Here I Come Israel

Two weeks ago on Sunday I got my first tsevet! I got a tsevet of 6 girls. Normally were supposed to get around 15 per tsevet. For the past two and a half weeks I have been teaching them all about the army, lessons they need to know, discipline and all of the things that come along with being in basic training. I'm enjoying it a lot. A lot. It's really hard. I sleep maybe 5 hours a night but all that I do is for my soldiers and I do it all gladly. Next Tuesday they have their swearing in ceremony where I will stand in front of them as they swear into the army in front of their parents and friends and after they will leave my care and move onto their course. I've learned so much already about myself from the short two and a half weeks that I've had with them and I can't wait to continue to learn more and more.

Pictures from my tekes sof course (end of course ceremony). The first one is me, my mefaked, my dad and my little sister. The second is me and my commander and my whole tsevet. That's it! I finished my course! Now I'm writing this in my new base, Bahad 20, a base for soldiers who are going to work fixing guns and vehicles. Most of the soldiers that draft to this base are soldiers with little to no motivation to draft. Most of those soldiers have attitude problems, problems at home, financial problems, all sorts of issues that bring them to this specific base. I'm going to be their commander during basic training. Three and a half weeks I'll be with them, teaching them everything that a soldier in the Israeli Defense Forces needs to know. I can't wait to get my own tsevet and to start changing the way new soldiers see the army, themselves, and their service.

A video I took earlier tonight when a barrage of rockets from Gaza were sent towards central Israel.

A video I took earlier tonight as a barrage of rockets were sent from Gaza to central Israel

Waiting out a siren on the first floor of my rooms on base.

It's been a long time since I've written. I started my course after a week of much needed rest because of basic training. My course is a course designed to teach us how to become commanders in basic training. It's a course filled with lessons about how to handle soldiers and their problems, how to teach in the best possible way, how to be a leader, how to get your soldiers to respect you, how to use discipline and more. With around two weeks left before I finish my course I am at a good place to sum it all up. I learned a lot in the course. Not just about the specific things that they tried to teach us, but a lot of things about myself and what I want out of my service. I learned a lot about what type of commander I want to be and about what I want my soldiers to leave with from basic training. The course was difficult. The level of Hebrew significantly rose, along with the necessity to study more, causing me to work harder than I possibly ever have. Physically it was draining as well. Different than basic training where you had a lot of short sprints from here to there. The course was filled with physical exercises that exhausted you and than right after needing to focus in a complicated lesson that dealt with how to use discipline. Over all I feel ready to finish the course and begin my job as a basic training commander. I know it won't be an easy job but I am feeling ready for the experience. In two weeks I will stand at Latrun (a tank base where the ceremony will take place) and get my rank. My dad will be in the audience to see my accomplishments and all my friends I've made over the past 4.5 months will be with me as well.

Tomorrow we all go down south to a base nearby Eilat and do a week of learning how to do combat in open spaces. It's going to be incredibly exhausting but one of the most exciting experiences I'm going to have in the army. I'm very nervous because it's going to be very hard but I also know it's going to bring all of my chooliah (team of 4) really close together. Then on Friday I get out for 9 days break from the army which is going to be a great time to recharge after a tiring two and a half months of basic training and get us ready for the next two and a half months of our course.

Yesterday we went to Jerusalem as a ploogah to tour the old city and Mt. Herzl. We had a wonderful tour guide take us around the old city and we had some free time to spend at the kotel. It was a really powerful experience for me. I'm used to being in Jerusalem and staring in awe at the soldiers wandering around. Now, I'm on of the soldiers that tourists take pictures of and say thank you to. Being at the kotel in uniform was really powerful. Because of soldiers, Jerusalem is in our hands. And talking about the history in every house and stone was given a whole new meaning while in uniform.

Around a month ago we had our first masa, everyone in their vests, guns, helmets all walking or running and for part of the time carrying someone on a stretcher. Our first masa was only 2 km and it was a masa mefaked. My mefaked and my whole tsevet did the masa together. It was a really quick but exciting experience. Two weeks ago before we got out for the end of Pesach we had our second masa, our masa samelet. Our samelet is someone who works under our mefakedet machlaka and works closely with our mefakdim. I love my samelet a lot. I think she is the perfect example of what all mefakdim should strive to be. She is strict with us but if I have a problem I am confident I can go to her and she will help me. I do as much as I can to help her all the time. Every masa the leader of the masa chooses some soldiers to help him or her. During our masa mefaked, my mefaked chose one of the girls in my tsevet to carry the portable radio in her vest which is a big honor. Our samelet had three honors to give out, the radio, the stretcher and the 5 kilos of water. She chose me to carry the water on my back, an honor I did not expect and am still in shock over. This masa was 4 km and the last km was with a stretcher and running most of the time. It wasnt hard physically but it was an experience I will never forget.

Shabbat shalom from me and two girls in my machlaka!

Happy Passover to everyone! This holiday I closed on base and had my very first Israeli Seder on an army base. It was an experience I will never forget. 150 soldiers, all in uniform sitting down together to tell the story of Pesach. It was something magical and I'm so glad I got to experience it.

Sorry I've been so MIA recently, about a month ago my phone fell into the toilet and I only just got my new one. A lot has happened since then that I wanted to share. First of all, I'm officially halfway through basic training. I have a month and a half left of the discipline and running around of basic training before I start the serious learning of my course. The past month was really busy for us. We had a week in the shetach (field), where we learned a lot about what it means to be a fighter. Like how to hide our footprints, how to find a good place to spy and more like that. We also had a week of shooting where we were certified in level 3 shooting (a more advanced level of shooting). It was a week of learning to shoot in different positions with different situations. It was one of the coolest experiences I've ever had. We also closed Shabbat on base, meaning we didn't go home on Friday for Shabbat but stayed on base and guarded. It was an incredible experience to be on base for Shabbat and to have Shabbat dinner in uniform. It's something so incredibly unique to this country. It was also a great time to get closer to the girls in my unit which was a lot of fun. Tomorrow starts Pesach and I'm going to be on base for Seder. That'll be an incredible experience that I'll be sure to write about as soon as it's over.

Me in my helmet, vest and gun!

For now, I'm going to have fun with my garin and rest up for the next week!

I drafted to the Israeli army yesterday. Wow. Still feels weird for me to say. Yesterday morning I went to the lishkat hagius in Tiberius, the building where most of my army testing took place. Around 30 girls and I, including my friend in my garin with me were all sent to the bakoom on a bus after saying goodbye to my sister, my host mom and my rakaz garin. When we got to the bakoom we joined around 600 other girls, mostly from Tel Aviv and it's surrounding areas. There we spent around 7 hours going from station to station. Getting our picture taken, shots and a prick of blood, fingerprinting, DNA swab, teeth x-rays, interview with an officer to make sure we were drafting to the right place, an interview with someone to check our bank information and etc. It was a long day. It wasn't difficult, just moving from line to line. And it's a lot of anticipation the whole day. The final two steps were getting our choger, a soldier ID card and our dog tags, and getting our uniform and all of the things the army gives us; boots, t-shirts, socks, workout shorts etc. At the end of all of that the mefakdot (commanders) waiting outside split us up into machlakot (platoons) for the night and the next day. We then boarded a bus for the base, around 30 min away from the bakoom. We spent the bus ride practicing how to address our mefakdot and how to stand properly. Most of our first day of tironut (basic training) was spent making timed rows of two, making a perfect half square to receive our mefakdot and being taught different things about the army. We spent the night at the base and left at around 11 today for our first weekend off. And here I am. Day 1 of my army service completed. It's hard to really explain how I'm feeling. Maybe I'm too tired to really be able to express myself properly, or maybe it hasn't sunk in yet. But I do know that when I got off the bus today in Tel Aviv for the first time in my uniform, I was proud.

A few weeks ago I decided I was tired of sitting on my butt and waiting for my draft. I decided to find something to do. It just so happens that down the street from the place I normally stay at in Jerusalem is an organization called One Family. One Family helps families of victims of terror. Since 2001 this organization has been helping over 3,000 families deal with the losses inflicted upon their lives by terror attacks. They help widows, orphans and bereaved siblings and parents. They provide financial help, legal help and emotional support for every member of the family. They have a whole division dedicated to youth who have special emotional needs due to a loss in their life. For the past few weeks I have been helping out in their office, making phone calls to the families, stuffing envelopes with information, pretty much anything they needed me to do. I was interviewed on some American Jewish radio program (name unknown) about what I was doing there and in Israel. I was asked by the same people to write an op-ed piece about what I'm doing in Israel and why (as soon as I get more information about both and where to find them I will post it here). It felt wonderful to be doing something productive and incredibly rewarding and worthwhile. The incredible people who work there (several of whom are volunteers on a full time basis) gave me a connection to a wonderful organization that I am sure to stay in contact with during my army service and hopefully return to them at least to volunteer again after my service.