One Month!!!

Count it: 30 days until I am finally in uniform for Israel! I am still very excited, and also a bit apprehensive. There are times when I want to be in basic training already and other times when I just want to live the leisure lifestyle I've, unfortunately, become accustomed to over the past six months.

I've settled into life here in Tel Aviv. Every day I like the city more and more. It's very secular but there are still people who wear a kippah/yalmuke. I can't believe that I've been here for almost two weeks and have not even been to Yerushalayim. But my wait will be over soon as I plan to spend this upcoming Shabbat at Ohr Somayach yeshivah, the same place I stayed for my three week trip this summer.

But, back to Tel Aviv. I haven't done the same thing twice; each day is different. My first agenda item after signing my Mahal papers was to go to the Jewish Agency and have them sign off on the letter a rabbi signed for me confirming that I'm Jewish. I was told to come back in two days after they had confirmed that Rabbi Zev Alter is...well, legit (thank you, Zev!). I returned to the Agency, and there had been no progress on my letter. Psh, wonderful. The woman who helped me, knowing the hassle this process takes (and after succumbing to my charm and seduction), signed off on the letter and I was on my way; although not after getting into a short, but heated discussion about how awesome America is. She was Canadian...no comment necessary, enough said.

My next stop was the Ministry of Interior. After going through a few meager security points, I walked into the visa section and was in the DMV from hell. It's actually worse than the DMV because everything is in a language I don't fully understand and Israelis, well, let's just say they are passionate about everything. Amid the shouting and arguing (all from people who want to become a part of, in some fashion, this incredible country), I could decipher a few words here and there, ie my Hebrew's improving. Conveniently, I was called up to the window 5 minutes before they closed. How did I know it was 5 minutes before? Because the man asked if I had filled out a sheet I had never seen and if I had passport photos I didn't know I needed. Oy vey. He said I could come back at 2:30 with my materials. After biking home for lunch and to fill out the form and pick up photos I had brought with me, I returned to the Ministry at 2:00, and waited. And waited. And waited some more. Finally around 3:00 I asked one of the guards if the window would open. "Nope. Come back Sunday morning." W T F! That was obnoxious for the guy to tell me to come back that afternoon. Whatever, you can't get caught up in that crap, because it'll just give you headaches. I went back this morning at 8:00 am, waited for an hour, dropped off the materials. And had to come back a few hours later to pick up my visa. I am now legally able to stay here until November 15, 2012!!

Later today I am going to fax the visa to Mahal, and am supposed to wait 2-3 weeks until I hear back about my tzav rishon "day of tests". I've got lots of time on my hands right now. But I've been keeping busy, too. Just this weekend, David, Amy, the girls and myself went to Mini Israel, a park that displays models of every city and sight in Israel, on a scale of 1:25. I've never been to Haifi, but now I don't need to go because I saw it all...small! Cheesy, but that's what they say.

Also, we went to the Yad Lashiryon Memorial at Latrun, a memorial for Israel's Armored Corps. It was awesome. They have over 200 tanks on display, from the 1940s to the present day. The memorial also lists the names of the 5,000 armored corps soldiers who died defending Israel over the past sixty years. Two incredible things about the museum. First, Israel builds a military museum to honor and remember the fallen, with no mention of foreign armies. In contrast, Hezbollah in Lebanon recently opened its own 'amusement' park, a place dedicated to it's 'victorious' wars against Israel. (Don't believe me? Just go search on YouTube.)

And second, and perhaps most stunning of all, as evidence by my current picture, Israel proudly flew an American flag alongside its own flag. And that is something that I've seen all over this country: the Israeli flag. Sounds like an odd statement, right? It should be completely natural to fly your country's flag. However, last week, an elementary school boy was told to take the American flag off his bike when he rode to school because he may offend someone. You gotta be kidding me! I see Israeli flags everywhere. Come to think of it, in the US, you really only see American flags in government buildings, and a few other locations.

Let me get off my soap box and onto my high horse...literally. Yesterday, I went horseback riding for a few hours with Amy, Lina and Shai, their babysitter and adopted fourth daughter who's going to the Air Force on Tuesday. It was a fun, and at times painful, experience. I don't really feel a need to saddle up again.

Thanks for reading to the end. I'm probably gonna go to the beach now, maybe go in the water, listen to music, learn some Hebrew, and have a beer. Shalom!