Happy (?) New Year!

2011!! New Year's resolutions? Survive? Thrive? Get through basic training at Mikveh Alon? Normal stuff. I actually rang in 2010 in Israel. I was in Jerusalem on Birthright. The new year celebration here isn't as elaborate, or even recognized, as much as in America. I miss that about home. I always liked watching the ball drop in New York at 11:00 my time in Chicago. In Jerusalem last year, we asked the dj of the club if he was going to let us know when it was almost midnight. Even though there was just our group in the club, he still wouldn't do it. At least this year, the bartender turned off the music and counted down the last ten seconds. New Year's for Jerusalem is really Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. Secular Tel Aviv, it turns out, recognizes the new year.

It was a fun night, a good way to relax and enjoy myself after a long week. Days starting at 4:30 in the morning, running everywhere (we are only allowed to walk on our breaks), doing pushups for seemingly no reason, standing at attention for hours, not understanding most of what the commanders say...what a wonderful life I've got right now. It's at least nice to get the weekends off, even if I have to get up every Friday at 3:30 am, clean our rooms, get yelled at, do some pushups, leave the base at 6:00, bus to the Acko train station, train to Tel Aviv, 20 minute walk back to the apartment, in comfortable clothes, vegging on the couch by 9:00.

We will only stay on the base on Shabbat for guard duty, but that requires us knowing how to shoot a gun, which we are yet to do. But not for long! I return to base tomorrow morning and on Monday, we are going to the Golan to train with Golani, an intense infantry unit. We're going to be outdoors for three days, sleeping in tents, learning to shoot, training, don't really know exactly what just yet. I'm excited. It'll be a hard three days, the first of many, I'm sure, but it's what I signed up for.

The days at Mikveh Alon, miraculously, go by. They are long, but you look forward to certain moments, such as meals, when we have ten minutes to eat, but can stay longer because we have the next twenty or thirty minutes to ourselves for a break. We also get a fifteen minute break every hour or two. We can go to the bathroom then, there's generally bread and jelly available to eat, and, of course, we bitch about everything. It's a great de-stressor, allows us to get through the day. We begin to realize how young our commanders are. Granted many of the guys are 18-20, and there are many, like myself, who are early to mid-20s, but all our officers are in their late teens. They try to discipline us. While most of the English speakers (Americans, Brits, South Africans, Australians, etc) are already disciplined, the Russians are anything but. The officers try to discipline, and it's been working more and more as the days go by. But as it began to sink in with all of us that a lot of the shit we do we'll do no matter what (running, pushups, mindless cleaning), it becomes more of a joke and we laugh about it. Just the other day, as we're standing at attention outside the dining hall, waiting for permission to go in, the guy next to me moved. When I say "moved," I don't mean jumping around or drinking from his canteen. I mean he scratched his face or shifted his weight. One of the roving commanders came by, got in his face and asked, in Hebrew, if he moved without permission. The guy doesn't speak any Hebrew, knew what was coming, and just laughed to himself and said, "yeah, I'll just go do ten pushups now."

So, Daniel, what did you learn this week? Well, we learned how to operate a military radio, how to use a gas mask and what to do in the event of a atomic, biological or chemical attack, and first aid, like what to do if I get a cut or a limb blown off. It's cool to learn these things. Maybe not thinking about losing arms or legs, but the sort of things I will learn in the military are, basically, cool things. On Monday, a company came in and attached laser sights to the end of our M16 rifles and we practiced shooting in prone position (lying down). It was the first legit step to shooting the gun we've taken. Actually, it was the only thing we've done with the rifles except carry them around everywhere.

The time away from the army is great. Relaxing, enjoyable, mindless. Usually I feel like I have to always be doing something productive, but now I just enjoyed sitting on the couch this morning with cousins, nursing a hangover, and watching hours of Entourage. Next week I'll write a little more about what's going on in Israel, because there have been some incredible developments, like discovering a massive reservoir of natural gas off the coast of Haifa.

So, do I 'like' or am I 'happy' with my time so far at Mikveh? Don't really know if those words are the most appropriate. I enjoy serving. I am extremely honored to wear an Israeli uniform. I still have to ask myself often למה אני פה why am I here? I remind myself with the kippah on my head. I remind myself by looking around at the beautiful scenery around the base. I see the sunrise every morning and the sunset every evening. Life will improve, become more exciting. For now, I often keep telling myself the reasons I decided to make my body and my life property of the Israeli government for the next eighteen months. Why nineteen year old girls yell at me in a foreign language. For now, life is bearable. I often go from feeling great about myself and my situation to feeling like crap. But we survive and endure and look forward to the weekends.

Oh, and December 27th was my one year anniversary of my first time in Israel! How my life has changed in the last twelve months...