First Days

If this is what the army is like, then so far I love it.
My Giyus was this past Wednesday which means I went to Bakum again to complete the becoming-a-soldier process. But for some reason, getting a shot, filling in a few papers, eating lunch and changing into a uniform takes about 10 hours.
I got to the lishkat hagiyus at about 10am where there were hundreds of teary eyed parents and soon to be soldiers dancing (mostly the religious ones). Then we signed in and loaded buses to a different part of the base. And we waited, and waited, and waited some more. Finally we made it to the part where we got all our stuff and uniforms and tried them on. When we were sure that everything fit nicely, we left that area and waited. And waited and waited. While waiting we did a few attention calls. But in the end all the waiting was worth it because unlike Nachal, who also had their Giyus that day, we went home. Fast days in the army are like sick days on base plus the first shabbat is almost always free, so they just let us go. Since then I've just been enjoying walking around Jerusalem, despite the random people on the street who yell "tzair" at me. "Tzair" means young and in the army it is the nickname for new soldiers.
A few words about our uniform: because we are tzanchanim, we get a different uniform. Our boots are red, the pants are the same but our shirts are totally different. They have four pockets on the front and we wear a second belt over the shirt which is not tucked in. One of the things people say to make fun of us tzanchanim is pointing out that we wear "skirts".
On Sunday, I actually start the army when I report to a base in Baer Sheva where there are buses to my base.