hamesh dakot, zoozoo!
we got back from gadna on thursday, and i was actually sad to leave. when you think of army training, usually what comes to (my) mind is shaved heads, pushups, ugly americans with missing teeth, and heinous commanders. well, i can't be sure about any of that, but in the israeli basic army training, there are pushups...but that is where the similarities end. similarities...i totally made up that stuff before, so don't take anything i am saying to heart!
okay, so here is a day in gadna: wake up at 6ish in the freezing cold and shake off the sleep in two minutes so that you can run 20 meters through the painful wind to get to the bathroom. pee without using toilet paper unless you are a lucky bastard. maybe brush your teeth if you feel it absolutely necessary. most mornings, i didn't even step out of the tent until we had to be in formation. chokay, so. if you didn't sleep in your army uniform, you button up your beautful green tza'al shirt over something...anything. pull up the pants and hope that they stay up for the whole day...or at least for roll call. nothing fits! put on your coat, hat, belt, waterbottle. run outside where your mifakedet (commander) stands waiting for you with her m-16 and lack of a smile. form a chet shape and say, akshev hamifakedet. you get talked to, blah blah blah, and then you probably go roll up the tents, fold your blankets according to army regulations, and put everything under your bed. the army is not about individuality! then you might run around and do crunches, push ups, skipping (not really sure how it translates) and then a breakfast of...bread and butter. everything else is kind of scary and not worth trying. then you might clean the bathrooms, help in the kitchen for 5 hours, or do more excercising, etc. i will stop with the major details, but one big thing about the army is that everything revolves around time. our mifakedet would literally five us ten seconds to do something and get back in formation, and you had to count each second and be back exactly on time or punishment is on its way. and everything is done in hebrew, which is a funny things when you only speak english. on the last day right before we got on the bus, our mifakedet, Tal, got to tell us some of her personal details we were not allowed to know about during training. i fell in love. she is the sweetest girl, and would even tuck us in at night. i almost cried!
before i accidently leave out this essential element of our week: israelis are mean to americans! i know i know. we had it coming. but listen: they threw things at us, hit on us, woke us up at 4 in the morning telling us it was wake up, and constantly harassed us. it was crazy!
should i get into some of the deeper elements of what we went through? should i try and sound intelligent? how about thoughtful?
what i could not get over during the week was that we were playing a game, and the israelis were getting a preview of their life in a couple years. did we have a right to even be there, putting to shame the whole concept? i definitly gained a deeper respect and appreciation for tza'al, and some of the TRY'ers are even considering going into the army, but were we butting in on a trip that should have been reserved for the israelis only?
one night we got to talk about the moral principles of the army, and i was truly impressed by their codes and laws. before taking someone down, they have to warn them four times (about) and even warn them in another language just in case they don't know hebrew. only then can they shoot someone in the leg to disable them. if they need to kill someone, they would then need to call in to a person of higher authority to get permission. they only kill when absolutely necessary, or else they are severely punished. if they lose their gun, they have to spend 7 years in jail. i would be screwed. peace out from the middle east~molly
okay, so here is a day in gadna: wake up at 6ish in the freezing cold and shake off the sleep in two minutes so that you can run 20 meters through the painful wind to get to the bathroom. pee without using toilet paper unless you are a lucky bastard. maybe brush your teeth if you feel it absolutely necessary. most mornings, i didn't even step out of the tent until we had to be in formation. chokay, so. if you didn't sleep in your army uniform, you button up your beautful green tza'al shirt over something...anything. pull up the pants and hope that they stay up for the whole day...or at least for roll call. nothing fits! put on your coat, hat, belt, waterbottle. run outside where your mifakedet (commander) stands waiting for you with her m-16 and lack of a smile. form a chet shape and say, akshev hamifakedet. you get talked to, blah blah blah, and then you probably go roll up the tents, fold your blankets according to army regulations, and put everything under your bed. the army is not about individuality! then you might run around and do crunches, push ups, skipping (not really sure how it translates) and then a breakfast of...bread and butter. everything else is kind of scary and not worth trying. then you might clean the bathrooms, help in the kitchen for 5 hours, or do more excercising, etc. i will stop with the major details, but one big thing about the army is that everything revolves around time. our mifakedet would literally five us ten seconds to do something and get back in formation, and you had to count each second and be back exactly on time or punishment is on its way. and everything is done in hebrew, which is a funny things when you only speak english. on the last day right before we got on the bus, our mifakedet, Tal, got to tell us some of her personal details we were not allowed to know about during training. i fell in love. she is the sweetest girl, and would even tuck us in at night. i almost cried!
before i accidently leave out this essential element of our week: israelis are mean to americans! i know i know. we had it coming. but listen: they threw things at us, hit on us, woke us up at 4 in the morning telling us it was wake up, and constantly harassed us. it was crazy!
should i get into some of the deeper elements of what we went through? should i try and sound intelligent? how about thoughtful?
what i could not get over during the week was that we were playing a game, and the israelis were getting a preview of their life in a couple years. did we have a right to even be there, putting to shame the whole concept? i definitly gained a deeper respect and appreciation for tza'al, and some of the TRY'ers are even considering going into the army, but were we butting in on a trip that should have been reserved for the israelis only?
one night we got to talk about the moral principles of the army, and i was truly impressed by their codes and laws. before taking someone down, they have to warn them four times (about) and even warn them in another language just in case they don't know hebrew. only then can they shoot someone in the leg to disable them. if they need to kill someone, they would then need to call in to a person of higher authority to get permission. they only kill when absolutely necessary, or else they are severely punished. if they lose their gun, they have to spend 7 years in jail. i would be screwed. peace out from the middle east~molly