MAY/JUNE 2012

May
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This week was advanced shooting week so we shot and shot and shot all week. We also had the practice run for the contest against the other units, a 2km run with full equipment and 1k with an open stretcher with someone on it. Then you shoot 6 bullets right after

The unit with the highest score wins. We shot this week from morning to midnight everyday. We had a run once a  night, 800 meter sprints , 4 times.. One of the hardest runs I've ever done and right after we had a 2.5km regular run. I haven't showered all week since we were in the field. I think this is the worst smell I ever had.

On Yom Hazikaron , I went with the other lone soldiers from my unit to a memorial ceremony for Machal soldiers that have been killed in Israel’s wars. Machal are volunteers from outside of Israel who serve in the IDF

Some families  flew from around the world to come to this small ceremony. There was people there that had stories about how they fought in the six day war..and they had around 1 gun for every 3 people. One guy that was there was in the first draft the IDF ever had. He said they got off the boats, received a gun and went straight to war.
Very interesting ceremony. At night I went to the Kotel there was a huge ceremony with the head of the IDF.

Yom Haatzmaut was a crazy day to be in Israel. There are parties everywhere. I hung out in Tel Aviv that night, all night

This week we learned what to do with APC's (armored personal carriers) We drove in them all day, these are really old ones that they use for practice so they aren't so good .Kind of dangerous honestly. Kind of fun as well. We only needed a day to learn everything about it.  We had a 8k run this week..


We stayed on base for Shabbat, and go ready for shavuah machlakah.

Exercises, 30 people at once. We walk all day and run up mountains  with all of our equipment. Learning different formations.
This is one of the hottest weeks I've ever been through. To a point that it is dangerous to do anything so we got some breaks. People were passing out left and right. 2 in the hospital since they were bitten by leeches in the middle of the night.

The sleeping area was on an incline on rocks. I walked around all day with my Mag and when it came down to shooting, it didn't work. (All the equipment and guns you have for training is usually older and not in as good condition)

 The last night we took helicopters to the starting point of our 10km heavy weight hike, w stretchers in the end.

We ended the hike back on base around 1am. We had a BBQ donated to us by someone in our unit. Some of the best meat I ever tasted. We were supposed to get off for the weekend but something happened so we didn't. My mefaked , told us that night that he is leaving to officers course. So we got to beat him, kind of fun.
My beard was full since it was still the omer  And the black face paint + not showering all week+ being covered in dirt , let's just say I didn't look so good. We finally got time to shower. I open the water to find out that the hot water isn't working!!


This week we have our Masa Kumta (Beret March) last hike around 60km (35 Miles)  8km of them being with an open stretcher. We started getting ready around 5pm we painted our faces. Fixed up any equipment that had any problems. We took a bus to the starting point of the hike. We had a meal there before we started. Good food for once. We sat down and waited for them to say we were starting. Everyone was excited and happy that its our last one. Even though we know its going to be extremely hard. We started the hike at 7pm . I had my Mag this hike as usual . I remember the first hike we did 3km and it was hard . I was thinking then how would I ever do more. We started the first 6km .They are usually one of the harder parts of the hike. We are 120 people. With 3 more groups of around 100 people behind us. After 15km I tripped and fell into a hole hit my knee and then my gun fell on top of it .

Now I have knee pains and I'm limping the whole time. We got to the halfway line. There was a pretty good meal. This was around 2 am.  Right after the food break we had a huge mountain to climb it was dark and we couldn’t see the end . Everyone is pushing everyone with a lot of weight up the mountain. The next break someone dehydrated, scary thing to see. Its now 5am and the sun started coming out. The guy that is in charge of all 600 people joined our hike. Once it got light out we knew we were almost done. We got on the road finally.

 This road led to Masada, at the back end.

We opened the stretchers when we had 8km left we were on the top of the mountain and can see Masada all the way down miles away. At this point no one can walk but everyone continues. I held the stretcher as much as I could until my legs almost collapsed.

We had our last break before the end and a taxi pulled up on the street, it was my father..

He found the place where the hike was!! I ran to say hi and continued the masa. He was waiting for me at the end...only parent that actually came.

We finished on the bottom of Masada. After the hike we walked up Masada..I think that was harder than the hike. We had a ceremony at the top. Everyone was so happy it was over. It took 12 hours. We took buses back to base. Walking was close to impossible at this point. There was obviously no hot water when we got back. It was also hard to sleep from the flies. I got to sleep a bit though.

I got off in the morning; since my father was here and we went for dinner by this sick meat restaurant. Some of the best food I've had in a while. We had a ceremony Thursday where we got out berets. Lime Green ones. I was with my father all week.

JUNE

We were on base up north this week.  We learned about the army hummers and about bunkers on the countries borders. We had a lot of classes I can't speak about.

We had to go back to base next week for a day.
We had the competition 2km and 1 km with a stretcher run and the shooting. Home for shavuot I ate by my friends cousins house

We got back next week . We had a exercise competition with all the people on base. It was also about who's equipment looked and was set up best. We had a meeting with the Mem Pey since we have shavua milchama -war week -next week.

For Shabbat I was in shetach with 5 other people we had to watch the tanks that were there until Sunday where we started the shavuah milchama.
3 hour exercise, walking until night 3 hour exercise, walking until 7am ,3 hour exercise - walking all day, 3 hour exercise, then a building exercise, a hike to the mountain in Arad where we finished the week. After the first night I got hypothermia, hard week though,  6 days no shower or brushing my teeth, we got our loochem (fighter) pins for our shirts.

The second to last night on base we got some other things, hats shirts.. And did imitations of our commander’s, was a  fun night.

The night after we had a  Ceremony " sof imun mitkdem" (end of advanced training). Concert , comedy show, with all the plugot plus awards.

Cleaned up the base before we leave for good, were done with all of our training now. Heading up north to guard the borders for a whileYou still train every once in a while though. Ill keep it updated.

April

April- Week 1

 On Sunday morning we met at the Kotel and we started we had a week of learning about specific army things we need to know about

We got to the place we were staying for the week, we walked into the rooms , they had AC , beds, clean showers, for us its like a 5 start hotel even though its like a regular place like a Holiday Inn.

We got to the first meal and the food was actually amazing, something you would eat at home. We knew it was going to be a good week from now.

We had classes on a lot of thing, some were on why we are here and what are job is, classes on army morals, lessons on enemy countries, speeches from different people, one being an older guy that was in the second Lebanon war. The classes were actually very interesting, can't really get into details though.

Of course every night we had runs, this place was down hill so every run we did was all up hill, very hard. We finished this week knowing we are going to be in the field.  Big transition from the a/c rooms with beds to the ground outside in a sleeping bag. Off for Shabbat. I had Friday night dinner with some guys from the draft before me who are also in Nahal.  A few of us ate at their parents house and we had a good meal whoch cant hurt once in a while.

I bought a lot of food for the field this week. I always say I'm going to go home early so I won't be tired all week but of course I get 3 hours before I go back to base.

Week 2
I got to base Sunday and we left for the field Monday morning.

Shavuah Kita. We learned how to fight together as a group. Basically what I did all week was run up mountains with a lots of weight and drop down shoot my machine gun run up more and do it again all week day and night. We also walked around a lot. We started having same longer meal times so we can make the food a bit better. We burntt the tuna, open it up put toilet paper in the oil and light it. Comes out really good.  I obviously bought whole wheat bread for the field, white bread isn't that good coming from the army. Plus I had my protein bars and dried fruits.

We walked back to base 6km hike with 40% body weight on you. I didn't have to do more since I have 50% already. I wasn't feeling well so didn't end up doing the hike anyways in the end. You would think they could at least have the hot water working after a week in the field when we get back but no we took semi cold showers. We went to sleet at 430 am
Woke up 11 to find out there is a lone soldier speech soon for all the lone soldiers on base.

We had a very high ranking officer speak to us and he gave us something for pesach. Shabbat was on base, we had to guard also, so tiring...there is a hangout room on base with cable tv that they let us use for the first time and somehow the AC caught on fire , so that was done with quickly. I woke up Saturday morning dripping sweat and my feet sun burned since the tent doesn't close all the way and my bed is too small so my feet stay off , and what also woke me up were all the flies we had in the tent.

Very relaxing no? After Shabbat we had to help kosher the kitchen for passover. 30 people 8 hours and it was done 3am . A lot of work.

Week 3
I had seder on base along with a different part of Nahal. There were a lot of Americans so we ended making out own table. Food wasn't like at home but what can you do. Wednesday morning we woke up 4am to get ready for out 23 mile hike. I'm with full equipment for it too, around 70lbs. We took an hour long bus ride to the place we are walking. We started and the first 5 miles were up and down hill. It was getting really hard so I have a MAG helper sort of. So he took my gun while I held the ammo and we switch off because it is just so heavy. The whole hike your thinking of ways you can get out of this but you don't want to at the same time. I walked with 2 pulled hamstrings for the last few hours of the hike. It was also pesach so there isn't much to eat either besides for matzah. We finally finished the hike after 9 hours . We got pin for our beret they says Foot soldiers in hebrew  hayal raglayim.
I couldn’t walk normally for a week after the hike.
I'm fine now though. On base after Shabbat we had a night which we don't sleep. We work on our equipment until the morning and have it all checked by a high officer. I went Home for holiday on Monday morning extremely tired from not sleeping. I went to my cousins for a really good meal. Had to be back on base the next morning.

Week 4
This week we had Lashab, which is close quarters combat. We learned some really interesting and cool things. How to storm building and stuff. Short week but we are going to learn more of it. We brought so many sauces for the food in the field this week. Anything goes after eating plain tuna for so long. We got off for shabbat after this week . Back on base for sunday for the next month of training.

March

We had the last week of basic training and we basically closed up the base and got ready to move on to the new base. The first week on the base we just had to guard and set up the base before we have our break in between basic and advanced training.

On the weekend on went to my cousins for Shabbat dinner, feels like home there. Now I was doing something on Sunday night that I don't usually do to often. I'm flying to America to surprise my friends and family. :) I got special permission from the army to stay a few extra days.

My father is the only one who knew I was coming. I packed and got on my flight Sunday night. I got to NY Monday March 7^th around 6am . I got my bags and took a taxi back to my house. It was so weird being back in New York for the first time in 8 months.

Everything is basically the same but still feels weird. I walked inside with my suitcase and bags quietly

 First thing I heard was the morning routine of my mother screaming " Sarah wake up" 100 times. So my sister Flora stood behind her and watched me walk in. My mother didn't see me at first. Then I repeated after her " Aarah wake up !!"" and my mother turned around screaming .

It was soo funnnyy!! I told her I was going to be in the field all week so I can't talk all week.

 I surprised all of my close friends one by one. I visited my school, family and cousins.

It was crazy; having the freedom to drive somewhere, eat my mothers amazing food, go out at night, have my laundry done right..(I think I ruined all my clothes already) watching tv for the first time in a while, being able to shower every day, even 2 times a day.

While I was enjoying all my freedom I knew I still had to go back and do what I have to do so after 10 days at home I said goodbye to everyone again on Wednesday afternoon and made my way to the airport with my family.

I arrived in Israel Thursday March 17th went out with Flora for a few hours at night as she was in Israel and had to be on base Friday morning, just so I can be there for Shabbat.  I was so jet lag but I still made it to base even if I was 3 hours late.

Spent Purim on the base which was kind of interesting and different

The week of the 21^st was a week on training for a competition against other units in shooting, krav maga, physical fitness and studies (about the army) . My group participated in the physical fitness and studies. The part of the physical fitness that we took part in was the obstacle course. Its a really hard course that you have to finish in around 10 minutes or less.. (You have all your equipment on and your gun, you start off with a 1.5km run then the next run is also 1 km with obstacles which include, a 6ft wall you have to jump, monkey bars, dip bars to go across, a rope you climb (I got it with no legs :) ) a gate you squat under and walk, a hole to jump through, crawling and a few other things.

Then to finish it off there is a last 1km run around the track and youre done. Extremely hard. Everyone in my group passed that day. The studying and test was hard for me in Hebrew so I didn't do to well on that.

One day this week we had a run in the morning, a lot of running and shooting exercises all day, then later on fitness test that we take every few months. Max pushups 76, max situps 86 I got max in the pushups and situps but the 2k run I got in 8:35. Its getting better. After all that we had dry exercises, which involves a lot of crawling and practicing positioning and getting dirty.

 I spent the weekend in Tel Aviv with a few friends. Sunday morning I went straight to Jerusalem where I had to be Sunday morning. It happened to be me and 7 other guys were chosen to represent the Nahal unit in an event that students come to so they can get an idea of which unit they want to join in the army. We had to explain to them about whatever they asked. There was even Americans there. So I got to do some explaining in English. It was a fun 2 days overall.

We did have to sleep 9 guys in the back of a truck one night but besides for that it was great. We also got to go home Tuesday night and come back to base Wednesday morning, which was amazing to sleep at home for a night. This week we finished up our guarding schedule and went home for Shabbat. I got a total of 20 hours max of sleep this week.

Friday night I went to a lone soldier dinner, which is held by the Michael Levin lone soldier center sometimes on Friday nights. There are around 300 people at this dinner usually and we all had a good time.

1/30 -2./27

1/30-2/5

Sunday

Woke up early and was put to work on the base for the day but I had guard duty for like 4 hours anyway

It started to rain hard so the commanders decided they were going to do some practice drills. Shooting positions, crawling, and running. I was soaked covered in dirt, and freezing for the rest of the day.

Monday

We practiced our shooting all day and it rained too hard so we couldn’t shoot at night, and we were supposed to sleep in the field but didn't end up doing that

Tuesday

Shooting ranges again. At the end of the day we had to start drinking our canteens. Which usually means we have a masa (long march). We ended up having a huge workout class with the whole plugah. It was a workout that the American army uses to get stronger quickly.

Wednesday

Today is the last day of shooting for basic training. We had night shooting that was horrible because it was freezing outside and you can’t move

2/6-2/12

Sun-
Got to base normal time. We go to the field tomorrow. I am prepared with a lot of protein bars. I live off them. We set up camp at an old shooting range. We trained on 4 different mountains the whole week. Every meal the whole week was, Tuna, beans, corn, canned pineapple, halva(sesame snack) water.
 Very hard to sleep in these small tents that fit no more than you and your equipment, but you have 2 people and the equipment.
No shower all week, your covered in oil from the tuna, and gun oil, and dirt, and who knows what else.

We did a run with all our equipment on this week. Very hard. Then dry exercises, for a few hours was hard but fun. Thursday morning we woke up to find out we have a long masa (hike) 16+3km (12 Miles) . You get a rush of energy when you find out.I brought some sucking candies for everyone in my pocket , to give some energy

.I was with my Mag. It’s a heavy machine gun and not comfortable to hold. My leg muscle pulled in the middle and I switch guns with someone.
At the end they put me on the stretcher since I'm heavy. It was cold out so .I was wet from sweat, on the stretcher was freezing!! We were given watch covers after the hike, which we all earned.

Back to base finally, Cleaned all our equipment had lunch, first real food all week, hamburgers, I must of had 10.
Cleaned my guns in oil, the Mag and M-16, took over an hour
Heard a long speech from a guy that was in the second Lebanon war, can't write about it. Went to the showers late to take a 30-minute one when no one was there and back to my apartment for the weekend

Saturday

My high school (magen david) came to Israel on a trip and they invited us to eat and sleep with them for Shabbat and saw a lot of people form school.

2/13-2/19

Sun

Back on base, they put me as a worked for the day in the storage area. Worst job u can get.


Monday
We have classes on everything for our test tomorrow, tests on all we learned so far in training and you have to pass.


Tuesday
Tests on everything, the test are written and some you actually have to demonstrate that you know what you are talking about.
Wed

Wednesday
Suppose to be barur in the morning. 2k run, pushups and sit-ups, to see how much you improved but we didn't end up doing it. We went to the shooing ranges to take some more tests.
We got split up into groups for sport day tomorrow. They told me I would be in the sprint races, arm wrestle and tug of war.

Thursday
We got to Arad early in the morning to start the sports day. It was different plugot competing against us in  931. There were over 1000 people there. The sports played were arm wrestle, volleyball, soccer, basketball tug o war and sprint races. I ended dup playing in tug of war but we didn't win. Our plugah ended up winning the army history contest.

Friday

I ate by my dads friend for Shabbat in the Citadel which was really good and then went to my friends house for his birthday.


2/20-2/27

Sun
Got to Base late, had permission. Had to go to the bank and a few more things. Got to base 7pm.

Mon

We went to the field after we learned about what we will be doing there. Did a lot of exercises all week.

Tuesday

More exercises all day.
We had a run 5.5km. Longest I ever ran and it wasn't hard surprisingly.

Wednesday afternoon

They served us potatoes from the lunch room. Since we have a 26km Masa in a few hours. We started the masa around 2pm. I was with the Mag. I knew it was going to be hard. We started on flat land after an hour. We had a small break then it all went "uphill" from there. 8km uphill.

Hardest hour and a half of my life I think. My leg muscles pulled at least twice, everyone is pushing each other up.

The sun is still up so your sweating 10 times more then you usually would. And once we got up it was a relief since we knew we were going down hill. We got down and then had another 4 hours to go. We continued on until we had a food break. I ate everything they brought. We got to the last 4 kilometers and opened the stretcher. We put one heavy kid who became dehydrated today on it. And carried it for the last hour. We got back to base and finished outside our rooms. Hardest masa so far. We ended up getting our fleeces on Friday with the unit name on it for finishing the masa

Fri/Sat

We went to a Kfir base near Jerusalem, They were short some people for their real guard duty on Shabbat.

So a few of us were called up to go and guard a specific area for Shabbat with Kfir.

Happened to be a fun and met a lot of American tourist and an American soldier on the base from Texas.  He gave me his sling from the Mag which is much more comfortable then mine.
Going back to base now to finish the last week of basic training with guard duty and some other things that I'm not sure of just yet.

Moving to our advanced training base next week for two months.

Guard Duty 1/23-1/29

Sun

This week is supposed to be all guard duty on the base. There are a few places to guard and there are a group of soldiers always ready if anything happens, which means you sleep in uniform and boots and all your equipment is ready in seconds.
But anyways we started off the week doing work for one of the guys on the base. We had to clean the base which was actually kind of relaxing , since they gave me the lawn mower. They gave us 2 hour breaks. Nothing much else today but we worked until 11pm.

Mon

Today they gave some of us kitchen duty, it was not as good this time. There wasn't shnitzel today to eat, so I just ate everything else in the kitchen, but its kind of tiring cleaning the floors every 30 minutes and cleaning the stuff they use to cook and feed 500 people a day. We had to work here until 12am. Ahhh the army life.

Tuesday

From all the kitchen work yesterday my boots got soaked from cleaning dishes. So my feet were wet the whole day. Today our guard duty started. 3 hours per shift. When I was there I kind of wished I was back to kitchen work. Guard duty is very boring and cold. After that they put me on cita coninoot, which means your sleep in uniform and boots, and at 2:30 am they woke us up and we had to get all our equipment on and run to the other side of the base and do a 10 minute practice exercise to see how fast we would respond if it were a real emergency.

Wed

I woke up in the morning and stood up, my toes were killing me, I think I jammed them last night and don't remember how. I couldn't stand on them. Just so happens they are jammed and black and blue.
We also shot rockets on the simulator today as they are  too expensive to practice for real. They put me on guard duty again, until late at night

Thursday

Of course after very little sleep and I get woken up at 6am and I have to guard for 3 more hours the morning, I was very tired from not sleeping all week. We had a class on communications today, there are a lot of different radios so we have to learn about them all. I went to the doctor for my foot, and got permission to wear sneakers and not run for now.

Friday


We had the obstacle course practice in the morning,I  didnt run since I can't...so I just watched. We than had a class on a certain weapon, (don't worry about it) . Then we had a class on the rules of guard duty for the 3rd time. I thought I could at least relax on base but they gave me guard duty during shabbat dinner time so I had to eat before with a few other people. And I got the worst place to guard, the gun room. Its silent and you guard alone. Soo boring but I guess necessary. After I went to a different pluga to see one of my friends, showered and slept.

Saturday

On base for Shabbat...not like shabbat at home but at least we got food...I went to see my friend at the other part of the base in the 932 brigade. At night we had a 4k run kinda good.. My run is getting much better, which is good.

Week 5,6,7 Tekes and MAG, 1/2/11-1/22/11

1/2-1/8
Sunday

This morning everyone left to the field, I couldn't go, had a appointment to
check something by the doctor. I left to Be'er Shevah to the doctor and got back
5pm that day. I wasn't allowed to eat from the morning until my test by the
doctor. Kinda of hungry. Since I'm stuck on the base instead of the field the
whole week, I moved my bed into the tent with the heater. It's so relaxing in
there. Did absolutlety nothing the rest of the day.

Monday

Woke up late, they gave us 10 hours to sleep, since we can't do anything anyways
all day. I was on the phone, sleeping and eating for Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday
,most boring days of my life. I thought I was repeating the same day over and
over. On Wednesday the doctor told me I was fine. So I was in bed and I heard
them call my name and told me to be ready with all my equiptment to go on the
Masa( march) that everyone is going on, its 8k (5 Miles) I was happy that I got to do
something.. At the end of this masa we were given covers for our dog tags with the unit name and draft date on it. Wasn't a
hard hike. I had fun. That night we cleaned our guns a lot. Have to dip it in
oil and clean each part separately. Took over an hour and you do this once a
week.

Thursday

Thursday we had a speaker that was a former high commander in Golani., then he
had problems in his life and started doing drugs, now he went crazy, we didn't
know if he was acting in his speech, but he was telling us how it ruined his
life and he went from being something and someone in charge of people to nothing.
He was on the floor outside of a train station sleeping and a cop came up to him
and said "get up you piece of garbage" he looked up and that cop used to be one
of his soldiers.
He said it was one of the worst moments in his life.
One of his soldiers , telling him what to do. Amazing speech.
We also had a 3k run withthe whole plugah, didn't think I can run that much without stopping, but when
you have 180 people behind you and all your commanders you can't stop. Everyone
got their punishments at the end of the week , my whole group got 4 hours added to the
time we go home since we were late to shabbat meal.

Friday

All my guys and I got hours , which means we leave late on friday. Ended up home at 12. I got home and there were a lot of people there . They happen to be sleeping by me. My friend cooked us a lot of food for shabbat. It was pretty good actually.
I went to my friends house friday night got home late and went to sleep.

Sat
Woke up late , ate with everyone again. We didn't really do anything all day .

1/9-1/15
Sun

I got permission to come to base late since my clothes were wet. I put them outside to dry and then it rained!! When I got to base we had a practice for our tekes hashbaah (swearing in ceremony)on Thursday night by the Kotel. Kind of annoying repeating the same thing for hours.

Mon

We started off the day with a class on certain guns ,their purpose and how they work. Then we left to the shooting range where we stayed and shot for 10 hours. Long and cold day.

Tuesday

Shooting all day, my head started hurting so I sat down for a few hours. I took some medicine and I felt fine. I found out we have a masa (march) tonight. I wanted to do it since it was 12km (around 8 miles) So I ended up doing it. It was very hard , they gave me the water to carry, weighs about 30 lbs on your back. The first 6km was all up hill. You can't see anything, people trip left and right and your not allowed to talk. I couldn't feel my legs after the first 6. But everyone still finished the masa. After the masa I showered and got into my tent . My whole body started not feeling well. I started to think that I shouldn't of done the masa if I was not feeling good. I went to sleep hoping I'd be fine the next day.


Wednesday

I woke up my legs were more sore then ever. In the middle on the night my leg muscle also randomly pulled . It was so painful , first time I screamed from pain in a while. In the middle of the day I started feeling really sick. I told them I'm not doing anything the rest of the day. I ended up seeing the doctor around 7pm I had a high fever. I was in the doctor for 4 hours. My parents came to Israel today for the tekes. I went to sleep after taking the 5 medicines the doctor gave me.

Thursday

We went back to Jerusalem this morning together. I got to go home since I was sick. Plus I met my parents by the hotel. I spent time with them then got ready for the ceremony by the kotel. The ceremony started 6 , my parents and some of my friends came. It was an swearing in ceremony. We got our guns and a Tanach. After the ceremony my parents took me and a bunch of my friends from the army and Brooklyn out to dinner to an amazing restaurant. We then left and went back top the hotel to sleep.

Friday

Woke up late ,ate breakfast at the hotel . I went to Machneh Yehudah with my parents. There was so many people there and all I ended up buying was fresh bread . It was amazing. Friday night I went with my parents and Gaboe and Coby and to my dads friend's house. Good meal. We walked back to the hotel later on . We were there for a while. I went to sleep early I was very tired.

Saturday

I was in hotel all day eating and talking to my parents pretty much all day. There wasn't much to do other than that . It was also not nice outside. Cold and cloudy. Before shabbat ended I went to the sauna and steam room in the hotel. They don't have those on my base for some reason so I took advantage. Saturday night I hungout with my friends . Some that came from ny and some from here . I didn't get any sleep until sunday 6am.

1/16-1/22
Sunday

I woke up 7am an hour after I slept and went back to the hotel. I ate breakfast with my parents. The hotels breakfast is really good. We made our way to Tel Aviv around 9am. My father had meetings so my mother and I went to a spa. Hahah I got one of those hot stone massages . Like when you see those advertisements for spas , and there is a person lying there with stones on his back. That was me. Hahah . The massage was one of the best things I've felt in a while. I was still so tired all day from last night. I have to be on base tomorrow morning . We ate dinner and a really good restaurant across the street from the hotel. I said goodbye to my parents and went back to my apartment for the night. They are leaving tomorrow night back to Brooklyn but I wont be able to see them.

Monday

I got to my base and found out we are sleeping in the field this week to learn about our gun and practice with them. I'm mow a Magist in the army, meaning I have to lear how to use FN MAG, a really big and heavy machine gun weighing 30 pounds with bullets. I'm sleeping in a 2 person tent with 3 people, 3 sleeping bags, My M-16, My MAG, 3 Vests and 3 bags full of equipment. You can't move at night, but it is kind of warm.

Tueday

I woke up the next day sore from the position I slept in. We shot with our new guns all day. This gun is so powerful. It's crazy. It very hard to run and crawl with but its a good workout so I'm happy. At night we shot  tracing bullets that light up red when you shoot them. We got to shoot all of them together . The sky light up the sky red..

Wed

Finished up shooting for the day. We had a test, run, crawl and shoot a certain amount in under 2 minutes.
Hard test but I passed. By the end of these few days my arms and legs are dead. We got back to the base. I had to sleep with the mag under my head at night , go to the bathroom with it and more, cant leave my side for a minute. It is annoying if you understand how big this thing is.

Thursday

We didn't really do anything on Thursday except have a class on all the wars of israel. We gave our guns back for the weekend. The MAG also. Such a relief. We got to sleep early since we are waking up early tommorow.

Friday

Woke up at 4am, I got home around 9am, went to the supermarket to stock my house with food , army payed for it also.. I got my months worth of laundry done( everytime I do my laundry I put it outside to dry , and it rains on it!!)
Friday night for dinner I went to go eat with Yeshivah of Flatbushs' Chesed Mission trip. I even madea small speech...!! I hungout with friends the rest of the night and went home.

Saturday

I woke up around 1230 , and had lunch with Gabe.. We watched movies until shabbat was over . Its over early so we didn't want to go out, plus its not nice out lately. Back to base tomorrow.

Week 4 12/26- 1/1/11

Week 4

Sunday morning we were told to be at the kotel at 1030, not sure for why though. Happens to be we started the day off with a tour of the city of David and a bunch of speeches that I didn't understand.  Didn't interest me so much. Plus I never get sleep Saturday night, which I might start doing. After the tour we got on the bus, at 5 they took us to a big theatre room. It happens to be that there is a huge night for the Nahal Brigade

We walked in there was like almost 1500 people there from Nahal. We were served great food and went to the theater where the head of Nahal was waiting.. We watched movies on the unit, recent training exercises and more. They also gave out trophies for sport day that the commanders held. At the end there was a really good concert by some famous Israeli singer , don't remember his name right now though. It was a fun day overall. We got to base around 12 and did all the work to set up the base for the week as usual.

Monday

Forgot.

Tuesday

We woke up and made our way to the shooting ranges. We shot all day long and learned different positions for shooting and how to put them together. You would think its fun to shoot, but you get sick of it fast. We got back to the base and had a class on grenades, all the different ones and their effects.

Wed

Woke up early on Wednesday and went t to the grenade range. We got their and first they showed us how to throw the grenade properly with rocks for a long time. It was my turn up, I ran to the area, the commander put the grenade in my vest, ran to the place where you throw it and there is another commander waiting for you there.  First threw a rock, then a training grenade then the real one.. The explosions on the real one you feel a lot, and its extremely loud. We got back from that around 2 and went to  Krav Maga which I love. We did a lot of strength exercise this class but wasn't so hard . We had a class on ballistics and then on one of the anti tank rockets called the LAW.

Thursday

Today our group was picked to do kitchen work.
We started at 6am, thought it would be horrible. We made all the fresh bread, chocolate croissants, fried schnitzel, hamburgers, pasta and more. I don't think I ever ate more in my life. The food was so good and especially fresh. I ended up liking this day, except for the fact we had to clean, making the food and being there until 11pm.

We finished 11 pm and waited for the commander. He finally came and told us, we have 10 seconds to sleep, and then ok " good morning, how did you sleep?" That meant we have Laylah Lavan (White Night) which means we don't sleep.

The whole night until 7am we connected all of our equipment to certain things so that you can't lose it. "Leshapsher" is the word (it means basically to fix something up and make it good with a rope) whatever anyways it was so tiring, cutting rope, burning it, tying it. My head dropped maybe 50 times, but was an interesting night.
At 7am we started the day like it was normal day.

Friday

First had a test on the week’s classes. Then we had group talk like we do every week and then our 3 groups together talk and we try to fix any problems we have. That class was hard to stay awake in. I caught the commander’s heads drop a few times also!

But it was a good day anyway and I was so tired all day. And of course every Shabbat thate we are on base it is raining and our stuff is soaked, bed, bags!

Horrible. But what can you do, and week 4 the heater still doesn't work. Phew.. Ok but overall that was a really good week I think and things just keep on getting better.

New years on base wasn't too interesting they don't really do much here for it on base.

Saturday

Woke at 11 , showered on the other side of the base our showers hot water wasn't working. We had lunch 1230 and we stayed in the tent all day in the rain. So the whole Shabbat all my clothes pillows, beds, everything is wet, but what can you do.