Week 1 (19-24 April, Days 0-`1)

Ok, now that Week 1 feels like ages away, lets see if I can remember what I did during that half week...

Tuesday 19 April-
Tuesday was pretty much spent entirely in the car. I've already told you about the drive and my lovely morning with Courtney, I think the only thing I left out was driving past the sign to Ft. Huachuca on my way to the hotel. What a sight, I was stopped at a red light and over to my right was the main gate. I about couldn't stand myself, I wanted to call everyone I knew and send them pictures...something I refrained from doing due to the time difference. For those of you who don't know, Arizona is on mountain time, minus daylight savings, so if you are in central time, I'm two hours behind you...now you know...

Wednesday 20 April-
I got a late checkout from the hotel so I didn't have to load all my crap back into my car to go exploring around Sierra Vista. I was able to get my statement of non-availability number so I could stay off-post, find my apartment, and explore Ft. Huachuca. Of course the first place I found while exploring Huachuca was the stables... It certainly isn't Flint Ridge, and the horses certainly aren't Indian, William or Isis, but they'll do for now. Looking at the prospect of enduring a ton of stress at a place where I in most cases wouldn't have a way of relieving that stress in my own equestrian sort of way, its a welcome sight. That exploring took most of the morning, I was a little bummed to not have time to go hiking, but in retrospect it was probably better to wait until I had a battle buddy to go with me... God was about to provide...

After I loaded the rest of my things back into my car, and double checked my room, I walked up to the front desk to check out. While I was waiting on my receipt, a tall blonde about my age walked up to the front desk looking a little panicked and a little more lost. She had a National Guard backpack with her name and a gold bar on it, I knew immediately she was in my class. I introduced myself and asked her what her plan was for the day, she said she needed to register her car and had no idea how, since I did, I offered to help. I can't imagine Sierra Vista without her now. Cynthia and I have been good friends ever since that day, up until she got her own townhouse she and I spent nearly all of our free time either at my apartment or Walmart. She's great! We have a ton in common, and I'm sure we'll have many more good stories to come!

After helping Cynthia with finding out how to register, and exploring Huachuca (and getting kicked out of Buffalo Corral-the stables) it was time to move me into my apartment. Aside from missing hangers, and several other items that would make organization easier, it only took about 20 minutes to move in. My apartment is tiny (I'll upload pictures soon) but its comfortable and holds all of my stuff.

Thursday and Friday 21-22 April (Days 0-1)-
INPROCESSING! For those of you who know what that means, you know the painful boredom that I experienced over those two days. The first two days consisted of getting our leadership positions assigned, and lecture after lecture and paperwork...provided the people walking us through the paperwork showed up. I was assigned to 5th squad, and guess who's squad leader! Yep, not such a bad job to have, but its a little more work and a little more stress. It was easy during in-processing, all I was responsibly for was keeping track of where my squad members were.

That night a couple guys in my squad and their roommate hosted a "non-icebreaker" party at their place to help everyone get to know each other. It was awesome! What a good idea, it offered us all to get to know each other in a non-Army environment. There's a ton of really great people in our class.

Saturday and Sunday 23-24 April-
More exploring, shopping, and organizing, preparing for the next week. Saturday night consisted of a honky tonk and karaoke. Sunday I managed to find a really great church!! The priest was really great, easy to understand and FUNNY!! I have found my church! or so I thought until the next week.

Whew! So not as exciting as you thought :)

Just wait until next week!

Natalie