Tzav Rishon

So I'm officially in the IDF database!

This past Monday my entire garin (the group of kids I'm living with that are also joining the army- we're not all joining the same units though) had tzav rishon. That literally translates into "first step" but in real English it would mean something like "first summons". Pretty much its just when we all go and get poked and prodded by doctors and do physical tests and written tests and putz around until they give us our profile (the number out of 97) and our kaba (the number out of 56)

So we get there and woopdie doo, theres no air-conditioning. That's right. Over 50 kids in a room in Be'er Sheva and no AC. ONe by one kids are getting called into this room. I'm obviously nervous so I whip out my Harry Potter (number 4) and started reading about the Yule Ball and how Harry wishes he went with Cho but he went with Pavarti instead!

Anyways, I get called into the room and sit with a soldier. She starts asking me all the questions - "are your parents still together" "how many siblings" "whats your address" etc. etc. It took a freaking year, but eventually we moved on to the Hebrew test which was her showing me a sentence, me reading it and saying what it meant. I also had to write sentences that she would dictate- all of which were level 90897653 and most Israelis wouldn't even understand.

Apparently I scored high enough on that to take the psichotechni (test that all incoming soldiers have to take to show their intelligence) in Hebrew. EVERYONE ELSE took it in English, even the kids who have perfect Hebrew and sound completely Israeli. I was literally THE only one who took it in Hebrew and didn't understand why... I mean legit I barely freaking speak the language.

So everyone else who was taking it in English finished in about 20 minutes but my test was like the freaking SAT so it took about 1.5 hours. Turns out my best friend and roommate Talia took it in Hebrew also. We were both totally freaking out because here we are, getting judged on the same level as everyone else (the score affects your profile which in turn affects the jobs you can get as a soldier) but we had the test about 89764 times harder in a language that is by no means our mother tongue!

(blast that Gittleman and Schechter for teaching me to read and write well)

So the soldier who is in charge of our garin and lives with us on the kibbutz came up to Talia and I today and told us that the office called her and said that we each did well on our tests. Not amazing, not to our "highest potential", but we did well. Well enough for Talia to be a moshakit-tash (social worker for the army) which is what she wants to do. She told us that it wasn't fair that we had to take it in Hebrew and the army is now saying we have the option to take it again in English and potentially raise our scores and profiles.

Here's the catch: we have to write a letter of appeal, translate it to Hebrew, send it back to the office and then wait for the next day we can go in to retake the test. That's not really so bad. The thing is that all of this waiting may push back our enlistment date because the whole process will be delayed. Meaning, the entire garin will be enlisting around november and Talia and I might be stuck on the kibbutz with nothing to do until February just because this FREAKING army can't get their shit straight.

Then again we might be able to take the test right away. Who knows?

The other thing is: there is a "yom me-ah" which all girls go to and get evaluated by specialists. Its a good thing, it can raise your profile a lot and totally cancel out the test grade. Pretty much the specialists see how well you work with electronics, other people, the Hebrew language, etc. etc.

I don't really know what to do. Any suggestions?