Duty Calls...

Well, it's back to work after a super-long, nice weekend.

Started the intro to electricity on Monday, going over the basics of voltage, current, resistors, switches, fuses, breakers, schematics, electromagnetics, relays, meters, multimeters and their measurements. And I took the first test, scoring 96% out of 25 questions (missing one). The multimeter test on Tuesday was a bit harder (88%), along with today's test on Ohm's law and Series Circuits (93%). Gosh, it's only been three days! I barely passed one quiz before lunch today (70% out of 10) and I started getting worried if I was really getting it or not... but my shipmates next to me helped me out a bit and I settled down and got a fine score on the test when I returned from lunch. Lots of formulas swimming through my head. :)

We haven't had anybody talk about cheating all week! So that's probably a good thing. Oddly enough though, they moved my entire class two rooms down (to room 325 instead of 321) yesterday. So now my view of the lake is more unobstructed, and I can still see the trees to my left. I can see the beach now too (when I stand up) and today I saw a pair of ducks loitering just below me in the water. Kind of weird to think of it as a "beach" with the light layer of fresh snow that covered it today... :) Because the room hadn't been used in a while it was rather dirty. And because I am new, they wanted me to learn where to get the cleaning gear when it's my turn to do "sweepers" in the afternoon... so a more experienced shipmate and I did the sweeping and mopping in the classroom yesterday. Yay.

My duty day yesterday was a bit out of the ordinary. When we mustered after returning from class, they said they needed people to go perform colors for the main flag in front of the clock tower in the center of the base... and they told five of us to go. Some of my shipmates took a while getting their dress blues on, so we had to sprint nearly a half-mile in our dress shoes... ouch. And when we got there, they told us they didn't need us. Darn! I was excited to do it! So we stood outside and saluted as the music played and then we walked back. I was able to get out and go to the NEX and to chow before I came back for my watch at 0745-2200 in the lounge. I tried stopping some people from horsing around (like my watch-standing orders direct) but they weren't thrilled about listening. A third-class gave me grief, but I kept on anyway. I learned my chain of command while standing around... and that means I'm ready for my exam for phase II liberty any time.