Ian.

Well, I'm sure most of you know that today was a really sad day. I don't think it's my place to be saying much about it.


I will say something happy though, because I think it'd be good to think of something positive right now: Hadas came to visit today!

Yes, that's right! Hadas! From Birthright!

Maybe this will sound stupid or insensitive or something, but all day whenever I felt sad, I just thought of Abraham yelling in Rabbi's voice: "HADAS! WHERE'S IAN?!?!?! HADAS!!!!" (I know normally Ian's last name is in the quotation, but in case Ian ever decides to google himself, I don't want this blog to come up.)

It was really great to see a familiar face. I know, I know, after three months the faces on this kibbutz should be more familiar than someone that I haven't seen in like 7 months, but what I meant was that it was great to be able to say "Rabbi" or "Abraham" or whatever and not have to explain who I'm talking about. I can just say, "Abraham" and not follow it up with, " , my poetic friend from Northwestern who is slightly ridiculous but in the best sense possible." I can say, "Rabbi" and not have to explain, " , the rabbi from my college who loves getting people drunk."

Oh man. It was great. I can't even explain it.



This morning though started out interesting. I had to get an additional blood test to send to the army (they want to see for themselves exactly how bad my blood is before deciding my health profile, and they want a more precise test than the impromptu one done in the lishkat giyus), but I had to get it done on the kibbutz. So in the morning I go to the health clinic, and the lady starts poking around looking for a vein. And she says something in Hebrew, and I was like, "Oh fuck, I know what that means.... I don't know the word for veins, but did you just ask me, 'Where are your veins? --Do you HAVE veins?' " And the lady is like, "Yes...."

Every single time of the many times I've had to get blood tested, the people cannot find my fucking veins. They tell me, "Drink a bunch of water the night before and then the morning of the blood test, and then your veins will be easier to find." But it never fucking works! I drank so much fucking water last night and this morning, and yet still my veins are nowhere to be found.

So first the lady stuck me in my left elbow joint. But that didn't really work. So they bandaged me up and then the lady started poking around on my hand. Then they tied the rubber band thing AROUND MY FUCKING WRIST!!! I cannot stand having things around my wrist, which is one reason why I don't really like wearing watches or bracelets, and here I had a fucking tight rubber band on it!! GAAAAAAAA. Then they stuck a needle in a vein in the back of my hand and tried to draw blood from there. After a couple minutes though, they took that needle out too and bandaged up my hand. I looked at the vial, and saw that it only had a couple drops.

The ladies were starting to panic. Then they had the idea to have me lie down. After lying down for a couple minutes, they jabbed a needle into my right elbow joint, and a few excruciating minutes later we FINALLY filled up a single vial. Fuck man.
Then they pulled it out and bandaged me up again.

So basically when I walked out of there, I was a walking battle wound. I had three patches of gauze on me, with long strips of tape to hold them in place. I immediately went to the dining hall so I wouldn't faint, and the Arab guy who rings people up looked at me and asked, "Samim?"
And I kind of wanted to be like, "Exactly."