We left for Gadna Sunday morning. The bus ride took a little over 2 hours as we headed down south to Sde Boker. When we first got to Gadna they split us into two groups, we met our Mefakdim (commanders) and put our stuff in our tents. The tents were concrete slabs with tents over them and death trap looking wire cots…. I actually thought it was a joke at first. They looked a little friendlier with foam pads and sleeping bags, but not really. We had to roll our tent flaps up every day and let them down every night. We also had to roll our sleeping bags and pack our stuff every morning. 
The first day all we really did was learn the proper positions to stand in, (achshav- feet pointed in a v with your heels touching and your hands in a diamond behind your back above your pants line) learn commands, and go over all the rules about 1000 times. Also I broke my nose. They do this thing where they give you ten seconds to run from one place to the next, and in this case we were running to line up in front of the dining hall for dinner. In true Rachel fashion I tripped and performed the perfect faceplant right onto the bricks. Hello nose fracture!
The next day, everyone else was taking classes on the M-16, how it works, and gun safety. I spent the whole day at the hospital waiting forever to have a doctor look at my nose for 2 minutes. So that was uneventful. That night we had a group circle and talked about our days and I made our commander laugh so much with my reenactment of the hospital. Commanders aren’t supposed to laugh at all so the fact that he was cracking up so much was even funnier.
Wednesday we did some field activities, like rubbing mud all over our faces and learning camouflage, learning army crawls, field commands, how to run from grenades, and all that jazz. It was actually so much fun! Later that day we got to go to the gun range to shoot M-16s… except for me because I missed the classes and they wouldn’t make them up for me. So yey for them. The second half of the day was fun though, we did more field activities and classes and all that jazz. We also had a competition between all the teams with physical challenges like pushups, team running challenges, plank things, and other stuff. Our group beat all the other groups! There were a bunch of other groups of Israelis there, Gadna is kind of like science camp for Israeli students in 11th grade (mostly ones with discipline issues, so not the best kids)
Wednesday was the same shennagians, we got to clean M-16s which was super cool though! The other groups went home Wed morning, so we ended up having the whole camp to ourselves! Thursday morning we just woke up, ate breakfast, packed up, and left. We woke up every morning between 5:30-6, which wasn’t as bad as I thought but the days were definitely draining!
Thursday morning I also messed up my ankle. I was walking across a row of chairs trying to get out, and they were the kid of chairs like in movie theaters where they fold up ( without all the nice padding though) Again, in true Rachel fashion, the chair folded, ate my leg, and the rest of me fell to the floor. I felt totally fine, laughed it off, and was fine all day. I even walked to my cousin’s to meet her brand new, absolutely adorable baby!
BUTTT my ankle was about 3 times its normal size so Friday morning I went to the doctor, still in no pain. The first thing the doctor said when he saw my ankle was “OH MY!” so that’s a good sign. X-rays were taken and the radiologist should have results for me tomorrow (there wasn’t one at the office) so for now I’m on crutches and in a big boot.
I spent the weekend with Arielle at Aimee’s so of course it was filled with tons and tons of delicious food, lots of sleeping, and more food. She played mommy doctor Aimee all weekend, it was adorable.
I also have a nasty cold, and I took some Nyquil before writing this, so you’ll have to excuse me for any mistakes. Hope everyone is doing well and breaking less bones than me! Have a good week!
Mediterranean Mermaid 