Why isn't thanksgiving here yet?

So this is going to be a bunch of random stuff. Just wondering thoughts and events this week. I have 2 weeks till I get to go home for thanksgiving. That being said, it has a detrimental affect on your attitude and work ethic here at West Point. For a lot of us here, that is all we can think about, the chance to go home. I was lucky that I could "re-experience" the civilian world last weekend in New York City. However, once I got back it was same old same old with school work, drill, and everything else we cherish here at West Point. Lately I have felt very out of touch with my friends and family back home. I don't mean out of touch as in lack of communication but more like I am a world away. My life here is so different from what it was back home and very different from my friends lives. I spend more time in conversations with friends answering questions about here and the army than I do actually talking. My ability to communicate with people outside of here is important although sometimes distracting. It gives me a link to my old ways and society (that is the civilian world). I stay within in the same mile or 2 mile circle every week here unless I am lucky enough to have a trip section (as I did on Wednesday, more to follow). Its weird being so confined. Not only am I in the same area at all times but I have two roommates in a smallish room. Very little chance for privacy or complete silence. Also it pay to mention that everything (except the Hudson Valley, off-post) is dull, plain, and often gray. Same colors and same surroundings can really make you feel like you are stuck, kind of like a Twilight Zone (at least in an extreme situation.....of course I haven't experienced an whole winter here). West Point quite effectively mentally confuses you. It makes you act strange and think strange, at least given civilian reactions to us. We have so many mannerisms and jokes and traditions here that really throw you off when you get back to the civilian world. Honestly, half of me says I am a different person and the other half says I am not. Call me a nut, a looney or just plain F*%#ed up..........but I don't think it's a serious mental problem. Well before I overload my brain with these deep thoughts and confusing mental notes lets move to a different subject.

So we did have something pretty big happen here on Tuesday. CHUCK NORRIS came to West Point! I don't think the mess hall has ever been as loud as it was at lunch when they announced Chuck Norris. He then walked through the hall (I am not sure why) and lets just say it looked like a bunch of little girls at a Jonas Brothers concert (they're still popular w/ the young people right?). I'm pretty sure my finger grazed his hand as he was walking by ( I wasn't fortunate enough to get a full high five). After lunch he gave a briefing to the corps in Rob Aud. I took my video camera and taped the whole thing. It was pretty funny and entertaining. There was one thing that was a little unnecessary though; his wife stood up and told him to talk about how great Mike Huckabee is. You could tell that Chuck wanted to roundhouse kick her to the face (or at least skip the subject). He did a pretty good job of just talking bout his relationship with Huckabee instead of campaigning and promoting him (which I am pretty sure his wife wanted him to). Afterwards he was having a book signing at the bookstore. Sadly, the line was huge and I had a last hour class. I gave up my chance to simply shake his hand and introduce myself. Quite a shame, but I did pass my book off to a buddy in line so I still have his autograph. On Wednesday we didn't have school. ESPN was here to celebrate Veteran's Day and televise some of the 10k ruck march some of the corps was taking part in. My company, because it is awesome, managed to get a day long trip section (aka field trip) approved. In the morning we made our way to the Purple Heart Memorial and Museum. It was actually pretty cool and is located where Washington quelled the mutiny of the Continental Army after the Revolutionary War. We were there for about an hour and then headed off to Applebee's. We changed into civvies on the way and had a free meal. While there we saw plenty of West Point because they had ESPN on. After lunch we headed to the Palisades Mall. This mall was gigantic, 4 floors of everything. Sadly, I had no money to spend (gotta love NYC). I chilled and walked around the mall with some friends for four to five hours till we had to leave. Although it might not have sounded like fun, getting off post and getting into civvies was well worth it. We got back around 6:30 PM and had plenty of time for.........you guessed it, Homework. This weekend is going to be great as I am doing the bulk of my research paper for History, which is due Tuesday. It seems like all the teachers wanted to kill us before thanksgiving. Just turned in a math project, have an english paper, the history paper, a chem test, an IT lab, and who knows what else (I don't like to look ahead to much, that way I don't stress myself out or get myself down for the next week before it even starts).

Well, I guess this will do, my mind can only handle so much free writing at a time.....actually I just think I'm not creative or able to write. Oh well........

NYC

So, not much happened last week, except not that I remember. It is truly pathetic how little I can recall from previous weeks or weekends. Its not just me either, a lot of my buddies say the same thing. Anyways, I went to NYC over the weekend with two of my friends (Icenogle and Oescher). We were there from Friday afternoon till Sunday afternoon. We took the train from Garrison, NY and sat with tow Yuks (sophomores) from our company. They already had hostel to stay at so we followed them to the "Candy Hotel" to see if we could also get a room.The "Candy" was full so they sent us to another one of their properties called the "Chocolate Hotel." We got a miniscule 2 bunk bed room room $30 a night per person. It wasn't bad though, all we needed was a bed. After this we took the subway back to Times Square and met up with the two Yuks (Faber and Wesche) for dinner. We went to a place called "The Playwright: Celtic Pub." It was on 8th Avenue and a block away from Times Square. All I got there was a burger so I can't give much of a restaurant review. The burger was really good and I liked the atmosphere. After dinner we split up from the Yuks and did our own thing. For a little while we chilled at the Blarney Stone and mingled with people there. One person I met, by the name of Jim Brown, is a student at Albany. His roommate's brother goes to West Point. Oescher happened to know this particular person as well. It's always interesting to find random connections and coincidences. After the Blarney Stone we set off for NYU. After walking three-quarters of the way there, Icenogle and Oescher decided we should just head back. We went back to Times Square and chilled a while longer before heading back to our hotel by 96th street. We didn't get to bed until around 3 AM. On Saturday we slept in till around 11 AM and left the hotel around noon. Our first plan of action was to go to Times Square, maybe shop a little, and definitely get some food. We checked out a few stores and then ate at a subway. After wandering Times Square, we decided to walk to Central Park and check it out. Although myself and Icenogle had been to the city a few times before, it was Oescher's first time so we did a lot of "exploring." Once Oescher realized Central Park was simply a big park, we left and headed for China Town. China Town was boring but we went to Little Italy right next to it because we had been told to check out Florio's. When we got to Florio's and the guy asked if we were West Point, he told us to go outside to the door on the left, up the stairs, enter the first apartment on your right and ask for Larry. We did so and ended up in the awesome cigar smokers lounge with huge leather furniture and dark wood, a poker table, military stuff on the walls, and glass cases with knives. When I asked for Larry, a loud "HOOAH" came from around the corner and Larry introduced himself to us. He told us to sit down and he got each of us a cigar (one of the ones they make). This was an amazing experience. We sat up there and talked with Larry and some of the other people there for a while. After maybe two hours we went downstairs and had some pizza, which was very good. When then went back upstairs for another hour or two. Before we left, we made sure we signed into the log book he has for all the military people. It was pretty interesting to see all of the upperclassmen from my company that had been there in the last year or so. After Florio's we headed back to Times Square. We decided to go see a movie and got to the theatre just in time for the opening of Boondock Saints 2: All Saints Day. I must say, it was an awesome movie. After that we wandered through the city, stopped by the Apple Store, and headed back to the hotel. Again we didn't sleep till about 3:30 AM. We woke up around noon and headed back downtown. We decided to go eat at Carnegie Deli. We all got a burger (I will get one of their monstrous sandwiches a different time) and shared a piece of cheesecake. It was really good food. After eating, we went straight to Grand Central and got on our train back to Garrison. And that was that. I had an awesome weekend and it felt so good not only to get off post, but to be able to wear civvies and chill.

Long time no post......

So haven't updated this in a while, much to my dismay. I have been fairly busy lately. Last week was a lovely "Thayer" week. A "Thayer" week simply means one has a lot of big assignments and/or tests. I had a chemistry, math, and history test. I felt that I did quite poorly on both math and chemistry but I actually recieved A's on both. I am eagerly anticipating my history grade as I am never sure what to expect from the history department's grading. Although people were dressed up Thursday night for halloween, on halloweeen itself I did little to celebrate it.....unlike a typical college, they were no halloween costume parties, bummer.
One halloween festivity I took part in though was the "Haunted Room" competition. Every company decorates a room (or in our case half of our floor) and they get graded in order to find the regimental winners. The next day the grade for brigade champion and some of the higher ups (aka the supe, dean, comm) also check out the haunted rooms. Our hanted set up was pretty awesome however I am too lazy to describe it. My role in the whole scheme, outside of setup, was to be a casualty. I will try to get a picture on here later but it looked like my guts and brains were spilling out. My company won the regiment but I'm not sure how we did for brigade. On Saturday (Halloween) I slept in (first time in like three weeks) and played xbox and watched movies the whole day. The culminating event of the day occured at about 9:15 when we invited a bunch of our buddies to watch "Cannibal Holocaust" with us. I urge you to wikipedia it but in short it can be described as the goriest movie ever made. This movie is an Italian made movie from 1980 and is illegal in multiple countries. I don't want to ruin your day so I will describe any scenes. To put how this movie affected me, It felt like my soul was raped. I will also say it was insanely realistic, even by today's standards. Apparently it is on Quentin Tarantino's favorite movies list. Just check it out and watch with caution. After the movie, it was almost midnight but I managed to stay up until 5 AM. Don't ask why, I don't have an answer. I then slept till noon on Sunday when my buddy woke me up to ask if I wanted to go to the PX (post exchange). I got ready, had some BK for lunch up there and picked up some boodle and whatnot. Back at barracks I did nothing......just further procrastinating my english paper till sometime between 8 or 9. The paper was easy though and I quickly wrote and edited it.
Another big event took place last night. It was Branch Night for all of the firsties. This night literally makes or breaks your entire time spent here. Branch night is when all of the Firsties recieve their army branches. Whether you win or lose, you get drunk as hell. There were plenty of drunk firsties celebrating, horseplaying, and meandering through the hallways last night. Luckily I did not run into any firsties that did not recieve their branch of choice. They would have been pissed, depressed, and most likely belligerently drunk. Like I said, it can "make or break" your time spent here. Accompanying branch night was the tradition of blood pinning. Sadly I didn't have the chance to take part. Basically you go and punch the firsties in the chest where their branch pin is in order to make them bleed. They actually walk around and offer themselves to be hit.......maybe its the alcohol.
Well, I will try my best to post more this week. We have a game against Air Force this weekend so I will close with "BEAT AIR FORCE!!!"