Friday was a rather low-key day. We had our first road march early that morning, and we even got lucky with the weather since there was a cloud cover the entire time. That morning was probably the coolest it has been since I got here. In the afternoon, we had a welcoming brief from some of the higher ranking officers at Ft. Sill. One of the superior officers sounded like a Jon Stewart impression of Bush - he had almost the exact same mannerism minus the laugh. All of the different speakers focused on the importance of getting beyond cliquishness since at least half of my class is made up of West Pointers. They encouraged us to put this into practice at that night's required fun - a informal reception to get to know each other and our mentors. It was two hours, which was at least an hour too long, and there was a crazy sergeant major there who briefly spoke to us. As one person put it, "I want six of what he's having."
A lot of us went out after the reception, and the bars in Lawton aren't even too bad. I also am happy about the fact that since it's a smaller town, the prices are very similar to what I was paying at campus bars. It's actually kind of funny, but I've been out drinking more often since I reported to Ft. Lewis, and became an actual member of the Army than my entire senior year of college.
Other than that, I watched quite a few movies this weekend. I had CQ Saturday night so hopefully that means I won't have it on the four day weekend that's in a week and a half. I also learned that it is a mistake to watch Brokeback Mountain with two women from the South, especially if one of them has already stated, "I don't like gays." It probably didn't help that the volume on my lap top wasn't that loud (I swear it used to be louder) so they couldn't hear much of what was going on. As a result, they kept making fun of me or the movie, even after I threw a Gatorade bottle at them. We actually get along pretty well, but we definitely fall along different lines of the political spectrum.
The one thing I don't like about BOLC II at the moment is the lack of communication. It seems like every platoon is doing something slightly different, and even within the platoons, the squads are on different wave lengths. For example, 1st and 3rd squad have known who their squad leaders for tomorrow are since Friday. 4th squad, which is of course my squad, is still waiting to find out. Also, I actually had homework this weekend, although no one really knew exactly what the assignment was until this morning and once again it varied according to the platoon. I just want some uniformity and a bit more prior planning time. Of course, it is still a work in progress so by next year they should have all the kinks ironed out.
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