The End...?

So Koichi has left us, the second of my comrades in commencement, and there were much tears and "NO I'll miss you more"-ing, as is to be expected on such a momentous and life changing day...oh no wait there wasn't. I went out to Akko the day before he left and came back that night, went and kicked it at his flat while he packed, we went to eat on Ben Gurion and then came up the mountain to see some of the other folk to whom Gouch meant a lot. No ceremony, no fannying about and no girlyness. Jordan you can be sure that all men were manly and women were strong and feminine. I had work the next day and thus would not be able to see Gouch off to the Airport so we said good bye, a real goodbye on Hatzionut, involving the correct amount of hugging and promising of contact keeping and I was off to bed and the Asian Stalian was off to finish socializing and presumably finish packing at some stage. A neat ending to a neatly begun experience that, if I have any luck, will extend further into the land of friendship then it already has.

By no means do I mean to purvey flippancy at Koichi's leaving, as I've said he is a damn good man, and one that I definitely did not see enough of, but it was a "matter of fact goodbye", and very appropriate knowing who was involved. My relationship to Gouch has been somewhat of a counter point to my relationship with Anis (I was wandering when I was going to bring him up. Jesus, I hope this is the last time.) I did not share in Gouch's experience as we served in different departments, I never kicked it one on one with him on Hillel street at 4 in the morning after evening shift, talking about life, the universe and everything, juat mutual respect and a common cause leading to a solid friendship that is more than important enough to warrant a diatribe on a blog (or does my use of language in this post so far inspire me to spell it "blouge". I think that would be straying to far across the line of self aggrandizing and well into bullshit.) and I will miss him dearly no matter how much emailing and I.M.ing and network tool using is done. In other news I have officially finished work, I am no longer a security guard at The B.W.C. and all I can say about my last shift is that it rocked out loud!! Stories best told in person and not left to silly misinterpretation on by any Joe Stupid-dude who happens to fall across my blog, unlike a lot of folk on "myspace" I understand that the internet is visible to others and not just a fancy diary. So its all packing and cleaning and getting ready for Clorins wedding, which means the purchasing of a suit...God! guide me... and much guitar practising, it seems I will be playing for the whole ceremony and seating process. On the lighter side It looks like I'm going to America for 4 days on the 16th to attend the Neby conference... WOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOO. Through much help and cajoling from both friends and even my parents I decided that even though money is really tight, I should go and see the people that were here when first I started this journey into "me", and get the spirit down in my heart. There will be reports between now and then, and if not then probably a monster one after it. To sign off, I say farewell to thee oh Gouch-i-boy. May all go well and your first son be a masculine one. (Hey no pictures of Anis at least, yeah I'm phasing him out, that’s what I'm doing.)

1 down...

Well the exodus has begun. Anis has left us, and he would tell me to have a cry if I said anything even slightly kind or nostalgic and that's why we are such good friends. Anis and his sister left without pomp or ceremony, the same way I'm looking to bug out, sure there was tears and some awkward moments but Anis just told me to stop being such a big girl about it.

I've been through this before, people leave here everyday and new people come but Anis leaving is the real signal to me that I'm actually leaving Israel, friends since orientation and both guards who care about why we're here, there is a bond there, all it really means is I have to get my fat ass to Australia at some point. When Ryan, and Mar and Deuce left it was a big deal because I didn't have the honour of knowing these people for long enough before they hastened on, but this is different because Anis and Lewa are the first of my group to leave, it should say something that Anis is in all the photos up on the blog so far.

Next on the night train out of dodge is Koichi, a good man that I didn't get to see enough of because he was in kitchens and I serve in security, rotation being the bitch that is it, we only really see people in our world, when night is day and weekend falls on a Tuesday. We went to the Shrine of Baha'ullah together for the first time when we first arrived, and hung out during the orientation, but like I said, security is a strange and dark world of sunless days and waking nights, leaving little time for those on a normal schedule, a regret indeed but nothing that can't be remedied in the future. Luckily enough Clorrin and I leave on the same day, we are not going to the airport together but at least the goodbyeishness will all be in one big messy evening of pool and packing.

However, lets end this post with a tribute to Anis, to a good guard and a good man.

Anis: " I left me Baby on a sherut!"

Kev: " Whats a sherut man?"

Anis: "Its like a really big taxi with a really aggressive driver."

God bless you master of robotics and the "White man Dance".

Drum'n'Bass, Flashing lights and stimulating company.

The camera at the ready, and the friends all on the go, we have been doing much by way of socialising and just chilling in the end times. These are only the end times for me, Anis and Clorin but they are End Times in the Biblical sense sure enough. Trying to see everyone is not turning out be as big a chore for this group of leavers as I thought it would, basing my expectations on the lamentations of those gone before. Everyone is... I don't know, pulling together I think. In a sense, for Anis and I, a very real sense, the Vanguard is leaving and I think we are all trying to get the most out of it now, before the changing of the guard is complete. If you look carefully you can see the separate social circles overlapping, and while I'm sure it won't last, it is still a lovely thing to see and be a part of. Anis's sister Lewa is serving here as well, in the cleaning and maintenance department and although there is much love there, Ive not seen much of her or her group of friends since orientation nearly a year ago. I mean you can't serve somewhere like this and be friends with someones brother and not see them, but we definitely didn't see each other as much as I would have liked. Lewa had a kind of going away shindig on Hameganim in her huge flat and we bust out the projector and the tunes and thus the visualizations as well and had a mighty good time, but the highlight of the night was after the wind down from the first movie we watched, another movie was suggested... Anonymous "Lets watch another film?" Anonymous Guy "Have we got top gun?" Anonymous chick "Is that a comedy?.. Hey guys, is Top Gun a Comedy?... What?" Not the best thing to say in a room packed with movie buffs and nerds, and frankly it got the reception it deserved. The projector has also led to much Halo2 playing on a huge screen, not that this has helped my game it just makes the sight of my self gettin owned funnier because its like 1/4 life size, and the panic is much funnier in greater detail. The really strange thing about the gaming nights is its not panning out as a "Boys Night" anytime we do it these days, we never try to make it that way but the social aspect is so strong there that the ladies and more effeminate men are coming and enjoying the vibe and shiny display as much. Getting owned is more fun when there is a descent conversation going on in the background. It presents a good excuse at least.

Red Vs. Blue...it's so beautiful.

The whingyness seems to have ebbed in the last few days, mostly thanks to Anis and Patrick, and well... everyone else here. No point in sulking and missing out on the time I got left with these folk you know. So as an update on the pool thing, I played Cobi... Cobi owns both this pool hall and one in Akka... Cobi has been a pool and snooker instructor for 15 years... Cobi won... 3 times, one of which he beat me by a full 7 balls. 7 BALLS!! The Shame. I could make excuses about having a bad day, and finding out some off-pissing stuff but I won't, I lost flat out, fair and square... this time. Nice and short but I only really wanted to talk about gettin beaten by 7 balls, It was amazing. Oh yeah and to tell everyone to start watching red vs blue which also rocks. Its gettin hot in here, Baby leave on your clothes.

"I know what you mean man... it's weird for all of us." "Do you? Your not acting like you do. I mean; we're leaving. Its not just some place man, its a time and a sense of safety as well, a sense of home." "A little melodramatic, maybe? Life goes on. Remember the fear we had coming here?" " Yeah, but that was a fear of the unknown, this is a fear of concrete fact man, we know what's gonna happen." "Once again the gun is not even loaded and you are jumping all the way over conclusion land and into arroganceville. Like we always say, leave it up to the Big Guy, we're only in this for the ride either way." "Ok but if we get lost again I'm blaming you," "Fine just stop whinging, Jesus you sound like a child!" .... All of my recent internal dialogues have run like this, and I do mean exactly like this.

Halo2 and momments of zen.

Anis beats every one all the time, its a fact that none of us can win aganst him. Now, I used to have some skittles on the battlefield, but 10 months of not even looking at an X-Box appears to have been enough time to allow all of them to seep out into the ether and leave me completely unprepared for the virtual sodomizing I have received since Anis picked up Halo2 here. After work Patrick, Anis and I went to Anis's flat to play, knowing that the result would be boring for all of us, but there was nothing else on so we bit the bullet and went merrily to our doom, until Anis remembers he can put a massive handicap on his profile giving me and Pat a chance. So seeing as how I don't completely suck and Pat is not an idiot we started to actually kill Anis fairly often and the game got hella fun, for all of us, Pat and I felt better about playing and Anis was actually being challenged, any way as usually happens the laughing and ragging on each other reached critical mass and my face and stomach hurt so bad the idea of laughin' any more actually hurt at which point this happened:

 Pat, snipes Anis from long range.
Anis: "That was not nice!"
Pat: "I'll tell what isn't nice..."
 Me: "Where are you guys?"
Pat: ".... killing a family of three!"

  Followed by 15 minutes of rawkus laughter, many tears and about an hour and a half more Halo.It was a good night, thankfully not a rarity in my life but much appreciated none the less. Oh and I played pool with the chick who owns the pool hall; I won the first game, she won the second because I stuffed up on the black and I got my ass handed to me on the third and fourth games, so not the best of performances but at least I won one and I mean she does own two pool halls ... I did well believe me.


  So when you say " free" you mean "not free"