Monday, September 28, 2009

2 days until...


Shana Tova/Gmar Chatima Tova! I'm currently sitting in the Rahamim's dining room. We finished fasting about 4.5 hours ago and broke the fast with delicious fruit and sweets followed by a meat meal. We didn't go to synagogue for 2 reasons. 1, I was afraid that I would get the swine flu in shull and that is the last thing I need two days before Yom Sayarot. The second reason is that they don't typically go to shull here on Yom Kippur. There seems to be an Israeli custom that you fast but you stay at home and watch movies. I took advantage of the Lax Day of Atonement and slept until 12:15 and then woke up and watched a movie (Ben-Hur to be specific). In short, it was a good and easy fast and I'm glad I spent it here. As for Yom Sayarot, Shiri will be driving me to it at the Wingate Institute near Netanya on Wednesday. It starts at 3 pm and lasts 1 day approximately. This means that we will be sleeping there (at least I hope we will be sleeping). I hope this is all information that is not "classified" and that the army will not come after me for disclosing this on the internet. I have to admit that I am a little bit nervous because I really want to get to a specific unit. From the 3-4 options that are possible I have 1 that I would really prefer and another one that I would accept and still be greatly honored. They are all excellent units and to be accepted to any of them is truly extremely difficult. We find out which unit accepts us at the end of the 2-day tryout. Well, not exactly accepts but rather gives you the opportunity to be accepted. Once you pass Yom Sayarot you continue on to the Gibush of the unit that invites you. The Gibush is 5 days and extremely grueling. From what I've heard, Yom Sayarot is more physical and Gibush is more mental. I can't say any of this with absolute certainty, however, since I have not experienced either of them. Whatever way the tryout turns out at least I can sleep soundly knowing that I did all I could to prepare myself. Over the past several weeks I have been training relentlessly and restricting my diet accordingly to what would yield optimal results. My workout schedule went something like this: 3-4 days a week running, 3 days weight lifting/strength training, and the occasional cross-training exercise such as swimming or weighted-cardio (lunges while holding weights).

On a separate note we started picking avocados this past week (Ettinger avocados to be precise). This is exciting because work is no longer so grueling. Picking is a lot easier for 2 reasons: we pick in the trees which provide shade and also I can listen to my music/audiotapes. Some of the other work demands that you listen or simply cannot deal with the iPod. Everything is going relatively well and I just go a package from my parents which really brightened things up. I had a lot of things that I wanted to blog about but it seems I'm too tired tonight. Maybe after Yom Sayarot. 'Night!

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