Touching the wall

This week was a complete waste of time. Tuesday and Wednesday was a holiday (Shavuot) so we only came to base for Sunday and Monady and return on Thursday. The time that was not spent traveling to or from the base and the field where the tanks are was spent cleaning the tank. Monday was excruciatingly hot - reaching 40 degrees Celsius by 9AM. It was so hot that I couldn't touch any metal part of the tnak with my bare hands for more than a few seconds (about 99% of the tank). For the holiday of Shavuot on Tuesday I went to Tel Aviv to stay with a friend from Toronto until I had to return to base first thing on Thursday. We went out for dinner and there was this guy standing 5 meters from our table staring at us the entire time. Midway through dinner we realized that 2 tables beside us was the Minister of Defense, Ehud Barak, which explained his body guard staring at us. On his way out I introduced myself and got a handshake.

Thursday it was back to base for 16 days - 2 full weeks of technical tank training in the field, but first we had to finish cleaning the tanks. Today (May 20th) I touched the wall. This is a figurative statement, as I did not actually see any physical walls throughout the day as we were in the field. Army service as a whole is seen as a race, and everyone is looking at the end regardless of how long they have been in the army. During this 'race', once you get halfway you 'touch the wall' and start running the second half. So today I have finished 9 of my 18 months of army service. It is quite crazy to think that I am already halfway done, and still not done training. The time has flown by!

We went back to the base for shabbat but before it entered we were surprised and punished because we had been acting like morons throughout the day. They decided to give us a 3rd guarding post for the duration of shabbat. This increased the amount of time we had to guard to 3.5 hours - about 1 extra hour because of the punishment. Shabbat is supposed to be our free time where they are not allowed to give you orders and there is no work they can make you do aside from guard duty.