After INDOC(trination)

Yes, that's actually what it's called!

That was my first week of classes at the new student building... The first day we were all in the old hanger bay, listening to brief after brief for six hours about every policy and benefit we have here at the Naval Service Training Command. That included a welcome/warning message from both the CO and the CMC (command master chief). The next two days were spent split up in smaller classes going through an interactive program where we made decisions and saw the repercussions for 4 sailors in A School. It was focused on topics like alcohol, sexual harassment/assault, liberty policies and getting along with your shipmates. And then the next two days were focused on Personal Financial Management... the in's and out's of saving, spending and investing. We had a Petty Officer for the first class and a prior service civilian for the second. I really thought they were great.

Each morning we'd have to muster at 0550 and then form into ranks out on the "pier" or sidewalk, having to have eaten already before it. Sometimes this happened and sometimes it didn't. Later on in the week I relied on "grab and go" breakfasts that you could eat in the lobby while waiting to form up. Then it was class all day with an hour or so for lunch and then we'd get on liberty after returning to our barracks or "ship".

But yesterday, after my first attempted day at Apprentice Technical Training (they sent me to a First Aid class by mistake), I was moved out of the Enterprise (the ugly transitional building I was in for a week) to one of the nicer, newer buildings... the USS Bonhomme Richard. Instead of the prison-like features of the former (bare-bones room with two racks, two tables w/chairs and two closets), the Richard has a private head with a bathtub and two sinks, a refrigerator, microwave, kitchen sink, CARPET, kitchen table and chairs, nice desks and lockers... all for five people. My roommates are alright... they've been around much longer than me... their schools last quite a while. So some of them have treated me like a newbie, and that was a little rough to take all at once with the sudden move and transition to school all in the same day. My sea bag was darned heavy, but it felt better than it did the time I transferred from RTC. But this time I had my laptop to lug around as well... gosh, that took all my effort to keep walking! Good thing it wasn't far.

Today was my first real day of class. I'm doing a refresher on math... fractions, decimals, percents, signed numbers, square roots... and tomorrow I re-hash Algebra. :) But I don't mind at all! It feels so good to finally be starting what I came here to do. And my classroom is on the third deck and there's windows behind the desks on my side of the room with a grand view of Lake Michigan. Today was crystal clear (and freezing cold)... the sun on the water in the morning was blinding and orange on the trees (between us and the lake) in the evening. Could even see the outline of Chicago in the distance! All of the classwork is at your own pace on a computer program. The desks form a ring around the bulkheads and the instructor sits in the middle and monitors.

I felt a bit stupid today though... I was almost late for muster in the morning because my watch was five minutes behind the clock in the lobby... and almost late for marching to the classroom because Hibbard and I went to the Galley for a grab and go breakfast. And I couldn't log in to my computer for the longest time because it was set to the wrong operating system. That was really frustrating. And then I was a bit late for muster after class because I didn't know I had one... :) It was fine though, they were still calling names when I got there. Crazy stuff! Hopefully tomorrow will be more relaxed!