Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Greek
My journey through classical Greek has begun. I just spent the last hour translating four of assigned six lines from the opening of Plato's Crito. The vocabulary is much larger than mine, and the grammar is rather complex, to say the least. I am finding at bit easier to get hints from the context, so hopefully as my skills increase, the translating won't be quite so hard.
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
I'm still here
Due to popular demand, a.k.a. Mom said I had to, I am again posting.
I have reached the start of the hump of this semester. I am beginning to get a little overwhelmed by school, received my first "F" test grade (17 out of 35 in Greek), and started to not care that much about school. It happens every semester and it just means that the end of the semester will be here before I know it.
In happier news, last weekend was fun. I brought up three friends (Brianna, Sarah, and Esther) for the football game. They all came to yell with me and Esther went to the game with me while Brianna and Sarah "sat" with Andrew. After the game my grandparents took the whole group to an Italian restaurant. After my grandparents went to the hotel the rest of us went to Brianna's aunt and uncle's house where we talked, made smores, watched "Iron Man", and then talked some more. I think I got to bed around 0230. All in all it was very enjoyable and nice to spend time with people much more like myself than here at A&M.
It is strange, for someone so ready to leave home and do my own thing, I find myself more attached to home, and the people and places there, than I ever have been before.
I have reached the start of the hump of this semester. I am beginning to get a little overwhelmed by school, received my first "F" test grade (17 out of 35 in Greek), and started to not care that much about school. It happens every semester and it just means that the end of the semester will be here before I know it.
In happier news, last weekend was fun. I brought up three friends (Brianna, Sarah, and Esther) for the football game. They all came to yell with me and Esther went to the game with me while Brianna and Sarah "sat" with Andrew. After the game my grandparents took the whole group to an Italian restaurant. After my grandparents went to the hotel the rest of us went to Brianna's aunt and uncle's house where we talked, made smores, watched "Iron Man", and then talked some more. I think I got to bed around 0230. All in all it was very enjoyable and nice to spend time with people much more like myself than here at A&M.
It is strange, for someone so ready to leave home and do my own thing, I find myself more attached to home, and the people and places there, than I ever have been before.
Monday, August 4, 2008
Another day
The scout committee is having a meeting over in the other room so I figured I would make good on my time and write another blog post.
Not much had happened since last I wrote to be entirely honest, but I think that is more related to my living in Nac. On the eventful side, one of my good friends got married this weekend and the next day half of my siblings went to camp. It is nice to be down a couple of girls, as this leads to a much quieter house (go figure Mary doesn't shriek when she doesn't have two sisters egging her on). Other than that, there has been little change for us.
On the less eventful side, I completed the painful task of ordering books for my brother and me. I managed to spend $500 on Amazon in fifteen minutes, but I think we still managed to save several hundred dollars. There will be a few books he and I will have to buy in College Station so we will be visiting Lupot's. I really like Lupot's for a couple of reasons. First it was founded by Old Army Lou who was a Cadet and was famous for doing things like bailing out cadets when the Corps went on Corps trips. The second is that Lupot's has the best cadet supplies department I have found which greatly simplifies my life. Finally Lupot's gives back money to the outfits of cadets who buy books from them.
All in all I am ready to start school (break out of the dulls) and look forward to wearing my boots.
Not much had happened since last I wrote to be entirely honest, but I think that is more related to my living in Nac. On the eventful side, one of my good friends got married this weekend and the next day half of my siblings went to camp. It is nice to be down a couple of girls, as this leads to a much quieter house (go figure Mary doesn't shriek when she doesn't have two sisters egging her on). Other than that, there has been little change for us.
On the less eventful side, I completed the painful task of ordering books for my brother and me. I managed to spend $500 on Amazon in fifteen minutes, but I think we still managed to save several hundred dollars. There will be a few books he and I will have to buy in College Station so we will be visiting Lupot's. I really like Lupot's for a couple of reasons. First it was founded by Old Army Lou who was a Cadet and was famous for doing things like bailing out cadets when the Corps went on Corps trips. The second is that Lupot's has the best cadet supplies department I have found which greatly simplifies my life. Finally Lupot's gives back money to the outfits of cadets who buy books from them.
All in all I am ready to start school (break out of the dulls) and look forward to wearing my boots.
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Travelin'
I have spent the last several days visiting here and there. First I had make-up drill on the 24-26. Besides my unit not getting me a place to sleep the first night (I ended up staying with a friend on the other side of Houston) it went well. I was able to stay busy most of the time doing paperwork, so it went pretty fast. On Friday I drove down to College Station to visit some of my buddies. I stayed with Lans, saw "The Dark Knight" twice, and celebrated one of my "Q" (band) buddy's 21'st. On Sunday after church I drove home, just to turn around and drive with my family to Dallas. I was able to enjoy visiting with my Grandparents and Aunts and Uncle. All in all the travel was time well spent.
One of the coolest things I learned while in College Station was that my outfit is dominating the recruiting this year and we are looking at having as many as 32 freshmen. I hope that this bodes well for the efforts of our underclassmen and will lead to a strong year for our outfit.
One of the coolest things I learned while in College Station was that my outfit is dominating the recruiting this year and we are looking at having as many as 32 freshmen. I hope that this bodes well for the efforts of our underclassmen and will lead to a strong year for our outfit.
Saturday, July 19, 2008
Lazy Days
I have been enjoying getting to kick back and relax for the past week. Yesterday we had my birthday dinner of spaghetti and a strawberry cream cake. The centre piece of the meal was clearly the cake. It was a three layer chiffon cake with whole strawberries, a sweetened strawberry filling, and whipped cream (the real deal, not that "whip" stuff) in between each layer. I have never tasted a cake that has so much strawberry flavour and creaminess.
Also last night, my brother had his eagle scout board, completing the final requirment toward attaining the rank of Eagle Scout. It was quite and accomplishment and I congratulate him. While he was sweating it out at the board, I stayed home and enjoyed a few episodes of Dr. Who. The Doctor is the last of the time lords and spends his days hoping through time, "troubleshooting" time. Its a fun show because The Doctor lives to go see and explore the universe throughout time and he give one the greatest thrill to go see new things.
Also last night, my brother had his eagle scout board, completing the final requirment toward attaining the rank of Eagle Scout. It was quite and accomplishment and I congratulate him. While he was sweating it out at the board, I stayed home and enjoyed a few episodes of Dr. Who. The Doctor is the last of the time lords and spends his days hoping through time, "troubleshooting" time. Its a fun show because The Doctor lives to go see and explore the universe throughout time and he give one the greatest thrill to go see new things.
Lazy Days
I have been enjoying getting to kick back and relax for the past week. Yesterday we had my birthday dinner of spaghetti and a strawberry cream cake. The centre piece of the meal was clearly the cake. It was a three layer chiffon cake with whole strawberries, a sweetened strawberry filling, and whipped cream (the real deal, not that "whip" stuff) in between each layer. I have never tasted a cake that has so much strawberry flavour and creaminess.
Also last night, my brother had his eagle scout board, completing the final requirment toward attaining the rank of Eagle Scout. It was quite and accomplishment and I congratulate him. While he was sweating it out at the board, I stayed home and enjoyed a few episodes of Dr. Who. The Doctor is the last of the time lords and spends his days hoping through time, "troubleshooting" time. Its a fun show because The Doctor lives to go see and explore the universe throughout time and he give one the greatest thrill to go see new things.
Also last night, my brother had his eagle scout board, completing the final requirment toward attaining the rank of Eagle Scout. It was quite and accomplishment and I congratulate him. While he was sweating it out at the board, I stayed home and enjoyed a few episodes of Dr. Who. The Doctor is the last of the time lords and spends his days hoping through time, "troubleshooting" time. Its a fun show because The Doctor lives to go see and explore the universe throughout time and he give one the greatest thrill to go see new things.
Thursday, July 17, 2008
I'm Back from LDAC!
Just a few days ago I completed the biggest training event I will participate in until after I commission. LDAC (Leaders Developing and Assessing Course, I think) also known as Warrior Forge is a 33 day long training session designed to help prepare future officers in the ROTC program to lead as well as to determine if they have the potential to be an officer in the US Army. Honestly it wasn't that hard to complete, but it was a good learning experience. We did a bunch of training including such events as BRM (Basic Rifle Marksmanship), Cultural Awareness (training focused on what it takes to operate successfully in a foreign culture), Land Navigation, and a ten day "deployment" to the field where we did battled drills, patrolling missions, and patrol base ops.
The weather was perfect. The entire time I was there is rained three times, and none more than a drizzle. As Ft. Lewis is only 39 miles from Mt. Rainer, we often had great views of that mountain. It was impressive how there were small mountains around Mt. Rainer, but Mt. Rainer was so much larger that they all looked like foot hills. While we were in the field, we were operating in single canopy rain forest which was pretty, if not that different from the swamps in East Texas. The most notable differences were that there was moss on almost all the ground and the monster ant beds. The state of Washington decided that they needed some way of controlling the pine needles other than routinely burning the forest, so the introduced these monster ants. These ants build mounds several feet tall out of pine needles and twigs. From the mound they will travel back and forth in "superhighways" collecting building material and dead insects. Invariably I would be in the prone behind some decent cover only to find one of these superhighways running over of under me. Thankfully these ants are fairly harmless, requiring a significant amount to provocation before they sting, and not possessing an especially painful sting. All in all the training was good, but it is nice to be home, sleeping in a real bed and largely off a schedule.
The weather was perfect. The entire time I was there is rained three times, and none more than a drizzle. As Ft. Lewis is only 39 miles from Mt. Rainer, we often had great views of that mountain. It was impressive how there were small mountains around Mt. Rainer, but Mt. Rainer was so much larger that they all looked like foot hills. While we were in the field, we were operating in single canopy rain forest which was pretty, if not that different from the swamps in East Texas. The most notable differences were that there was moss on almost all the ground and the monster ant beds. The state of Washington decided that they needed some way of controlling the pine needles other than routinely burning the forest, so the introduced these monster ants. These ants build mounds several feet tall out of pine needles and twigs. From the mound they will travel back and forth in "superhighways" collecting building material and dead insects. Invariably I would be in the prone behind some decent cover only to find one of these superhighways running over of under me. Thankfully these ants are fairly harmless, requiring a significant amount to provocation before they sting, and not possessing an especially painful sting. All in all the training was good, but it is nice to be home, sleeping in a real bed and largely off a schedule.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)