will be in the tanks. We now start our basic training with the tanks which will hopefully be very exciting. I'm stuck on base for shabbat, so my next update will be in 2 weeks.

Me and the Merkeva 3 (My new ride)