Bomber hats rock

@ is ready for bed after having a four hour finance briefing this morning at 0815.

Believe it or not, I’ve never seen South Park:Bigger, Longer and Uncut. I’m rectifying that right now.

They finally have reopened the Statue of Liberty’s torch! http://ping.fm/8HbMV

This past week I finally had my first day of class. It was quite underwhelming. On Thursday, I reported to my language school’s building way down the hill. For two hours, I did nothing and then was dismissed for the day. During my two hour period of doing nothing, I saw my teaching team and other classmates and I also had a chance to make sure that my CAC (Common Access Card) was working correctly. That was it. Really. I didn’t get books or my iPod. I didn’t even really get to meet my teachers. They were just sitting off to the side.

Friday morning, I reported to my first day of Smart Start. I’ll be attending that for the next bit to relearn English grammar—amongst other things—before I start to learn my language. It was an exciting morning of briefings about what we’ll actually be doing in Smart Start. It was such an exciting morning that during one of the breaks, I had to get some coffee to keep awake. Luckily there are little coffee shops all around here. The afternoon was better, that’s when we found out our class sections and learned more about our target country’s culture. The day went by quick and it was nice to feel like I wasn’t wasting the tax-payers money.

This side tracked me from doing some homework so I’m going to continue researching. Look next week for more tales of exciting classes. I should also have some exciting tales about going off-post for the first time. I’m pretty excited about that.

How is the US beating Brazil? Must be channeling Billy May’s spirit. Call now and get a second goal free!

I got out here to Tech School last week and it’s been an awesome change. When I left BMT, it was 110°. I got out here and it was around 60°. The weather’s been pretty much like that all week. In the morning I’ve actually been cold. I had to buy some long-sleeved under armor to wear under my ABUs.

Other than the weather change, it’s just been a total mindset change. I went from being yelled at if I did anything different from the group to no one really caring what I do or when I do it. No longer does Reveille play at 0445. No longer do I have 3 minutes to shower. No longer do I have to eat two fruits at each and every meal. I have choices and power over my life again and it’s sweet. On Friday, I didn’t wake up until 0600, didn’t eat any fruit at breakfast and showered as long as I pleased that evening. The difference is hard to explain unless you’ve experienced it.

I start my language class later this week and I’m looking forward to it. Instead of what I’m used to at school-old, outdated equipment-we’re actually using cutting edge technology in our classrooms and away from them. We’re being issued some high ticket items just because they will better help us learn our language. We’re all pretty excited about starting class. We’ve heard that we’ll very quickly be speaking no English in the class room. It’s also kind of daunting, in a way, to realize the amount of studying that will be required to accomplish this. I know that I am up to this challenge and I know that with the supports in place, I will succeed.

One of the obstacles that is in my way are people we like to call Morale Torpedoes. As their name implies, they’re people with negative attitudes. They claim that it sucks here, their language sucks, life sucks, the military sucks, and in reality it’s just them that suck. They couldn’t be more wrong anyway. Of those, I already know that three out of those four things rock. I’ll tell you next weekend if my language rocks or not (I think it will).

Time to wrap this thing up. I’m making a lot of new friends here and having fun so far. I am once again in contact by my usual means. If I don’t answer in a timely manner, just try again. I still have some restrictions on me for now.

До свидания друзья!

It would be nice to see USA make the Semifinals but I don’t see it happening against Egypt.

I’m out of basic now so I’m going to try and blog this weekend.

I can see sand and the ocean!