And it's quite nice outside. It snowed this past Wednesday, wasn't too windy so it never felt super cold. We had about 4 inches, but it's all gone except for the small patches remaining in the shade of buildings and trees. The mountains looked like the ski slopes full of snow, but I definitely have not been skiing in quite a while.
School is still going well, still hard as ever, but I'm dealing with it pretty well. Athletically, I'm ranked 136 out of 1309 people in my class, which isn't too bad. I would like to be higher on both athletics and academics but we'll see where these next few weeks take me.
There were 3 flyovers last weekend, all F16's. I have the video of their one by one flyover on my phone, but I haven't uploaded it yet. Track is going pretty well, we jumped for our first time just the other day, we didn't try for a bar, we just worked on the fundamentals of the take off. I can tell Scotty is a really good coach and I will learn a lot from him. This next Friday, a week from today, we're having the Halloween vault, where we're all in costumes and jump for fun. I'll make sure to get some pictures and post them up.
This past Wednesday, was our first real snow, and with that, comes the annual tradition of throwing our 'first shirt' in the snow, more commonly referred to as first shirt, first snow. The first shirt is the highest ranking Junior in every squad. Well there are about 30 freshmen, and about 80 upperclassmen, so we were out numbered almost 3 to 1. We started off by tying up one of the Juniors who we thought would give us trouble, but then the war really started. Someone blew an air horn, and every upperclassmen fell out to take us on. I was left to guard our 'prisoner' but seeing that they left me alone with him, with the door unlocked, another upperclassmen came in to his rescue.
With an unfortunate change of events and about 15 minutes of me wrestling with the both of them, trying to get to the door to unlock it and get into the hallway, they finally tied me down, pig tie style. My hands were behind me, through my belt, and my legs were tied at my ankles, both tied with straps and duct tape on top of that. They left, i jumped up, locked them out so I had a few minutes to wiggle out of the restraints. I finally got out, and joined the fight with the rest of my classmates.
The whole fiasco lasted for just over an hour and a half but was called short due to time restraints, and Taps in less than 15 minutes. The first shirt junior waved the white flag, and we got him in the snow. Long story short, 5 people were tied up, 4 bloody noses, one trip to the hospital for a major concussion, and one night of fun which I will not soon forget.
Hope all is well where ever you are, I'll be home for Thanksgiving in less than 5 weeks, which I am very excited about. Can't wait to see everyone. Take Care,
Matt
Friday, October 23, 2009
Thursday, October 8, 2009
October is Here
And wow is it getting cold. It's about 40 outside right now, with the high on Saturday never passing 35. The game isn't until 5, and it's expected to snow... just wonderful.
Prog has come and gone, we are more than half way done with the first semester, and I am not on probation. My grades are alright, not real good, but I'm ranked 906 out of 1309, so I definitely have some work to do. However, once they calculate in my academic and military averages, I should rise on the list.
I finished my last swimming class last week with a 4:27 in the 250yard swim. I improved my time a minute and a half, I can tell I'm a much stronger swimmer because of it. Swimming is followed immediately by water survival, more commonly referred to as water haze. It's swimming class in ABU's, the cammo clothes we wear. They are extremely heavy, and swimming in these is worse than swimming in jeans and a sweatshirt. For every athletic class, everyone is allowed to attempt to validate it, by completing the tasks which everyone is tested on for their grade on the last day of class. I opted to try to validate water survival, and it paid off.
We were required to swim 25 meters completely under water, no time limit. Jump off the 5 meter platform and swim 50 meters in under 1:30, i swam 1:13. And the 10 Meter jump with a 10 meter underwater swim, without coming up for a breath. We also had to inflate our ABU's and float with them. I received an A for the class and now have my afternoon's free until track starts, no more 2 hours of swimming before track pratice.
My squad is still really relaxed about things, mostly due to the fact that the freshmen do what is expected of us and we always have a good attitude about everything. Some squads still get beat on a daily basis, but we only have 1 training session every other week.
Can't wait to come home and see everyone, less than 7 weeks, I'm excited. Hope to hear from everyone soon.
Matt
Prog has come and gone, we are more than half way done with the first semester, and I am not on probation. My grades are alright, not real good, but I'm ranked 906 out of 1309, so I definitely have some work to do. However, once they calculate in my academic and military averages, I should rise on the list.
I finished my last swimming class last week with a 4:27 in the 250yard swim. I improved my time a minute and a half, I can tell I'm a much stronger swimmer because of it. Swimming is followed immediately by water survival, more commonly referred to as water haze. It's swimming class in ABU's, the cammo clothes we wear. They are extremely heavy, and swimming in these is worse than swimming in jeans and a sweatshirt. For every athletic class, everyone is allowed to attempt to validate it, by completing the tasks which everyone is tested on for their grade on the last day of class. I opted to try to validate water survival, and it paid off.
We were required to swim 25 meters completely under water, no time limit. Jump off the 5 meter platform and swim 50 meters in under 1:30, i swam 1:13. And the 10 Meter jump with a 10 meter underwater swim, without coming up for a breath. We also had to inflate our ABU's and float with them. I received an A for the class and now have my afternoon's free until track starts, no more 2 hours of swimming before track pratice.
My squad is still really relaxed about things, mostly due to the fact that the freshmen do what is expected of us and we always have a good attitude about everything. Some squads still get beat on a daily basis, but we only have 1 training session every other week.
Can't wait to come home and see everyone, less than 7 weeks, I'm excited. Hope to hear from everyone soon.
Matt
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