Until now (August 2007 - May 2008)

I guess I'm a little late jumping on the blog bandwagon, so I'm going to try and catch everybody up:

Pre-Army:

    I arrived in Israel late August 2007 with plans to join the Israel Defense Force (IDF) through a program called Mahal 2000.  Unfortunately for me, the language of the Israeli army is Hebrew, which I didn't speak.  I had planned on enlisting in November and studying Hebrew until that time.

    The first month I lived in Jerusalem with a family who I did not know, but they were friends of my parents.  In that first month I studied Hebrew in an intense one-on-one class and also tried to pick up what I could working in a falafel store (although in retrospect I think I learned more Arabic at the falafel store).  

       In October I moved to Netanya, a city on the coast North of Tel-Aviv, to study at a month long Hebrew course called Ulpan Akiva.  I had actually progressed a good bit in the two weeks in Jerusalem and was allowed to start at a fairly high level when I arrived at Akiva (for those of you familiar with the Hebrew alphabet I was able to start at level "ג").  

       I finished my month long course on November 1, and was planning to be drafted on the 4th of November.  Contrary to my plans, I received a phone call on the last day of my course informing me that my draft date had been pushed back a month and that I would be sent to an army sponsored Hebrew course.  At the outset I tried to fight this decision due to the fact it was based on results of a Hebrew test that I had taken before I had started studying Hebrew, but in the end there was not much I could do.  As a result, I ended up staying at Akiva another month to try and improve my Hebrew (and also mostly because I had no where to go since I was living at the Ulpan).

       After finishing up the Hebrew classes I had a week of limbo before starting the army Hebrew classes.  Fortunately, I was put in touch with someone who helped me to find a place to live on a kibbutz near Haifa.  Needless to say, I was somewhat surprised to discover that my roommate, Harrison, was from Mississippi (I don't know what the odds of that are, but I can tell you he is the only Mississppian I have met).  He is 21 and also came here to join the army (and in a weird coincidence we have ended up at all of the same places).  

 

Army Ulpan (Hebrew Class):

     On December 18th I started my army career at a base called Michve Alon.  Michve Alon is an education base whose main function is to help immigrants with their Hebrew before starting the army.  We were given Hebrew tests and then separated into teams based upon our Hebrew level.  Somehow after 2 and a half months of Hebrew I was placed in the highest Hebrew level on the base (I still don't know how).   I was put in a group of mostly Russian immigrants, although there were also two Americans, one Canadian, and a 26 year old from England, many of whom had been in the country as much as 7 or 8 years.

     The first month at Michve Alon we did not have any Hebrew lessons, it was strictly basic training.  The same training that regular Israelis receive if they are going to be joining the army and getting a job (i.e. - driver, working in an office, basically any non-fighting position).  The second two months were the actual Hebrew classes.  I think the classes helped my vocab a little bit, but what really helped was being in the environment where I heard Hebrew all the time, even when I wasn't in the classroom.  I definitely think I might have been able to learn more in terms of grammar and possibly vocab if I had continued to learn on my own in those 3 months, but I don't think my understanding of Hebrew would have improved as drastically.

     In my last two weeks at Michve Alon there was a special tryout for all of the soldiers on our base for the paratrooping division.  I had a lot of trouble getting into the tryouts (if I get some time later I'll try and post that story, but its pretty long), however, once I was allowed to participate in the tryouts I did really well.  I found out the next week that from the 120 people that tried out 25 people had been accepted.  From my division only Harrison and I were accepted.

Paratroopers:

     On March 18th, I started all over again in the Paratroopers Brigade.  After two days in the paratroopers there was another try-out for the Airborne Special Forces Battalion.  It was a 3 day try out that was very physical.  There were about 450 people that started out, something like 220 that finished, and maybe 150 that were selected.  After a week everyone was brought together and then separated according to the new battalions/companies/teams.  They explained to me that I had been chosen for a new special forces team.  In general there are three companies: the reconnaissance, anti-tank warfare (where Harrison is now serving), and combat engineering.  They have not explained much to us, but from what I have been able to gather my team is going to train to become a specialized sniper team.

     Hopefully that is a good foundation to let everybody know where I stand.