Shopping in Israel

Some of our American MFO freedoms have been restored! And one of those is a day trip to Be'er Sheva to go to the mall on a shopping trip. Even though we are not in a war zone (wink wink), we must travel in convoys and must wear our body armor and helmets to travel through Egypt. Sounds like something everyone wears to the mall, right? Everyone not in a war zone...

 

Just before you cross the border to Israel, all the body armor is stored at an MFO outpost. You don't need all that protective gear in Israel because it really isn't in a war zone. While we were killing time at the Fijian outpost, waiting for the boarder to open, I met a cat. This cat was really nice, but something happened to his lip and he looked like Two Face from Batman:

 

 

Two Face tried to stow away into Israel with us. He jumped in the van and hid under the back seat. We shooed him out, but I was tempted to let him go to Israel and give him to opportunity to have a better life. Smuggling animals across the boarder is probably illegal though.

 

The mall in Be'er Sheva is like an outdoor outlet mall. There were all kinds of stores to go in to. Some modern and some not so much. A few of the clothing stores we walked into looked like they hadn't received new inventory since 1992-- but there were people buying this stuff like it was the hottest new trend. And then there were actual modern American stores like American Eagle. I bought a couple cute blouses, a pair of jeans and two super cute dresses. 

 

Most of the clerks tried to speak Hebrew to us at first. My confused face and simple reply, "No" tipped them off to switch to English. All the receipts were in Hebrew too, so I didn't know where to sign. I guessed. I probably looked retarded. And everything was in shekels, so I only had a vague idea of what I was spending.

 

Tracy and I ate in a restaurant called Burgus Burger Bar. We thought it was just going to be a burger joint, but when we walked in, it was much nicer than we anticipated. We ordered grilled chicken wraps that were absolutely off the hook with sautéed peppers and guacamole inside. We also ordered virgin strawberry daiquiris that were basically the best thing on earth. It was hands down the best meal I've eaten since I deployed. I gorged myself. I couldn't help myself.

 

 

 

It was so nice to walk around like a normal person and feel like I'm not deployed to the desert. We only had 3 hours total of shopping time since we had to get back to the boarder crossing check point in time for curfew. No one is allowed out after 1600 or the Egyptian Army has permission to open fire if they feel the need to. Once again, we are not in a war zone. I'll go again in a few months to indulge again for an afternoon.

American Contingent BBQ

Last night the American Contingent threw a BBQ at our American Club. Usually the American Club is dead, because it is the only dry club on base. Last night, in order to draw people to the BBQ, there was beer available to us. It was free, too! But it was Bud Light, yuck. And we were only allowed to have 3, boo. AND there was a by name roster of all the Americans so they could record how many beers everyone had.

 

Basically, it was really lame. But did I go? Heck yes I did. I wanted 3 shitty Bud Lights and a burned cheese burger with cold macaroni and cheese.

 

Although this was not technically mandatory fun, it was highly encouraged. And since I'm a Staff Sergeant now, I felt obligated. I wore a cute dress and drank my warm Bud Lights quickly. Listened to the DJ play terrible music way too loud, paid for shitty BBQ food and bounced within 2 hours.

 

Eileen, me and Tracy

 

The American Club was actually pretty busy, though. It just goes to show that people will go where there is beer. I hope our leadership noticed that. Just think about how much money the American Contingent could make selling shitty BBQ if they also sold beer?? People would go. People would get a buzz and think, "Yes, a black hot dog is exactly what I need right now!"

 

I wish the American Contingent wasn't so uptight. All the other Contingents don't have the rules we have. It makes us seem like the lame home schooled kids in homemade clothes in comparison.

Stalactite Cave & Tank Museum

I almost died on the third and final day of my Israel tour.

In my old age (really actually just since I've been deployed to Egypt) I've found myself getting extremely motion sick. I was feeling really rotten on my first day on the bus while we were bouncing down the winding highway to the Dead Sea. But I was smart on the first day and had Dramamine in my backpack. On the third day I was an idiot and put my backpack under the bus-- with the Dramamine still in it. So as the bus was bouncing around on a winding highway towards the caves we were going to explore, I was suffering. I was sweaty and nauseous. And the road just never seemed to end. I needed desperately to get my drugs from under the bus. I really thought I was going to vomit just before we arrived to the caves. I was searching for something to vomit into. All I had was my purse-- and I didn't want to vomit into my purse.

After I gobbled some Dramamine and drank some water OFF the bus, I was able to enjoy myself at the caves we visited.

The cave we visited is called Stalactite Cave, near Jerusalem. It's name isn't exactly creative, but it was exactly what we got to see. The cave was so cool!!

 

 

 

 

 

After we toured the cave, we went to the Israel Armored Vehicle Museum. All the tanks Israel has ever used in their Army-- and then some-- were on display for us to check out and climb all over.

 

 

It was cool, but we didn't get much time there because we had to make it to the Egypt border before a certain time so we could get back into the country. The border has hours of operation and if you miss the window, you're out of luck.

I had a really nice 3 day trip to explore Israel. When I found out I was being deployed to Egypt, I couldn't wait to sight see. But all the civil unrest over here has made that nearly impossible. I was lucky I got to experience as much as I did. And, thanks to Dramamine, I didn't die.

Old City & The Church of the Holy Sepulcher

Day 2 of my Israel tour yielded a few adventures. Today we toured Jerusalem and went into the Old City. It's a section of the city that is walled in completely full of merchants and The Church of the Holy Sepulcher-- where Jesus was crucified and his body was prepared for burial.

 

 

I'm not a religious person, but seeing this church was really impressive. Being in a place of religious pilgrimage was profound, even for me. I saw some really hard core Christians manically cleaning the stone slab Jesus was prepared for burial on, then pressing their faces on the stone. One man had a picture of Jesus laid out on the slab, which he gazed at while he laid on the stone for over a half an hour. I took a picture of him because it was so striking to me how dedicated he was.

 

We also saw the Wailing Wall, or the Western Wall. This is another pilgrimage site for Jewish people. People come to the wall to pray, and to stuff written prayers on paper between the stones. The wall is partitioned off into two sections-- one side for men to pray, the other for women.

 

 

 

Old City has a huge market inside of it where we were allowed to go shop and haggle with the local merchants. I learned two important lessons while in the Old City: Israeli men like blond hair and tattoos and will lower their prices simply based on that and to never, ever, ever under any circumstances step all the way into a shop unless you want to be sexually assaulted.  I was touched way too much and had too many inquiries about my marital status.

 

So, James, Sammy the creepy merchant told me to tell you that you are a lucky man.

 

The shopping was interesting though. Old City is just alley after alley of little hole in the wall (almost literally) shops peddling all kinds of things from pig hearts to leather purses to olive wood crosses. I bought a few things and ate some absolutely delicious lamb shawarma.

 

Everything is pretty expensive in Israel. One American dollar is worth about three and a half shekles. So paying 10 shekles for a can of soda is crazy expensive, but that is the standard. Today I ate well, learned things, bought stuff and spent a lot of money. A typical vacation day.

Masada & The Dead Sea

I am currently on an MWR bus trip to Israel. Today was the first day of the trip, so we spent half the day traveling. Not because North Camp is really very far from Jerusalem, but because it takes hours to get through the boarder between Egypt and Israel-- it really depends on how the guards feel that day as to how long you'll wait.

The other half of the day we toured Masada and swam in the Dead Sea.

Masada was really cool. I didn't have the slightest clue what it was until today. I'm not a Jewish or Roman history buff. I had a whole lot of knowledge dropped on me today about a Jewish King from around year 20 who built an enormous hide out called Masada in the desert of Israel so he could hide from his people when they had uprisings and wanted to kill him. This dude spared no expense on his hideout-- it was really legit and carved into the rock on the side of a cliff. Then long after he was dead a bunch of Jewish zealots moved into Masada and the Romans wanted to kill them. The Romans spent a lot of man hours making ramps to get up to Masada and they failed for a few years. But then they finally lit the front gates to Masada on fire and gained entry. But-- oh no!! All the Jews stabbed each other to death and committed suicide before the Romans got to the top of the hill. Bummer for the Romans who wanted to enslave the Jews.

 

 

 

 

But anyways, history aside, I toured the mountain top complex and it was really cool. Masada overlooks the Dead Sea. Which is where we went next.

 

 

The Dead Sea was so awesome. I was so buoyant that I didn't need to tread water to stay afloat. It just looked like we were all standing in chest deep water. I swam out and had trouble sitting back up because my legs wanted to float out from under me! The water is so ridiculously salty. We were advised not to put our heads underwater because it would burn our faces. I went ahead and followed that advise. I didn't want to melt off my face. After I got out of the water and rinsed off, I realized my skin was incredibly soft and smooth. I always thought that Dead Sea skin treatment stuff was a bunch of bullshit but apparently it's not! So next time you're at the mall and some pushy dude at a kiosk tries to sell you that skin care stuff from the Dead Sea, go ahead and consider it.

Staff Sergeant Promotion Day

My date of rank to Staff Sergeant is April 1st, but I did not get to have the promotion ceremony or wear the rank on my chest until today... the 6th. I had to wait for Fort Campbell to send my orders over to Egypt, and surprise, that wasn't top priority! It's all good though, I've been on the payroll as a Staff Sergeant since the 1st.

 

So today I got pinned. My Commander said some really great things about me at the ceremony. He said I am one of the most dependable NCOs he's ever worked with and that I am passionate about taking care of my Soldiers-- he said he was confident I could run the whole company if he asked me to. He said my ceiling for potential in the Army is limitless. I don't think anyone has ever said such wonderful things about me, ever. Let alone in a public forum. It's really touching to know I am held in high regard.

 

I had my battle buddy, Tracy, do the honors of ripping off my Sergeant rank and placing Staff Sergeant on my chest.

 

 

 

I'm really proud I made it to the rank of Staff Sergeant. It may have taken a few set backs, a break in service and a total of 8 years in service to the US Army, but I made it. Better late than never. And I intend to keep doing what I think is best for me and the Army-- it seems to be working out lately.