Long long day
Jan. 4th, 2007 09:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tamara_russoMy brother swore allegiance to the army today. My parents, my sister and I went to the ceremony. Problem - my brother's base is 4 hours drive from Holon. I got up at 5:30, managed to keep myself up and alert through helping my mom with the dogs, taking a quick shower and getting everything into bags and out of the house. Picked up Michali at about 7:30 and headed south. The scenery was absolutely amazing once we got south of Ashdod, and even more so when we got to the Ramon Crate. It was super cold, and even with two sweaters, a jacket, gloves and a scarf I was freezing. Most of the time we spent doing nothing (typical effectiveness of the IDF).
The ceremony... Oh my - a ridiculous display of stupid speeches through a non-working-microphone. Still - it reminded me my own swearing ceremony. I have to say something about my service at the IDF - I had it easy. Really easy. I was home every day (after boot-camp of three weeks, during which my swearing ceremony took place) and I had very good conditions. I wasn't very keen on going to the army when I was younger, but as my drafting date came nearer I got a better feeling about doing it (it didn't stop me from crying to my mom every night on the phone or being bummed during these 21 months). It's something I ended up believing is very important for everyone in Israel to go through, and I was proud I did what I did, even though it wasn't real fighting. I grew to appreciate the fact I did give what I could to my country, and I remain to this day feeling good about the army and what it represents to me. Seeing my little brother standing there, with the uniforms, shouting "I swear, I swear, I swear!" and remembering most of the actual wording of the swear and singing the Tikva afterwords made me feel very proud, and remember how, after all the time I spent not wanting to be drafted, at the moment of me shouting these words I suddenly felt this poison running through my veins, this happiness that I am a part of this big thing, and the pride to be an 18-year-old girl in Israel and a part of the IDF.
We only got out of there at 16:00-ish. Udi came with us, so the car was very packed. I spent the beginning of the ride reading, but the light faded fast so I just went to sleep. Woke when we got into Be'er-Sheva. We stopped at the mall there to have something to eat (we had lots and lots of fats - at Burger-King...) I was freezing again so had no problem going back to sleep once we got back inside the car. Only woke up again when we got into Holon, though I was sleeping on and off, and got out of the car with a terrible back pain, due to all of the sitting, and the cramping situation inside the car.
I'm so going to sleep.
The ceremony... Oh my - a ridiculous display of stupid speeches through a non-working-microphone. Still - it reminded me my own swearing ceremony. I have to say something about my service at the IDF - I had it easy. Really easy. I was home every day (after boot-camp of three weeks, during which my swearing ceremony took place) and I had very good conditions. I wasn't very keen on going to the army when I was younger, but as my drafting date came nearer I got a better feeling about doing it (it didn't stop me from crying to my mom every night on the phone or being bummed during these 21 months). It's something I ended up believing is very important for everyone in Israel to go through, and I was proud I did what I did, even though it wasn't real fighting. I grew to appreciate the fact I did give what I could to my country, and I remain to this day feeling good about the army and what it represents to me. Seeing my little brother standing there, with the uniforms, shouting "I swear, I swear, I swear!" and remembering most of the actual wording of the swear and singing the Tikva afterwords made me feel very proud, and remember how, after all the time I spent not wanting to be drafted, at the moment of me shouting these words I suddenly felt this poison running through my veins, this happiness that I am a part of this big thing, and the pride to be an 18-year-old girl in Israel and a part of the IDF.
We only got out of there at 16:00-ish. Udi came with us, so the car was very packed. I spent the beginning of the ride reading, but the light faded fast so I just went to sleep. Woke when we got into Be'er-Sheva. We stopped at the mall there to have something to eat (we had lots and lots of fats - at Burger-King...) I was freezing again so had no problem going back to sleep once we got back inside the car. Only woke up again when we got into Holon, though I was sleeping on and off, and got out of the car with a terrible back pain, due to all of the sitting, and the cramping situation inside the car.
I'm so going to sleep.
