Happy new year!

Hi to all,

I hope that everyone has had a great new Years! I spent mine with friends in Jerusalem and rang in the new year with my army uniform on. I have now been in the army for two weeks and it has been an amazing as well as difficult experience. Going through the drafting process was very interesting. They have an assembly line system to get you through there quickly, but there is still a lot of waiting and confusion. As soon as you put on you uniform though you start to get yelled at by commanders that cannot do anything to you. After everyone has gotten their uniform we were taken onto the bus and driven to the base.
The first week on base you are taking tests for your hebrew level, having interviews and just getting oriented to being in the army. The first week is pretty intense, but it gets even more intense after the first week. During that first week there is no punishment and not as much moving around.
This past week has been my second week on base. We also started our second week of Tironut which is boot camp. This week has been more demanding and even more intense. We get yelled at, there is a lot of running, and you can get push-ups for making the littlest mistake. Even though it is more tough, I am making friends quickly and am finding a support system within the army. This past week we were also given our guns. So wherever we go we have our guns and we are having classes about the guns and how to use them as well as take care of them. We were able to leave base for the weekend wednesday afternoon and that was a nice break. I have to be back on base sunday morning, so having these couple of days off have been nice.
I am now half-way through the boot camp and after the next two weeks I will start hebrew classes to build a better foundation of hebrew. I am really looking forward to that so that i can start to understand more of what is being asked of me within the army.
I hope that this next year brings many joys to all of you!
Happy New year,
Roxanne