Week 2 of Field Training

I'm officially done with my second week of OBC! It seemed to go a bit faster than the first. Here are some things that happened:

*It didn't start out great. We had to report at 4:30 in the morning and knew that we had a long wait before we could get our weapons. That morning a new rule was instituted that we could not sit down unless we were eating. The week before we waited over 4 hours for the arms room to open up, so this made me a little cranky. Sometimes the time management is "menos eficaz" (less-effective).

* I found an evening of cooler, cloudy weather has a mildly intoxicating effect. Add some Erasure music playing over the loudspeaker and I became a bit giddy. Multiple this happiness with an instigated rule that we did not have to carry our lightening-rod weapons outside for the rest of the evening. Oh, the joy!! Some of the other music selections that were played over the loudspeaker included Vanilla Ice (my tent did get a premier of "Eyes, Eyes, Baby"), MC Hammer, LL Cool J, Michael Jackson, and New Kids On the Block. I waved my canteen to "Hangin' Tough" but found the whiny "I'll Be Loving You, Forever" to be a bit annoying.

* I survived the gas chamber! It's known as the "Mask Confidence" course and I do have great confidence in my gas mask. I was in a group of about 12 people and was led into a small room that pumped some sort of gas. The skin on our necks and hands burned as did some stretches and jumping jacks, and then we had to individually take off our mask and state our rank, full name, social security number, and where we were from. Some of the people in my group made it look so easy. When my turn came, I took a deep breath in, took off my mask, and proceeded to choke and cough my way through my words. It was almost like a drowning sensation while eating a jalapeno kind of feeling. Good time, good time.

*I had convoy operations training one day and started off in a simulator. I got to be the gunner in my group (stand through a hole in the "hummer" and shoot a really, really, large machine gun) and it was really awesome. During our field practice my job was to do security which entailed lots of kneeling on a very hot afternoon , and the radio person. While I was doing my radio job I missed out on the big "attack." On Thursday I did MOUT training which includes kicking doors, clearing rooms, and shooting enemies. That was pretty crazy yet fun too. This next week there is supposedly going to be some war games, woohoo!!

*I'm becoming more accustomed to bees and other stinging insects. There's always a lot of them during meal times and they just don't like to leave me alone. One of them suffered death by gravy. I do draw the line when they enter my tent. One victim suffered death by Blackhawk boot.

*The culinary highlight of field food this week was chicken. This was especially exciting after an encore of weird meatballs.

*I did make up for the MREs this week with some good food this weekend. Some friends and I went to a cool little dive in San Antonio called The Cove. It has its own car wash and has an indoor laundromat. It was nice enough to sit outside and we caught the last part of a local act in the var room. The food was amazing! It was all organic and we shared a vegetable appetizer that included falafel, naan, hummus, and sweet potatos. Most of the people had the bison burger and I tried the lamb burger with latin spices and sweet potato fries. Sooo good!! I tried some of the homemade ginger ale which was pretty good but really strong. My taste buds were on overload! Highly recommend this place!

* I ended this week with a wonderful visit with my friend Laura from PA school and her husband and met some of her sibs. It was a great afternoon and so fun to catch up. I may visit her in Houston in a couple weeks. Good times!

Stay tuned for more adventures next week! Last week of field training!

1st Week of Field Training

Here are some thoughts and experiences from my first week of field training. It has been a lot different from the previous 3 weeks of "death by Powerpoint."

* It's still been pretty hot. There have been a few heat injuries, especially amongst my platoon. This week we're suppose to start our physical training again. Oh, how I'm looking forward to that!

* I think the most beautiful sight I saw was the porta-potty maintenance truck pull up. It almost brought a tear to my eye...well, maybe not. It was still rather exciting. Those things can smell pretty bad. I also learned it's best to get in line early for meals, as the line backs all the way up to the latrines.

* I've been getting accustomed to the MREs (meals ready to eat). I had quite a hit of indigestion after the first two. I'm even starting to get use to the rehydration salts, which tasted pretty nasty in the beginning. It's been nicknamed "sweat water."

*I survived land navigation. I've developed a greater appreciation for safety eyewear, patrol cap, and uniform. The daytime course had me going through a lot of branches and night-time I plowed through quite a bit of cactus.

*With all the bruises I've managed to acquire, I'm starting to look like a human Dalmatian.

* Often in the morning and during the few rest breaks there's music played over the loudspeaker. This included a wide variety of classics including Tiffany's "I Think We're Alone Now." One of the first mornings we were awoken by some weird movie soundtrack with a little girl crying, "Daddy!! Don't leave me!"

* My battle buddy had her birthday while we in the field. I bought her some lunch from the "gut truck" to spare her an MRE.

*I have to have my weapon - an M-16 - tied (literally) to me practically 24/7. Even when we use the latrines. I feel like it's my long lost conjoined twin. I named it Enrique. I don't know if Enrique and I will be reunited again for this next week. He will always be my "first"...

* I felt like I may have cheated on Enrique when I did my 9mm pistol training. I did do a lot better on the range with the pistol than with the M-16. I'm sorry Enrique...

* My shower Friday night was the first shower I had since Monday morning and it felt soooo good. Loved it.

* This weekend went way too fast. Part of it must have been the fact that I slept until noon on Saturday. Yep, I was that tired. One of the highlights was taking advantage of Sonic's happy hour. So many drink choices!! I was already thinking of my next drink before I finished my blue coconut cream slush. It hit the spot.

4 a.m. Monday morning comes way too early. There's sure to be more adventures this week.

Checking In, Beginning Week 3!

Time is sure going by! Looooong days but fast weeks. One of the highlights of last week was the M-16 training. I still have to practice getting it assembled and disassembled in under 4 minutes. Maybe I can tap my inner Forrest Gump. I did a computer simulated exercise and got the rank of marksman. I was pretty fun! I will officially qualify when I start my field training next week.

Another fun moment this last week was Saturday night when I went to a dueling piano bar called Howl At The Moon on the Riverwalk in San Antonio. The pianos were going non-stop and they occasionally added in some drums or a guitar too. The crowd sang along to all of the songs. I loved the contest of choosing the cheesiest song from the 1980's. It tied with "Rock Me Amadeus" and "Gloria". At one point they had all the prior and active service military come on stage and sing along to "I'm Proud To Be An American" and it was pretty awesome.

Today I was waiting to do some medical in-processing (get immunizations, put medical info into the system, and do a vision exam). I arrived at 7 with over 150 other people after a 5:45 formation before breakfast. It took over 3 hours to get the computer system back up again and when all was said and done, I got out 6 1/2 hours later. During this time, I played a few games of tic tac toe and the dot game with the captain next to me, checked my Facebook about a dozen times, chit-chatted with a few other people surrounding me, and attempted to write my first post via phone. Unfortunately, the online access wasn't that great so I'm just doing it now before I touch-up my powerpoint presentation on STDs for tomorrow. Ahhhh, STDs. Fortunately I don't have to give it before lunch. I made it out with a Tb test, a polio vaccine (weird military protocol...), my second Hep A, and the easiest and quickest vision test ever. I thought for sure I would have trouble with that one, but I could use my good eye. At least I don't have to wear ugly "Birth Control" glasses when I'm in the field.

More to come...

OBC: week 1

I'm almost finished with my first full week of Officer Basic Course (OBC) at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio. Here are just some random thoughts and evens of the past week:
* On Monday I had a paperwork fiasco with my unit and this resulted in me leaving pretty late (considering I thought I would have it all signed by 10 AM and could be making it on my merry way. I didn't hit the freeway until about 5 PM and drove through the night. I learned that Texas Highway Patrol are pretty strict about their speed limits and I tried to be careful with the speed limit for most of the trip. With a time change, the night-time speed limit dropping to 65 mph and getting a little lost in San Antonio, I made it to lodging around 5 in the morning. I ended up taking an hour nap in my car and then I was able to register.
* With the large number of people in my class as well as the other overlapping class, we were assigned to hotels off base, with our own rooms. I know my living arrangements will be drastically different in a couple weeks when I start field training (crowded tents, 105+ degree heat, no showers). I guess by then I'll be moved to on-base shared lodging for the weekends and probably for the rest of my time here.
* I did have a little elevator trouble the other night. I was going down to the first floor and when it stopped, the doors barely cracked open. Pulling them and pressing the open button didn't help. The elevator went back up, and then down and repeated the same thing. For the next couple minutes it continued to go randomly up and down while I called the help line. I was told that the elevator had been having problem (duh, why didn't they have a sign on all the floors?)and a mechanic was going to fix it. The elevator finally stopped and opened on the third floor where there was a man waiting to use it and I told him he shouldn't. Craziness.
* I still have a bit of catching up to do on sleep. My first 72 hours since Sunday night I totaled 9 nine hours of sleep. The last few mornings I had to get up at 3 and 3:30 in the morning. I guess it's better to do our outside stuff at 5 in the morning when it's 80 degrees rather than 5 in the afternoon when it's over 100 (and stays 100 even at 9 o'clock at night). It's been a little bit of a challenge to stay hydrated, although it's made a little easier with my "patriotic" blue Powerade. And bless the creator of flavor-enhanced water (except the lemon-lime flavor -- that one is nasty).
* It's nice that I'm not the only one new to the military. The class (over 300 people) is about evenly divided between newbies and prior service. There's also some reserve and National guard too, and three foreign military officers. The majority of the group is made of nurses -- 95% of the people I meet -- and I've met about a handful of PAs.
* I had a nice time last night on the Riverwalk and some good Italian food with some of the other students. Good times.
* It's taking me some time and patience to get used to this San Antonio freeway system. Circular freeways? There's so many different roads and one-way streets. Who's idea was that? Luckily there are some turnarounds, but really it should not be that complicated.
* I attended the military branch today on base that was held in the library. Attending church in the library is a first for me. In a couple weeks we might move to the child development center. There was a pretty good turnout of around 70 people and they said it was the largest group they have seen in a while. I was a bit distracted during Relief Society with the "Read" campaign posters of celebrities from the 80's. Does anyone remember those?

More adventures to follow. Stay tuned.

Soundtrack of Life (so far)

I got this idea from my friend Brett and decided to try it out. I'm passing on the list of rules if anyone feels like doing the same. It is really interesting, fun, and a little challenging. If anyone would like to create their own playlist, feel free to share it with me or we can even swap CDs.


PURPOSE:
The purpose of the soundtrack is to expose friends to new or different bands and discover one another's taste in music. One should not try to analyze the lyrics to figure out the person as lyrics may or may not reflect the person's own life. For example, some songs may be included that have a particular sentimental value, may be what one was simply listening to at a particular period of one's life, or may even be chosen for the lyrical content, but that can only be discovered by asking the compiler of the soundtrack, not by attempting to analyze and figure it out on one's own. Each individual has his or her own rationale for compiling the songs that he or she chooses and it may be extremely different from your own.

RULES:
1. You may choose any songs of your choosing for your soundtrack, but an artist can only appear once on your soundtrack (for example, I could not have two songs by The Smiths, but it is perfectly fine to have one song by The Smiths and another by Morrissey--who is the lead singer of The Smiths but later branched out on his own).
2. All songs must fit on 2 cds.
3a. Burn a disc with your soundtrack and swap it with a friend who has done the same.
3b. If you are swapping with someone from a distance and do not wish to mail the cds (or if you would like to swap with me, but don't want to burn discs or get my address, etc.) you may simply send the playlist with the name of the song and the artist. This will allow for the person to look up the music on their own if they like.
4. Swap the cd and playlist with your friend.
5. If you like, you can ask your friend why he or she chose a particular song for the soundtrack, but the friend reserves the right not to share that information if they do not desire to do so.

So here's my soundtrack of life (so far):
Disc 1

Beautiful Day – U2
We’re Going To Be Friends – Jack Johnson
When I Fall In Love – Nat King Cole
All We Are – Matt Nathanson
Winding Road – Bonnie Summerville
Road Trippin’ – Red Hot Chili Peppers
Passenger Seat – Death Cab For Cutie
Dreams – The Cranberries
Homesick – Kings of Convenience
Keep Breathing – Ingrid Michaelson
Analogue – A Ha
Angel – Sarah McLachlan
Chocolate – Snow Patrol
Smells Like Teen Spirit -- Nirvana
Dead Man’s Party – Oingo Boingo
When You Say Nothing At All – Alison Krauss and Union Station
Book Of Days – Enya
Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing – The Mormon Tabernacle Choir
Gabriel’s Oboe – Ennio Morricone/Yo-Yo Ma

Disc 2

Turn, Turn, Turn – The Byrds
Little Wonders – Rob Thomas
Bittersweet Symphony – The Verve
Fix You – Coldplay
Am I Awake? – They Might Be Giants
Brand New Day – Joshua Radin
Dancing In The Moonlight – Toploader
When It Don’t Come Easy – Patty Griffin
Life Is Beautiful – Vega 4
Life Ain’t Always Beautiful – Gary Allan
California Soul – Marlena Shaw
Off I Go – Greg Laswell
Good Riddance (Time of Your Life) – Green Day
We Will Never Forget – Savoy
What A Wonderful World – Eva Cassidy
Appalachian Spring, Simple Gifts – Aaron Copland
Ara Batur – Sigur Ros

Almost July: another update.

* I had a bit of a laundry room fiasco last Monday night. I went to put my clothes in the dryer and found the floor to be flooded. First time that happened to me and I have no idea why especially since the washer wasn't overloaded. It took me almost a half hour to get most of the water up. Que lastima!
* As I came back from the main lodging laundry room I scared off a coyote in the parking lot. I must admit it was pretty cool to listen to it howl a couple minutes later. Maybe the back door should be kept close...
* I had dinner with Marsha, Brandy, and another girl and they continue in their efforts to acclimate my taste buds to spicy food, but it was very delicious as usual. may have to get some Jamaican spice. We watched the movie "He's Just Not That Into You" and we shared a genuine chick moment.
* Yet another tie-up in paperwork and processing as I have to wait for my AKO account, which supposedly will take a few weeks.I did get to start shadowing the PA in the clinic and so it was nice to get back into the setting.
* I went to my first dance here in El Paso (for the last 40 minutes)and was actually quite impressed with the variety. I really did not know how to dance to ranchero music so I joined a group hitting a balloon and thinking of foods that start with the letter "m." I said marijuana counts, as it is an ingredient in certain baked items. Could I be corrupting these people already?
* After the dance I went to Village Inn with a large group and enjoyed some Nutella crepes with strawberries and bananas. Good good stuff.
* I learned that at the commissary they sell individual servings of Stephen's hot chocolate. There were only three flavors, but oh what joy!!
* I moved into my apartment. I won't have my stuff until Wednesday. I kinda miss my fridge. I have little to no cell phone reception and the phone company told me that I really, really needed to upgrade. I guess it is about time.
* As I was unloading my car the missionaries stopped me as they were looking for an apartment. They asked me if I had talked to guys like them before and I said many times. When they asked me where, I told them I was Mormon. I was glad that I could offer them some water in the triple-digit heat, and they just did a tough bike ride up the hill.
* Downside of El Paso: The drivers. I know that the speed limit is 60 miles an hour and I'm used to going 72, but when people drive 50 in the middle lane, that's just plain wrong!!
* Upside to El Paso: I love, love, love summer rain storms. It allows me to turn off my air conditioning for just a bit. The thunder was loud enough to set off a couple of car alarms and I got a text saying there was a funnel cloud over Biggs Air Field (out where I work). There aren't many things more peaceful than falling asleep to the sound of rain.

Almost two weeks later...

Just an update on the last couple weeks...
* I think I've been the personnel department's worst nightmare. Lots of issues and things to fix. Being reassessed in the system, hunting down other paperwork, waiting and waiting and waiting. It took me a little over a week to finally be in the system and on Friday I finally was able to get my ID card(makes leaving and getting around base much easier) and start my in-processing (basically paperwork and getting situated at the base). I should be done tomorrow. I thought today was going to be pretty easy and I would just pick up a paper before I headed to finance. That wasn't the story. Another hassle came up and I was sent to a couple other offices and found out that I didn't have a certain necessary account which I couldn't register because of another glitch, and so the cycle of frustration continued... Iwas finally able to get needed form at the end of the day and hopefully tomorrow will be a lot easier.
* I have a really cool PA in my unit that I will be working with named Marsha, who happens to be from Jamaica. She's been a big help and the past couple weekends we went to the bowling alley on base and had a couple of dinners at her house with her roommate who also is in the Army. Last night I was really spoiled with some amazing marinated grilled chicken, potatos, and homemade salsa.
*Last night I also discovered the joy of watching the Dodgers in HD. Amazing.
* I've done some apartment searching and I think I've settled on one which is actually a town home apartment. Stairs will be good for me. It's actually the farthest one away from base but it's only about 25 minutes on a highway that crosses the mountains. I actually liked being a little closer to the mountains and I guess giving myself a little space between home and work could be a good thing.
* On Saturdays I've treated myself to some Mexican food for lunch. I went to a burrito place (it starts with a C, can't quite remember) and had some good mole with wonderful homemade tortillas. I also tried Avila's which is one of the most popular places in El Paso, and I can see why. Wonderful food! I may be developing an addiction to horchata as well.
* I have a greater appreciation for clouds. Sometimes brings the heat down just a few degrees, and I especially love it when it rains - which hasn't been often. Today it dropped thirty degrees just within 30 minutes and it was heavenly. I even turned off my car's air conditioner. Unfortunatly it didn't stay cool very long. It's still in the 90's at night, uggg....
* I found 1.5 more English stations to program onto my radio. Still have a couple more buttons to fill. One of the stations - the best I've found - is a bit fuzzy but is clearer when I'm near Biggs Airfield (where I'll be working).