Yeah, that whole waking up early thing…
moocowinthecity Anyways, breakfast, labs for an hour or so, then NCampus to meet with Wolf, back to South for more labs, then HARRY POTTER!!
July 2007
Yeah, that whole waking up early thing…
Anyways, breakfast, labs for an hour or so, then NCampus to meet with Wolf, back to South for more labs, then HARRY POTTER!!
Shaliach To Do List
The Shaliach gave me a to do lis comprised of four thingst:
1. Kibbutz Application 50%:
I just need to get the physical, otherwise it’s completed.
2. Nefesh B’Nefesh 0%:
Can’t fill out the application until their website updates with the February date, next month.
3. Garin Tzabar Application In Progress:
I sent them an email, waiting for an email or a call back.
4. Letter from my Rabbi Completed
Letter has been faxed in, Tik has been opened.
Shaliach To Do List
The Shaliach gave me a to do lis comprised of four thingst:
1. Kibbutz Application 50%:
I just need to get the physical, otherwise it’s completed.
2. Nefesh B’Nefesh 0%:
Can’t fill out the application until their website updates with the February date, next month.
3. Garin Tzabar Application In Progress:
I sent them an email, waiting for an email or a call back.
4. Letter from my Rabbi Completed
Letter has been faxed in, Tik has been opened.
Soaking Wet & Lacking a Soccer Ball
So it’s currently a hurricane outside, wonderful, wonderful, fast, heavy rain is coming down (my favorite kind of weather) though sadly I’m lacking a soccer ball and some guys to have fun in it (I have to add ‘soccer ball’ to my list of things to bring to the kibbutz). It’s really, really pouring outside…all of my clothing is water logged…class starts in half an hour…but it was wonderfully destressing to walk around in it (I had to…to get to class).
For those of you who aren’t afraid of listening to your ipod in a storm; highly recommend Man of War’s Warriors of the World to listen to…it’ll make you want to roll around in the mud…which I probably would have done barring the fact that class is from 5:30 to 9:40PM.
…now, time for food…then class, then more food, then exam…
Soaking Wet & Lacking a Soccer Ball
So it’s currently a hurricane outside, wonderful, wonderful, fast, heavy rain is coming down (my favorite kind of weather) though sadly I’m lacking a soccer ball and some guys to have fun in it (I have to add ‘soccer ball’ to my list of things to bring to the kibbutz). It’s really, really pouring outside…all of my clothing is water logged…class starts in half an hour…but it was wonderfully destressing to walk around in it (I had to…to get to class).
For those of you who aren’t afraid of listening to your ipod in a storm; highly recommend Man of War’s Warriors of the World to listen to…it’ll make you want to roll around in the mud…which I probably would have done barring the fact that class is from 5:30 to 9:40PM.
…now, time for food…then class, then more food, then exam…
So much work, so little time…
the problem with too much travel, is too little sleep…and it’s hitting me at crunch time…and I’m actually stressing for no reason: I have a B+ in wolfs class, I can hand in labs up to a week late, I know I’m going to ace my exam today…but my sleep cycles fucked, I’m hungry, and tired…and stressing for the sake of stressing…which means I’m going to stop stressing now, get some dinner, wake up, do as many labs as I can turn in, go take the exam, finish whatever labs on Friday, meet with Wolf on Friday in whatever form my paper has taken (it’s really growing out of proportion…I keep having to spend close to 20,00 to print it whenever I need to edit it, in the computer labs). and then harry potter this weekend.
Okay, food, then no stress, then brushing teeth, then sleep.
G’night.
So much work, so little time…
the problem with too much travel, is too little sleep…and it’s hitting me at crunch time…and I’m actually stressing for no reason: I have a B+ in wolfs class, I can hand in labs up to a week late, I know I’m going to ace my exam today…but my sleep cycles fucked, I’m hungry, and tired…and stressing for the sake of stressing…which means I’m going to stop stressing now, get some dinner, wake up, do as many labs as I can turn in, go take the exam, finish whatever labs on Friday, meet with Wolf on Friday in whatever form my paper has taken (it’s really growing out of proportion…I keep having to spend close to 20,00 to print it whenever I need to edit it, in the computer labs). and then harry potter this weekend.
Okay, food, then no stress, then brushing teeth, then sleep.
G’night.
So my meeting with the Shaliach
So I got to the meeting with the Shaliach and realized how much I missed being interrogated by hot Israeli Security agents. After about 15 minutes of interrogation through three inch thick bullet proof glass I was cleared to go into the next room. Being brought into the next room, the doors were about four inches thick, the door shut behind me and a green light goes on indicating that if the security agent wishes, the other door is no longer magnetically sealed, and he can use his key to open it – only one door can be opened at a time.
I then walk through a metal detector twice and then on another table the security agent goes through my bag. I thank him; and he pulls a key that’s chained to his belt and lets me in through the second door and I’m brought into a lavish waiting room (we’re a couple of blocks away from lex, in midtown).
My heart was racing…not from the interrogation, but from the interrogator…Israelis are beyond attractive and he was being aggressive too…see, 15 minutes of interrogation and he knows how I like my men. Bless him.
I then meet my Shaliach, Liran. She asks if I’d like some coffee and she and I walk to the coffee room and converse and she reminds me to slow down a few times, remarking that “your English is like my Hebrew” and I think to myself that I’d like my Hebrew to be as fast as my English.
We walk back to her office and I pull out the multi-tabbed portfolio that I have all of my completed documents organized in; and our meeting officially comes to a start. We have a long conversation with each other (her getting to know me, well more than I her) and, and finally she says “what would you like” and I said “I would like to learn Hebrew on a Kibbutz, then I want to serve in the IDF, then I want to get my Masters degree and then I want to live in Israel” and she says “Good, that’s the plan I was outlining for you in my head; allow me to go into more detail, beseder?” to which I reply “beseder”:
“You will go to this Kibbutz Ulpan program, it is five months; you will work three days a week and study three days a week, beseder?”
“beseder”
“You will do this for five months, then you will go to another kibbutz that will prepare you for IDF service. You will have your adoptive family there. You will start basic training there, and meet commanders, and other personnel. You will not be serving together, you will serve where your interests are, some will be pilots, others infantry, but your apartments will be there and if you go home on the weekends, then you will see each other. You will be paid a higher salary because you are a lone soldier since you have no family in Israel. You will serve for four years, five if you wish to become a commander. I was a commander, I found it worthwhile. Most people, after they are done serving, take three or four months off; you however, will not. You serve your country, your country will serve you: your masters degree will be fully covered…it is incredibly important that you get your masters degree. Israelis do their four years in the IDF, then get their degree…instead, you have gotten your degree and are now doing your four years in the IDF, this means that when you leave the IDF you will have been acclimated to Hebrew in Ulpan, made friends on the second kibbutz, proved yourself in the IDF and made friends there and will be entering your graduate studies at the age that the other Israelis do, and you will finally be with your peers, beseder?”
“Beseder”
“You will have no place to bring lots of things with you, you may bring with you two to three duffel bags, no more than 50 to 58 lbs each, beseder”
“Beseder”
“You will apply to Nefesh B’Nefesh, they may not like it that you are not taking their flight. They receive most of their funding from the Israeli Government, they cannot turn you down for a grant, and if they do, you call me, and I will make sure that you get the Grant, beseder?”
“Beseder”
“You will carbon copy me on any and all communication you have, Beseder?”
“Beseder”
“Wonderful, I’ll see you in December and affix the visa to your passport, you’ll fly out in Early February or January. We’ll figure that out in December.”
After that, I called my Rabbi (in her office, she wanted an introduction) and he was pleased to hear that she wanted to speak at our Synagogue and asked me to give him her cell phone number, which I did. Her assistant then came and copied all of my papers (I was warned and told she’d kill me if I ever gave any israeli an original document…that I’m to only let them photocopy it and get it right back…so those apostilles are now in my families safe until I fly out) and was pleased to find that I’m organized (or at least, my paperwork always is).
I now have a few other papers that I need to send into her, and I have to harass my rabbi to fax them some information…and all of that can happen tomorrow.
But it’s happening…it doesn’t feel real yet, but it’s happening.
So my meeting with the Shaliach
So I got to the meeting with the Shaliach and realized how much I missed being interrogated by hot Israeli Security agents. After about 15 minutes of interrogation through three inch thick bullet proof glass I was cleared to go into the next room. Being brought into the next room, the doors were about four inches thick, the door shut behind me and a green light goes on indicating that if the security agent wishes, the other door is no longer magnetically sealed, and he can use his key to open it – only one door can be opened at a time.
I then walk through a metal detector twice and then on another table the security agent goes through my bag. I thank him; and he pulls a key that’s chained to his belt and lets me in through the second door and I’m brought into a lavish waiting room (we’re a couple of blocks away from lex, in midtown).
My heart was racing…not from the interrogation, but from the interrogator…Israelis are beyond attractive and he was being aggressive too…see, 15 minutes of interrogation and he knows how I like my men. Bless him.
I then meet my Shaliach, Liran. She asks if I’d like some coffee and she and I walk to the coffee room and converse and she reminds me to slow down a few times, remarking that “your English is like my Hebrew” and I think to myself that I’d like my Hebrew to be as fast as my English.
We walk back to her office and I pull out the multi-tabbed portfolio that I have all of my completed documents organized in; and our meeting officially comes to a start. We have a long conversation with each other (her getting to know me, well more than I her) and, and finally she says “what would you like” and I said “I would like to learn Hebrew on a Kibbutz, then I want to serve in the IDF, then I want to get my Masters degree and then I want to live in Israel” and she says “Good, that’s the plan I was outlining for you in my head; allow me to go into more detail, beseder?” to which I reply “beseder”:
“You will go to this Kibbutz Ulpan program, it is five months; you will work three days a week and study three days a week, beseder?”
“beseder”
“You will do this for five months, then you will go to another kibbutz that will prepare you for IDF service. You will have your adoptive family there. You will start basic training there, and meet commanders, and other personnel. You will not be serving together, you will serve where your interests are, some will be pilots, others infantry, but your apartments will be there and if you go home on the weekends, then you will see each other. You will be paid a higher salary because you are a lone soldier since you have no family in Israel. You will serve for four years, five if you wish to become a commander. I was a commander, I found it worthwhile. Most people, after they are done serving, take three or four months off; you however, will not. You serve your country, your country will serve you: your masters degree will be fully covered…it is incredibly important that you get your masters degree. Israelis do their four years in the IDF, then get their degree…instead, you have gotten your degree and are now doing your four years in the IDF, this means that when you leave the IDF you will have been acclimated to Hebrew in Ulpan, made friends on the second kibbutz, proved yourself in the IDF and made friends there and will be entering your graduate studies at the age that the other Israelis do, and you will finally be with your peers, beseder?”
“Beseder”
“You will have no place to bring lots of things with you, you may bring with you two to three duffel bags, no more than 50 to 58 lbs each, beseder”
“Beseder”
“You will apply to Nefesh B’Nefesh, they may not like it that you are not taking their flight. They receive most of their funding from the Israeli Government, they cannot turn you down for a grant, and if they do, you call me, and I will make sure that you get the Grant, beseder?”
“Beseder”
“You will carbon copy me on any and all communication you have, Beseder?”
“Beseder”
“Wonderful, I’ll see you in December and affix the visa to your passport, you’ll fly out in Early February or January. We’ll figure that out in December.”
After that, I called my Rabbi (in her office, she wanted an introduction) and he was pleased to hear that she wanted to speak at our Synagogue and asked me to give him her cell phone number, which I did. Her assistant then came and copied all of my papers (I was warned and told she’d kill me if I ever gave any israeli an original document…that I’m to only let them photocopy it and get it right back…so those apostilles are now in my families safe until I fly out) and was pleased to find that I’m organized (or at least, my paperwork always is).
I now have a few other papers that I need to send into her, and I have to harass my rabbi to fax them some information…and all of that can happen tomorrow.
But it’s happening…it doesn’t feel real yet, but it’s happening.