AFX-13

AFX stands for Annual Field Exercise with the Australian Army Cadets and was one amazing week that will definitely be one of the best parts of my exchange! There were some parts where I was bored or cold or hot and wanted to go home, but they were far fewer than those where I was having great amounts of fun, especially towards the end of the trip to the Singleton Army Range. Throughout the week and specifically near the end, I met so many great people that I will remain friends with for a very long time. I want to send a big thank you to everyone who was involved in getting me approved to go on the trip to which I would normally not be allowed to go! Thanks!

The trip started Saturday where my unit, 222, departed from Macca's in Batemans Bay at a nice 0500, arriving to Singleton around 1230 after two stops at other McDonald's. Once we got there, we went through all the admin stuff that needed to be done, before sitting around for several hours before moving to our first night loc. Once at the night loc, I was assigned my position in the company to be company 2IC, which basically just made me a servant to the CUO of Delta company. We set up our hoochies for the night before eating and then we set up anything else the company needed and went to bed around 2130.

The next morning I was up at 0530 with reveille at 0600, where everyone packed up and ate before moving on to doing exercises by 0730. The first was to teach the cadets how to harbor so that whenever we approached a new loc or checkpoint, we would harbor to secure the area. This was followed by learning brick formations so cadets knew how to properly move through the bush with tact. When I first arrived on the trip I thought I was going to use the first several days to just figure myself out and realize how the AAC actually worked before I would properly take my position as a Sgt. However, right away at 0800 Sunday morning, the CUO had to go away for the day for a class about child safety, so I was almost immediately in charge of the company and had to make sure the day ran smoothly because he wasn't back until late afternoon. This was going alright for a while until we had issues with comms and had to leave our loc an hour late. It then continued to run smoothly from there until we tried to get the Ingasabians to come with us to Bn HQ. We finally got there just after sundown and then had to quickly move back to out night loc to set up for the night in the dark. :/ We were given orders around 2100 and got to bed at 2200.

The next day we were told we would have the Ingasabians until further notice and it was our responsibility to look after them while continuing our other mission of collecting satellite pieces at the checkpoints. That took all day, and the Ignasabians were annoying, as they should be. At one point, once they discovered my accent, I became the "pretty sounding man." Then I was made to play 52 pickup while narrating every card! That was... interesting. I was also painted on due to my accent and became the "Rainbow Warrior." When we got to our new night loc, we had time left with before sunset, so I attempted to make my hoochie into a hammock, in which I succeeded. Even though some wanted to cut the line on it, they all knew it was awesome and were jealous of it. That night, we were given a scenario of a car accident with several people and several types of injuries. At first everyone, except those involved, thought it was real, so the staging was obviously excellent. However, we discovered that night that no one knew how to treat a spinal injury or some others.

The next morning was an early one, and we had all the sections out from the night loc and clearing checkpoints by 0730. Meanwhile, I sat around HQ doing basically nothing other than trying to establish comms with Bn HQ. Finally after 2 hours of trying, we finally got the lightweight antenna up and connected and was made able to communicate with HQ. We always had issues like that every morning and night. In the afternoon, we sent out the sections on a night operation to observe a road, in which they had to establish a retrans station and a operation point. However, we had to call them back early because HQ needed information. That night, I was also put on radio picket and had to ask for a delivery of supplies and for two requests to move supplies, which just confused the heck out people on the other side of the radio as it seemed they had no idea of what was happening and it was hilarious.

Wednesday, since the company was only platoon size, our command structure was too big for the situation so it was shortened and myself and 3 others were taken out of it. We ere put into a DS role where we would basically act as role players when needed, which only happened once, later that day. In the morning, myself and the kids from Norfolk Island from my company went off to do a live shoot at the range. When we got there we each got 12 rounds on the steyr and although I missed the target with all 12 shots, it was due to the sights not being aligned properly. I did, though, have the best grouping the guy has seen all day, all within several mm of each other. Afterward, when I finally made it back to my company, I had to walk as quickly as possible to get down to be a role player. Once there, the scenario was that we were captured by communists, drugged, and interrogated, so, I acted to be going insane due to the drugs and started to eat grass and leaves, and even forced others to eat grass. That was pretty fun but the leaves didn't taste very well. Afterward, I did nothing but several QDE's to keep busy while waiting for the other sections to arrive at the RV point. Then we walked to the farthest south we were allowed to go for our night loc where the trees were not right for me to set up a hammock, sadly.

Thursday was our last day navigating through the bush and I was put in charge of it. With this, Delta HQ and the Ingasabians had to hike up "retrans hill" which is the second highest point in Singleton, to clear a checkpoint and it was a spectacular view. They were testing bombs and stuff at one spot in the distance and it was very interesting to see the explosion and smoke trail before hearing it several seconds later. Afterward, we met up with the other sections and went to bring the Ingasabians to their last loc, yet they didn't want to go there and had to get them a new loc. Once there, we had to participate in sacred "rituals" before we could leave them there. Once they were out of our hands though, we set up our last night loc just outside of Bn HQ, so I was then able to make some great friends from HQ.

Friday morning, the whole Bn got together and split up between 16 years and up and everyone else. The 16 year olds went to the weapons simulator, followed by the obstacle course, while everyone else went to the museum and weapons simulator. And everyone got a much needed shower. :) On the weapons simulator, I scored 50 with 17 shots fired at 10 targets, so I did pretty decent. Then on the obstacle course, my team came very close to winning if not for a mix up resulting in our team, the Llamas, getting a penalty. Even with the loss, it was super fun and a great day. Afterward, we did nothing until an award ceremony for the Bn, and then got to see bush masters, which are pretty cool machines and I would love to own one if anyone happens to be selling one. ;) In the awards, my unit, 222, was awarded the skull, which is for the best unit over the past year! Throughout the day, everyone was signing t-shirts and getting names for Facebook, and I always (with one exception) drew the American Flag with all 50 stars and 13 stripes on people's shirts. The one exception was an eagle that said, "GO USA."

Finally, on the last morning, we got up at the normal time of 0600 and had range clearance at 0630, from which we just sat around in our units until the buses picked us up. It was annoying though, because everyone was trying to saying their goodbyes, yet we weren't supposed to leave our units. We did manage to get all the goodbyes out, because we are just that awesome. When my bus finally arrived at 10, we left at 1030 after packing up and saying final goodbyes. We then stopped at Macca's for lunch, where I ordered, 2 McDoubles, McBites, Lrg Fries (Yes they call them fries at McDonald's not chips), an apple pie, and smoothie. It was all very delicious for something that would normally be disgusting. We finally arrived home just after 1800, and then my host-parents took me to KFC for dinner. Which, sadly was disappointing. It tasted like plain old breaded chicken as I did not taste the 11 secret spices. I'm not sure if thats Australia or just that one restaurant, but it was not up to par. Then, the week was over and now I wish I could do it all over again and hang out with those amazing people more than I got to.

A+39

This week we started Year 11 exams at school, and while normally the exchange students don't take the exams and just get 2 weeks off from school, I plan on getting credit for the year so I elected to take them, and they may or may not count depending on the results. Monday was just a normal day at school so in class we just did final preparations to the exams. That afternoon, after returning home, I decided to do hill sprints, however, I quickly realized how out of shape I got since I could only do 5 when I should've been able to do more.

Tuesday, at school I had two exams: English in the morning and Hospitality in the afternoon. For the English exam I took a slightly altered exam since I was not here for the books the exam was on. Then I had 2 and half hours before the next exam so some friends and I went downtown to have lunch before taking the Hospitality exam which was mostly common sense stuff except for the legal things. That night, at AAC we mostly just did classes in preparation of AFX to Singleton. I also got some more gear: some patches, hootchie, sleeping bag and day pack so I just need a couple more things for the week long trip.

Yesterday, I woke up early for a Wednesday (around 0730) and had a relaxing morning other than the blo incident which I talked about in the last post. Around 1030, Hannah and I went down to the beach for about 2 1/2 hours, in which we forgot sunscreen. When we first got there, the water was absolutely freezing and we could only spend about a minute in the water. After a little while, we decided to go to the "cave" which is a little rock outcropping that people jump into that also has a small cave nearby. It's about a 3 meter drop and is pretty fun to jump into, although it was high tide so we didn't venture into the cave. Additionally its pretty annoying to climb out of, but by the time we got to the cave, the water was warmer and wasn't that bad to swim around. When we got back to where we set up shop, we went for another swim in the now warmer water, before I dug a hole about a meter deep and a meter and half across just because. It took me an hour to do and my back is still in pain, but it was fun. Later in the afternoon, I went to the running club again. It started off great and although we were against a huge headwind on the way down and most of the way back up, we were making great time and I was on track to make a PR by a minute. However, when we got back up the big hill, I was hit with a huge stitch (cramp), and could barely breath and had to give up my position next to the other guy in my skill level. If it wasn't for that, I may have even beat him yesterday. The cramp was probably due to the digging and sore back whilst not stretching before the race.

Today, I only had one exam: Legal Studies in the morning, which I think I bombed because I wasn't here for the material. After the exam, I hung out downtown again with some friends for about an hour and half, then wandered around town until my mom and dad got off work for lunch. I finally found my way around town and checked out everything on the main strip. After lunch, Geoff took me home, where I had a very unproductive afternoon as it took much longer than it should have to copy the photos and upload them to the blog and Facebook. Tonight, we had hot dogs for tea and I showed my family how to make s'mores! They were a little different as they don't have graham crackers here and the marshmallows are slightly different, but they were still good. Now Hannah will already know how ot make them for when she goes to the States!

A MONTH!!!!

I previously had a very long post explaining how great this past month has been, and describing the past two weeks. Although, after never finding the time to write it, once I finally did this morning, when I went to publish the post, I lost it all but the first two paragraphs, and I don't have the heart to rewrite it all, so I saved what I have, and I might finish it some time in the future, but for now, it's on the back burner and I'm skipping over the two weeks in terms of detail. I'll just very briefly describe the past two weeks, and if you want to know more, comment below and I'll post more.

I can't believe I've already been here for a month now! These past several weeks have been amazing, and it has been really great to meet many new people (and animals) and to gain a new family in the complete opposite part of the world! As Maccer's (McDonald's) would say, "I'm lovin' it!" and I want to thank everyone who helped me come to Moruya.

Over the past two weeks, at AAC, we did PT one week, where at one point, during the beep test, it became a "battle of the nations' of sorts because it was just myself and one other kid left. In the end I beat him out. (GO USA!) This past week learned a little bit more of their drill and got some more gear to prepare for AFX (Annual Field Exercise) to Singleton. After, that night, I saw an echidna, which sadly, was hit by a car, but was fighting to live and a couple days later, we saw him borrowing, which meant he was recovering alright. Last Wednesday was my presentation to my hosting Rotary club, which I feel went pretty well, and my host club, and my host families got to learn a bit more about me. (If you want to read it, you can click on this link here.) Thanks to that presentation, one of the Rotarians, Marie, introduced me to a local running club, which I started with this past Wednesday. I ran the 5k in 20:08 after not running much since I got here in Australia. This past Thursday, I had to get my picture taken so I can get an ID card to go on AFX with the AAC. Apparently, it's a huge thing for me to go on this trip and I'm the first to do this (as an exchange student) so my CO had to get high clearance and it doesn't hurt that he has friends in high places. After learning how big a deal it was, I'm now even more excited to go! Last Friday, I went down to the lookout with Kathryn to look for whales and then stayed for the most beautiful sunset. This past Friday at school was International Day, where people dressed up as different cultures, and there was an international food stall at lunch. I'm not creative so I just went as an American, and apparently, I nailed the accent! Additionally, there was a Year 12 vs. Teachers soccer game, in which I played on the Teachers' side. (Teachers lost 2-0) I forgot how much I like soccer before that. That night, I made Aunie's mac&cheese and everyone seemed to like it, even though it was slightly different due to no monterey jack here. Last weekend, was Hannah's 18th birthday, so Saturday, we went out with the family to meet to rest of the family in Narooma. That was a fun day once I got to know everyone a little. Then Sunday, it was a nice bright and early morning, and since 18 is the legal age here, Hannah and Geoff celebrated with shots of vodka; Hannah's face was the best after the shot. Later, we went to her soccer game then she went out with friends to finish off her birthday. Needless to say, we had to take the bus the next morning to school. Finally, this past weekend wasn't nearly as busy. Saturday, Geoff took me up to Deua National Park, about an hour and half out from Moruya. We spent about 2 hours out there and saw plenty of 'roos before heading back home. When we got home, we had Thai for dinner and watched 2 movies before heading off to bed around 12. Sunday, went for a nice run down to the beach and then to the second half of Hannah's soccer game and of course, she did well when I wasn't there, but in the end her team hed the lead 3-2 to advance to the Grand Final this upcoming weekend! We had a late dinner of wings and played Pictionary until we ended with a tie at midnight.