10/22-10/31 and Bakum 11/1

I woke up the next morning and went to my cousins in Herzlia for the weekend.  The second I got there was some home cooked schnitzel!! I bought a calling card (can't make outgoing calls yet on my phone) to call some friends and family. Used all the 84 minutes. It was really good! I was so tired but I stayed up until after dinner, which was good. I watched some TV, fell asleep until 12 the next day.

I woke up and no one was home so I made myself breakfast and like staying home on Saturday because it’s finally a day to relax which I did all day. I then had dinner. More schnitzel and made my way back to Jerusalem. I got here and went out that night with a lot of friends. Fun night.

On Sunday we looked for apartments and places to stay for the week off. We are not sure where yet but we are still looking. I got some dinner and fell asleep until 9:00 and we all stayed in the room and relaxed the whole night.

On Monday morning I went with Gabe to go eat. After that we walked far and found a GYM!!!

We bought a weeklong membership since that's how much longer we would be in town.

We then were walking and realized the Lone Soldier Center is on the same block. We walked in and told them that we need help finding an apartment. They showed us a lot of websites to look and helped us find some.

We called a few guys. One interested us. The listing said 1 bedroom and a living room. We said well check it out. Later on in the day we went to meet the guy and he showed us the room. We walked in and it was sick!!

2 big rooms 1 bed room and 1 living room that we can turn into a bedroom. A kitchen, indoor porch, bathroom, front living room!! We were all sold and for a really good price in a sick location, in the center of Jerusalem. 5 minutes from Ben Yehudah St and 5 minutes from The Old City.

It’s also close to the central bus station. We ended up meeting with the  to do all the paper work with Baruch from Aish who read and explained all the papers for us in Hebrew.

Later we went out and met up with some friends and then we checked out the are around the apartment. We found a brand new kosher American diner!! We did A LOT of walking today. If there is a lot of people in you're way here just scream "marak cham" (hot soup) and everyone moves haha.  I hope the apartment works out. Its 2 am I'm going to sleep now.

I woke up Tuesday morning and we went to go meet the guy for the apartment. We worked everything out and we are hopefully going to sign and move in on Sunday. We have to pay in checks so we went to the bank after to order them. They will be ready Thursday and everything Is happening on such a tight schedule.

 We went to go eat (obviously) and walked to the gym. After the gym Gabe and I walked to the lone soldier center again. We told them what the guy wanted for the apartment and everything about it to make sure we were getting ripped off or anything like that. He also told us some things about the army and unit. Since we are getting drafted next week.

 I went to go see my father’s first cousin that I've never seen before. Then walked back to the room. Jennifer left me chicken and rice from her school right by my bed!!!

Pretty good food today.

After that I went to the dinner by Aish to eat again but my friends from Lev Aharon called me and told me to come to their school. The  school is in Har Noff about a  35 minute ride which isn’t bad. I hung out there all night. Surprisingly our room is neater and cleaner then theirs. They made some bbq and they have a pretty sick gym outside. I want to go there to workout everyday but I'm gone in a week anyways. I left the school around 12:30 and went back to the old city.

Wednesday I woke up at 11 and had a sicccck sleeep.

 I got breakfast and waiting for Gabe to wake up to go to the gym . We ended up leaving here around 5:00pm for the gym I chilled in bed all day before that. We took the bus for the first time to get there and it took us out of the way so we ended up walking more!! We went to the lone soldier center again to ask a few questions then went back to the area. We tried out the American diner called Hollywood Burgers. They have the best burgers I've had in Israel so far. We got back to the apartment at 830. Later on I hung out with a friend for the night. I got some ice cream and went home to sleep.

These days off are very relaxing

Thursday I woke up at 5am to go back to Tel Hashomer for a final interview with the head guy at the army induction base. It took an hour and 30 minutes to get there. I'm on 2 hours of sleep, soo tireed. The interview was simple and basic questions. We also filled out all our lone soldier papers so we can get the benefits we are entitled to.

We ended up being on that base till 1:00 and everyone likes taking their time. I just wanted to go back and sleep already. I ended up getting on the bus at 1:30.The first bus took 2 hours!!

So much traffic and the next bus to Jerusalem another 2 hours!! The city was bumper-to-bumper today I don't know why. I got back finally and my cousin asked me if I wanted food ( do  I?)  I picked up chicken and rice from her room. I slept after that and woke up at 9 just to find out that our apartment deal didn't workout and we have 2 days to find a new one!! We went out tonight ... Had a lot of fun, trying to enjoy my last few days off.

Friday I woke up and walked 1.5 miles to pickup shirts that someone brought me from Brooklyn. Then walked 1.5 miles back. All on an empty stomach and no water. I went to the bank to take out money so I can buy food and they were closed!! So I just had a protein bar back at the room. Shabbat started and we went to Jennifer’s apartment to eat for dinner. We hung out around town for the night and went back home.

We woke up really late on Saturday around 1:30. Went back to Jennifer to eat. They stayed and rested in the room all day. The room right outside where we sleep has the worst smell. Its smells like old rotten tuna and 5 other types of food. We left food in their for a while. Right after Shabbat we went to go look at another apartment. We got there and it was in a boring dead neighborhood. We didn't like it overall. We called another guy and we are going to look at another apartment Sunday morning.

 Tonight is our last night we can be out. We went to Mikes Place to eat and drink. The food was amazing. Steak, 4 tortillas, mashed potatoes , fries, grilled vegetables, 3 dips. We hungout around town the rest of the night and met up with some friends. Now I'm in my room about to sleep . I have to be up early to look at the apartment.

I woke up at 6am Sunday after going to sleep at 3. I couldn’t sleep for some reason. I stayed up until 8 and spoke to my friends in Brooklyn.

At 9:00 we went to go look at an apartment in Talpiot. We got there and walked in. It was Fully furnished, nice floors, clean, 3 rooms , 2 bathrooms and showers, big living room, 2 tv's a lot of big closets. He wanted a reasonable price. We said ok. We took the Hebrew contract so Baruch could translate it for us. We went to the bank after took take out money and we also got our checks. I got something to eat finally.

Then we just chilled around town waiting for him to finish translating the contract for us. We are trying to close the deal by tonight. Otherwise we don't have anywhere to keeep our stuff and live now.

The draft is tomorrow. Everything is being done on a very tight schedule. The contract is fine!! We signed the papers at 5pm and moving in tonight just in time!!

 I'm sooo happy we found a place. Signing the papers for the apartment was such a headache I don't even know where to being. I'm not getting into it.

But we moved in and cleaned up a bit.
Tomorrow we go to Bakum, which is the induction center.

The end of the testing. We get shots, x-rays, pictures, fingerprinted, dog tags, ID cards, a kit bag with random things and our uniforms with some undershirts. Some other things  I’m sure that I probably don't know about and will soon find out.

We are going to get some sleep now its about 1:30 AM. We have a huge day tomorrow. I’ve been waiting for so long for this day.

I can't believe it’s actually here.

Wish Me Luck

Goodnight.