Blog: Soldier, Pikesvillian, Celebrates in Tel Aviv

In his latest blog post, Alex Simone writes about celebrating a milestone in Tel Aviv, visiting a combat engineering base near Israel's border with Lebanon, and preparing for his first Purim celebration in Israel.

Following is an excerpt from Simone's March 7 blog Shalom Yaakov in Israel: A Repository of My New Life in the Holy Land:

"My last week at Michveh Alon did not go as smoothly as I anticipated. I started the week a little sick and only got worse as we drilled our ceremonial marching over and over again through the rain.

"I managed to score half a day of bed rest—while my friends marched in the rain—when I finally secured an appointment with a merciful doctor.

"On Wednesday, after a few miserable hours of marching in pouring rain, the officers finally took pity on us and allowed us to return to our barracks, change into dry clothes and we spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing inside."

To read the entire blog post, visit Simone's blog.