PCS

so, after swos and ocs, my new duty station is the exotic and mystical city of norfolk, va. the drive from lake jackson to norfolk in a uhaul was fun... no cruise control... and the wierd thing, everyone was driving under the speed limit. loaded up in lake jackson and proceeded to lafayette, la, it got dark along the way, then the next day i drove to tuscaloosa, al. and loaded up the rest of my stuff, which i had left at the colonel's place. and that saturday, we went to the bama-ole miss game, which was exciting... alabama put up 24 points in the first half, and then stalled and the defense saved them in the second quarter. then i drove to charlotte, nc. which is a pretty nice city. very clean and modern looking. i was surprised. not sure what i was expecting, but it wasnt that really. it was really nice. and then i got to norfolk, where i have yet to take many good pictures. i've been here two weeks, and just havent taken many. i need to get out and take some... i also need to finish getting the apartment set up... lots of things i should do. haha.

new york city?!

ok, so, i actually went to new york city... for the third time... i still have seen practically nothing. but, i've had fun with the people i've gone with. this time, i went basically to go to the opera, which was awesome. don giovanni is my favourite opera, and it was the first performance of the new york opera season... still stationed in newport, so i figured i'd take the train on down to new york and watch it. american trains are abysmal compared to even the most minor of european countries... american trains suck. i did use priceline.com for the hotel room, which worked pretty well. no problems, and we got a room right off time square which was cool. i'd avoid the roxy delicatessen though, it was big portions... but big prices. i saw it on the tv new york channel... which means i knew it was ubertouristy, but i wasnt prepared to pay that for a sandwhich... the same with the duck tour.... maybe its cause it was raining, but it a was fairly disappointing 20 dollar tour... supposed to last 90 minutes... lasted closer to 40. hopefully, thats just a nyc issue... and not an issue with all the duck tours around the world... i dont think it is... the one in dublin looked like it was pretty active.

OCS: newport's premier summer camp

summering in newport... its an east coast dream... unless you're at ocs, then its a nightmare. until you graduate,then it's amusing... or when you're in your final weeks and you're a candidate officer (candi-0). the progression of ocs is, indoctrination candidate, officer candidate, candidate officer. the first day is fun. you show up and candi-os yell at you. they get you processed in, and try to get you ready for when you meet your drill instructor. that first wednesday you meet your DI, and then the real fun begins... the first week is mostly about learning the fundamentals of military life. including a fun filled and action packed guided tour around the building... inside and out. and then, suddenly, you're no longer an indoctrination candidate. you've bearcrawled your way into officer candidate status. weeks two, three, and four are geared towards preparing for RLP, the room, locker, and personel inspection. once you've gotten through that, you have a 95% completon rate with your class. as long as you dont get hurt or do something stupid, you'll graduate on time. RLP is fun because the drill instructors come and make you do exercise while going through all your things and making sure everything is exactly so. shirts folded to a certain level, shoes shined, and no dirt inside the inside of the soles. you have to have an 80 to pass, and you get a chance thursday, and if you fail that, then you do it again saturday... our class lost 5 of 45 to RLP. once RLP is finished, its like a weight has been taken off your shoulders. after RLP academics begin. each week a new course, naval warfare, engineering, maneuvering boards, and navigation. each week you have another fun filled thing to do the same day as the test. engineering we had 6th week personel inspection, and mo-boards we had rifle drill, and navigation we had 8th week PI... and then, after 8th week PI, we were almost done. but it all seemed so far away. 6th week PI is in our wash khakis, and the Chiefs come and inspect your uniform and ask you questions about things we needed to know like the chain of command, general orders of a sentry, and the code of conduct. it was fun. after 6th week PI, the next major event was rifle drill. we'd practiced a long time with our M-1 rifles for the manual of arms, and after that, we got liberty. which was nice. the first time we got off-base liberty we got to go into town and eat ice cream. which was awesome. the weeks went on, we were in a routine by then, wake up at 430, get ready for pt, go and run 3.5 miles or so, eat breakfast, go to class, eat lunch, go to class, eat dinner, clean the building, read/write letters, shower, go to sleep. repeat. when the 8th week came, we had 8th week PI, we graded ourselves now. this was one of our final evolutions. out-pfa, victory run, and candi-o phase. candi-o phase we ran the regiment, we made sure people got to class, took care of problems, and got the privileges that went with it, living in the slightly nicer barracks... nicer because there were fewer people AND a big computer lab... and then, we were ensigns. and we all packed up, and went our seperate ways. the subs and suppos went home, the aviators to pensacola, and the cec's to their duty stations. the swos, went across the base. collected our two weeks leave chits and went wherever and then came back for 3 weeks of swos intro, and then to our ships.

newport

so, newport is awesome and newport sucks. this duality is caused because to me newport is this. and this. it's rather hard to reconcile the two... the first four days before i reported to ocs were pretty interesting, i watched a college summer league baseball game which was fun, and wandered around on my own a bit. i pretty much fit in dress-wise, boat shoes and khaki shorts and a polo shirt... and then other people, quite a few where red shorts/trousers. its a very nautical place... which makes sense or it having a navy base. it used to be the retreat of the wealthy new yorkers, which is why the new york yacht club has a yacht club here... theyve also got the america's cup museum here, because it was held here pretty much until the australians won it in 1980ish. newport, has some fun history too. it was a major importation point for slaves into new england during the colonial days... yep, back when new englanders still owned slaves. and it was a haven for pirates too. and then, during the revolution, the french army landed here and drove of the british. general rochambeau came with 6,000 frenchmen. from newport they went to yorktown... and we won our independence. oliver hazard perry was born near newport, and grew up here. his brother matthew perry is the man who opened up japan to american commerce. during the war of 1812, oliver constructed and commanded the us fleet at the battle of lake erie. he flew a flag that said, "dont give up the ship" what captain james lawrence said as he lay dying on his ship during a battle with the british. after the battle of lake erie, oliver wrote, we have met the enemy, and they are ours. his victory secured the old northwest, ohio, michigan, and illinois would be american and not british. newport, has alot of pretty colonial architecture, but its also famous for its mansions built by the men who made newport famous. the vanderbilts and all the other money barons built palaces here that made the old european royals look like turkish peasants... obscenely wealthy men competing to show off their decadence in summer homes they would only use for a month or two a year. i havent gone to any of them.

gettysburg

so, the next major stop on my glorious route to newport was gettysburg, i had visited the battlefield in 7th grade, and returned to the city twice in college for swimmeets, but i hadnt been to the battlefield since 7th grade... so i wanted to go back, i got myself a personal guided tour from one of the gettysburg guides who was a retired army officer... which was cool because i got a tour a little more tailored to my background and education. we all know the history of gettysburg, so i wont go into it much. the yankees win... barely.

new orleans

after dropping nathalie off at the airport, i proceeded east to new orleans. i hadn't been to the crescent city since 2004, but it's one of my favourite cities, so i figured that some beignets en route to ocs were well in order... i walked around a little bit, jackson square is always cool. new orleans is always a bit sad to me because of the extent of poverty, and its definitely a city to go to with friends, its a place for fun and cameraderie, not hanging out by yourself... my ship is in new orleans right now, so i'm excited for when i get to go down there... i'm also excited to do sea trials in the gulf of mexico... the first body of water.

the joys of home

so, nathalie came to town for her birthday, and my last weekend before i drove up to newport for ocs. that friday was her birthday, so i picked her up from the airport, and then we went to the brasialian consulate, and then to the galleria, and then to the museum of fine arts to look at the pompeii exhibit... and then, to an astros game. they crushed the cardinals... which was awesome. then saturday we spent in lake jackson, did the lake jackson thing, sea center, jetties, and fire at the beach... the usual fun things to do in good old LJ.

dal-last

so this weekend, i drove down to dallas to see neill and go to his crawfish boil. it was alot of fun, i wish nathalie would have been able to make it, but she had to go to brasil... at least i got to drive her to the airport in dallas. neill's parents came up from LJ brought 79 pounds of crawfish... we ate them all. as well as all the potatoes, onions, mushrooms, and corn that went into the pot. it was alot of fun... this picutre is only from my cellphone, and thats a nice live one... that was fun. sooooo good tasting. louisiana lobsters, get em while youre able. then today, we went to see the J.M.W. Turner exhibit at the dallas art museum... dallas is a fairly ok city, and the museum seems pretty good. turner was an artist during the early 19th century... the museum exhibit was pretty awesome... turner was painting during the shift from neo-classicism to romanticism, so his paintings sort of reflect that... plus his own personal style... this one to the right is a painting of venice... it felt like i was in the canal when i looked at it. he also painted a really cool picture of the battle of trafalgar, to the right, which was a synthesis of several events during the battle and from the perspective of being in the water, next to it there was another painting of trafalgar from the perspective of the rigging. but, i couldnt find a picture of it online, this one below this is another one that was at the museum, a ship off the nore. and next to that is my favourite turner painting The fighting Temeraire tugged to her last berth to be broken up. it wasnt there, but i saw it when i was in london at the national gallery... it was actually really tiny... but it was awesome. so yes, turner=good.

DC...

so, last weekend, i went to dc. why? why not. jane had a teaching conference there, so i figured that was a good excuse to fly up there and see some old friends, which i did... so, thursday, jane and i checked into the hotel, and the lobby was filled with journalists... and behind me in line at the front desk was an italian priest... so, yeah, all sorts of people for the pope's visit where at the hotel... including italian journalists... so that was cool. i didnt practice any italian. so, jane went to check into her conference and do some stuff, so, i wandered around dc... i had a mission. i wanted to go check out the jefferson memorial, because apart from his lousy defense policy, he's one of the greatest of american presidents. he makes lincoln and adams look like carter, which isnt hard. but yeah, so i walked around the reflecting pool and went and to see the memorial. it was nice, there were the remainders of the cherry blossoms out... no where near as impressive or beautiful as during their height, but still, better than nothing... after i walked around and enjoyed the jefferson memorial, i rested in the shade of a cherry blossom grove within sight of the memorial. and then i walked back down the mall to meet my buddy todd for dinner and to meet my friend lisa to chat and make plans for after her kickball game... todd and i ate at oyamel which tasted really good, but i felt bloody awful a few hours later. not sure why. but after oyamel, todd and i went to penn quarter, its a bar in penn quarters, and watched the caps game, and then lisa and her friend aj, and jen, and jane all came... and we hung out and watched the game and enjoyed seeing each other/making new friends. the next day i had lunch with jane at cafe atlantico, and felt bloody awful as well!!! after lunch with jane, i went on to the navy museum at the washington navy yard, which, i expected more of, because, i have incredibly high standards, BUT, the scholars from the smithsonian institute that i went around it with. they had raphael semmes confederate commission from jefferson davis, and the sternpost of the kearsarge, that the alabama almost beat. she put a shot in the kearsarge's sternpost, if it would have exploded, it would have disabled her steering and allowed the alabama to beat the yankees into a pulp. they also had a us destroyer that took part in the cuban missile crisis blockade tied up outside the museum. for any dc people that look at this, next time you go to a nationals game stop by. its about 10 minutes walk from the stadium... good time. all sorts of stuff there from the continental navy to modern oceanographic exploration vessels like alvin and the trieste... that night i took the metro down to reagan national airport to wait for nathalie to come. and then we walked around dc on saturday, the weather was gorgeous. we walked around the white house, enjoyed lafayette square, i wonder why its called lafayette, when the statue in the center of the square is andrew jackson... then we went to the hirschhorn modern art museum at the smithsonian... which, is totally not my scene, which made it totally awesome... some of the things that werent exhibits i thought were, and then some of the other things were cool too, and there was a tooooon of random wierd stuff. then we went to georgetown for about an hour and then went back to the hotel, got ready for dinner and had dinner at a place called olives, which was good. and then sunday, we flew out... back to tulsa. except the weather was dicey in the afternoon, thunderstorms and what not... i flew through cleveland, which was the first time i'd been to ohio since i was 16... which wasnt bad, surprisingly ok.