Pleasure To Meet You

On Tuesday the army and I had our first formal introduction. Overall it went well. I had a small interview where I was asked all sorts of questions about my family history and was given a brief Hebrew test. The girl interviewing me got all excited when she found out that I had a master's degree. Unfortunately, the field of "nueroscience" doesn't exactly exist (by that name) in Israel. This means that we had to spend a half of an hour trying to find which degree listed in the computer was the closest. Afterwards I took two tests - one on patterns and the other on analogies. The coolest part of the meeting happened next. I was invited to meet with the chief officer of the enlistment office. While the meeting was in the end irrelevant, as I have no desire to work in their office, it was still nice to receive special treatment. Perhaps the most important meeting that I had was with the doctors. While the doctor acknowledged that it was clear from my medical records that I had Crohn's, Israeli bureaucracy required confirmation by an Israeli doctor. This means that I won't get my official health profile until I see a doctor and the army officially recognizes my Crohn's disease. In any case this means that I still don't have much official information to report. However, I have spoken to people in both the diplomatic and strategic planning divisions and it is likely that I will be working with one of them.

-Adam

PS Props to Alex Kleinmann for being the first non-family member to call me in Israel. He is cooler than the rest of you.

Olympic Pride

Ladies and Gentlemen, I am proud to announce that in addition to the bronze medal already won this Olympics (in Judo), Gal Fridman has captured Israel's first ever gold medal in the wind-surfing event. Later tonight Israel will look for its third medal in the men's pole vault event. Everybody has been celebrating here as we revel in our collective Jewish athletic ability.

Back To School

Our garin started ulpan yesterday (in Israel Sunday is a workday). For anyone who doesn't know, ulpan is the Hebrew word for lots and lots of non-stop intensive Hebrew school. We have about 6 hours a day of various reading, writing, and speaking excercises. The worst part of ulpan is not the Hebrew (which I desperately need to learn) but that fact that it is taught in a way that is reminiscent of high school. I started in lowest level, but have since moved up to the middle level class. So far, so good.

Tomorrow our garin has its first meeting with the army. We get poked and prodded and have to take all sorts of tests. At the end of the day a machine spits out a little peice of paper with a fortune, your lucky numbers, and your army job. It should be a fun time.

Working Hard or Hardly Working

I need to preface this post by explaining that in addition to our Garin (on Degania A) there is another Garin, composed of west coast people, that live on Degania B - a completely separate kibbutz. Now you know. Don't get confused when I mention them later.

I live on a kibbutz and part of that deal is that we have do work for the Kibbutz. This work also helps the Garin bond as a group and so on and so forth. While the garin on Degania B has to work in the banana fields (which is horrible, turns your hands black, and all of your clothes reek on banana), our garin has the extremely taxing job of cleaning the part of the Jordan river that is next to the kibbutz. While this does entail waking up at 5:30 in the morning to avoid working in the strong heat, it also means playing around in the water. Today for example, we took canoes and floated down the river and collected trash that evil tourists had left on the banks or in the water. After canoeing for a couple of hours we retired to the shore and made fresh pita for breakfast. The "work day" was topped off by a quick jump into the river using a rope tied to a tree. Tough life. Sucks to be on Degania B.

Have Your People Call My People

I am happy to report that I now have a telephone number. It's a landline into my room on Kibbutz: 04-660-8565 (from the states 011-972-4-660-8565). I know for a fact that there are cheap phone cards out there, so you have no excuse not to call me.

Cellphone info to come hopefully by the middle of next week.

The More Things Change....

Tonight, after Shabbat, I sat with my Kibbutz brother and watched episodes of Celebrity Jeopardy that he had burned to a DVD. Life is good. Darrell Hammond is hillarious.

Cats Incredible

I am not a "cat person" per se. We never had a pet cat because my father and sister are allergic to cats. I am also mildly allergic to cats. I am not a "cat person." My Kibbutz family here has a cat, and while I don't particularly mind the cat, the family tries to make sure that the cat goes outside when I come in. What is remarkable is that much like the velocoraptors in Jurassic Park, this cat has learned to somehow turn the door handle and slink inside. Sometimes cats do the darndest things.

I Have Arrived

I am now officially in Israel. Whoohoo! The Garin is great (although sometimes I feel like a 12 year old). I have been quite busy trying to get established - I still need a bank account and a cell phone. The group is meeting with army reps on Sunday and Monday so I'll know a lot more after that. My internet connection is not as consistently available as I had been led to believe, but my Kibbutz family is very nice is is letting me use their connection. I'd tell lots of interesting and funny stories, but I've been too busy to take note of every ridiculous thing that has gone on. The Kibbutz is beautiful and less than a 5 minute walk from the Kinneret and the Jordan river. I'd post pictures, but I left my camera charger at home (oops) - don't worry, it will be here soon. Also, I'm now completely fluent in Hebrew.........or not. But I really want to be. Hopefully that will happen sometime soon in the next three months.

Thanks to all that wrote me supportive notes while I was packing and thanks to all who have already written.

Toodles

Ladies and Gentlemen, the big day has finally arrived. Tomorrow morning I will be leaving for Israel. Needless to say, I'm still not packed, but I still have about 10 hours to finish that. Things have been crazy the past couple of weeks, and it has been sad having to say goodbye to all of my friends and family. If you wish to help raise my spirits, feel free to send checks to:

Adam Shain
GARIN TZABAR 2 (Nitzan)
KIBBUTZ DEGANIA A'
EMEK HAYARDEN 15120
ISRAEL

That will be my address for at least the next 3 months and potentially for the entire time that I am in Israel. I can also be reached at my new e-mail address (which was mentioned in the last post) ashain aT gmail DoT com.

That's all for now. I'll post another update soon when I get to Kibbutz.