It was pretty sad for all of us to end our time in the army. We really enjoyed working there and meeting everyone. Never again will we hang out in a store room, discussing the tv show Big Brother in Hebrew as we fold shirts for reserve soldiers. It was definitely a fun experience for all of us there.
Winter in Israel came right on time- we believe winter is in fact the only thing that comes on time in Israel. December 22 it became cold. The day we left the base, there was a sandstorm. It looked like the entire base was just covered in a fog; the sand was so fine and flying in the air. it got into our teeth and our eyes and coated our sunglasses. We only saw the beginning of it. By the time we all got to Tel Aviv, a storm had come in there. The whole night there was rain, lightening and thunder.
Right now, I´m in Madrid. I came to Spain for a vacation with my roommate, Rena and her sister, Jessica. We cannot believe how beautiful everything is here. The architecture is amazing. A lot of doors and garages are covered with amazing graffiti, Madrid is actually known for its graffiti art. So far we´ve been walking around admiring everything. Yesterday, Christmas, the streets were completely empty in the morning, except for a few people walking dogs. At night, everyone came out to celebrate with friends. It almost felt like New Year´s. People were out, dressed up and having a good time. We couldn´t believe how crowded everything was.
Rena and I both can´t get over the fashion here. In Spain it seems to be in style to dress all young kids in the family alike. It´s hilarious to see everyone walking around looking like twins. We´ve also realized just how badly Israelis dress. We are shocked at how nice everyone looks here. In Israel, people seem to just throw on clothes without looking at what exactly they´re putting on. We forgot that people in the real world put some effort in.
We are also seeing how much Otzma has changed us. It´s amazing what living on a small stipend does to a person. Rena´s sister hasn´t seen her since before we left so she notices the change. Rena and I both brought peanut butter, tupperware, and silverware so we didn´t have to buy lunch. We refill our waterbottles at restaurants so we don´t have to buy new ones. We even save ziploc bags to reuse. Both of us are in shock about how nice our hostel is. We can´t believe how comfortable and big the beds are. Jessica tells us the room is okay, the beds actually aren´t comfortable and they´re just regular twin size beds. We often tell Jessica the stories about days when the water went off for seven hour and when our water heater would leak all over the living room. We told her about the time the sink regurgitated and sprayed old pasta, vegetables, coffee grains, etc over the floor of another Otzmanik´s apartment. Luckily, they´re floor had a whole in it, so everything went down into the hole and out to the street. We still have yet to determine why there was a hole in their floor. Seeing all these things through the eyes of someone who is not on Otzma really makes us see how far we´ve fallen. But the good news is, we´re all having an awesome time on the way down!
Friday, December 26, 2008
Friday, December 19, 2008
Life in Olive Green
After spending weeks stressing about how I was going to pack everything to move, it turned out not to be too bad- everything actually fit in my suitcases. Leaving Natzrat Ilit was not quite as easy. It was really sad for all of us to say goodbye to the people living there. I'm going to especially miss the people I've met through the English sessions. We got to know them really well. It was pretty sad for those of us who have made a connection to leave. It was also hard because we were able to see how much we could have done but didn't. Although the first part of OTZMA is not supposed to be about volunteering, more about learning Hebrew and getting used to Israel, it is still disappointing to see. Hopefully, we learned enough from living in Natzrat Ilit to prevent that from happening in Kiryat Malachi.
We now have a two week session before we have some time off for break and then head to our part 2 locations. I decided to spend these weeks living on an army base and volunteering through a program called Sar-El. The base they sent us to is called Tze'elim. Tze'elim is a huge base, comprised of a bunch of little parts. The part we live on is called Mali. So far, we've mostly been organizing storerooms. Every now and then we get to do something a little more interesting; I spent Thursday morning cleaning the M-16's for the reserve soldiers. It's really fun to get to know the people in the army and to hear their stories. As a group, all the girls have already fell in love of with a bunch of the boys we work with.
As we've all learned, life in Israel is neither fast-paced or organized. Apparently, nothing is different in the army. When we ask people what they do in the army, a fair amount of them tell us, "nothing". On a basic day, breakfast is from 6:45-7:30. Those of us who haven't given up on waking that early, get there by 7:25 for a couple of eggs. Then we have flag raising at 8:00. Around 8:30 we get our positions for the day. We're normally divided into around 4 groups who all do different things. We hang out until around 9 when they come and offer us coffee before we work. We start working around 9:30 and put in a good hour until we have a break around 10:30. At about 11 we'll start working half-heartedly again until 11:45 when we have lunch. Lunch lasts until 1:15, so we normally have time to take a nap for about an hour. Slowly we go back to our stations for the day, sometimes new ones, and pick up work, around 2. Work officially ends at 4:30 but it actually ends around 3. We then go and take a nap or shower, usually both, before dinner. After dinner we have another break and then evening programming until about 9:30. There's a central part of the base with a store a lounge and a little restaurant that we have nicknamed the Student Union. We hang out there and get to know the soldiers until 10:30 or 11 when we go to sleep, exhausted by a hard day at work.
As you can see, life in the army is tough for us. When we first came we worked considerably harder. Then everyone would come by and say, "Why are you guys working so hard? Slow down, take a break. Do you want some coffee?"
The army has also taught all of us to love shoko b'sakit. Shoko b'sakit, also known as boker shok! is chocolate milk in a plastic bag- but it is the best chocolate milk you have ever had. The army must get shoko b'sakit for free because they have it everywhere. It is served with every meal. In the morning, there's no milk for our cereal. In the army, you eat you're cereal with shoko b'sakit. What a way to start the day.
We now have a two week session before we have some time off for break and then head to our part 2 locations. I decided to spend these weeks living on an army base and volunteering through a program called Sar-El. The base they sent us to is called Tze'elim. Tze'elim is a huge base, comprised of a bunch of little parts. The part we live on is called Mali. So far, we've mostly been organizing storerooms. Every now and then we get to do something a little more interesting; I spent Thursday morning cleaning the M-16's for the reserve soldiers. It's really fun to get to know the people in the army and to hear their stories. As a group, all the girls have already fell in love of with a bunch of the boys we work with.
As we've all learned, life in Israel is neither fast-paced or organized. Apparently, nothing is different in the army. When we ask people what they do in the army, a fair amount of them tell us, "nothing". On a basic day, breakfast is from 6:45-7:30. Those of us who haven't given up on waking that early, get there by 7:25 for a couple of eggs. Then we have flag raising at 8:00. Around 8:30 we get our positions for the day. We're normally divided into around 4 groups who all do different things. We hang out until around 9 when they come and offer us coffee before we work. We start working around 9:30 and put in a good hour until we have a break around 10:30. At about 11 we'll start working half-heartedly again until 11:45 when we have lunch. Lunch lasts until 1:15, so we normally have time to take a nap for about an hour. Slowly we go back to our stations for the day, sometimes new ones, and pick up work, around 2. Work officially ends at 4:30 but it actually ends around 3. We then go and take a nap or shower, usually both, before dinner. After dinner we have another break and then evening programming until about 9:30. There's a central part of the base with a store a lounge and a little restaurant that we have nicknamed the Student Union. We hang out there and get to know the soldiers until 10:30 or 11 when we go to sleep, exhausted by a hard day at work.
As you can see, life in the army is tough for us. When we first came we worked considerably harder. Then everyone would come by and say, "Why are you guys working so hard? Slow down, take a break. Do you want some coffee?"
The army has also taught all of us to love shoko b'sakit. Shoko b'sakit, also known as boker shok! is chocolate milk in a plastic bag- but it is the best chocolate milk you have ever had. The army must get shoko b'sakit for free because they have it everywhere. It is served with every meal. In the morning, there's no milk for our cereal. In the army, you eat you're cereal with shoko b'sakit. What a way to start the day.
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