Thursday 7/19

Bright and early we loaded into the car to drive Lia to town to Ammunition Hill to meet the buses taking all of the new draftees to the Bakum (the processing base) to turn them into soldiers. The whole thing was not as big of a deal as I had anticipated but that’s probably because Lia is going into the Education Corps and was probably going to come home on Friday after moving her stuff into her new base. When the girls got there they were supposed to sign in with their ID numbers and their Draft Notices to get assigned to buses. Lia was waiting for some friends so they would be able to go together so we hung out inside the lobby of the Ammunition Hill museum watching everyone say goodbye to their friends and families. Everyone in the room seemed to be reacting differently. A lot of the girls (including Lia) were walking around nonchalantly chatting with friends as if they were waiting for the bus to take them to camp or something. She didn't even really want us to come because she didn't think it was a big deal. There were others that looked like they were going to throw up, and some were even crying. It's funny; barely 2 weeks after making aliyah I felt like I was watching the group of people go through security at the airport. Bottom line is that whether it’s going into the army or moving halfway across the world change is scary. I am really proud of Lia for taking it so well, she seems to adapt really well to new things. Because we are in Israel things couldn't be completely as you'd expect. There was a whole group of kids going in together and the people from their youth group came and brought drums and randomly every few minutes they'd break out the drums and start cheering. When their friends were called to load the buses they started singing some song and carried their friends on their shoulders to the doors. It made the whole thing really festive! The other interesting thing is that once the drums started everyone in the room started to involuntarily dance along...it was hilarious!!! Once Lia was gone I went with Noa to the bus station so she could get back to the Moshav to work and I could get to David's house. We had breakfast in the station and then went our separate ways. I took the wrong bus. It theoretically is the right bus, but it takes an extra 45 minutes than the other buses. I always confuse which bus lines I should take and often end up on the extra long one. I got to David's house eventually and crashed for a few hours. I hung out with Ari for a while and worked on my blog until David came home :). We went into town to have dinner. I'd been craving sushi and earlier in the week I'd passed a new restaurant that said it was also a sushi bar. We went to try it out and it was surprisingly good. It was a little pricey so it’s not something I would do on a regular basis. Bottom line though the food was good and it was a really nice date. It's good to be able to go out on official dates whenever possible. It adds a real sparkle to the week and gives us something to DO rather than just hanging out in his house. We went home early and started watching Disk 2 of movie 1 of the Lord of the Rings. It was awesome.