What a week

Last week was Gadna week. Gadna is a program for 11th graders in Israel to experience what the army will be like for them.
When we first got there, we met our Mifacedet (commander). We then we told that we have 10 seconds to get our things inside our rooms and line up outside. We were told to do this three times, since the rooms kept getting messed up. When we finally got our rooms (all the way on the other side of the base, which is a five min walk away from everything) we were given our new clothing, which consisted of green pants, green shirt and a green belt. We were then given 10 min to run to our new house and change into our army clothing. After that we were basically led on a tour of the camp and told what we were allowed to do and not. At night, we had a ceremony where we got our rankings and told what group we were in. I was a regular soldier, like everyone else and was in the yellow group. (There was a blue group and red group) a group was made up of many different tzvets (smaller groups).
The next day was another basic army day. We learned the 9 rules about guns, such as don’t point it at anyone; it’s not a toy, so on and so on. Afterward, we were given two guns (which where cemented closed and without bullets) and we had to walk around with them and treat them as if they were real. Besides doing army running, pushups, making formations, Day two we also started doing guard duty. It was only 30 min, but we had to guard our room so no one would steal anything important. It was fun to do because during this time, I met other Garin kids and relaxed (since I didn’t have to run or anything.)
The third day was a lot of fun. On the fourth day we had a field day. We were marched from our base, down to the bottom of a hill and we were taught what it’s like to be a soldier out in the field. We learned how to camouflage ourselves with dirt, twigs, and other things. We also learned how to crawl, and what to do if there was a grenade thrown at us. Besides learning what soldiers do in the field, we also learned how they eat. (Mostly tuna or beans out of cans)
On the fourth day, we did a gibush. Basically, we got a taste of what it is like when we go for try out for the units. We had to run with a stretcher and we learned more about the different units in the army. We also got to meet with some soldiers from different units and talk to them about their experience in the army. At night we had our closing ceremony, where we had to give back our ranks and a person from each group was nominated for an award.
The last day was sad but also a lot of fun. We got to shoot real m16 guns. We also got to talk to our Mifacedet as if she was a regular person. It turned out that she was only 18 years old. It was a lot of fun. From Gadna, we went back to the kibbutz for a night party, since it was the birthday of one of the old Garin people.
Then came Shabot, which was very relaxing. Hope the next week is s fun as the last week was!