11 Days Left!

Wow. I've never had a blog before; this is a new experience in itself. I'm not a big fan of blogs in general, but I figured this was the best way of chronicling my REALLY new experience, of joining the Israeli army.
I also thought it could be useful to other people who might find themselves in my position in the future. I'm an 18 year-old girl just out of high school, and I'm volunteering for the IDF through Mahal. Mahal is the path generally taken by non-Israelis who want to fight in the IDF, but do not want to make Aliyah.
This is their website:
http://www.mahal-idf-volunteers.org/

While I was getting ready to travel to Israel, I found myself in this relatively unique position, and had a lot of trouble finding information relevant to me. If there was info on lone soldiers (Chayalim Bodedim), it was about new immigrants, not Mahal. If there was info on Mahal, it was mainly about male volunteers.
And finally (another problem), my Hebrew is not so great, and finding a female Mahalnik with limited Hebrew who could tell me about her army experience was really hard. In fact, I didn't find one until I made it to Israel, to the kibbutz where I am now.
I hope this blog can help all those who are thinking/planning on joining the Israeli army at some point, and I'll try to update it as often as possible.

Where am I now?
I'm living at a kibbutz in the north of Israel, where I've been in an ulpan for the last 2 months. I did my Tzav Rishon (first meeting with the army when I took all my tests) a few weeks ago, and I received my Tzav Gius (official form from the army with draft date) papers yesterday. I'm drafting on December 21, 2009. 11 days from now! Incredible. As I said, my Hebrew is not great, so I will be going to a base called Michveh Alon for 3 months for pre-basic training and army ulpan. From what I've heard about this place, it's in a very beautiful location, but the actual program is not the best (to put it lightly)...but I'll have my own opinions about it once I actually get there. There are a lot of Russian and French immigrants, with some English speakers (Canadian, American, Australian, etc). Apparently there are more Americans drafting now then there were a few years ago.

I've been waiting for my Tzav Gius papers, because with them I can open a soldier bank account (more benefits than a normal bank account). I'll have to do that sometime next week. I haven't had any money for the past month because I've been waiting for these papers. Being at a kibbutz, there's nothing I really NEED money for, but walking past cafes in town and passing up delicious fresh falafel because you're broke is an experience I wouldn't wish on anyone.