university to dishwashing...

As I stood in the dishwashing room of the cafeteria on base Thursday I couldn't help but think to myself..."where did I go wrong? I have a degree and I'm working in a dish room." I instantly reminded myself that this is just part of basic training and basic is part of a bigger piece of the puzzle, the year of service I will be spending in the foreign relations unit of the IDF (Israel Defense Force).

So as I said, Thursday was my platoon's turn in the kitchen. I spent the day in the dishwashing room, 7am-ish until 8pm-ish but with large breaks. We actually had the most time off Thursday than we did any other day since we had long breaks after breakfast and after lunch. Ironically, it was also the most physical work I did all week, pushing around carts filled with plates and trays and carrying lots of silverware and such. Since we are normally only with the girls of our platoon or company day after day some of the girls got quite excited to be around some of the guy soldiers in the kitchen. I was instantly reminded of the age difference between myself and the girls when they were yelling, flirting, and splashing/spraying water with the guys in the dishwashing room. Pretty annoying but I reminded myself that I'm sure I acted the same way around guys when I was 18. It was kind of like being at your first job (for me that was more like 16) and your boss wasn't around so you goofed off in the back room. I remember doing that at ColdStone and actually at Whole Foods too so it's cool. I just kept telling the guys to grow up (thanks to the theme song of the television show "Ramzor" I know how to say grow up in Hebrew). I thought I did a pretty damn good job in the kitchen during breakfast and lunch and was rightfully awarded by given the easiest job for dinner; walk around and make sure everyone in my group is doing their job and see if they need anything...keep things moving smoothly. That was pretty nice even though I ended up doing a lot of the closing type work anyway just so we could get it done faster and leave earlier. I found that it was easier to just do whatever needed to be done on my own then try to explain to the girls what to do...cop out on the Hebrew part but what can I say, I got the job done.