A new year!

Hi to everyone,

I hope that everyone has enjoyed the holidays and had time to spend with family and friends. I have enjoyed my holidays here in Israel and have spent all of the holidays at home with my host family. We have eaten a lot, cooked, watched movies, played games, and just spent time together at the house. In-between the holidays I have been at base working hard.

Life has been as normal as can be here in Israel. There has been some increased tensions recently during the holidays in Jerusalem and the territories. It does not deter people from traveling to and from jerusalem and people continue about on the daily activities. It is amazing to watch people that live so close to these riots just go around like nothing is happening.

As far as work on base goes, it has been busy as usual. I am working hard and enjoying it. In two weeks our whole unit is moving to a different base for a couple of months so it has been bust getting things ready to move. I am excited to move to the new base, we will be having more practice drills and be out in the wilderness more often so it will be more interesting. I will have different work to do and will also be busier.

Today we took a day trip to visit some of the historical sites around the house. We went to the hills around Jerusalem and walked around the bunkers used during the independence war to defend and fight for the road to Jerusalem to bring in supplies there. It was interesting seeing all of these old bunkers and trenches and imagining the fighting between the jews and arabs the was happening there. after that we went to the shiryon museum. Also known as the armored corps museum. there they have tanks and other heavy artillery vehicles from as far back as the independence war up to today and the tanks that are in the IDF today. It was pretty interesting seeing the different types of tanks that have been used in different wars here in israel. It is pretty anazing just how many places there are to travel to within Israel. so much of Israel has history that everywhere you go you can learn something.

Life has been good and i am enjoying being here and living here. I miss my family at home, but I know in my heart that this is where I am supposed to be right now. I am hoping in December to come back to the US for a visit, but will not know for sure for another couple of weeks.

Love,
Roxanne