And so, it ends.

Wow. So...less than a week left. We practiced the grad parade on friday, and for the first time it really felt like we're almost DONE!!! It's weird, because we're all so excited, but there are a lot of people that I'll miss. I thought I'd hate living in a room with so many other people, but now it'll be strange to be alone and not have awesome friends around all the time.

Of course, there are others that I will be very glad to NOT have around all the time.

I guess it evens out.

So the weekend was a lot of partying for people, since it's the last weekend we'll have together, and I won't go into the stupidity that arose from that. I did have a fun evening hanging out with a bunch of the people that attacked us in Week 12. They are all apparently waiting for courses to start and so were sent to St. Jean to act as victims/opponents for the recruits. They said they had fun taunting us.

Anyways, other than a lot of parade practice, grad week is a whole lot of nothing. They made me course senior all week, which sucks because it's more work when all everyone (including me) wants to do is less work. It's supposed to be a "congratulations for getting top marks, you're wonderful so we'll put you in charge" kind of thing, but I could do without it. It's the same deal for "Platoon Commander." That's actually kind of cool though, because I get to march by myself in the parade, but I really think there are other people that could do the yelling of commands a lot better than me. I'm not naturally loud to start with, so trying to be heard by people 20 feet behind me while a band is playing....not so much!



Wait...did I say less than a week left? Well, by the time I'm writing the rest of this, I'm looong gone!

Did I say nothing happens in grad week? I meant during the day, when we have an hour for lunch, our inspections are closed locker, and basically just to make sure our dress uniform is intact for wearing at the grad parade. Or to make sure our rifles are clean so they can be returned quickly afterwards. Our classes are pretty much trips to return stuff or fill out paperwork or find out our travel arrangements.
Of course, things DO happen at night.

Like the course party.

Just to give you a bit of an idea...the day afterwards, the Sergeant told us that we were his worst, most dysfunctional platoon ever, but we also had the best course party.

There was a buffet, some speeches in which old jokes were revisited and the instructors were let into some of the ones they didn't know about. Then one guy who was always joking with our Master Corporal in a less than savoury way (he was also rather drunk) came out in a sheet wrapped around him like a dress and veil and lip synced some cheesy love song (I don't even remember which one)while he "proposed"....to the MCpl. It was hilarious, and I believe there are videos.

Then the dancing started. The instructors were not drinking, but kind of acting like they were. The recruits were definitely drinking and not having to act like we were. But we all danced for and I think we had all of us out on the floor (even our straight laced Warrant Officer!) when "Tonight's gonna be a good night" came on. Somehow it didn't inspire the same dread that it had the week before. Anyways, it was a good night, though it finished early when the place closed down at 10. We were told we had 15 minutes to get upstairs though we didn't have to go to bed until lights out at 11. But, when we got up there around quarter after, the instructors started running through (still in their civilian clothes, which in itself was entertaining) yelling at everyone to get to bed they were turning the lights off NOW!

And that was the end of that. Or so we thought....we found out the next day that they had also run through our sister platoon's quarters (they had their party with ours sort of...but they were mostly in a different section and not having nearly so much fun) telling them to get to bed and jacking them up. A couple of those recruits talked back, I guess not realized that these guys were our staff. We got to watch our Sergeant back in his uniform yelling at them the next day and pointing them out to their own staff. It sounds terrible, but one of the funniest things to all of us the whole course was to watch our Sergeant jack up other platoons. They never knew what to do, because very few staff are as hardass as him. They always get this scared kitten look and just stand there and take it until he's done. It's funny because we know what it's like and it's not us. It happened a lot in the last week actually. It was like since our course was pretty much done, there wasn't much to get us in trouble for, so he went out of his way to do it to other people. Good times.

As for the rest of the week. Well, we had our grad parade. No one collapsed, even though we were standing in one spot for a very long time. Families came, Moms cried, speeches were dry, siblings sighed and finally we were DONE. There was a reception after, which was neat because we all got to meet each other's families. More beer was had, and this time with the instructors too. Friends said goodbye, and many many pictures were taken. Have I mentioned that I love having Korean friends? MANY pictures are up on Facebook.

So it's not really goodbye, since it's so easy to keep in touch with the people I want to. But we've all gone to different cities to finish training or to postings. I've heard from a few people about how they still have to have inspections or share rooms with 7 other people or...well, those guys are going through more of the same I guess, but for me, Basic training is done. I can't say "it's been good"...but it's been a good thing to do. I'm glad I went through it and had tough instructors. I was talking with one of my old platoon mates and he was saying that if he'd had an experience like some of the other platoons (we'd met a bunch of guys on our flights over) that he'd feel gypped for not really getting the experience. And even though there were some things that were terrible at the time, I'd have to agree. I'm glad it was so hard. There were days when we wanted to die, but at the end of every day, and every week we'd say "that wasn't so bad." And really? It wasn't. It's just like anything else, any other hard day at work...you just push on and keep going and make it through the day.

Okay whoa. I'm starting to get too philosophical about all this. Dude, it was awesome, but I'm glad it's done. I guess that's it for this blog too so I'll just close off with one last warcry.

AMPED ANGRY AND READY FOR WAR! OORAHH!!!

Roger. Out.

Ok, so it's been a while

Yes I have one more post to post, and no this is not it! Sorry for the lack of activity here. I'm long since graduated and at my new posting, but the lack of internet at home is preventing me from posting the post.

Or I could rewrite the whole thing on this other computer but that's too much work. Maybe I'll go buy a flash drive. That seems like an incredibly useful thing to do.

More later.

Down to the wire

Week 12. The Big One. The Final Week. The One We've All Been Waiting For. Dun dun dunnnn..... Time to stop speculating, and time to start doing.

We'd decided that it would definitely be easier than week 11. For one, sergeant said that nothing would be harder than week 11, so we assumed that included week 12. For another, we were staying in a more permanent type of camp which meant that we didn't have to set up and take down the tents every night. That automatically made it better. And the weather was supposed to stay nice, which was also a plus.

We got attacked on our way to the camp. So as per usual for our platoon, things got started quickly and never stopped. The first night was the hardest, because our section got the short stick and had extra duties overnight. We found out the following night that it wasn't such a bad thing, because the people who didn't have base camp duties at night, had missions to go out on at the same time, so they weren't even around.

Yeah....so, missions. The whole idea of what we do in week 12 is based on missions. They're all simulations and are written to give us an idea of the different kinds of things that soldiers do in the Forces. Things like "these medical supplies need guarding from enemy terrorists until someone comes to pick them up", or "set up and man a roadblock for 2 hours" or "these refugees are being mistreated and tortured living in poor conditions, go to their camp and find out if this is true."

The missions were generally pretty cool and we fun with most of them. Some of them were especially entertaining because of the "victims". I could see that a few were having a lot of fun making up extensive back stories or ridiculous reasons as to why they were in their situations. Like the guy injured in a truck explosion who was worried about his fiancee/cousin who was also in the truck. They apparently had many hopes and dreams for the future. I would say too bad she didn't make it, but it's probably for the best that some of those dreams won't come true.

Some missions went better than others of course. Guarding the medical supplies was fun, partly because it was daytime and pretty warm out, but also because the "terrorists" were so entertaining when they came to demand supplies and taunt us. Our roadblock was probably the worst, but only because we were so bad at it. We let a truck go through with a 9mm on the rearview mirror, a machete under the backseat and another large knife hidden in a woman's bosom. Yeah. We were supposed to search there too, but I guess the boys were a little uncomfortable with that. Funny, I'm pretty darn sure they're comfortable with that sort of thing when they go out on the weekends.

One of the more annoying parts was how much we walked around to get to all the missions. There was usually at least a 2km walk there, and then back afterwards. We did 4 of these a day. Did I mention that our section was really bad at navigating and ended up having to walk way too far out of the way and back several times? I had blisters by Tuesday.

Wednesday night was probably the worst. We did a reconnaissance mission pretty much about as far away as it was possible to get. It was 4km there, then we met up with our guide who took us through swampy woods for another half hour, where most of the section had to wait kneeling in the mud while 5 of us took off most of our gear and went to sneak up to an enemy post and try to listen and gather info on when they would be attacking. Of course, we were lying in the mud too, but trying to be still and listening made it way more interesting than for the rest of the section, whose main concern was trying to stay awake. An hour later, we get back to them, and start walking back to camp. By the time we get there, the camp was already under a biological attack so we could not go near it and had to go back to the woods and find a place to hang out for a while until we were allowed back in. Did I mention the swamp? We were soaked and by that time it was 4am.

When we finally made it back into the camp, it was time to pack up and go. We had 15 minutes to do it or we would apparently be carrying our rucksacks back to the main base. We did it. Painfully, uncomfortably, and without breakfast, but we did it. Then waited around for 2 hours. That was cold. We wondered why we were waiting around doing nothing, but finally the attack came.

Oh right. The final attack. The time when we are sort of supposed to remember our drill and how to tell others where the enemies are, but really it's just an excuse to shoot as many rounds as possible. We were attacked by probably just about every one of the "enemies" that there were, and from every side. It was rather noisy. Needless to say, everyone had a lot of fun with that.

So like week 11, the main thing is that we survived. If there had been grades on it, we probably would have done pretty badly, since we let our sister platoon get up close to scout us and attack. Well, there was only 1 section in the whole place at the time, so it wasn't everyone, but still...the competition between the staff is just about as bad as the recruits, so we got a fair amount of hell for that. Also 7 negligent discharges with our rifles which is way off the scale as far as the number that's "ok"...not that any are really ok, since when we have live rounds that aren't blanks, the consequences can be a lot more serious, but they usually expect 1 or 2 on a platoon. People make mistakes and now is the time to make them, but 7...well, it's ridiculous. So we got a lot of hell for that too. I guess it's a good thing there weren't marks for it. But again, we made it, and it's over. It was a good experience and it's way easier to say that now that it's done, but it's true. We all did things we didn't know we could, and dealt with new situations under demanding conditions. Again there were no fistfights between recruits, so that's a plus. Apparently it came close once or twice.

But we're back on base, and getting some rest. Well, some of us are. Some others are getting just as little rest, but enjoying some freedom. Freedom to get drunk and party. Not that there's anything wrong with that. It's now officially grad week and there are only a few days left here for everyone. One last kick at the can, then we all go our separate ways. It's been interesting, that's for sure, and there's definitely people I'm going to miss, but man are we looking forward to getting out of here!


...Except actually I am out of "here" as of right now. I'll post another couple about grad week and leaving later, but just so you know...I'm at the airport on my way to my posting. Woot!

One week left...

Well since I am still alive enough to write this, you would be correct in assuming I made it through sleep deprivation week without turning into a zombie. Although I will admit that near the end of the week there were a few times that I was pretty close to being the walking dead. But I'll start at the beginning.

Monday was kind of neat. We arrived, marched to our bivouac and set up our perimeter defense. No we did not set up camp, we just put our rucksacks down in our designated positions, then ate lunch and had some classes. All our classes were outside of course, and the first one was on pyrotechnics. We'd already had the class back at the school, but this one was for the demonstrations. We got some bangs and booms and flashes and tripwires - just a small taste of what was in store to wake us up at random times throughout the week.

After a bunch more walking around and some more classes, we got back to the bivouac after dark to set up camp. That was fun. There was only minor difficulties and minimal complaining. In comparison to a squad of high school cheerleaders. I love it when our staff makes things far more difficult than they need to be.

I have no idea when or how many times we got woken up that night, but later on, I counted myself lucky that I got that hour and a half of sleep.

We took down the tents in the morning before setting out for some more walking and classes. This would set the standard for the week, which we were really impressed with. Tuesday was a cool day though. It was the first time we got to put the cam paint on, and also got our pictures taken. We also practiced trying to see things in the woods that were more or less hidden alongside a stretch of the road. Then one of our instructors hid there in a gilly suit (makes him look like cousin Itt or a pile a leaves) and shot at us until we could see him. It took a surprisingly long time considering how close he was. When he stood up, all I could think about was the Monty Python sketch of "How Not to be Seen." of which the first rule is "Don't Stand Up." It became extremely obvious why that is the first rule.

Wednesday was topography. That was a fun day, since the weather was nice, and we were all sent off alone into the woods to plot our paths and find our markers. A whole day of no one yelling at us, or telling us to go faster. A whole day of wandering about in the woods. We had a whole hour to make and eat our lunch, which was hot for once, and if we were tired, we could just sit and take a break. It was that day that I realized that no matter what we did in the day, we got far more rest in the hours the sun was out than any night. It was a bit bizarre.

Things get a little blurry after that. I think I got 45 minutes of sleep one night, none the next, and 20 minutes the night after. That might sound crazy, but the even crazier part is that we kept functioning. Well, except classes where we sat down. I tended to start nodding off a little bit there. But every night we were woken up by fire alarms, or artysims (they make a bit flash and boom to simulate artillary - REALLY loud) or an "attack" on the camp. Every time we had to yell "Stand to!" until everyone was awake and at their post. Then wait for it to be clear, go out on the road and clear our weapons and come back into camp. Every one takes about a half hour. It doesn't seem like a long time, but when you add it to the two hours of duty (like being on watch) that you have sometime between 11 and 5, the time it takes to change or clean the rifle (which is higher on the priority list than food, which is higher than sleep...) it adds up to a whole lot of no sleep for recruits. So you might see why my memory of these times is not wholly intact.

All I remember of the last part is being very close to crying and giving up. I guess it was Thursday night when we had a class about different kinds of missions and "Pull Pole" was one of them. It involves being found by the enemy and needing to take down the camp as fast as possible - ideally in less than 20 minutes. Of course, as soon as we heard it, we knew what was going on in our last night.

It was about 3am when we got the call, took down the camp, packed our rucksacks and met up on the road. Since the general idea was that we were supposed to be moving camp, we took our loaded rucksacks with us. It was a long walk with probably 50 to 60 pounds on our backs, and we never reached our destination. After a few kilometers, we came under fire, and dropped our rucks and headed into the woods to deal wtih the "enemy". Since this meant that our route was "compromised", we had to set up camp somewhere else, and headed back the way we came for a km or so. Then we wandered into the woods to scout where our camp would be. It was at this point that I fell down and just could not get back up. I felt weak and about as terrible as I ever have been in the past few years, and would not have gotten back up without an awesome friend there to give me a hand up. That's the good thing about all this. We all know that there is someone there if we need it, because it's the only way we can make it through this craziness.

The day did get better from there, and not only because it could not have gotten worse! We were given three whole hours on our own to make "hoochies" (little tents out of our groundsheets) and eat breakfast and rest if we wanted to. The sun started to come up and our spirits rose with it. It was our last few hours there, no one had to be on duty and the staff were gone. It started to warm up, and people were singing. It sounds corny, but yes, this actually happened. And because we were in a better mood, the tiredness took on a different form and absolutely everything became hilarious. A think all of us laughed more in two hours than we did the rest of the week.

And so, we survived. A little worse for wear, and slightly paranoid about a certain descending whistling noise that the artysims made, but we all made it back. We didn't lose any people to injuries, and no one actually got into a fight, so I consider that a success. Apparently so does our sergeant, because he said that anyone who can make it through the week 11 that he puts us through has his respect. And for once, I think he wasn't being sarcastic. The other platoons had it far easier, with more sleep, and fewer attacks that happened at more convenient hours. Fewer long marches too. Not that we're bitter. We were at the time, but now that it's done, well....we made it and that's what counts.

As for the next week...well, what part of the weekend we didn't spend sleeping or drinking, most people spent speculating on whether week 12 would be harder or easier than week 11. Stay tuned to find out!

I made it! Now for grad week.

I would write more, but there are alcoholic beverages to consume and dances to dance.

Roger. Out.

Getting ready...

Or at least as ready as we can be. No one really knows what to expect next week, so there's all sorts of speculation going on. We know we won't get much sleep, and some of the activities we'll be doing, but not much more than that. One thing that's cool is that even though we'll have some of the instructors against us, we'll have our section commanders with us. That's kind of a relief, since I had been thinking it was all of them pulling stunts on us and expecting us to deal. It'll still be interesting, but no quite so bad as I thought.

I'm looking forward to a lot of the activities this week. Topography, where we get dropped off in the middle of nowhere alone and have to navigate the course. There's a night one too, but we're not alone for that. Another round of the obstacle course will be fun in better weather this time, and the rappel tower should be good too. We'll see how good I feel when I get back!

All you people back home can sit back in your shorts and just imagine me outside and how grateful I am for the 5 degree weather and that the snow and mud is mostly gone. I'll send you a "wish you were here" card.

And you can wish me luck!

She's alive!

No really, I am! There was some concern for a while as to whether I was actually turning into a zombie, but the danger is temporarily past. Of course, next week is another story.

What am I referring to? Why, the madness known as Farnham of course. It is where we go to do our field training. You know, camping and going to the range and stuff. Sounds like fun, eh? Actually it is. Fun like an amusement park ride called the meat grinder.

I'm sure with most platoons, it's not quite so bad. They didn't get a lot of the more "interesting" things that we did. I heard that some of the other people that were there at the same time actually got something like 6-8 hours of sleep a night. For us it was more like 3-4. And it wasn't even sleep deprivation week. That's what's coming up starting Monday.

No, despite sitting around outside in the sleet for 12 hours and then running a couple kilometers with our rucksacks on, it wasn't so bad. Despite being woken up in the middle of the night by "fire alarms" and "first aid scenarios" that involved carrying people around the campsite for a half hour or surprise topography practice at midnight, it was actually alright. After all that, the 13 km ruck march on Friday was a piece of cake. We decided at the end of the week that...you know, it hadn't really been all that terrible. Sure it was hard. Sure we didn't really like a lot of it while it was happening, but once it was over...well, all that was left was to brag to the other platoons about it!

The only really unfortunate part about the whole thing was the number of people that got injured. 2 had to leave the platoon and at least 5 others couldn't take part in a lot of the activities since then, and some still might not finish with us because of it. Of course, the rucksack running is very much against the rules so if anyone going to basic is reading this and worrying - don't. Our sergeant is a little crazy and doesn't really care if he gets in trouble. Which he supposedly is, so this next week is either going to be slightly less unmanageable than we expected, or we are going to experience an as yet undiscovered circle of hell.

But in other ways we really did have a good time. It was cool to get to know our instructors out in the field, and we could tell that they were having more fun, and talking to us differently. Not when they were giving us hell of course. But other times, like out practicing topography, or learning hand signals and section movements. We did a lot of neat things, and of course the obstacle course was fun. And we definitely left with a feeling of accomplishment - at least for the 5 minutes it took everyone to fall asleep on the bus ride back.


So what have I been doing since then? Honestly, not a heck of a lot. Week 10 has been really slack, with a lot of annoying little things that just need to get done. Needles and the barber and such. We found out our next postings, which was cool, and had a couple of classes.

Wait, how could I have forgotten the gas hut?? The first three days of this week were straight classes on gas attacks, and how to put on the mask and suit quickly and things like that. It was pretty fun, but weird to be sitting down all day after week 9. A lot of people were worried about actually going into the gas hut (yes they actually gas us with "CS gas" which basically makes your eyes and lungs burn and your nose run if you get any), but everybody passed and only one person actually panicked, but then made it on the next try. Some people had pretty red faces when we finished though. I think it was harder on the tall people - they get more gas first! I was fine, didn't get any in my mask, but had to hold my breath a reeeaallly long time while I changed canisters and had trouble getting getting the threads in line while screwing it on with my eyes closed.

Yup! It was fun stuff. We all felt disgusting afterwards though, with "decontamination lotion" (basically olive oil) all over our faces and hands and heads and sitting in our suits and gas masks for a couple of hours. I can count on one hand the times I have wanted a shower more than after that. Funny, most of the other ones happened here too.

Oh well, on goes the battle! Obviously I'll be gone next week. I may try for another update tomorrow, but if not, it'll be next weekend, if I am still alive and un-undead. I may just turn into a ravening monster instead, as people who have lived with me and seen me in the morning may well remember and fear.

We shall see.

I Will Survive!

Got back from a week in the field. Then went for a weekend of drinking. Now I get to sleep! So I will. Lots to talk about, so as they say here: more to follow.

Comfortably Numb

It's kind of strange how used to this whole basic training thing we get. Last week was pretty busy and we had a big inspection by our platoon commander, and although we did a lot of work for it, no one was really freaking out about it. Unlike weeks 0 to 3 when we stressed about every single one.

It used to be impossible for all 60 of us to get all our coats and bags lined up neatly in under 3 minutes, and now we do it all the time.

I can also tell how routine things are becoming by how much more boring these posts are getting. Talk about not using my brain much here!

That's not entirely true. We do have some kind of brain-like using stuff we have to do. And four tests this coming week! Hmmmm maybe I should get back to studying. Nah.


So it's the end of another weekend and another round of craziness. That's another routine - seeing just how many people get how drunk and stupid how fast. Then we've got another batch of stories to hold us through till the next weekend. It's kind of a soap opera. Now I understand all the stereotypes that are associated with soldiers and sailors! Oh right. And we're students. That's three strikes for us! Oh well.

Not that there are any stories about me. I would never do such things! At least, I would never get stupid enough to get caught!

Just kidding Mom!

...

:)

Pros and Cons of Basic

Con: Being sick and tired all the time.

Pro: Being totally ripped.

Back on Track

Well here I am again, with not all that much to say. I'm really just procrastinating, and what else is new?


So we had our weekend confined to barracks, and a bunch of people almost lost it. Tension was extremely thick and there were a couple of times that we thought a fight might break out. We managed to avoid that, but I think a lot of people were actualy relieved to start the week and have something to do. And since we spent most of the weekend having extra inspections and waiting around supposedly at attention while one instructor went around all sixty of us one by one...well who can blame anyone for going a little nuts? There were definitely some entertaining moments, but we're all glad it's done.



I guess that makes this the perfect time for some inspection stories, so here are some of the best I remember:

At one of our first inspections the sergeant started throwing badly folded clothes around the room, and the private he was inspecting just could not hold in his laughter.

Sgt: (Yelling of course). "Do you find this funny Private??"
Pte: (Also energetically) "YES SERGEANT"
Sgt: "25 pushups, let's go!"
Pte: "1, 2, 3, 4..." Finishes and gets up
Sgt: "Do you still find this funny pte.??!"
Pte: "YES SERGEANT!"
Sgt: "OK 25 Pushups GO!"
Pte: "1, 2, 3..."
Sgt: "IS THIS STILL FUNNY PRIVATE??"
Pte: "YES SERGEANT!"

After the next 25 he started to get it, but there was a lot of suppressed laughter and. Mental facepalming going on...probably for the sergeant too. The guy later said he did it because they told us we should never lie to an instructor. Sigh.

I think it was the same guy who had to sing O Canada during another inspection for some reason that I'm not quite sure of.

Then there was the garbage can on the head. That happened a couple of times when dust was found in them. (They're supposed to be empty, obviously). Sometimes it's just funny to hear the muffled voices for the rest of the inspection. One time someone had to leave it on for the requisite 25 pushups and the sound of it banging on the ground with the count was entertaining.

There was also the time when one guy had to push his fire team partner around in the big laundry bin saying "My fire team partner is a big baby.". While the guy in the bin had to sit there with his thumb in his mouth. I'm not entirely sure why that one happened either, but probably something to do with not getting all his work done. Which was pretty normal for this guy.

More recently this same guy did not have all his stuff labeled. So when the staff found the hood of his sleeping bag unlabeled, he had to run laps around the quarters while wearing it. He kind of looked like Kenny from South Park. It got better when his groundsheet was discovered unlabeled. He had to add that on as a cape. Next came the helmet. He ended up with 14 unlabeled pieces but thankfully for him, not wearing all of them. The instructor was pretty happy though. He walked through the rest of the inspections, singing "Superman".

The only other one I remember was the 2nd in command's inspection (you know, the one that got us stuck on base. By the way, it was pre-planned since 3 other platoons had the same thing happen, and the one that didn't had it happen last weekend). Anyways, we have these piles of clothes laying out that are supposed to be 12"x12" and he was making quite a few cracks (while tearing everything apart of course) like "Is that what you mean when you tell the girls you have twelve inches?" Or to the girls "Never believe it if a guy tells you he have a 12 inch dick. Have you seen what they are calling 12 inches over there? Never believe it, I'm telling you"

Although there is one guy here that still claims that endowment. He also asked to be in this blog, so if you are reading this, there you go! ;)

Ok. I think I've "rested up" enough. I should probably go pack my rucksack for our 7.2 km march tomorrow. I'm going to be sooooo dead tomorrow night!

Sorry, you suck. Please move back 10 spaces.

Well today, even the seargent flat out said "This is a game." And of course, we landed on a snake.

We had a big inspection this morning. Our platoon second in command came around to every single cubicle to make sure we were up to snuff, and apparently we are not! It's not really surprising to me. It was actually kind of funny to see him taking things out of the closet and throwing them around the room. "Dust on jacket." "Dust on fleece." "Threads on combats." "Socks not all the same." "This just sucks." were the kinds of comments directed towards me this morning. It was pretty much the same everywhere and a lot worse for some! At least he didn't comment on my ironing. I spent a lot of time on that last night.

So of course, there go our privilages! It's not really a surprise, since not many other platoons even had those privilages, and we obviously can't get anything done with them. This game does not work well with distractions, apparently.

So I'm not sure when I'll be able to update again, but hopefully not too long. I'm expecting about a week, but who really knows! In any case I just hope the seargent's "More to come later" isn't too horribly painful. It probably will be. It always is when he makes us wait.


In other news, we got our rifles this week! People were really looking forward to that, but I have to say, I wasn't particularly excited. It's one more thing to look after, although now I have it...it's fun! Weapons class is one of the only classes where it's easy to stay awake, since it's practical and we don't take notes. I can't say much more than that, because we've only had them for two days and have basically just done safety checks and taking the thing apart. Still fun though!

Also...I got a buzzcut! It's a neat feeling to have almost no hair. Why, you ask? Well, I was forced into getting a haircut last week, and it was really terrible. At first I didn't mind, but when I said I didn't like it, a bunch of the guys started saying "You should get a buzzcut." I swear I've heard that ten times a day for the past week. Anyways, I saw some pictures of me on the weekend and went "you know, that doesn't actually sound so bad." So I went and did it. Now I no longer have to attempt to put a pound of gel in my hair to hold "loose strands" and get in trouble for it. Now I just get people calling me G.I. Jane, which is kind of annoying since I'm not really into the whole "military" thing. But it's fun, and at least my head isn't shaped too funny!

I have to say I felt kind of like I was on a game show when I got it done with the 15 other guys there yelling "do it!" or "don't do it!" as their respectives preferences went. At least it was entertaining. I'm sure there is more "entertainment" to look forward to this weekend.

Over and out!

Shenanigans

Well our weekend officially ended at 1pm so everyone is back and some people are still drunk.

Of course people had a lot of fun on the weekend, so I hear, but I am amazed at how much fun people are still having. I won't say much on the subject because what happens at BMQ stays at BMQ, but just imagine the look on a guy's face when he wakes up to a crowd of people laughing at him and telling him to turn around and when he does, sees a very hairy very naked platoon mate lying next to him in bed and laughing.

Yes there is a video.

"Band camp" has nothing on this place...
Sent on the TELUS Mobility network with BlackBerry

Mindf*ck

So the sergeant had a little fun with us today. We had been having a swim class (not with him, but he was there) and he made us a little bet afterwards. He said he hadn't been happy with our common jobs but that is we were able to get changed in 9 minutes we would not have to have an extra inspection tonight.

We should have known there would be a catch.

Our first indication that there was something wrong was when all the girls finished changing and none of the guys were out of the change room.

Our second indication was the smile on the Sergeant's face.

"Oh well, look at that!" (You have to imagine the thick quebecois accent). "It's always the girls that are change first. Why is it that the guys they always take so long?"

I think it might have had something to do with the fact that the other instructors on duty today went and mixed everything up in the guys locker room while we were swimming. At least all the stuff that no one had locked up like they were supposed to. Which was at least half of it.

So, we had "inspection" tonight. At first it was just beds, so that wasn't too bad. Then we had 5 minutes to get a pair of civy running shoes from each person and bring them to the elevator room (which connects the two rooms of our platoon to the elevator and stairs) and put them in our linen bin. That part was easy. Then they got dumped in a pile and got tied randomly together and we had 5 min to get them all back to everyone's room. On the windowsill. You know, just for fun.

It wasn't too bad. We got it done. So of course they had to come up with something else. 3 min to get our small hand towels and a green t-shirt and put them in the big bin. No problem. Tossing them all together and trying to separate and get them all back to their owners, not so much. (Of course, everything is supposed to be labelled - remember that first weekend?). It didn't work so we had to try again. This time I had a plan, which helped so we were closer, but still no deal. Third time was the charm so we got to move on to the next activity of the night.

Change Parade. I had been having not such a bad time. It was kind of a fun game even if it was an annoying waste of time. And I had been thinking "at least it's not change parade."

Sigh. Change parade is when we have to change into whatever they tell us, and get our butts down to wherever they say in X amount of time. In this case it was gym shorts and t-shirts down by our lockers in 6 minutes. Then it was back up to change into combats with tac vest and helmet and get back down in 10 min. Ladies and gentlemen, I am SO glad we live on the 5th floor instead of the 8th.

In any case, it is now late. And I have a real inspection in the morning so I should go get ready for it. Tomorrow might be rough. I was course senior today and am again tomorrow, so I have extra work and am running on no sleep. I can't wait until the weekend! If we get it off...

Oh yeah and I got a terrible haircut and might be getting sick. Oh for the army life! Lol

Peace out. ;)
Sent on the TELUS Mobility network with BlackBerry

Woohoo!!

Well, ladies and gentlemen, I made it! We've passed our indoctrination period and our drill test and now have...Privileges! All our electronics, and weekends off. At least until Monday. It's entirely possible that someone will do something stupid and lose us those privileges. We'll see what happens then people get back from Montreal.

So what's been going on in the meantime, you ask? Classes and homework and inspections for the most part. We dread inspections, though they're getting better. Crazy things happen, depending on how badly someone screws up and how creative the staff are that day. I'm definitely going to have to try to get a collection of everyone's stories and post them here sometime.

One of the cool things we've done is the ruck march. We had our first one two weeks ago. 3.2 km with about 30 lbs of stuff and the pace was gruelling. I'm in pretty good shape but I just could not walk that fast so I got sent back to the end of the line. That's supposed to be punishment because we're always straggling and have to run to catch up. It happens when no one can really keep up and the effect gets compounded over 20 people like a messed up slinky. But I preferred the jogging at the back. It's a little easier on my short legs than trying to walk so fast!

When we finally finished, I had blisters the size of quarters on both heels. Then we had to do the obstacle course. I can tell you we felt great to be done with it. Then all we had to look forward to was the next ruck march one week later and twice as long.

So the next one was 6.5 km carrying 50 lbs. Considering the pace of the first one, we were a little concerned about it. We started with a fireman's carry (about 100m carrying someone about our own size). Then our warrant said "Last time you showed what kind of pace you are capable of..." At which point we all started thinking "oh crap..." Then he continued "but today we're going to be a little more realistic." And there was a collective sigh of relief. There was an even bigger one when we finished and it felt REALLY nice to take the rucksack off and have a shower. I didn't even mind sitting in class all day afterwards, though quite a few others had a little more trouble staying awake than usual!

The only other big trial was the drill test and warrant inspection. In case I haven't explained it, the warrant is the big boss in charge of our platoon, even above our scary sergeant simon. It was rather painful to stand without moving while he came up and inspected and talked to all 60 of us individually. Then we marched around the parade square and did a few drill movements. I guess is went ok because later on, when the Sgt. was giving us the next schedule at our evening meeting, he said that he had never seen a week 4 parade that good. He doesn't give compliments easily so that was cool. I just hope that was honest, and not more psychological manipulation! Not that it really matters I suppose - it works just as well either way.

And so we earned our weekend. I have to say it was interesting to hang out with people here and go to the pub. We all know each other so well in some ways, and yet it was like meeting each other all over again. Without all our restrictions and rules, things changed. Some people changed quite a bit while drinking, or just became louder...I've also heard some of the stories of the people that went into Montreal...and let's just leave it at that! Our first freedom in a while and it is heady stuff. When we went to the Subway for lunch, one of the guys said he felt like a million bucks being able to eat there, and I know what he meant! That should give some idea of what we're all feeling like.

Except now, it's Sunday, and we have inspection tomorrow. Time for all of us to get ready and do all that homework that we've been avoiding this weekend. I just know my fire team partner is going to be the last one back tonight and expect me to be able to help him...well, I guess it's back to the grind! Hopefully more updates soon!
Sent on the TELUS Mobility network with BlackBerry

Back to Basic

Well, here I am, sitting at the airport, waiting for my flight back to St. Jean. I had another post from before break but it wasn't very exciting so I decided not to post it. (It has nothing at all to do with the fact that I was scrambling to pack at the last minute, yet again...none at all.) It was just about how we had to pick paint chips off the baseboards of our walls in order to make things look nicer for inspection. Good times.

It was interesting to be there and interesting to come home again. Seeing people get indoctrinated, and getting indoctrinated myself is kind of neat, and gives a little bit of insight into the whole "collective identity" thing. We are beaten down and built back up so that we are more proud of each other and our platoon than we are of ourselves. The instructors seem to know exactly when to use the carrot and the stick to try to get to people. Luckily things don't get to me, but I don't need either so much because I actually am trying to do everything the way they want. It seems the best way to do it. Yeah..It won't take long to get back into things, that's for sure. I just hope we haven't all forgotten how to march!

I guess I don't have anything else interesting to say. Airports are not too exciting, and I hope it continues to stay that way! I'll be posting again when we're allowed our electronics back...in 2 weeks hopefully. More if we don't behave!

Till then

Cheers. Have a drink for me, cause I'm not allowed!

Testing Testing

Will this work? Will I be able to update my blog from the new phone? Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men?

Duh. 42

More Updates From Back in Time

Nov 29

I am sick sick sick and tired tired tired. That's all. More tomorrow.



Nov 30

I'm sitting at the medical centre, waiting for my turn. I have some sort of cold/flu and it's really bringing me down - especially in the A.M., which is much longer than I am used to! I thought I'd get better over the weekend, with just a bit more sleep, but no. Not really at all. I don't really need medical attention though, just a chit to delay my swim test. I have a feeling that would be a BAD idea today. Of course, most of the platoon should be doing the same thing, but everyone is afraid to come here. It's supposedly ineffective and nobody wants to get put on bedrest. Do that too long and your platoon leaves you behind and you join up with a later group when there is room...however long that takes!

Other than being sick, things are ok. We got in trouble for not enough teamwork on Saturday and had to do some useless work. It was actually kind of interesting and led to an entertaining night.


We'd been sewing all day (I had to teach a bunch of the guys how so we could stitch nametags on ALL our clothes) and it was 10:30 at night when we were called to get our asses downstairs ASAP. We boot it down and Cpl. Pushup (because they are his PASSION. He said so) was waiting, and he was pissed. The course senior (a sort of liason between staff and students who "ranks" above the rest of us...the position is rotated every few days and the current one had some weird power trip going on) hadn't gotten something done and he blamed everyone else. And of course, even though the Cpl. knew it was strictly the course senior's responsibility, he said that we could have helped him more, among other choice phrases. Of course, this is true and is also one of the main things they try to teach us here at basic: When one person makes a mistake, everyone pays - so stick together and help each other out to make things work.

So...we got a lecture. A loud one. A colourful one. Then we got to run up to our rooms (8 floors, remember!), grab our kit bags, and get back down in 5 minutes. We were 10 seconds over. Well, one person was, but that meant we all were. So we had to stand in squat position for a while. And get another rather sonorous, chromatic instruction. Then get threatened with pushups. Then run up the stairs again to return the kit bags and bring back a pair of green socks. Repeat lecture and threats, and finally we were allowed to return to our rooms at our own pace - admittedly more of a trudge at this point.

When we finally got back up to our pod, intending to continue sewing, we were definitely more awake...though maybe a little out of it. Hence the entertaining evening that followed.


Three of us got there first. I sat down to sew, and Ricky (female..going by pseudo-last-names here) sat in the chair beside me and Arlan was just behind her, about to sit as well. Then I heard a yell.

"OWWWWWWW!!!!" Ricky stood up quick, bent over and standing on one leg. "I sat on a needle! Get it out! Get it out!!"

Arlan froze with a horror exactly like a deer in the headlights. I could see the wheels turning as he tried to figure out how to pull a needle out of a girl's buttcheek "appropriately".

He finally did it and then looked up at Ricky and I laughing and said rather forcefully "Don't cry!". He sounded almost afraid and it was just too much. We laughed even harder as Arlan tried to explain. "No - I said it because she's allergic to her own tears, remember? She told us earlier." Which of course was true.

"You kind of defeated the purpose." I said, looking at the tears rolling down both their cheeks. My own were keeping pace no problem. When the other guys came back a couple minutes later, we were still cracking up with no end in sight. We managed to hold it back enough to explain it, which got them going so of course we were all killing ourselves laughing.

Finally, just we were starting to calm down enough to breathe and remark on our sore abs when Mac walks back from his room where he had apparently been (yet again) trying on random bits of kit and official clothes. This time he was wearing his boxers, the bush hat and gabardine. He stopped in the hall, looked up at us and declared:

"I LOVE this F***ing Coat!"


And that, my friends, was the end of sanity for the night.


...but it is a really nice coat.

Continuing on...

Nov 26th

I am definitely learning about the military here. It took 3 hours to buy a bunch of crap for my room - some laundry soap, mouthwash, hangers and a shoe shine kit. Ok maybe there were a few more things, but not many! It does make a weird kind of sense though. Paying someone to organize 60 people's stuff when we could be learning about a soldier's life (i.e. waiting) would be inefficient. And of course, since we have to go all together, we have to wait for everyone to get through the line before we can go anywhere else.

Yes, we really do go EVERYWHERE together. Downstairs at 5:15 to line up for breakfast (because it takes a half an hour just to get in), then line up to go to classes - which are usually filling about paperwork! Again with the military efficiency! 1 hour to fill out a form, but for the clerks it's 1 hour to get 60 done. Faster but still annoying to us. Not that that counts for anything.

Our platoon is pretty great. People seem to be getting along well and there hasn't been too much trouble. I say that now, when we're still in week zero - not even officially in yet. Speaking of "official"...we get our combats tomorrow! Everyone is really excited. It's been really annoying to be the only hundred people or so in regular clothes and we stick out so much. Oh man...is that indoctrination talking?? Could be, but more likely just that we already feel like we stick out so much for not knowing how to do anything right. Wait a minute! It's probably both, and damn sneaky of them! Go conditioning...seeing the Graduation parade today was definitely more of the same, but we called it "Good for Morale". Of course, it was that too.

I'll admit I'm playing a bit of devil's advocate here. I can these things for what they are and still feel the effects. I consider both ways of looking at it (indoc/conditioning vs. morale) to be true. It's pretty interesting that it IS good to be a part of something like this. Even if "this" is only our mismatched group of freaks called "Keable Platoon".

The grad parade was cool though. There was a real live marching band so I got to be like "hey guys, that's going to be my job!" which everyone else thought was pretty neat. They were definitely the most exciting part. Of course seeing the actual graduating platoons march so well was also very cool. Afterwards our instructor said one of the few positive things we've heard so far. He told us that 14 weeks ago, these guys were just as bad as we are now and that we will be that good by the time we finish. Very reassuring, especially considering how terrible we are now! Speaking of "now", I am now 45 minutes late for bed! *Gasp* The Horror! ...up at 5am again tomorrow. Ugh.

More belated updates!

Nov 22nd

It is 7am (4am PST and that's the LAST time I will think of that) and I've already screwed up! We're technically not even "in" yet and our platoon sergeant isn't here either, so we're a little confused.

We were supposed to meet and go for breakfast all together, but our "pod" (the area of 6 shared bedrooms) forgot the "be 5 minutes early everywhere" rule and was 1 minute late, so the rest of the platoon left without us! We did eventually find the cafeteria so it wasn't so bad, but if I was going to miss it, why didn't I at least sleep in??

Ug. I could go back to sleep now, but it's light out and I don't want to screw up my sleep schedule - at least any more! And so I will write. It'll almost be like I'm doing NaNoWrimo, but so far this place is not quite interesting enough for a story. The people are all too worried about doing something wrong to do anything at all!* At least, I feel that way and everyone else has that nervous rabbit look, so it's likely true of them too. Also I don't think many class clowns are attracted to the army life.**

So...about where we live. There are 6 rooms in each pod and 1 of ours is empty. 3 girls and 2 guys which could make the shower situation interesting! At least there are 2 sinks, though having only 1 toilet is going to suck. Too early to tell how it's all going to work out, but I like everyone I share space with so far.

My room is tiny and boring, which I suspect is on purpose. It is, however, not much smaller than the first room I shared my first year at Juilliard. Actually, they're pretty similar in size, except my desk is not under my bed AND I get it all to myself. Lots of closet space too, and windows that go across an entire wall. Sot it's really not bad. Just rather blah. And VERY warm. I turned my heat off and opened the window, which seems just about right. Unfortunately it doesn't work for the rest of the building but I have a feeling I might appreciate it a little more in the coming months!

I think I'll go for a walk now. It'll be good to get outside and I would like to try and orient myself and figure out where things are. I just have to brave the stairs. All 8 flights. Again. I will have amazing legs in a couple weeks!


Later addendums:

*turns out I just didn't live with them.
**also VERY wrong about that! Hoo boy...







Nov 22nd - 22:30

Even though we didn't really do anything, we have still been rather busy today. Meeting explaining things take a long time and are rather draining despite being boring. Or maybe it's because they're boring. Mostly they were explaining rules and prohibitions, things like which doors we can and can't use. Definitely NOT allowed to use the elevator. We learned how to march, and we have to march EVERYWHERE. Yellow lines on the floor make sure we stay on the right side of the hallway.

I still feel silly marching, but I think it's my lack of fatigues. Us newbies really stick out in our "civvies" and I'm sure that's on purpose. The military machine knows all about psychological warfare. I will write more about this later.

One thing we did not learn was how to make our beds with hospital corners. Luckily one girl in our pod already knows how and showed the rest of us. Not that we're expected to be perfect...at least not yet. But I AM supposed to be asleep. Hey, it's lights out! Good thing I got some of my work done. 5am is gonna come reeaal early. 5:45 breakfast - OH YEAH - the food here is actually really good. Meatloaf tonight and there was an excellent cake at lunch. man do I ever get distracted by food. ...right. Bed. Alright. Goodnight!