I am back home…finally! I’ve just spent one week in Mississippi and another week in south Georgia and I cannot describe to you how wonderful it is to be able to sleep in my own bed! Now, I do not want to complain about the lovely accommodations that the Army as set up for me, because you know, I’ve always wanted to visit Mississippi in the summer with all the bugs and huge, flying cockroaches they have on the base there (can you sense the sarcasm?). My first class went by really quickly. I am learning to become a trainer; a huge part of becoming a trainer is knowing how to review and evaluate another units training exercises. So we had to learn doctrine, do’s and don’ts, and how to evaluate one another professionally and accurately. Because the class was so short, I felt like we just ran through it; it went by very quickly. I went with 3 other people from my unit and at first we were all separated but my platoon ended up being so small that they just merged us with another platoon…with me being the only female. Everything was fine until we started actually doing the exercises. I realized that even though we were being graded on how we evaluated the mission and not the mission itself, when you are playing war games with Infantry guys that they take it very seriously. Mississippi is VERY hot…and we had to run around in the woods…twice a day…for 3 days. Let’s just put it like this: I was sweating so much that by the end of each mission I had to peel my clothes off (not cool, btw). But I didn’t complain, I was the only female in the platoon so the last thing I wanted to do was whine about how uncomfortable I was.
The guys were loving it though (I am not surprised). I was also able to speak to Lorenzo almost every night. There were some nights where I was so tired that I fell asleep before he called. He also sent me more pictures of the California desert and I had to remind myself that no matter how miserable I was that he was a worse off than I was (no offense to Cali, I’m just not fan of the military training facilities there). Lorenzo also had to spend his birthday there 😦 Even though I was sad that I couldn’t spend the day with him, he managed to be okay because he’s just a very positive person. But a few of his Marines (I wouldn’t dare say “Soldiers”) surprised him by making him a cake and decorated it with Hershey bars. I thought that was adorable.
So after 7 days in Mississippi, we headed back to Georgia and stayed here for another week. We were put back with the rest of the company to finish out the training that they were doing. We missed going to the range, so I’m sure we’ll have to make it up another time. There was some computer based stuff, then we were split were the Team Leaders (since my leader was at another base, I had to fill in for him) were sent to another class while the rest of the soldiers completed Land Navigation, a Leaders Reaction Course, and an Obstacle Course (I am not sad that I missed that). Even though the days went by very quickly, its all the more better for me, because the faster the days go by the faster Lorenzo gets to come home.
Even though I’ve been having 16-18 hours days for the past few weeks, I’m going to back work tomorrow 😦 So no time off for me until the weekend. But I have planned something special for Lorenzo when he gets home on Friday: I’m taking him to a spa so that he can get a full body massage, he has definitely earned it. We are also going to Myrtle Beach for the 4th of July 🙂 Plus, I go back to school next week, so I’m going to be pretty busy for the next few months. I really need to focus so that I’m not wasting time do things that I shouldn’t be doing (*cough* Facebook *cough*) time to buckle down and get back to work!
Next up…more of what I’ve learned in the Army.
Alex's Next Move 