Heading into the home stretch!! One week to go! This week went well, and went by fast. Monday was our test, I did okay on it. Tuesday we had a timed 5K to run in the morning. I did mine in 28.32 minutes, which is faster than I’ve done before. Right after that though we had to run back to our rooms and change into “service dress” which is our blues and jacket. We all looked very nice, but it was hot. We all had to give our briefings (just to the class). Mine went wayyyyy better than my practice run the night before. I actually lost points for using the podium because our flight commander said I was too short for it. He can have those points; I was quite happy behind my podium. I got a nice middle of the road score on that. I wasn’t looking for anything more. I know that I will have to give talks while in the Air Force, but it will be something I know about and am familiar with. I think the main problem I had preparing for this briefing was that it was on oil production. Why would I know about oil?
Wednesday and Thursday we had leadership courses. We were put into smaller groups and each graded for leading a small group through a complex situation. (Again, this is secret stuff and if someone on their way to COT finds this blog, I wouldn’t want to spoil it for them, so sorry for not delving into details) Of course it seems easier when you aren’t leading, but my situation was really complex, plus I had to battle a couple of dominating personalities in my group. I got another middle of the road score, and was quite content with it. I want to excel in my field and duties, but honestly here I feel like I am just trying to survive and graduate. Therefore, these mediocre scores don’t bother me.
Friday… we didn’t do much. We had parade practice in the morning, a few classes, evaluation/review time from leadership exercises, and then a lot of free time. Free meaning we were in our classroom, but we played some games and talked. Our Flight Commander spent about an hour in there talking with us and telling his stories of time in Iraq and Afghanistan. Friday evening we got introduced to the Officer’s club; basically a posh club that every base has for its officers. It was cool to get to laugh and hang out with people in a sort of normal environment. The building itself was interesting. It is really old and there were lots of old Air Force pictures. I love old pics so I was captivated by them.
And we are now second class status, so we have off base weekend privileges. Yay! And we can sit however we want at meals and put elbows on the table and talk.
This weekend we exercised our privileges by going off base a lot. Saturday we had a flight lunch with our commander. He even let us call him by his first name (not that anyone did). We had delicious pizza and had fun with each other. For dinner we went out again. My carload of people went to a bookstore just to wander for awhile. After getting back to the dorms, I joined some other people in a rousing game of catch phrase for a couple hours. Honestly, I haven't laughed so hard as I did friday and saturday with the people in my flight. Not sure if things are really that funny, or if it's just 4 weeks of keeping a straight face. Whatever the reason, I think everyone had some good, side-cramping laughs.
Today (sunday) I went to church for the last time here. I worked on a few final assignments and organized the mountains of papers I've collected while here. It was a load off to get rid of so many. :) Tomorrow we head out to the field, simulating a deployed medical environment and are going to do a high ropes course. We get to live in tents and eat MREs for a few days. I’m excited about everything except the MREs. I get to pretend to be a lab technician (for some reason apparently optometrists aren't needed in the field med clinic), I'll bring back those undergrad research skills.
So things at COT are winding down, we have more time to chill, and sleep since all the tests and projects are done (I actually got 8 hours friday AND saturday nights).
Graduation is friday and I’m excited to see mom and dad at the end of the week! Just in case you were all thinking about Texas as much as I have been, it's currently 105 degrees there. Just saying...
Wednesday and Thursday we had leadership courses. We were put into smaller groups and each graded for leading a small group through a complex situation. (Again, this is secret stuff and if someone on their way to COT finds this blog, I wouldn’t want to spoil it for them, so sorry for not delving into details) Of course it seems easier when you aren’t leading, but my situation was really complex, plus I had to battle a couple of dominating personalities in my group. I got another middle of the road score, and was quite content with it. I want to excel in my field and duties, but honestly here I feel like I am just trying to survive and graduate. Therefore, these mediocre scores don’t bother me.
Friday… we didn’t do much. We had parade practice in the morning, a few classes, evaluation/review time from leadership exercises, and then a lot of free time. Free meaning we were in our classroom, but we played some games and talked. Our Flight Commander spent about an hour in there talking with us and telling his stories of time in Iraq and Afghanistan. Friday evening we got introduced to the Officer’s club; basically a posh club that every base has for its officers. It was cool to get to laugh and hang out with people in a sort of normal environment. The building itself was interesting. It is really old and there were lots of old Air Force pictures. I love old pics so I was captivated by them.
And we are now second class status, so we have off base weekend privileges. Yay! And we can sit however we want at meals and put elbows on the table and talk.
This weekend we exercised our privileges by going off base a lot. Saturday we had a flight lunch with our commander. He even let us call him by his first name (not that anyone did). We had delicious pizza and had fun with each other. For dinner we went out again. My carload of people went to a bookstore just to wander for awhile. After getting back to the dorms, I joined some other people in a rousing game of catch phrase for a couple hours. Honestly, I haven't laughed so hard as I did friday and saturday with the people in my flight. Not sure if things are really that funny, or if it's just 4 weeks of keeping a straight face. Whatever the reason, I think everyone had some good, side-cramping laughs.
Today (sunday) I went to church for the last time here. I worked on a few final assignments and organized the mountains of papers I've collected while here. It was a load off to get rid of so many. :) Tomorrow we head out to the field, simulating a deployed medical environment and are going to do a high ropes course. We get to live in tents and eat MREs for a few days. I’m excited about everything except the MREs. I get to pretend to be a lab technician (for some reason apparently optometrists aren't needed in the field med clinic), I'll bring back those undergrad research skills.
So things at COT are winding down, we have more time to chill, and sleep since all the tests and projects are done (I actually got 8 hours friday AND saturday nights).
Graduation is friday and I’m excited to see mom and dad at the end of the week! Just in case you were all thinking about Texas as much as I have been, it's currently 105 degrees there. Just saying...
wow, how busy!! i'm happy you got to play catch phrase; i love that game!! oh, i miss you!! when will i get to see you next?? i can't wait for whenever it is!!!!
ReplyDelete