New Class

So, what happens when you get sick during "A" School?

Well, the wacky thing with my program is the amount of cramming it involves. In the interest of time, we end up covering what should be a week's worth of material every night. If I get the chance sometime, I will post a picture of what one of our tech pubs looks like - these are effectively our textbooks.

This means that if you get sick for a day, you end up missing a week's worth of material. You may be able to make this up, you'll just have to work your butt off for the next three days. If you get pneumonia, or something equally beastly, and miss six days, you'll receive what we call "I.I." - Interrupted Instruction - which means losing your class.

This was a point of confusion with some of my friends, so let me clarify. This does NOT mean the loss of my program. A new class of ETs starts roughly every two weeks. It means that my current class of 23 people is too far ahead for me to catch up, in the opinion and experience of the school's Leading Petty Officer, so I will be moved to a different class, with a later graduation date.

Wist and apprehension greet this notion. I like my class, we've had a lot of fun together, I know them, they know me, I have friends there. I have no idea about my new class, but I know most classes aren't exactly keen on newcomers.

I don't care diddly about the graduation date. This is because it's only changing by a few weeks. Winter in the Midwest is, in my opinion, exactly the same from December 28th through about the first week of March. Some activities are limited, some are available, and the sky doesn't do anything interesting. I'm not sure why, but this all comes together to mean that I am perfectly happy to be doing something productive and indoors during this time, and don't care if it finishes up at the end of January or the end of February. From my standing, it doesn't actually affect much.

I was happily surprised to find that a cheery acquaintance from my ATT class is one of the more leader-like people in my new A School class. The girl who sits next to me is also a treat; she announced to me, "We were talking about it, and we've decided we like you." Um, yay? I think yay.

There are the new bits to adjust to. Labor works out a little differently here than it did in my last class, the instructor looks for different things during a uniform inspection (leading to me nearly failing my first PI ever on day one), and they don't have a coffee mess*, but I think it'll be okay.

*Coffee mess is precisely what logic would have about coffee. You appoint one person to be in charge of getting supplies, whoever wants to have coffee during an 8-hour class that runs 'til midnight chips in on a weekly basis, and you keep a coffee pot in a fire-safe corner of the classroom.

The material we're working on right now, that's another matter entirely. *headbonk* Wish me luck.