Happy Birthday To Me

That's right. You guessed it. It's Canadian boxing day again...which conveniently happens to coincide with my birthday. To celebrate last night I went out for a nice dinner at an Argentinean steak house followed by drinks at a local restaurant. Today was more relaxed as I basically hung out for most of the day. At night, my kibbutz family came over to my room with a cake and a bottle of wine. One of the nicest parts of the day was the outpouring of love that I received from family and friends abroad. I spoke on the phone with my parents, brother, aunt, uncle, cousins, and grandparents, in addition to Meg, Ali, and Isaac. I also received several IMs congratulating me for not dying in the past year. It was great to be able to speak with everyone and I really appreciate everybody thinking of me. To top it all off the Patriots are being shown on TV. What more could a guy ask for?

If anyone is feeling guilty for not being one of the aforementioned caring friends who took the time to call me, you can buy your way back into my heart by sending birthday shaped checks to:

Adam Shain
Garin Tzabar (Nitzan)
Kibbutz Degania A
Emek HaYarden 15120
Israel

You can also send checks to my parents, but I think I need the money more than they do.

Me Driving Crazy

In order to transfer my American license to an Israeli one I had to travel to Haifa where the the regional licensing bureau is located. I had intended for a quick surgical strike in and out of the city because I had to wake up early to travel to Tel Aviv the next day. However, when my plans where pushed back to near lunch time I decided to call my best friend Avi (who lives in Haifa) to see if he wanted to have lunch. Over the course of the meal Avi suggested that instead of traveling back to Degania and having to wake up early to catch a bus to Tel Aviv I stay with him overnight and take the train to Tel Aviv from Haifa. Unfortunately, I hadn't planned on an overnight stay in Haifa and had left many things I needed for the next day in Degania. To solve this problem, Avi lent me his car. I drove back to Degania, took care of some business, packed my bag and drove back in time to pick Avi up from work. We then proceeded to have dinner and play Halo 2 for a loooong time. We also reached the decision that instead of taking the train the next day I would again borrow Avi's car and drive to my appointment. The plan worked out marvelously as I slept more, paid less (in travel costs), and returned in time for to have lunch with Avi. My next plan to seduce and convert Jessica Biel didn't work out quite as well, but 1 out of 2 ain't bad.

On the topic of good friends, I would like to give a shout out (for the second time) to Alex Kleinmann for not only being my only friend to call be once, but now for being the only friend who has called me twice.

Clarification

In case I didn't make this clear before, I am going into the army on Dec. 30th, next Thursday. Yikes.

Back in High School

Most secular Kibbutzim in Israel are home to either a pub/bar or a club/disco. Degania happens to be home to the latter. Every Thursday and Friday night people stream into the Kibbutz to dance and drink. The club (named the DNA) has a somewhat dubious reputation and charges a cover, which Garin members have to pay despite the fact that we live here. For those reasons I have had absolutely no interest in checking the place out. Until last night. I was invited to a party at the DNA and put on the "list" of people who don't have to pay a cover. I figured: "What the hell? If it sucks I can just leave after five minutes and walk back to my room." Which is exactly what happened. I arrived at around 1:30, when the club is supposedly "rocking," but what I found inside was an utter disappointment. The best comparison I can give is that of a high school dance. The place was half empty and a good third of the patron were hanging around the edge of the dance floor. Those dancing were in small circles and their dancing consisted of standing and occasionally moving a body part. There were of course the requisite number of strange people who seem to be engrossed in their own bizarre "expressive" dance. Yes, Israel has weird people too. Clearly this wasn't my scene so I made a hasty exit to the comfort of my own room. Recently the Kibbutz decided that the DNA was not worth the hassle and decided not to renew the lease to the club managers. Personally, I couldn't really "care" less.

Repressed No More

That's right ladies and gentlemen, I have rights, and as of yesterday I have formally exercised them. I am of course referring to my rights and benefits package as a returning minor to the State of Israel. The rights of a returning minor are basically the same as a new immigrant to the state, including money to help with the first year, tax breaks on vehicles, tax back on appliances and so forth. As a returning minor I am aloud to stay in the country for four months a year before the clock on my benefits starts ticking. After five years said clock stops ticking and your benefits disappear. Only one thing stops the clock - being in the army. The Garin is designed so that everyone enters the army in some way shape or form within the first three months, so that if desired, a returning minor's (which many people in the program are) benefits are preserved. After these people end the army they have a month left to decide whether to stay in the country and use their benefits, or leave the country and save them for another occasion. I had originally planned to save my rights (and decide after the army) but recently changed my mind. Pursuant to that decision I visited the office of absorption and requested that my benefits begin at once. My logic was that the startup money is much more valuable to me now (as I have very little money), and if I end up staying in Israel after the army I should still have a nice window of opportunity to use my rights. On the flip side, if I return to America after the army, the most likely time that I would return to Israel (and use my rights) would be shortly after I was married. In that case I would receive benefits from my wife's immigration. Boo Yeah.

Happy Hanukkah

Socially speaking, Hanukkah in Israel is a little different than Hanukkah in the States. Here, Hanukkah is a kind of nationalistic holiday symbolizing Jewish independence in the land of Israel. Plus everyone eats sufganiot (really good jelly donuts) and kids are on vacation. The highlight of my Hanukkah celebration this year was a Kibbutz tradition where children from the Kibbutz run, while carrying a torch, from Jordan (yes, the country Jordan) to the Kibbutz. This year the run was about 5-6 miles, broken into segments of about a mile. In between the segments kids had the option of riding the bus to the next segment or conversely getting off of the bus to run. We "older" kids also ran both for the fun of it and to assure the safety of the kids. I am proud to report that I ran the entire race, although it was slightly demoralizing when little kids literally half of my height were running along side me. There was no way I was letting myself ride the bus when some 12 year old was still going strong. The race ended as the torch was carried into the Kibbutz and used to light the Hanukkiah. All in all the race was lots of fun and I can't believe how many of the kids ran the entire way. They build these Kibbutz kids strong. Go team Jew!

The Results Are In

I know that many of you realized that if the Israeli army refused to accept me I would be forced to change the name of my blog as I clearly would not be in the army. Fortunately, the Israeli army (which I know for a fact monitors this site) has no intentions of letting a perfectly good blog name go to waste. For that reason, among others, I was accepted as a volunteer into the Israeli army today by a medical committee. The "committee" consisted of a single doctor who gave me a personal interview. He didn't pull any punches though, and asked the tough questions like: "What do you like to do for fun?" and "Do you play any sports?" All and all the whole process was pretty anticlimactic. At the hearing I was also given permission to attend a scaled down version of basic training. This is of particular note because I was under the impression that even this more basic basic training would not be available to me. Oh yeah, and it means I get a gun. Don't mess with me.

Judgment Day

My friends, the day has finally arrived when I shall stand before the medical committee and request admittance into the Israeli army. To be honest, I kind of expected the army to continue pushing off the hearing until I was about.....35, but tomorrow, at 5 AM, I'll be catching a bus to a base in Tel-Aviv where my "Israeli army" fate will be determined. I also found out that, assuming I pass the hearing, my army service will begin at the end of the month - so no visit home for Adam. Stay tuned for results of the medical hearing/my life. Same Bat time. Same Bat channel.

The New Garin

Well, it finally happened. Garin members are starting to disappear into the vast unknown referred to as the Israeli Defense Forces. Last week 7 guys left to join their combat unit. After futzing around for a few days and having a "gibush" (3 days of absolute physical and mental hell which determines who gets accepted into special forces) the guys are about to start their real basic training. One consequence of their leaving is that the day to day dynamics of the Garin have been drastically changed. Aside from the loss of several great personalities, the Garin now consists of 2 guys and 10 girls - who are not yet in the army. A clear example of this change is that tomorrow night we have a "girl's night" program. I don't care how much they beg, I will not let them paint my nails or give me a makeover. This is a frigging army program!

On a serious note though, this does mark a significant change in the "life" of the Garin. We have begun to transition from a group that lives together and sees each other on a daily basis, to one that consists of people serving in different places in the army, seeing each other infrequently on weekends. We had a great ride together and now our real army experience is beginning. I am sure that in the coming months we will learn to appreciate and grow nostalgic for our carefree time shared on Kibbutz.

Thanksgiving in Israel

A number of things happened in the past week and a half, among them the American holiday of Thanksgiving. Believe it or not, they don't make quite as big deal about the holiday here in Israel. Fortunately, I was able to celebrate the heck out of the holiday. On Thursday I traveled to Jerusalem for a Thanksgiving party hosted by Nativ (the pre-college program that I was on 5 years ago). The party was a mini-reunion of sorts and it was nice to see some of my friends and staff members from the program who are currently in Israel. Oh yeah, and I ate turkey and stuffing. I spent Shabbat with my friend Michelle, who hosted a Thanksgiving themed Shabbat dinner (complete with an 18 pound turkey). On Shabbat afternoon we walked to one of Michelle's friends house for, you guessed it, a Thanksgiving Shabbat lunch. I had a great time celebrating the holiday, and I now weigh 250 pounds. God bless those Pilgrims.