Becoming a Kibbutznik / להיות קיבוצניק

I arrived to Kibbutz Maagan Michael 4 days ago. Much has happened in these 4 short days, but I’ll try to recap everything and capture the excitement of it all. This is one of the largest and most prosperous Kibbutz in all of Israel, located on the Mediterranean with a wide variety of different jobs (Metal and Plastic factories, petting zoo, fruit farms, etc.) It is 3 people to a room, a little cramped but nothing that won’t seem like a 5 bedroom mansion once I start the IDF. Roommate #1 is Ruben from Italy and #2 is Gilad from Florida; I feel like I really lucked out with the roommates, as all three of us are a little older and have made aliyah (moved to Israel) and want to serve in the IDF—thus I have 2 good running/training partners for the next 5 months. There is a large group of guys who have made aliyah and are serious about joining a tough combat unit, so we will all train together and hopefully get coached by some ex-special forces once a week. Its amazing how Jews from every corner of the earth are here, around 25 different countries are represented on the Kibbutz ranging from Kazakhstan to South Africa to Switzerland. I am in the advanced Hebrew class which will push me and be a bit difficult but will be a tremendous help to improve my speaking and comprehension skills. Other than that, I found out that I was one of the few picked to work in the fish farm (starting at 5 AM) which I will start tomorrow, so more on that to come. One final note, the food is pretty good especially breakfast with fresh Avocados the size of my head.