Push It To The Limit

Ok, so let's explain ourselves.
I woke up this morning feeling as tired as I was when I went to bed, had to endure an annoying morning workout and then die immediately after breakfast.
We started off with medic lessons, where we practiced getting a gallen comrade off the battlefield. Dragging a sumbitch who weighs twice as much as you do is..... Yeah. Exactly.
Immediately after that, we dragged ourselves to the airstrip for orienteering, where I got lost in the forrest, and ended up tired as fu.... ahem. I ended up tired and frustrated. I was looking forward to a nice lunch, but was even more annoyed when I was told we have to drag ourselves 2km, where our next lesson was. I had to make do with an outdoor lunch and then a 3hr lesson on our reet where we set up phone lines. We got back with only a few minutes to spare before we had to dash, stinky and sweaty, to the cafeteria for supper.
My soles hate me. A lot.

I'm Done

Seriously. I am flipping tired and pretty much done. I want sleep, my ancles dislike me, my soles are planning a mutiny, my body is fatigued and my mind has had enough.
At least we have food. :P

Tri-leg-hate

Saturday: cleaning day. A day when we can blow off steam by scrubbing whatever object is refusing to follow the general cleanliness trend. Unless you're silly enough to sign up for some sports competition. See where I'm going with this?
Last week and the previous one, I signed up for "Cross-Fit", a small competition, exclusively in our battery (remind me to post on batteries soon). Today, however we didn't have Cross-Fit. Instead, the Estonian Defence Forces held theis annual Triathlon. Aaaaand guess who chose to sign up. Yeah. My legs already were grumbling and thinking about mutiny from yesterday's killer treck and I was to go participate in a relay. I had to ride 10 km with a mountain bike with miniature wheels. Results: we got the second-last place the other battalion team got fifth.
But when all's said and done, I had fun. And...and...and.... "Look! Look over there! Civilians! Living civilian lives!" They army boys got a chance to be civilians again for a few hours. We basked in the July sun, went swimming in the lake and I got to ride a bike. On th way back we went shopping and I bumped into a friend in the book store I was browsing. SHOUT OUT: MAARJA!
Did I mention the intense July heat? :D

My sole: I walked it off

Trecks: Soldiers do them, recruits attempt them; but if your sargeant is a real piece of work, you will get quite a fair share of trecks.
Our history on trecking: 3 km in battle gear, 6 km in battle gear and 11 km in full gear (not just battle gear - remind me to make a post on gear).
So this last one was a serious piece, that left us harbouring mixed thoughts about the meaning of life and everything. We took along a handfull of people from Team 3 (remind me to make a post on teams) and cast off at around 8 in the morning, nice and breezy in full gear (battle gear plus a nice, big bag of stuff). We took the scenic route to the shooting range (our first time shooting) - by the way, I can't shoot straight for.... ahem. Less than an hour later, I had drained half of my water bottle and one of the Team 3 boys collapsed. Did I mention the intense July heat? By some good fortune, my roommate had packed along an extra water bottle, with which I refilled my bottle. Half an hour later my bottle was back to half and a member of our team collapsed. Did I mention the intense July heat? I moved on to half rations and in around one hour or so, we arrived at the shooting range, having trecked around 8 km.
We spent the day there, shooting and basking in the intense July heat. We had lunch (which reminds me, I should wash my stuff...) and then trecked the short way back, another 3 km. On the last leg, my feet issued a formal complaint and went on strike and my spirit broke. I just wanted to get it over with and go home. On arrival at the dorms, I saw that the reason for my feet hating me was that they had been wet for too long, boiling in my sweat. I hope they will recover over the weekend.

Soooo.... Yeah. Did I mention the intense July heat?

Back in post duty

Looks like I'm a sucker for lazy naps in the forrest because I volunteered for a second post in the forest, securing the perimeter. Unlike last time, this time I spent the night under a fir tree.
Here's a picture of my makeshift tent. Sorry, if you don't like the quality. I was busy fighting off bloodthirsty insects. Speaking of which, I suddenly realised that my English isn't what it was before I started living in Estonia. How? Well, I invested in a bottle of mumbo jumbo with the text "Insect Repellant" on the cover, believing that it would, oh, I don't know, REPELL mosquitoes. Obviously I failed to understand that insect repellant does not repel insects. Oh, well. :P

Post Duty

Old Uncle Sam sent a team to have fun and play. We get to see what toys the Yanks play with and they get to laugh at our toys.
As part of their visit, the Yankees get to play with 105mm howitzers in some abandoned forest and we get to secure the perimeter.
Sitting by the road in some forest got pretty boring and we got the lovely opportunity to yank out our phones and play Angry Birds and Skype as much as our batteries alowed.

So here's a picture of me in the forest with my battle gear. Yes, the gear is wearing me and it is only going to get heavier. :P

New boots

Aaaah! My ancles!!!
We got new boots, so that we can change them if one pair should get filthy. The annoying part: they're uncomfortable as ..... ahem. I think you get the idea. Now I have to go through the rather annoying procedure of breaking them in. Until then, my ancles will not like me much. :P

Ajee! March!

So some asshole got caught with their phone out at the wrong time. So they took us to the airstrip, a 2.5 km stretch of concrete about 3km away from the base.
Motivation was up to the stratosphere and we got awesome network reception. Letsee what happens now. :P

Motivation

Ok, I must admit I do not like our drill sargeants.
Here are my reasons:
1. They always shout and are rude.
2. They expect us to comply without question.
3. They contradict each other and punis- ahem.... motivate us whenever that happens.
4. Their Motivation methods are annoying and unnecessary.

Some of the sins I have managed to commit:
1. Sit with my legs crossed at the ancles
2. Sit on the bed.
3. Hold my towel with my left hand.
4. Hang my towel over my shoulder.
5. Put stuff on the bed as I pack and fold them with the intention of placing them in my cupboard.
6. Left my cupboard open as I stepped out of my room.

Three cheers for motivation and down with the horrible sins and the devil that convinces my to commit them. :P

Edit: the picture is a sheet of paper onto which I wrote 200 times, "I will not sit on the bed."

Marching song

Sarge is tired of shouting out the Estonian equivalent of "Hut Two Three Four" and other interesting Says of keeping us marching to the beat, so they found a song we will start singing as we march. The whole Battery (a blog on that soon) has to learn it by heart.

THE SUN! IT BUUUURNSSSSSS!!!

Last week we had some pretty warm weather. The sun beat down from above, dishing out rays like.... Errr.... The Sun.
Pop question: what happens when you take your average Estonian and put them in the Summer Sun for an hour or two?
THEY TURN RED! Or pink. And I finally understood what tan-line means. If you see a red face and a white line going from the eye to the temple, that means the person you're looking at had glasses on while taking a stroll out in the sun.
It is also really hillarius seeing guys here shirtless (no homo) as it looks like someone took a white torso and, due to a shortage of parts, attached red arms and a red head onto it.

Yes, this post has no flow. Sorry. :P

Food!!!

So with all the marching, shooting and running around with gear, physical tests and other stuff.... The stomach gets really empty really fast. Thankfully we have awesome cooks at the cafeteria. Unfortunately, said cafeteria is small, which means we MUST eat quickly so that the next group can have their meals. So, basically, I have estam more in the past two weeks than I ever knew I would and much faster than I would have ever believed.
Omnomnomnom

Radio silence

So some smartasses decided to use their phones on the coridors.
For those who don't know, phone usage is restricted to dorm rooms and classrooms and only during the designated time.
So, a large number of fools used their phones in the wrong place at the wrong time and our superiors decided to restrict our phone usage even more, so..... The time between pista is only going to increase.

THIS IS MY RIFLE!

THERE ARE MANY OTHERS LIKE IT, BUTTHIS ONE IS M.... Oh, I should give it back now? Awww..... Do I have to? Ok. :(
So we had our first rifle lesson today. We learned how to open up and put together a Galil AR. The things were oily and stuff, just out of storage. It was pretty cool. The rifles are held in a gun store (really solid walk-in safe), so no sleeping with rifles, like in "Full Metal Jacket". But hey: "THIS IS MY RIFLE!"

Flippin tables

Today was cleaning day. It's the day recruits make the barracks sparkling clean even if the surface is mate. It's the day when Sarge brings out the white gloves and checks how clean the place is. Yup. THAT day. I learned a lot. I learned that there were places on my bed I never knew existed, right up until Sarge shoved his fingers there and produced dust, thus also proving that it is dirty. According to the timetable, cleaning time was to last until lunch time. We finished at 17.30. We started at 8.00. Nuff said.

My Legs Dislike Me

Ok, so I've been quiet a few days. Mostly because I'm not sure what to blog about. The past two days we've been marching like nobody's business. My legs issued a formal warning yesterday, which I was forced to ignore. Thankfully, there was no sprinting or running, just steady march, so my legs haven't gone on strike yet. Some of my cohorts already have bloody feet, a phoenomenon I have had the good fortune not to encounter.
Yesterday we had a general physical test: something that aims to put place our general physical prowess and stuff. It is, simply put, as many push-ups as possible in 2 min, as many sit-ups as possible in 2 min and a 3 km run, in as short a time as possible. I did 45 push-ups, 46 sit-ups and the run in slightly over 12 min, thereby scoring 228 points out of 300.
Not a bad result, from what I gather. Could do better, though.

Back to school

Aaand it's back to school, it seems, with today being a full classroom day with the Leutenant. We're all in uniform and I'm feeling some serious Primary School vibes. We've also had a nice time walking around the expansive establishment. At least the food's good.