So the journey back to my base on sunday mornings (or tomorrow afternoon, for that matter) starts with a short bus ride to a train station with this view of the beach. This is where I was standing on the platform. The beach just taunts me as I have to continue my long journey. There are much better views of the beach from this platform, but it was really early and I was too tired (or lazy, or both) to move from my spot to go chasing "the perfect picture.


So the trains are crazily packed with soldiers on sunday mornings. I am near the beginning of the route and there is already no hope of getting a seat by the time the train reaches my stop, so everyone has to sit/stand wherever they can find space. This is the view of the entrance/exit of the train. A little crowded. No shortage of guns, either.


This is the view facing the interior. The green strings that the two girls in the center are wearing means that they are commanders. Their job is to boss people around all day (like in basic training). Almost all the commanders in basic training and in courses look like this (yet another way the israeli army is different than the american army). The girl in the pink is actually sitting on the table between the seats that face each other. She really wanted to sit. There is a girl on the left who is only represented here by a snippet of arm. She is in the military police and was the cutest of the three soldiers there (you can't really get that from her arm, though)


This picture makes the lunch line look a lot more organized than it ever really is. Never are tensions at the base higher than in this line. Pushing, cursing, yelling, and other forms of intimidation are de rigour here. As a matter of fact, you learn quickly that you will get made a fool if you try and be polite here. I tend to speak english when I want to yell at someone in the lunch line because it will throw them off/confuse them enough to hear it that it will give me the upper hand I need.


So this was my lunch. That drink they give us is the only thing we get to drink in the army besides tea. It's pretty much just like Kool-Aid, and I end up drinking it by the pitcher, usually. The put some sort of eggplant thing in the pita just because I wanted eggplant and didn't have anywhere to put it. I started with more fries and another piece of chicken, but didn't think to take the pic until I had eaten about half of it.


This time I remembered to take a picture before I started eating. Notice the "Kool-Aid" again. I make sure to have that for every meal. Out kitchen favors serving breakfast-y foods for dinner, so the french toast comes with my pasta. The little bag of milk was for the cereal they were serving, but I prefer the milk on its own (and ended up getting another 2 bags of it). I love the kind of vanilla pudding that I got with this meal, too. I buy it when I'm at home all the time. I'm totally in love with army food (and the fact that other people make it for me and then clean all the dishes).


So one of the many "little things" I love about Israel is that there are no rats. None. You pretty much never see them. Instead, we have cats! I love cats, so I find all the street cats quite charming and appreciate the fact that they take care of any rats before I ever see them. This particular cat controls the area near the phones I used to talk to my girlfriend every night, so I see him lots.


Israeli cats don't get a lot of photo requests, so they are a bit camera shy. When this cat saw me chasing her with something bright, she decided to make a strategic withdraw from the garbage can. I had no desire to take her dinner away though, so I promptly left her to finish what she started.

Ok, if posts like this are better than the normal rambling, I'll try and deliver more of them. Enjoy!

or at least my computer does. If you wanna talk to me then get this number from me and it will ring me in Israel if I'm home (usually thursday morning-ish to late saturday night-ish, american time). And get Skype if you don't already have it.

So I've been way too lazy about posting, lately. The army has that effect on me. I'll give you a general rundown on some things in my life. Also, it's worth mentioning that I might start turning this into a photoblog of sorts. I mean, I have a digital camera and I have free/unlimited hosting...so I might as well put that to use, eh? Guess we'll see if that materializes. Anyhow, this week:

-On Sunday, I went to an army museum in Tel Aviv instead of going straight back to the base. I guess it's part of the course to go there. I had already been there before, so I saw it as a waste of my time and didn't really pay much attention. Also, before they decided to have us go to this museum (which we had to be at by 11am) they were gonna let us come back to the base at 1pm. I woulda rather done that.

-Monday was just a regular day at the base. Well, other than the fact that my commanders all started yelling at each other. Entertaining, to say the least.

-Tuesday was pretty great because they told me during dinner that I could go home until Thursday morning. I had done really well on a test in my course, so I had a day off coming and was happy to take it then.

-Wednesday was the free day. I was at home. I also took the bus to see Inbal and saw a crazy lady on a bus. She was yelling about how she has the right to yell. The driver kept trying to get her to quite down because its bothering the other passengers, be she kept arguing that she (and apparently, she alone,) is the public. Touche. Anyhow, that was one of the funniest things I've seen in a long time.

-Thursday morning I went back to my base at 10am, then came home at 4pm. The weekend always starts on thursday for me, so there we go. Ok, I'll start trying to get off my ass on posting more...so keep your eye peeled.

So after many hoops jumped through and much money parted with, I have received my drivers license! With how long it took them I was hoping my picture would move like in Harry Potter or something, but alas, I'm frozen in time. Good thing I got it, too, what with my complete lack of access to a car and free usage of all public transportation in Israel. Yippie! Just like turning 16 again (other than the fact that it's completely different).

Click HERE if you don't know the backstory of what I went through to get my license.

Does anyone that reads this not yet have GMail? I have a few invites, so if you want in comment on this with your email address and I'll see about hooking you up.

I had just left my base for the weekend and sat in the bus that was gonna take me to my train when the radio staion (which was one of the two army radio stations) played "Sweet Home Chicago" (Blues Brothers version). It felt really weird to be on my way home (on a bus in Israel) and be listening to that song.

I had a "comedy" column in a school newpaper, so this was one of my attempts at being funny. The column was called "Soliloquy Of Chaos."

- Britain's House of Lords recently concluded 12 days of hearings to determine whether former Chilean dictator Gen. Augusto Pinochet is immune from arrest and extradition to Spain on charges of torture, kidnapping, and murder. The conclusion to these hearings came abruptly as members of the House of Lords suddenly realized that they had absolutely no power at all and if they did actually try to hand down a decision on the matter they would be laughed all the way back to 1832 by the House of Commons...

- Mexico has began a new war on narcotics by allocating 400-500 million dollars over the next three years to buy new planes, ships, and equipment. Interior Secretary Francisco Labastiba Ochua was quoted as saying "This is the most ambitious anti-drug effort that has ever been undertaken by our country." His statement really doesn't mean much though when one considers that Mexico's previous anti-drug effort consisted of a Chris Farley memorial concert in Mexico City with performances from Phish and the Dave Mathews Band...

- The Pope's top theologian, Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, will soon hold a conference with Bishops from the United States in San Francisco to discuss and better understand topics such as homosexuality and feminism. As for why Cardinal Ratzinger would talk to Bishops from the United States about such subjects, someone was quoted as saying "If you want to learn about basketball you talk to Michael Jordan, if you want to learn about Physics you talk to Stephen Hawking, and if you want to learn about homosexuality with young boys you talk to high ranking American Catholic Clergy"...

- Delegates from about 170 nations met recently in Columbia to negotiate an international biotechnology safety treaty that could restrict exports of food and other products made using genetic engineering. When asked why these steps were necessary one delegate replied "If you allow people to export grapes genetically engineered not to have seeds it's only a matter of time before some ego-maniacal mad scientist armed with a genetically engineered army of super-men enslaves the world under his fascist regime"...

- The French carmaker Renault officially agreed to take a stake in the troubled Nissan Motor Company with the intention of strengthening the competitiveness of both companies. If the past is any indicator of where help from the French will get you, the company will fold soon after it faces any real challenge from the German auto makers...

- Endangered Asian elephants are dying from a herpes virus found in their African cousins they only encounter in zoos. When informed of this, Nation of Islam leader Louis Farakkahn immediately blamed racism and the Jew-run Hollywood for these findings...

- Iraq recently warned Kuwait and Saudi Arabia to stop allowing the United States and Britain to use military bases in their countries to carry out attacks against Iraq, and threatened to retaliate if they fail to do so. It's easy to see why they would make such threats when you consider how well it turned out for them the last time they attacked Kuwait and Saudi Arabia...

- Consumer Reports released a report saying that U.S. produce, including some of the fruits and vegetables preferred by children, tended to have more toxic residue than imported produce. This means we can finally add "poisoning our youth" to the list of things that America does better than any other nation on this great planet...

- The Huffy Corporation is selling its garden tools unit, the True Temper Hardware Company, to New Jersey manufacturer U.S. Industries. Huffy's move was prompted by a company-wide urge to focus more on what the company does best: making bicycles kids everywhere are ashamed to be caught riding...

- The United States found itself under attack from both friend and foe during the first week of the United Nations Human Rights Commission's annual meeting, as Germany announced it would submit an anti-death penalty resolution to the commission. This is the latest of the thousands of attempts made by the Krauts to try and get the world to forget about the Holocaust...

- Dr. Bertrand Piccard and Brain Jones sailed into history recently when their Brietling Orbiter 3 completed the first non-stop balloon trip around the world - a goal many had sought but never achieved. This is a milestone in human travel as we can finally traverse great distances without use of rail, boat, horse-drawn buggy, or the new (and still experimental) horseless carriage. I am looking forward to the balloon frenzy that is sure to spawn from this great accomplishment...

- The border conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea worsened recently as Ethiopia began air strikes against an Eritrean position near Tsorona. The two nations agreed to halt air strikes last June, when they realized the closest thing either of them had to an airplane was a few pieces of a plane that had been crashed by a drunken Russian pilot in 1972, and decided agreeing to halt air strikes was the best way to save international face. The issue became a problem again when Ethiopians began fashioning the cardboard boxes from U.N. emergency food rations into large paper airplanes, walking up to the Ethiopian/Eritrean boarder, and sailing the planes into Eritrean airspace. Early casualty reports say that one Eritrean almost had his eye put out by one of the unexpected Ethiopian projectiles...

So yeah, the army is pretty tiring shit. I did see 50 First Dates recently and totally cried at the end. I'm such a wimp. Anyhow, I'm going to a new base Sunday and am gonna be there for at least the next 6 weeks.