The Trip

I'm finally done with my three days of travelling. So much fun. Really.

The drive itself wasn't that bad - good weather, little traffic. It was the stopping that was the problem. I had bad luck getting a hotel - I'd wanted to stop around 8ish so when I started looking around, I really couldn't find anything in the first place and kept waiting for signs for good places to stay. I finally checked into a room at 9:20.

The next day, I stopped at a gas station with a drive-through car wash because I wanted my car to actually pass the joint inspection. After purchasing a car wash at the pump, entering the code and waiting for the gate to raise for a minute, I finally went into the actual place to find out that it wasn't working that day. I drove up and down the road to see if there were any other places to take the car (Car Detailing for $25!) before deciding to take my chances. The car passed - my issues with the car pertained to the fact that my orders had me going to the headquarters of my command (I'm assuming that's the same thing as a division since apparently group and brigade are - to quote one instructor, "there's the right way, there's the Army way, and there's the Germany way") but my specific company is actually located in a different area of Germany. It all worked out but I was a little nervous/ambivalent about leaving the country so I was slightly on edge and in a bad mood anyway.

I have also decided that I'm cursed when it comes to bathrooms and airports. Somehow I always pick the stall with the messed up sensor - which, hey, I know how to flush a toilet so that really wouldn't be an issue except that I get the sensors that flush the toilet as soon as you sit down. That happened to me twice on Monday (and once in Dallas on my way to Seattle back in the day so it really appears to be a theme). Honestly though, why do they need sensors on toilets? Were there that many people that couldn't flush? Is it hygiene? It can't be money because those things have to waste more water than a regular toilet with all the sensors misreading any type of movement (you walked by the toilet - must mean you used it).

The flight was overnight which actually has helped with the jet lag so far. It probably would have helped even more if I had slept during the in-flight entertainment but I finally had a chance to watch Volver! I've only mentioned it in, what, two other blog entries? I liked it. It's a good thing I watched it, too - I saw a schedule for the movie theater here, and it's rather depressing. The funny thing is that the crappy movies, like Norbit, The Cleaner and The Messengers are going to be showing this month while apparently people had to wait till now for a chance to see The Good Shepherd. Actually, I'm not sure how the rotation works because some of films had descriptions like premiere or 2nd screening (the movies switch out daily although some show repeatedly in a month ) but still, I have the impression that there's less of a delay for bad movies.

Well, time to go back to the finance office - my travel voucher is going to be so extensive that the clerk went on lunch in the middle of it. When we were filling out finance as a group, the representative came in and said, "8 months TDY enroute? Just sit tight and we'll take care of you later." I can't wait to see how much money I get!

At the Airport

After spending three uneventful weeks at home, I had to head back to Norfolk yesterday. I have two hours before my flight leaves, and then I'll have a lay-over in DC. My sponsor contacted me during my first week home, and it turns out that I'm going to a truck company in Graf that's deploying in the later summer. Basically, it's all my worst fears come true (except that I actually have a few months with my unit before deploying but close enough). My unit's been over before so hopefully they'll be able to impart some wisdom on me, and make me a little less nervous and more technically proficient before we leave Germany.

Turns out that I'm really not cut out for recruiting - "Did you call them?" - "Yes, earlier. I left a message." - "Why don't you try again?" - "Because I feel like if I call anymore often I'll be bugging them." I went on one recruiting event which involved talking to a group of nurses about the Army. Honestly, as ambivalent as I may be about the military, as far as I can tell, being an Army nurse is a sweet deal - they work in a hospital like any normal nurse, but the Army seems to give them more benefits. If I had any leaning towards the math and sciences, nursing definitely would have been the way to go.

I had a chance to see everyone I wanted to while I was home, went to a lecture on campus and even sat in on one of my professor's classes. I also finally figured out what tattoo I wanted (with me leaving the country and actually embarking on my Army career rather than more TRADOC, it seemed like an appropriate time to get it). Unfortunately, I couldn't get an appointment until Friday so it still burns some. Maybe I'll post a picture of it sometime in the near future.

Other than that, I went to the movies but not quite as often as I wanted to (I never made it to Volver). I highly recommend Pan's Labyrinth. I never saw any previews for it, but I hear the trailers focus on the fantasy aspect and are quite misleading. It's a war movie, and the fairy tale aspects are a young girl's way of coping with the violence and upheaval in her life.

Only two more hours to go - I can't believe I'm actually moving to Germany. I don't think they have Starbucks there - there's an evil capitalist empire I'm going to miss.

Leaving Ft. Eustis

I made it through all the hassle of out-processing week. Golf Company is so inefficient it isn't even funny. At one point, they told us to be in the classroom at 1300 for information about leave forms, and then finally let us go finish our other out-processing at 1500 after we just sat and waited for two hours - I wasn't exactly in a charitable or patient mood to begin with since I found out on Wednesday afternoon (graduation was Thursday) that I had to get extra paper work filled out as a result of going overseas. And then I wasted two hours in the class room. Fortunately, I'm only going to Germany - the Korea people received even more paper work, and found out about some shots they needed graduation morning (small pox and anthrax; actually anthrax was optional - optional in the Army of course meaning now or later).

I hit the road on Friday morning, pulled something in my back while attempting to shove an overloaded suitcase on top of another overloaded suitcase in my trunk (it finally closed, though), and made it home after being on the road for thirteen hours. By the time I hit Indiana, my oil light started coming on and beeping at me whenever I got onto the ramps with very sharp turns. I was about 5,000 miles overdue for an oil change . . . (once again, I really have to wonder about how I ended up in the Transportation Corps).

I relaxed yesterday, and went to see The Last King of Scotland (I'm so excited to be back home - there are a ton of movies I've read reviews for in the past month that just weren't showing in Virginia, and they are all showing here - I'm not sure if this weekend just happened to be the wide release date for them all, or if Champaign just shows slightly more not so mainstream films than Newport News, being a college town and all - either way, I'm planning on seeing Volver, Little Children and Curse of the Golden Flower - I loved Gong Li in Raise the Red Lantern, and she's in this one). I can't believe I'm going to have to give up going to the movies once I get to Germany - they have a more limited selection and I'll have to wait longer. I guess I could always watch them on the economy but I don't like the idea of watching American films in German (it's like those Chinese/Japanese film and anime purist who refuse to actually watch dubbed films) - maybe I'll be able to find a theater with subtitles.

Today, we cleaned out my closet, so I would actually have room for all the clothes in my luggage. In the next week or two, I'm going to be doing a lot of sorting through my things to figure out what's staying, what's being shipped, and what I absolutely can't live without and therefore must go on the plane with me (take a guess which category my computer falls into).

Manassas Run

While Manassas Run wasn't nearly as bad as some of the infantry style FTXs I've been on (I'm of course referring to the ten days at LDAC), I wouldn't exactly say I enjoyed the experience. All I can say is that I hope to God I get assigned to a Movement Control Team or a Cargo Transfer Unit because if I get anywhere near a truck platoon, I'm going to get myself killed. Granted, I think they went about it all the wrong way: we basically went on STX lanes without ever having really gone over battle drills (a slide show and a walk through with forty+ people that couldn't hear anything doesn't count). It would basically be like taking a freshmen in ROTC on an FTX without ever having explained what a squad attack is and then evaluating them on their execution of Battle Drill 1A. It also doesn't help that everyone was saying, "in Iraq you would have uparmored vehicles so you wouldn't get out of the vehicle" - let's train for Iraq then.

Surprisingly enough, I did very well on my evals and actually had the fifth highest grade in the class. In order to create more eval positions, they actually made two people plan the missions and two different people execute. Fortunately, I got planning, because if I'd had execution I probably would have had the worst grade (apparently, one of the guys was making fun of me to the other guys - granted, I was slightly clueless, but this guy is pretty out of it on a general basis).

I just hope somebody actually trains me on something before I ever get deployed - as far as this place is concerned, I definitely don't think they utilized their time very well. I honestly still don't really know the difference between most of the trucks or their capacities (of course this is coming from someone who didn't even know how to open the hood of a car she'd had for four years until six months ago - yeah, I belong in Transportation).

The stupidity of it all

Just when I thought we'd gotten through the worst of the bullshit, T-School manages to surprise me with its utter inefficiency and stupidity. As everyone keeps telling me, "this is not the Army, this is not the Army."

This was our first week back from Exodus, and it really sucks being back to regular duty hours. Also, despite the fact that I was here over Exodus, I still feel like I have a lot to get done for out-processing, so I'm not happy that of the week and half remaining, I am going to be in the field for one week and unable to accomplish anything.

Thursday morning formation started with a long speech from the 1SG about our current lack of motivation and energy (apparently, the fact that we just got back from leave should make us energized rather than even more unhappy about being here). Once she was done with us, our TAC took over the formation and talked to us for at least ten minutes. Once again, he told us that we need to listen and support whoever is in charge (i.e., the Platoon Sergeant of the week - he gave a lot of those speeches when I was in PSG), and then talked about how even the prior service people don't know everything. Basically, one LT made him mad, so as a result we all got an earful instead of him just speaking to the one person.

We got done with the morning training pretty early, but our TAC wanted to talk to us, so we waited a little bit for him before we went to lunch. Not a big deal, except he was kind of a bitch about it: "On the schedule, training goes till 12 so if I want to talk till then, I can." Well, actually I would say that argument doesn't hold because that's the instructor's time, not his. He then went on to say how everyone needed to get a haircut while staring directly at me. After that more widely directed comment, he said that even the females needed to get haircuts as he stood right in front of me. Can't this guy ever address people individually instead of always making a huge thing out of it in front of the class? The standard for females is the edge of the collar - my hair is shorter than that. I tend to slouch but I do not need a haircut. I was pissed (and I had already started the day in a very bad mood for other reasons).

We also finished up the afternoon pretty early (3:30) but weren't allowed to leave because once again our TAC had something to say to us. After waiting for an hour, somebody decided to issue us knee and elbow pads, and then finally our TAC came in, asked whether everyone was there because "no one is allowed to leave without being released by him," and then told us what time formation was the next morning before finally releasing us at 5. We waited an hour and half to be told nothing. Also, one LT walked out on our TAC while he was talking - this was the same guy who had pissed him off earlier in the day, so basically, all of the bullshit on Thursday was just the TAC trying to assert his authority over us. How very immature. I love being in the middle of a power struggle.

Friday was more of the same. A detail of four had to show up early to draw weapons, but our TAC didn't show up, so our training was off to a great start. Additionally, we had a 7 am briefing scheduled but the guy didn't show up until 7:15. In theory, it's not a big deal, but if we pulled that same type of crap, we'd be in so much trouble.

They split us into groups for the morning training, but even that was completely inefficient. 1st and 2nd platoon were out preparing for the live fire while 3rd platoon waited in the class room. In theory we were supposed to get a GPS class, but no one ever showed up. Then we rotated, and had to wait in the class room. Once again, we spent about one to two hours sitting around waiting. Then at the end of the day, they started issuing us a bunch of stuff in a somewhat disorganized fashion. I think I filled out about two or three hand receipts because they'd issue us things, and then remember that there were more items which we needed. Instead of getting it all done at once, they dragged it out. Also, instead of getting this done when we were sitting around doing nothing, they waited till the end of the day, so once again we couldn't leave until after all the offices I needed to go to were already closed. Also, I have a handheld GPS now but no clue how to use it since they never gave us the class.

Tonight I have a meeting with my group about the next week, and then I need to finish up packing. Up until last week, I was ambivalent about leaving here: there's a lot of idiocy but I still have fun on occasion, and at least I have weekends off and regular hours. Now I can't wait to get the hell out of here. Anyway, I won't be posting for the next week since we'll be at AP Hill but then again, the no updating thing is kind of becoming a theme here so I guess that's not too much of a surprise.

Two Weeks in a Nutshell

Can I just pretend that I haven't completely neglected to post in the past few weeks? Yes?

The past two weeks (in no order or proper format):

I'm going to Germany now. I swapped duty stations with one of the other LTs in my class. I'm pretty excited except that organizing a move overseas is going to be so much more of a hassle than tossing everything into the back of my car and driving across the country. Also, the idea of living off of only two pieces of luggage until the rest of my things are shipped over is a bit frightening. On the other hand, the blizzard in Denver makes me so happy that I won't be in Colorado.

We've completed our first week-long field exercise, Bull Run. It wasn't too bad, but the days went much longer than usual (partially explaining the lack of posts; I was just too tired and drained). If one other person tells me that I look lost, I'm going to scream.

I was platoon sergeant of the class week. No one could hear me, I got a million speeches from our TAC about being more confident and taking charge, and pissed off one of the civilians by telling him to shut up (I was in charge of the formation, had info to share, and he kept saying to just fall them out - I told him to shut up - it shocked the entire class, too). He actually complained to our platoon leader, but the PL just told me he thought it "was fabulous." The week ended with me yelling at the class to "get off their asses and move the rest of the shit" because we had a detail but apparently people were actually rather impressed/amused with me for lashing out and "growing a pair."

I have staff duty on the 30th - so much for doing anything over the four day weekend.

Since I'm going overseas, I need a recent HIV test, even though I just had one in August at Ft. Sill. Another student (he's going to Korea) and I went to the clinic only to later find out that we were in the wrong location. Since we were there, they pulled up our records online, and they decided I needed four shots - all of which I was told I didn't need at Sill but since my actual medical file is probably still in Oklahoma, I didn't have proof. Even better, I needed a pregnancy test before they would give me the measles shot which resulted in the worst blood drawing I've ever experienced. I got stuck 3 times before they got any blood. All I can say is that 7 needles in one day is a bit much. And I blame BOLC II. They should have let me hand-carry my medical records.

This morning, I spent two and half hours waiting for a five minute dental exam. I didn't even get a cleaning, and since I'm not stationed at Eustis, I can't make an appointment, either. Basically, I'm going to get sit around the medical office for another two or three hours next week waiting for a gap in the schedule.

I'm currently reading Tess of the D'Urbervilles, and I've been bringing it with me to formation because we aren't actually doing anything at the moment. One of my friends grabbed it today, read the back, and then said: "You know, they have new ones. Like Nora Roberts or Nicholas Sparks." I thought that was pretty funny. My TAC just said that he had to read it for an English class once.

There's a Cheesecake Factory in Virginia Beach. I thought that was exciting news.

Long Overdue Entry

So I definitely need to work on the whole updating thing. For the most part, it's just been more of the same: boring classes, instructors varying from "I kind of like him/her" to "What an ass," and going out with the class.

I ended up discussing the Army value of respect in my paper, and specifically addressed that the instructors here don't exactly treat us as fellow human beings. I even quoted the chaplain's note on the board from the first week - he's the one grading it, so we'll see how that goes. One of the other LTs said he should have written his paper about two other students: one as an example of selfless service, and me for personal courage since I "tore into the chaplain" in my paper. Of course, I did pretty well on the brief, so at least that will keep my grade up.

I was actually somewhat busy this weekend. Much like in college, we started the weekend on Thursday and went out to karaoke that night. We didn't have PT the next day so a few of us, myself included, took full advantage of it. We actually had three people unaccounted for the next day at formation because they slept through their alarms. We also went out Saturday night, but it was much more low-key, and I went to a concert on Friday night.

There's been a lot of high school drama here this week. There's a Christmas Ball this Saturday, and on Monday, everyone was talking about buying dresses, suits and getting dates. I didn't even realize that we didn't have to wear dress blues until that morning, so needless to say, I have neither a date nor a dress and am not going. As much as I would love to buy a new dress (but not shoes - I hate shoe-shopping), I am not about to show up to a formal without a date - going stag to my high school prom was more than enough. I am not about to do that to myself again.

Edited December 22, 2006: Okay, so I actually gave in and went to the dance. I bought a dress, had my hair and make-up done and everything. I had a date, too, even if she was the same gender as me. It was more fun than prom but naturally, I developed a stomach ache in the middle of the dinner so I had to cut the night short. I looked good, though.