week 3 12/19- 12/24

Sunday
12/19

Woke up after 4 hours of sleep and I made way to bus and with my luck as usual I stood up the whole ride to base. I got to base we had to take all the beds and mattresses out of the storage room like we do every week. I'm not sure why though. We got our guns back and started the week off with a first aid class. We learned all basic first aid things that we need to know.
In the middle of the class a mefaked took me out and asked me to play tug of war with them next week. So I signed up. I wasn't feeling good at all so I didn't go on the run with everyone today. It was a little more than 2k .We don't have guard duty anymore and only one person watched the guns outside at night.

Monday

We had out second day of first aid classes. It was all day. We than had a test we have to pass to get our certification card. We learned all useful basic things. We also had krav maga today, which was a lot of fun and running, pushups and other things I like. We also were trained how to fight with our gun if we need to.

 Tuesday

We went straight to the storage room this morning to get gas masks and suits. We had classes all day long on what to do in a chemical war. We had to walk around with the bag carrying the gas mask all day and we had a training exercise with it. We went to the field and had to crawl in full suit and it’s much harder to breath with it on.
 

Wed

We had classes today about all of Israel’s enemies and the different countries and how they work. Later on we had to drink around 3L of water in an hour. We also had really good food all day, scrambled eggs, grilled chicken and more. We had a 6km masa(march) and I was given the  heaviest thing to carry again, the water pack. The straps broke right when we started so I carried it for an hour over my shoulders by the strings. It was a good workout though since it was mostly uphill.

Thursday

Today is parent’s day on base. There was a speech with the commander of the base. All lone soldiers get to go to a country club with all the commanders and  we went to Ranana to a place with a spa , pool and free food for us. They had a magic show that was actually very cool. It took me 5 hours to get home from Ranana to Jerusalem with all the traffic. I went out with a friend for the night and got home to sleep I was so tired.

Friday
I woke up really early and went to go check if my laundry is dry, but its soaked still. Hope its good by Sunday. I had a few friends over Friday night. We ate and just relaxed all night.

Saturday

Amazing lunch, hamburgers, chicken wings, fried chicken, potatoes, pasta and more things. It was really good. I packed for base I'm pretty sure we are staying for 2 weeks. But I'm going to try to get off on New Years. Tomorrow wee have to be at the Kotel at 10:00 not sure why but its better for me as I live nearby.

Week 2

Week 2

The day started off with some wind and not to cold. We went to the gun ranges today, we bring all of our equipment eve time we go and have to lay it out on the ground neatly. 5 minutes before we left I took my coat off since it was nice. Now we left and it got freezing out. Already knew this was not going to be good. We got to the ranges and my hands were already dry and ears were numb. My nose I don't even want to talk about. We set up all the targets on the range and realized it wasn't going to workout since it was too windy today. We just sat there had lunch, had some classes on the radio communications in the freezing cold. My ears and every hole in my body were filled with dust and sand. We finally left to the base. I thought we were done for the day.

Three of us chosen to do work on the advanced training base for the next 5 hours.

I can barley close my hands, they are so cold. It just so happens to be the job they gave us is to clean all the garbage on the base !! EVERYWHERE .

I feel myself getting sick already. I got back to my base. Went in my tent to find dust and dirt everywhere.
All my clean clothes... dirty. Bed.... dirty. Whatever you can think of. Now by the end of the day I look at my knuckles to find that they have been bleeding from the cold. I showered ran to my tent. Put as many clothes as I can on and got in my bed. Once I sat down, puffs of dust just go everywhere... There goes my shower. Not one of my better days.

Monday
Woke up with rain all over the inside of the tent and on me. Why? Because the tents are not really waterproof, all bags on the floor are wet and some mattresses as well

Wow ..have you ever been in a sandstorm, with 60Mph winds and 40 degrees outside for the whole day and night then wake up the next morning in your tent with everything soaked since in rained... Phewww.

We went shooting again today you are suppose to have all your bullets come within a 5cm range.

 I got 3.0 for my first time ever they 6.0. Later that day we had a lesson on night shooting. We had to to an exercise later that was just ,getting all of our equipment on as fast as possible. Vest, helmet, kneepads, 6 magazines, and your gun of course and be outside. We were running in the tent and I got pushed, the top of my gun slammed right into my head. I just sat down and felt like I got hit by a truck.

I wasn't allowed to do anything the rest of the night. I had a small sized bump bleeding from my head. But it was nothing serious. I slept hoping it will be better.

Tuesday
We went back to the ranges. My shooting in the beginning was bad , then the commander corrected me on something. I got 5 bullters at 12cm, 5 more at 6,cm, then finally all 5 bullets 1.5cm, doing better. They told us there is ulpan hebrew learning classes for people that needed it . I went for the rest of the day.

Wednesday

I had ulpan today also. In the middle of the class one of the commander pulled me out and told me he wanted me to be on the commanders team on sport day for tug of war. Commanders VS Commanders and me!!

We had out first krav maga class today. It was kind of hard since I haven't done things that physical in a while. But the teacher did come up to me after the class and say he was impressed so that's good.
Went to sleep without showering. It was just to cold out to shower.

Thursday
I woke up and though I had a day off to do personal thingTurns out I didn't. I had ulpan all day again. Since I don't have to shoot anymore until next week we gave our guns back today since we are leaving tomorrow.

At the end of the week they read off everyone’s punishments for the week. It can either be stay 1 , 2 ,3 or 4 hours after everyone. Or stay on base for the weekend, which is horrible. A lot of people got the "stay on base punishment" and other with hours. Me with nothing. One of the top officers said this week he is going to take off all punishments. Since its the first week. Everyone was happy. I also felt sick this whole day from the cold. Hard to breath and stuffed up. We get off tomorrow for the weekend.

Friday
We woke up 4am and had to move all the beds , bags and mattresses  into the storage room for the weekend. The people that live in the north get to leave extra early, and so do I since I'm a lone soldier. Its great. I got back to Jerusalem at 9am!! I went to go buy some food for the apartment. I ate Friday night dinner by a family in the old city and went home to sleep I was too tired to do anything else.

Week1 onbase

Week 1
12-5 Sunday
I'm going to be writing the blog less often now but more in each one since I won't have a lot of time.
We got to the base and ate lunch, today we were assigned to our groups.
There are 3 big units , 50, 931, 932. I'm in 931 where I wanted to go.
There are 180 people in each one. Then you are split into smaller groups of 60.
I was put in group 2 . Then from there you are put into groups of 12.
My group is aleph 2. So these are the 12 guys I'll be with my whole service in the army.
They're all israelis, and one speaks some English,but my hebrew is getting better.
I like the mefaked(commander) I have he is nice but serious.
We had a meeting to discuss  the rules we have to follow and there are a lot!
I'm with one of my friends in the same 180 people but not the same tent.
One of the guys next to me snores!!! It's horrible. I have thermals under all my clothes so I'm pretty warm now and I'll be warm on guard duty.
We actually get 7 hours of sleep which is amazing and we are getting our guns on Tuesday. We met all the commanders and high ranking officers of ours.

Monday I got picked along with 8 other people to be one of the commanders "helpers for the day. We did so much!! -ammo, kitchen 3 times, bringing food place to place, carry stuff to the storage room.
We also had a long class on rules of the guns which are very strict and a class on M16 rifle. Tuesday we signed for our guns and we have to remember our gun number.
We can't put the sling on the gun until tommrow since we got in trouble  because a few people forgot their gun in the tent!!!!
We learned how to tie certain knots . We also taped all the strings on our vest so there won't be anything hanging.
We had our first minor workout. We ran 500 meters, it took 2 minutes . I thought it was a warmup run!!

Wedneday
We put slings on our guns, and it's so much more comfortable.
We had our first masa(march) with full gear, gun and equiptment. I had to carry the heaviest thing on my back. The water cooler!!
The Masa was only 30 minutes and 3km. They like starting everyone off slow
We also had to practice cocking our guns and we had to do it almost 300 times in under 5 minutes.

Thursaday
There a a shooting simulator on the base where you can practice shooting. It is very cool actually. You have to have all your bullets hit in the same spot within 5cm. I got all 5 bullets in 4.1cm the first time then the second 2.6cm. Since I did well, I got to do kitchen work the rest of the day!! So annoying.
We then had a class on the communication radio. They are made in America so they call everything on it in english with an israeli accent.
We also practiced lineups and formations for our swearing in ceremony. It didn't take too long, but we are going to practice a lot.

On Friday we had a class on the histroy of the army and then they tell us all that is going on in the news. We also have a talk with the mefaked , he asks us what was good , what was bad this week and then they change things.

Our tent has a heater that doesn't work so they took it out so gas spilled all over our tent, it smells horrible,and we cleaned it.

Shabbat dinner is at 6:30 we got there and unit 932 was also there. So each unit has there own songs saying how were better than everyone else so we were going back and forth for like an hour. Even the commanders. Hahaha .
The Friday night food wasn't so bad. I had kitchen work again. They always choose me and we couldn't  clean the dishes with the machine so we did It with our hands while evryone else was in their tents relaxing.
We have off until tommorw 6pm. On Saturday I woke up with the tent going crazy, the wind is so strong outside. There is all dust everywhere in the tent. Its hard to breath. Everything is dirty now in the tent. Evrything outside fell. Our tents are falling apart. You can't see when you go outside. The winds are crazy .I've never seen this before.  Hopefully it stops soon.
We went to lunch after , shnitzel and chulent. It was pretty good. We sat in the tent and relaxed the rest of the day. They did tell us "For every shabbat their is motzaei shabbat" so well see what happens at tonight.

We went for a 1km run, we tested our dips and pullups I didn't get a lot since I already workout out today. 31 dips, 11 pullups. Befoe dinner we had 5 minutes of lunged, that was fun.
We also had a equiptment check with one of the commanders and then went to sleep.

12-2

I woke up and found out I'm getting off today until sunday morning. There are a few other kids that have off also. They had a bus for us and they checked if our faces were shaved, boots were polished , if we had our dog tags, and ID card before we left. I got on the bus transfered 2 times and got back to jerusalem. I went to the bank to see if the army payed me . They did but not all the money they were suppose to send me. We payed our  first months rent on the apartment. That night I went out with a few friends for a little and went back to my apartment alone to sleep.

12-3 The next day I. Woke up late, Gabe and Coby were on the way home. Once they got here we went to go buy things for the apartment. There is suppose to be 120 shekels on our ID cards so we can buy stuff but it obviously doesn't work yet. We ended up spending 3 hours in the supermarket not knowing what we need and coming out with not a lot of things. But we got enough food and cleaning products which I like.
Tonight we are gouing to the Lone soldier center for hanukah dinner. We lit our own menorah in the apartment. It took us around an hour to walk there. We got there and there was a lot of good food this time, 5 course meal. They also put letters on all the tables that kids from around the world sent saying "thank you soldier's, happy hanukah" and things like that. We saw a lot of people we knew there and were invited to someone's apartment after the dinner. It was on the 18th floor, walked all the way up. We stayed there for an hour and ate more and spoke to people there, almost all were in the army . We walked all the way back down and I forgot my jacket so back up and down, phew. We started walkin home and we were with a friend that could barley walk since he just finished a gibbush (test) for a very elite unit in the army, so we were walking very slow. Took ealmost 2 hours plus we made a wrong turn. I went to sleep once we got back I was so tired.

On base Bach Nachal Tel Arad

11-29

First thing we did this morning was pray as usual. We got our bags checked and the people who are going to the gibbush locked them up. The people who are not going had dumb work to do. First we went to the field outside the base. There is a long obstacle course. So we had to make the rocks straight  for the path, just kicked them. Then we went to the tents. We had to take down a 15 person tent and put it back up. This was hard. 12 peoeple working on it for 3 hours and its still not done perferct. It got late so we went to go eat. I'm starting to like the food here its getting better. The whole day all I hear is." Isaac" "isaac", in a hebreew accent. I have a few nicknames aleady, "vitamenchik" "superman" "refridgerator" "soos" .We had a break now going to sleep. I forgo my soundproof headphones so its going to be hard.

11-30

We did the same thing today, pulled weeeds out of the ground for hours, worked in the kitchen, carried food in and out, the lunch I had was thg best lunch I had so far on a base. One of my frideds just got to Nahal he's from my aish program. So hopefully well be together. we carried things around base the rest of the day and went to sleeep. Tommorow , were doing the same thing. Next week real basic training starts.

12-1

I woke up in a different tent , I slept in a separate one since eveyone was talking all night and I wanted to sleep. We cleaned all the shooting ranges all day since we will be using them soon.  Bending down all day is so annoying. I rather run all day. Half the guys In my group sit down and do nothing though. We had good lunch as always. We sprinted evryewhere today. We went back to the ranges to finish cleaning and sat around for an hour until dinner. After dinner we needed a MASAL(a list of where everone is) so instead we brought BASAL ( onions) . They couldn't help but laugh the mifakdim walked away and then came back to punish us, nothing crazy. We all got in formation for the lighting of the hanukiah. It was kinda of funny when one of the kids was saying the brecha so evryone was laughing, even some mefakdim. We sang every song and had a little break. we got time to shower and do whatevr we want , I might be off tommroow not sure yet.

11/21-11/23 bakum and nachal!

11-21

We woke up 5am and made our way to base, I stopepd to meet Baruch , he had papers he printed.for me that say my parents are in the counrty so I can go see them . We took the 650 bus back to base and got to the last station where we met everyone including the commanders around 10. I stood up the whole ride again. No seats !!. We waited there for a while and took a bus to the base . Got there just in time for lunch. Tommorow we have a ceremony for finishing these 3 weeks of doing nothing at Mikeveh Alon. Pretty stupid. We practiced the lineup and marching from 4pm to 10pm. It was probaly the most annoying thing I've ever done. Left right left,  stuff like that just in hebrew.  My family landed in Israel 3pm today. I'm getting off somtime this week to see them for a few days!! We had time to shower like everynight. I had a protein bar someone gave me and went to sleeep. I've never been more tired in my life. I was falling alseep standing today!! Goodnight

11-22

We woke up early again, got ready for the day.  We practiced all day for the ceremony!! Very annoying, I went to the "bathroom" a few times it was that bad. For lunch they set up a last meal for us. It was pretty nice. We practiced the lineup a few more times until the parents show up. It takes around 30 minuts each time to practice. Parents and family finally showed up. Its not an important cermony we are celtbrating doing nothing for 3 weeks. We all lined up marched, said the hatikvah, people got the best soldier award, and that's it. People threw there kumtas in the air like they actualluy did anything so far. Later tht night we had a talk with all our commanders. They told u their names, and about themselvs. We told then what was good and bad about the 3 weeks . Then weere joking around a few peopler impersonated them. It was very funny. We then went to our rooms to shhower and go to sleep . We were all happy we are finally done and can go to our real units .

11-23

We woke up early and reall did nothing all day except eat and sit around. We were all waiting to leave to Bakum. The buses came and we got split up into different groups and made our way there. The second we got there they rushed us off the bus , our temporary commanders started screamin at us. The first thing we have in thew interview with the katzin miyous (decided where you go ) . I want to go to Golani. I was next in line just hoping they give me what I asked for. I walk in salute and sit down . He asked me for my ID #.  They put me in Nachal. I went 3 more times to diffrent guys and they all told me there going to tre and change it overnight. Which is possible but well see what happens tommorow. Most peopple got what they wanted butnot everyone since its picked randomly. We are going to sleeep 11 waking up around 5. Hope they change it.

11-24

I woke up at 5 and we ate breakfast , and sat around for a while and waited. Everyone got a sticker with a number. It means what unit you are going too. I wanted golani. My sticker said otherwise. But I still didn't know. They seprearted us and we waited all day. I went to try to speak to people to change they wouldent let me. I tried so many times but they all say the spots are full which they aren't. So at least I get some red boots. The army also just got a new company boots. There so much better than the old ones. They have arch support and they are nicer. We only got one pair of these , I would of used one fopr the army and one to wear out. So I ended up at the Nahal Base later that day. I wasn't happy at first. The Mefaked likes me also since I know what I'm doing. Somthing funny happend . One of the kids didn't know that you actually have to respect your commanders and listen. So the Mefaked was talking to him and the kid just taps him on the shoulder and says in hebrew" don't worry bro its fine" .The Mefaked was so angry that he touched him but it was soo funny!!  There are a few americans I am with now and the rest from other places. We are sleeping in 14 person huge tents. There actually not as bad as I thought it would be, there is a heater and sleeping bagsn but if you want to charge your phone there is a charging station outside the tents for everyone to chage it. There is a nice shul on base donated by FIDF in Panama. It a really nice builidng. Doesn't fit in witht the base. It is kind of a small base. But the field in the back is huge!! I'm going to sleep. Goodnight.

11-25

We woke up 6:45 on base, he told us last night to be outside 6:00!! Someone walked in the tent and said we had an hour extension, pheww. Today we got some more paper work done . I was also tryng to get off base to see my family. There annoying about it. But I kept asking. We got some equiptment today. Vest, winter coat, brand new knee pads, scavias( reeally warm uncomftorable material blanket) ,2 canteens. That's it for now.
The food on the base I am not liking so far. The only thing I like is that they have whole wheat bread here. We had our Barur (pushup , situp, and 2k(1.2 miles) run test) I always get full on the pushups and situps which is 86 situps and 75 pushups. I can do more but they don't let you. I did the run in 8:40 my best tinm so far, I went from 10:20 to 8:50 now that. We had some food after that. I finally got permission to get off base tonight. I left the base at 8 and had to take a taxi since buses didn't run from the base at that time.
I got the the hotel and saw my sisters and brother, they all ran to me. My father and mother were at a bar. So my dad knew I was coming . My mother didn't. Evryone in the bar knew. I met my dad , went into the bar jumped and sat next to my mother. She got scared and turned away , she though some soldier was trying to pick her up. She look again and saw. It was me . Everyone in the bar weas so happy and so was she. It was a good plan hehe! I stayed there for a while and got back to the hotel later on and went to sleep 630am after being up for 25 hours!!

11-26

I woke up at 8 after 2 hours of sleep, had a sick breakfast in the apartment. We left to tel aviv for the day to go to a lot of different shops, forgot the name of the area.  I didn't get anything but food obdviousle, but was ewith my family ther whole time so its fine. We gotback to jerusalem just intime for shabbat. Me and my dad went to the kotel to pray. When we walked back , we walkd threough the jewish quarter I showd him where I slept during my aish prgram, and walkd back to the hotel . Took around 30 minutes ( dad was out of breath Hahah) . We had dinner with the bar mitvah trip, and then hunout in the lobby. I stayed there witha friend all night until 3am and went to sleep.

11-27

I woke up 12 just intime for lunch. It was the sebet by the hotel. We ate there and they spent the rest of the day with my family in the park. After shabbat we packed and went to eat before my family leaves. Good restuyraunt nextr to the hotel that we ate at by my bar mitvah trip 6 years ago. We ate and Isaid bye to my family and got in a cab to go to my apartment. I oragnized all my things and go ready for tommorw. Back to base.

11-28

I woke up at 7 and got ready to go to base. I got on the bus to the central station and then from jerusalem to be'er shevah . From there I have to go meet all the soldiers. and mefakdim at another station and from there we go to our base when everyones there. It only took aroun 2 hours to meet them. Today on base we didntr really do anything besides more paperwork and a hebrew test to see if you get help in you classes. I will probably. This is just trom tironut , so we don't do anything until sunday really. Going to get some more sleep. Goodngiht

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 I woke up and made breakfast for the first time in so long. We then went to pick up bed frames for our apartments. Now my room actually looks normal. We met up with a friend and had lunch by his house he also had the new Call of Duty game. It was fun to play. I felt at home . I went back to the apartement 4 and realized it was still dirty so I sweeped and moped the floors . I'm cleaning it little by little until its perfect. We made dinner for later . Its a lot of work having your own apartmernt, laundry, dishes, cleaning, making food. Pheww. My family is coming to Israel Sunday for a week. Can't wait to see them.

Saturday we woke up at 12 and had breakfast and relaxed in the apartment all day and ate. Now I'm. gong out for alittle bit I have to be up 5 tommorw to go to base.

last day at mikveh alon

11-18

We woke up 3am to get all of our things ready to go to Jerusalem. We had to clean up, pray , eat breakfast take care of a few things and we left to Jerusalem at 6.
We got there around 9 and  already started having tourists taking pictures with us.
We had a tour guide take us around the old city in the Jewish quarter where I lived two months prior to starting the army.

We finished that around 12 and they finally gave us lunch after we had an hour to go to the Kotel and more pictures with tourists.
My friend and I snuck upstairs to get shwarma since they didn't get enough food and were still hungry.

Afterwards we went to Yad Vashem and that was very interesting.
There are rooms you walk through and each room is leading to the next part of the war.

The most interesting thing was the last room.
It was a circular room and  you walk in and look down there is just a hole and a small pond.
And around your are hundreds of books filled with names of the people killed in the Holocaust. The hole represents 2 million names that were found yet.

People walk out of there crying and it was a good experience to be there though.
We didn't get a chance  to see everything but I'm planning on going back

We then found out the rest of the names of people that got into tzanchanim. Two my friends. If I was staying for 2 years I would of got in, but I signed on for 14.5 months

We then went to the bus station to go home. I got caught on my phone after the time were suppose to sleep so I had to stay an extra hour after along with 20 other people until we can leave.
We got off 30 minutes early.

I got to my apartment and waited for Gabe and Coby. We bought some food for the apartment and now we can eat!!

I went out with a few friends for a little bit now I'm home and up for 24 hours already and going to sleep.

Sports Day

We woke up at 440am and had to bring all of our equiptment outside to return it since we are out of this place in a few days and we agree moving to our units. 
We didn really do anything today except run around alot.
Later we had a speech from a guy who's son died in the second lebanon war, it was mostly in Hebrew .


Then at 6 we started sports day. . It was our group of 60 and 2 other groups of 60. Consisted of basketball, soccer, tug of war , pushups contest (but only when they say go down so its much harder) then sprinting. I played in basketball but not for too long. Our group lost that. Our group also lost soccer. 
Now for the stregnth we had tug o war. The first round we beat the 3rd team . Second round we beat the 2nd team and third round we beat the commander. 7 on each side . I was in the front of the line. My hands got cut up. it took so much stregnth but was worth it. We won that. We then had the pushups contest, our group one with chaim doing 120 pushups within under 20 minutes not being able to drop once it looked so hard, I didn't particitpate in that since I did the tug o war. Now for the spriniting, I was going to do it since I'm as fast as all the etheopians, but they went instead and our group won. We won all the stregth games. So ewe technicallyt won everything. It was actually a veeryy fun day. We have a while to eat and be in bed 8:30 we are going to jerusalemn tommorow.

Barur

We woke up at 4am and started our barur, I got the max pushups(75), max situps(86) and I didn't run I wasn't in the mood plus is doesn't count for anything. We had "breakfast" after and I ate nothing really. We found out we were going on a trip today I didn't even know. We left and the first place we went to is a tank base farther up north. We saw a small demonstration of the tanks shooting. T
he first round shot was so loud, everyone jumped back. It was crazy and unexpected. We learned a few things about the tanks and made our way to the next base. We went to a old base that they don't use anymore. It overlooks Syria and Lebanon. Its only a few kilometers away. Syria has a dam full of a lot of water they take the walls of the damn down if Israel sends tanks so it floods the whole area and the tanks can't come in. We ate lunch there and went to farther up north to small Golani base on the Syrian  border. It the 13th brigaede in Golani and they watch the border all the time. They have APC's ( armored personnel carriers) they are heavily armored like tanks , they carry 11 soldiers and the new ones have AC/Heating. There are camera around the whole tank . The top machice gun is controlled by a joystick like in video games.
( See I knew the army was like a video game) . 
They have a force field on them, and they cost a lot of money, not sure how much. They demonstrated for us how quick they can get ready if there is a war. It took under 3 minutes to be in the APC and ready to go. We left after that to go home. We got back around 6 and did some workouts. We had dinner after and again, no protein... We had some lessons on how to pick up an injured person and then went to our rooms to shower and go to sleep. 
We have to be up 440 am . 
We have a whole day of sports , should be fun. Goodnight

11/13-11/15

11-13

We woke up at whenever we wanted for once, we had to go to lunch at 12 , lunch was not like last night dinner but it was good. We went back to the room after and rested all day. We had to be ready at 6:00 in work uniform. Everything had to be clean. We went to the court to do some workouts. We started with like 80 pushups in sets (easy) then when everyone was doing pushups I said " on the knuckles" and the mefaked said no, I like making things harder. So he made me stay sitting in the air with my legs 90degrees and gun in the air. It was hard but fun. Then we did some ab workouts. Right after we had dinner, nothing great. We then had a long speech with one of the top commanders on base. He told us about himself and just wanted to ask if anyone had and questions. Then we had another lesson on guard duty, and what to do if the siren goes off. We have to be in outside in uniform, with full equiptment in 7minutes ready. We got some time to shower. We are convinced they are waking us up so were all ready. I have guard duty from 2-4am , patrolling the whole base. Guard duty was horrible.

11-14
I only got 2 hours of sleep. I have off today until Tomorrow afternoon to take care of some things. I left 7 to 8 am to Jerusalem and got there around 12. I went to the orange store with Moshe and I needed bank papers to switch the bill.  So that was a waste of the day. I went back to the apartment and showered, I can finally take a normal shower alone. I did all my laundry, 3 loads, I used dishwasher soap since I didn't have any regular yet but it worked fine. I went on the computer and checked all my personal things for a few hours and waited for coby and gabe to come home. We did the dishes and cleaned up little bit and went to sleep.

11-15

I woke up at 8am refreshed. Since we don't have clean water I boil the water the night before and put it in the fridge. I washed up and went straight to the bank to fill out the paper for Orange (the phone company) after that we went to the Katzin Hair , they give us papers saying we are lone soldiers. I went to the orange store alone after which is all the way back at the house. They made me wait 45 minutes before taking me. I have to be back on base at 2pm. Its 11am and takes 4 hours to get here so I'm already late. They took care of my bill and activated international calling so I can call people outside of the country finally. I went back to the apartment, and found out I have an extension to be back at base 6:30. So we relaxed little bit and made a list of things we need to buy for the apartment. Its long. We left to the bus station 2, (I said we should leave 130 so we don't miss the 230 bus but no ones listens) we got there 235 and missed the bus. We had to wait an hour for the next one so we got some food. The next bus came and we just made it on the bus it was full we were the last 3 people on sitting on the front steps. I stood up the whole ride until some people got off. We ended up by the base at 7:30!! We didn't get in trouble or anything , but well see tomorrow. We have a barur(running , pushups and situps test) but I don't know if it counts for anything. Waking up at 4am for it but I'm not tired now so I can't sleep.

Shabbat onbase

11-12

We woke up at 5am got into line up. First we prayed and ate breakfast. I'm learning to like plain hard boiled egg whites. We then each had an interview with the katzin miyun (they decide where you go in the army) so we all chose 3 unit options that we want. I put 1.Golani 2 .Nachal 3.Givati. We then had to run around base and do the usual sprint,  pushups and more. We had to clean our rooms, mop the floors , clean the showers and bathrooms perfectly. We just finished having a speech and the commander threw a rock (grenade) and we all had to run, but instead I picked it up and threw it back..ahahah I got in a lot of trouble for that. everyone was worked out, and I had to run around the building and do smochooms,(pushup , stand jumping jack and back down ) a lot. Then I had to do planks and shoulder pushups legs 90 degrees on the wall. I enjoy it for some reason. Then we had lunch. No one was allowed to go to the shop to buy stuff because of me. Oops.

 We then had a long speech with all the commanders and the MM . He told us all how we were all very bad this week and we don't do anything ontime.he called out a lot of people that did things bad and gave them punishement. Like shabbat on base next week, or going home and hour or 2 late. I didn't get anything somehow hehehe. We have to all stay here for shabbat anyways. They have meals for us and its time to relax we don't have to do anything except show up to meals in uniform. We had dinner on base. I thought it would be the same thing we usually have. We walked in and it was 20 tables set up nicley with table clothes and bread on each plate. We had waiters and a 3 course meal. Never would of thought we an get that on the base for shabbat. Now I don't mind staying on base so much. Now were back in the room, we actually have time to talk to eachother.

11-13

We woke up at whenever we wanted for once, we had to go to lunch at 12 , lunch was not like last night dinner but it was good. We went back to the room after and rested all day. We had to be ready at 6:00 in work uniform. Everything had to be clean also. We went to the court to do some workouts. We started with like 80 pushups in sets (easy) then when everyone was doing pushups I said " on the knuckles" and the mefaked said no, I like making things harder. So he made me stay sitting in the air with my legs 90degrees and gun in the air. It was hard but fun. Then we did some ab workouts. Right after we had dinner, nothing great. We then had a long speech with one of the top commanders on base. He told us about himself and just wanted to ask if anyone had and questions. Then we had another lesson on guard duty, and what to do if the siren goes off. We have to be in outside in uniform, with full equipment in 7minutes ready. We got some time to shower. We are convinced they are waking us up so were all ready. I have guard duty from 2-4am , patrolling the whole base.

First day on the shooting range

11/11

Woke up at 4am not knowing what kind of day we have ahead of us.

We started off by getting dressed with all of our equipment, including the combat vest. We walked a while to the shooting range.

At first our commanders made us roll, crawl, jump down, get back up and more on hard rocks that cut you and hurt but its fun.

Then whenever they throw a rock (grenade) everyone has to run and dive for cover. So I threw one for fun and everyone dove excerpt for me so I got in trouble (just like HS)  and I had to  stay in masav shtiim (pushup positions) for a while but I enjoy it for some reason.

We did masav shtiim a lot today

We barley had any food for breakfast, lunch and dinner. There wasn't enough food for all the people and for all the working out we are doing our bodies require more protein but they don't really care. Plus I don't eat dairy so if their is protein its usually cheese.

At the range I shot 4 separate times, getting better each time and one night shot that was pretty cool. The whole day we only shot around 20 to 30 bullets each.

The first time shooting in the army wasn't so bad The old long M16s that we are using, have iron sights, a lot of recoil, they are heavy, and they look like they were used in Vietnam.  

We then had a speech about guard duty and what we do during the time, no eating, no phones, no sitting, no talking.

You can only stand and guard for 2 hours at a time. We walked back to the base finally. Now the day gets even worse, wiith my legs already dead…

We ended up having to walk to every checkpoint on the base so we know the spots where that we have to guard, It took over 2 hours on an empty stomach with no water, just when you think its over..you keep walking more, my legs are already dead from the gibbush and running all day.

I just think of getting to the end so I can buy my ice cream that I wanted all day, I was too tried to even talk at this point we have been up for 20 hours in a row.

They gave us an hour break to do our personal things. I got my ice cream finally (its the only food you can get at 12am on base from the machine) . There’s  a list of who is doing guard duty, I'm not up until tomorrow night at 8-10pm I think in one of the closer spots on base!! Its perfect, and when we have guard duty we get over 8 hours of sleep. So I get the full amount tonight. Surprisingly I have no blisters on my feet, I usually would. I guess my feet are getting used to abuse and my shoes are finally fitted right.

22 hour day!!! I'm going to get all the sleep I can. goodnight

Week 2

Week 2

11-8

We woke up at 4 and got ready for the gibbush. We needed to bring our whole kitbag. We ate shtach (field) food in the parking lot for breakfast. We have 4 buses full of people from this base doing the gibbush. We took the bus to the base in Tel Hashomer. The same base where all the army testing was done in the beginning

 This base happens to be huge. We ran a 2k run on sand, up and down hill too determine what group we will be in tomorrow. I got the run in around 9:05 I think. The Ethiopians are always in front doing it in 6 or 7 minutes. We got to have dinner and go to sleep early around 9pm we were all sleeping. I had the extremely hot US army issues sleeping bag and my sound poof headphones. We were all in tents and of course my tent happened to be the one with no lights.

11/9

They told us we can't leave our beds until 3:10am and we have to be ready and dressed at 3:15am, and then gave us only 5 minutes. We drank 2 canteens of water (3 Liters) which is actually pretty hard and had an apple.

We were separated into our groups of around 20 people. I happened to be in a group with a few guys I already know. We were all given tags with a number on them. So we started off the guibbush with sprinting. 20 seconds to go around the bag and back. They give you these impossible times to do things just so you push harder. We did sprints for 30 minutes straight in order to drain all the energy out of us.  

After that we had to crawl under some wire, back and forth for a while, we are all dripping sweat and cold at the same time since its early AM. We did crawling for around 20 minutes. Now we took the stretcher and put 7 sandbags on it to make it a total of 160 pounds I think. We did more sprints first.4 people back take the stretcher  and go on another lap.

They like to see who is going to push more. That was for another 30 minutes. We then did an exercise that we had to keep our legs in the air while lying down. This wasn't hard for me. We had to then talk about something for 30 seconds not anything that has to do with yourself or politics. Just saying something random will do.

We were then placed in formation and were told to close our eyes. The commanders moved us around and said to find our place without opening your eyes and not saying names or numbers. The last thing was a march with the 2 stretchers. We walked, ran, walked, ran, until the end.

We got outside the gates and were told us its over. It wasn't even hard and I barley tried since I didn't want to be in this unit anyway. We got to shower after and wash all the dirt and sand off of us and changed into whatever we wanted.

We had lunch finally at 12 we were all so hungry. Later on we went back to the base and slept on the ride there. Back at the base we learned more about how to use our M16 since we are going shooting tomorrow. We have to sleep with this gun this week its not that bad, it puts an incline on the mattress like those beds you see on tv ,same thing. We have an hour break now then we are going to sleep.

11/4-11/6

11/4

Woke up late today that means we are getting punished so of course we got punished for masav shtaiim, the usual. But it is easy for now.

Then we went to shaharit and since we were on time and had some spare time we had to sprint back and forth. From one place to another

 It’s been very easy for me even though my foot is swollen from my tight boot. We all returned our guns, which took two hours and had to run in and out of formation a many times until they were ready to take the guns back.

Every place we go to we are timed, even if it is down the block. We always have 30 minutes to eat and that is timed as well

We were shown a short film on people that have been killed in Israel, in car accidents and other ways unfortunately.

We then had a 2-hour course on what was good about this week, what was bad, what they can improve and what we need to do,

 We made the commanders laugh a lot they couldn’t hold it in. After the class we were in formation for a while and then we all showered with too many guys in one bathroom!! We have to be up 445 tomorrow. We are leaving to go back home for the weekend. Long week, which was mentally challenging but not physically.
11/5

We woke up at 4:15Am we had to be shaved, dressed in our off base uniform (Madim Alef) and have out boots polished and be outside at 5AM.

We lined up and got a few rules for off base like wearing your uniform until you get home and every two months in the army you have a day off to take care of personal things its called Yom Siddurim.

They then told us whoever has the gibbush for tzanchanim (test for paratroopers) has to be by the bus station at 10am Sunday morning and whoever doesn't has off that day and has to be there Monday.

We went home for the weekend.

Some things I like so far, the bathrooms and rooms always have to be cleaned and mopped I have some ocd so it helps me. I barley have any laundry to clean. Everyone has to shower at night.

I just got on the bus with all the other new soldiers. We get on for free from now on!!

I might just take buses for fun now.. I'm on the 2 and a half hour ride to Jerusalem. The bus is full so I'm trying to sleep on the floor with a few other guys using my water bottle as a pillow, which is not so comfortable.

I woke up 2 hours later on the floor. I waited for Coby and Gabe to come to the station to eat since we took different buses. We got back to the apartment and unpacked all of our clothing and new stuff the army gave us. I got a call from the lone soldier center; they got us 2 mattresses and a microwave. They help us out with everything.

We went to go buy food for Saturday lunch , went home and got ready for dinner. We went to the Jerusalem Great Shul. The lone soldier center has meals for chayalim bodedim and there were a lot of people there.

On the way back home we passed by the Gilad Shalit tent.

His family sits there everyday and night; there is a live timer of how long he's been in captivity. People come and visit the tent all the time. They were having dinner as we walked by. We saw Gilads father and he looks so sad and  its very sad to see.

I got home and everyone was lazy and tired. My OCD kicked in I stayed up until around 1am from 11. I organized all the closets cleaned all shelves, cleaned all dishes and pots, and organized them nicely. Made everything in place now the apartment is picture perfect, like nothing is wrong with it. Everything is straight. It looks like an professional advertisement almost. I went to sleep right after well see my other roommate’s reaction in the morning.

11/6

I woke up at 12, finally got a good night rest. I made lunch for everyone and I organized the apartment some more. Its great being able to sit on our couch and not worry about anything. We stayed home today since Shabbat was over 530 anyways. I do the dishes, my own laundry and fold it, organize everything in the apartment, clean all the closets and floors. It’s kind of a change for me.

Cobys cousin came and stocked up the house with plates, bowls, glasses, and other things we needed. I'm starting to feel at home in the new apartment. We invited people over tonight to see the apartment. We have to go to sleep. waking up at 7 to start out second week at mikveh alon.

Aish Machal Video!!!

So they finally put the video of our progran up, its a great video. MUST WATCH

Enjoy...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNb6yHx9Fis&feature=player_embedded
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Our Apartment

3 Rooms, 2 Full Bathrooms, Living Room, Den, Kitchen With Fridge and Freezer, Microwave, Washing Machine, Big Hallway , and now its pretty ogranzied I'm not done yet.
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