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...
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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. ;)
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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!
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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!