| So since it's been a decent portion of eternity since I updated last, I'll just give a recap and not go into too much detail. So wow!, summer is over and it's almost fall... that was fast. To recap, after finals and the whole week after that when we had to wake up at four in the morning to do drill practice (marching on a grass field in a square for hours in the most uncomfortable uniforms imaginable and in the most rigid stance possible, yeah, "kinda sucks" is an understatement) and after the two hour long graduation ceremony which President Bush was the speaker for, we were finally released to enjoy our two weeks of vacation... for the summer. That's right, two weeks for your summer to make up for a year of 18 hour days filled with gruesome studying, painful physical practices, and the annoying west point traditions of treating the freshmen like dirt. So, I hear you asking, "How jeff, how could you ever make up for a whole year of deprivation in merely two weeks?" Well, I'm about to tell you how. This is the summer break to end all summer breaks, so read on and take notes. lol. First: Visit family and relax in Minsk Belarus. My goal was to recooperate and spend some great quality time with my family whom I had not seen since Christmas. Some cool things that I can remember are: having dinner with the American defense attache (a west point graduate who could relate to what I had gone through the first year) and then coming back to my family's house to find that the KGB had broken in and gone through the computers for incriminating information, that was kinda interesting, I got to have lunch with the American ambassador to Belarus (also set up by the west point grad. attache) which was interesting since I was the only one at the table not drinking wine for the toast (because I didn't know if the west point grad would remember that west point doesn't allow freshmen to drink), and finally, speeding to the airport at a hundred miles an hour because our other car broke down on the way. Yeah, that was great, I turned a 3 hour drive to lithuania to catch my flight, into a 1 and a half hour ride of a lifetime. Kids, I do not endorse speeding, it's very bad, never do it. (Yes, I'm a hypocrite). From family time in Belarus I transitioned to party time in Kandern Germany with friends. What a blast. If I didn't write anything else it would be just as good as trying to put crumby words to an unexplainably amazing time. If you weren't there, I'm sorry for you, but you can make up for it by being at bfa's next graduation. So some highlights from my week (five days) at bfa: spending time at Sonne!, camping at salzenburg (flaming effigies, yeah!), spending time with best friends from the awesome class of 2005 and other wonderful people who graced us with their pressence, being present for the graduation of some awesome sonneknights and others (i love anyone who graduated and just was not able to live the dream of being at sonne), having some good times at German pubs watching the world cup, swing dancing with the alumni (sorry leah for dropping you on your back:), spending time at the kandern pool, (doesn't get any warmer), meeting up with some great staff friends, running in the mountains again, and overall having an amazing time. So it came down to the point where everyone started going home and I was staying for the rest of the week, and what do I do? Take another trip, five countries is not enough in a week. So what do I put together in one day of frantic planning? That's right, a trip to Scotland! From the scenic black forest area I took a mad serries of transportation routes to make it to Glasgow, Scotland to hang out with Rebecca. No joke, one day I call her up and mention the idea of taking a cheap flight (ryan air ladies and gentlemen: it worked for me!) to visit for a few days, and the next morning at 5 AM I am catching a ride with Adam and his dad (thanks Adam and Mr. Dunham!) to the airport to take a bus to another airport so that I can fly to another airport and take a train to a place where I can take a bus from to finally get to my destination. So I got to spend three days (actually two half days and one full day) visiting Rebecca in the awesome city of Glasgow. I got to know the city real well because she had to work during the day, so I was able to spend hours walking around taking pictures. It was an interesting time as I felt bad trying to spend as much time with Rebecca as I could in my short stay, while she had to balance a guest and a working schedule. But the trip was definately worth it. Something different to do before heading back to two solid months of miltary training, yeeeah! So that concludes my amazing two weeks of summer vacation, from which I went straight back to the sucky heat of a west point summer training experience. I don't think that xanga would let me post the novel I would have to write to recount my adventures from Cadet Field Training, better known to cadets as bucknam or bucknanistan. Basically, we spent two months out in the woods rucking, going to firing ranges, learning land navigation, first aid, close quarters combat, room clearing, and generally being awesome in all aspects. I got to blow down doors, set off claymore mines, fire a tank, ride in a helicopter, fire heavy weapons including an automatic grenade launcher, and overall learn a ton about tactics and techniques in the military. Just to let whoever is now thinking "that sounds fun, i'll do that" know, the cool stuff that you get to do is about 10 percent of the picture, the other 90 percent is sleeping in the rain, getting sick/stung by umpteen trilion bugs, sweating untill you have no more water to sweat, waking up at four in the morning and doing nothing until noon, and dealing with countless other areas of frustration and not getting to do anything about changing them. But it is a great experience; it builds character. So I'll quickly recap the 6 days of break that they gave us at the end of summer training, I used the time to visit relatives and go to Houston for B'linda's wedding. I flew down to Muskogee OK to visit grandparents and spend some time with my sister Sarah who was making wedding preparations for her November wedding, and with my mom who was helping out with the wedding planning. I then used the last day to fly down to Houston to see B's wedding. Now the thing is, Brett (marcos) and I had been told different times for the wedding, but since he was in houston before me, I assume that he knows the right time. Well, we show up to the wedding about five minutes late and everybody is already in the chapel, so we agree to just sneak in the back with our gifts. So as we are about 10 feet from the chapel doors, out come B'linda and Elliot, who had just been married. Some awkward moments of bewilderment on both of our parts gave way to the revelation that the wedding had actually been scheduled for thirty minutes earlier making us the losers who try to walk in as the ceremony ends. Yeah, we both felt pretty worthless and stupid, but we made up for it by actually making it to the reception before that was over. Good times. It was worth it though, quite a lot of bfa'ers showed up (most of them on time) so it was a great little reunion/celebration. And then I came back to school and the good times were over. Until next year... 
Holden and I at BFA graduation. HEY!!! 
BFA alumni at a party, oh yeah! 
Good times down at fort Knox firing the big guns.  
Getting ready for our helicopter insertion for a cordon and search mission 
The guys just doing what we do best... looking good. 
Enjoying the beautiful city of Glasgow.  
The BFA photo at B'linda and Elliot Irbie's wedding. 
I was in my India white uniform (four photos up) when Brett and I walked in at the end of the wedding, so it was even more startling. Blessings to the married lovebirds. The End. |
