Hey all!!!!!

So now it is mandatory to always wear your uniform during service hours and to the Galley (the eating place that we share with the coast guard). Let me tell you, these uniforms are the MOST attractive things that you have ever seen. First off, we have the lovely khaki pants and the lovely khaki shorts. These are all men’s clothing, so they don’t fit any of us girls that well (my shorts go down past my knees). Then we have our lovely gray T shirts and long sleeve shirts that are also men’s sizes and huge. They ran out of smalls so half the girls don’t have T shirts yet, which you can imagine is alot of fun in the heat. It is kinda bizarre that the corps is 70% women, yet they are all men sizing. We are required to always have our shirts tucked in and be wearing a belt. Then, here is my favorite part of the uniform (although only required at work sites and special occasions), STEEL TOED BLACK BOOOTS!!!!!!!!!!! These boots are awesome, they look sorta like neo Nazi boots, but are not … however, they do give me a strong urge to kick something just to prove that I won’t hurt my toes.

Yesterday, while half our team was getting trained in how to drive the van, the other half went to a day long project with another team. It was soo cool. We got to go to a gibbon conservation place. Basically, this woman travels around the world destroying the bush meat trade and animal smugglers. She then rescues the animals from mistreatment and labs and has a place for them down in SC. We got to clean their cages, which was a lot of fun. The gibbons have really long arms, and if you are not careful, will reach out and steal hats, gloves, goggles, glasses, or just hit you on the head to see a reaction. My teammate Jen had just finished cleaning out a cage…the gibbon looked at her…looked at the ground…then pooped and laughed. The workers there said this was one of the pranks the gibbons play on newcomers. I also got to build a swing, and plant trees. This was hard because the ground was dried up clay and we had to switch off between a shovel and a pulaski (sorta like a pick axe) just to dig the holes.

This morning I had to wake up at 5:00 in the morning to go exercise…oh joy. We did a “Norwegian ski team workout” which consisted of us doing a lot of leg strengthening exercises then ab work out. I guess I’m kinda glad we do this in the morning ’cause otherwise the heat would be horrible. However, the Taiwanese navy runs at 3 in the afternoon, but they are a lot tougher then us (their uniform is blue jump suits and hard hats…they always wear hard hats…).

So training has now officially started, and I’m soooo ready! My team is awesome, and we get along really well even if this one guy is really awkward/funny/never talks…

We are waiting on the arrival of hurricane Ophelia (sp?) but it looks as though it will miss us for the most part!

I hope everyone is healthy and happy. I love to hear from all of you even if I can’t reply directly!

Love,

Alena