We boarded a bus and headed out towards Charlie 369th AG BN...where our AIT would begin. There are several of us from the same company going. Sweet! Lenhart, Johnson, Mel, and I all have the same MOS (Military Occupationl Specialty--the job you chose). It didn't take long to get to what would be our new 'home' for the next couple of months. We were all still wearing our dress uniforms and it was hot. We grabbed our bags and got off the bus, and no sooner had I crossed a particular area of the sidewalk, I heard, "Drop! Three-Zero" I hit the pavement and started knocking out push-ups. Gosh, three-zero? Did I hear that DS right? That meant 30 push-ups! What happened to one-zero? When I was finally able to get up I was told that I needed to watch where I walked/ran because I had crossed what was called a "Drop Zone". Won't do that again! Reminds me of the time that Jokala and I ran through our bay and we were not supposed to cross the murals. Oops. Evidently, there are "Drop Zones" everywhere here. Note to self -- learn them quickly. We were introduced to our Drill Sergeants and 1st SGT. They didn't look nearly as mean as our BT Drill Sergeants when we first arrived. DS Martin is our DS. We are in Class 50-97. There are several 'classes' in our company. Class 49 is one week ahead of us. Class 48 is two weeks ahead of us, and so on.

We have actual rooms here and there can be up to 8 females to one room. Mel and I ended up together in Room #315 with Johnson and Lenhart, who also came with us from Charlie Company 3-13. There are three other females in our room -- Henriquez, Baker, and Lewis. After we dropped off our belongings, we headed down to formation and marched to the chow hall...still in our dress uniforms. Chow is the strangest here. I am not used to "singing" while marching into the chow hall. Back at Basic, we had to be quiet and there was no talking...period. So, we marched in saying "Hot Chow...Hot Chow! Get it! Get it! Hot Chow...Hot Chow !--(sounding off with something similiar to a train whistle). Yes, very strange indeed and everyone could tell we were newbies. Oh, and our 'class' splits into two ranks as we come to the building, one entering one side of the chow hall, the other entering the opposite side. It didn't take me long to realize that one side was the junk food side. I ended up eating pizza and had a stomach ache all night! Needless to say, I will not be eating from the junk side again. After chow, we headed back to the company to "square away" our room, coming across DS Stewart. "Make way!", we said, continuing up the stairs, which was obviously the wrong thing to do. We got dropped for not waiting until he passed, then made another mistake saying "40 Rounds" instead of "Army Pride". Oops! I will have to remember that one (makes note to self). PT is great here! We get up at 0430 and have to be in formation by 0450. I did something I never expected to do...volunteer to be a road guard! LOL! I steered clear of this duty (was very lucky actually) while in BT since I was never picked for this duty. But it is very different here and lots of fun. Lenhardt has decided that she can't handle AIT. I don't know why, but she just said she can't and is processing out of the military. How could a person get through the ups and downs of Basic Combat Training, finally graduate, and then decide they can't handle the rest? Ugh!!! Who knows! Maybe she just decided the military wasn't for her. She was one of the nicer females too. I know it's strange here, but surely it will get better than worse. Right?

This weekend was cool. All we did was hang out and play volleyball and so far, everyone seems pretty nice. We had a chance to visit the main PX and buy some things. School starts this Tuesday and I bought some paper and writing tablets, along with a few civilian items. We can't wear our civilan clothes until we are into our 4th and 5th week. We were issued our TA-50 and I can't believe how happy I am to have my canteen back! I was so used to having water on me all the time. Oh, and I bought some gum! WooHoo! I am sick of chewing dental floss. I probably didn't mention it, but back in Basic, DS Thrine dropped me for chewing dental loss...well...he thought I was chewing gum. He actually laughed at me for chewing dental floss. I had to chew something! And that was the only thing that kept flavor...couldn't blow bubbles though. I also bought a camera today, since we are able to take pics here. The rest of the evening was spent watching TV and playing pool in the game area. Lights out isn't until 0100. Cool! A few of us went with the males to lift weights and run today. I am starting to like it here and some of the other's ahead of us have said to come to them if we have any questions or problems. We played basketball too. Tuesday is our first diagnostic PT test and I am dreading it. I think I'll do okay, but still. The PT expectations here are higher.

School has now started and I thought the classes we had to attend in BT were boring. I wish my eyeballs would just quit twitching! It is so hard to stay awake! Even after PT every morning, I get tired just sitting in a room. LOL! We have a really nice instructor...SGT Adeoti is him name. We have some Sergeants in my class who are re-classifying. They are pretty nice, but are always left in charge of us when we take a break. I can't believe how many people in my class are in the National Guard. We only have one person who is Regular Army.

Class begins at 0830 every morning. Our day starts out like this...wake up at 0430 (I get up around 0400 to have extra time for me). We have to be down in formation by 0450. PT is from 0450 until 0600 (FYI...PT is great here). After PT we return to the barracks and take showers. Breakfast is usually served around 0715, so we eat, and then we return back to the barracks a second time for about an hour and clean up. Clean up is essential because you can have many priviledges revoked if things are messy and out of order. We report back to formation at 0800. When we are all accounted for, we march to school. DS Martin is our Drill Sergeant. He is pretty cool and it is downright hilarious to hear him talk and call candence. He sounds like he is from Jamaica. Class starts at 0830 until 1700. Well, school ends at 1600, but we spend the last hour cleaning up and getting things ready for the next day. We do get 15 minutes breaks in between, so it isn't that bad. I didn't do too well on my typing test. I typed 50 (gross) wpm with 17 errors, which averaged out to about 30 wpm. I know I can type faster than that when I can correct my errors on my own. I automatically know when I make a mistake and correct it right then. Kinda hard when you can't do that. We had a class meeting...gosh it was long.