3 weeks down...ish

Well we have now finished (almost) our third week of flight school. It has been busy. Three tests, our first physical fitness muscle endurance test, hours and hours of computer based training, and a few hours of boredom later, I am ready for another weekend. Where do I even begin. Last week was a blast (everyone says it is one of the better weeks of UPT). We spent the week in aerospace physiology. We studied survival, physiology, and life support. We practice parachute landing falls, dealing with hypoxia in an altitude chamber, strapping into the T6 aircraft and emergency egressing (exiting the aircraft in under 40 seconds), experienced spacial disorientation in the barany chair (a spin chair), and did drag training (practicing disconnecting from a parachute that is dragging you across the ground or water). It was very hands on, and a lot of fun. Plus, the tests were not too bad.

Over the weekend Ashley and I headed up to San Angelo to visit my good friend Stefan who is going to intel school up that way. It was nice to get out of Del Rio for a little bit, and got to experience some civilization for a night. It was an adventure. In addition to getting some awesome Japanese food, we went to a button festival, arts and crafts show, and a really dingy mexican restaurant. To back up a second, yes, we went to a button festival. See, Stefan found it online, and thought it would be kind of ridiculous, so naturally we wanted to go. It ended up being in a church lobby. We walked in the door and brought the average age down by about 20 years. Sitting all around the room were a bunch of older (65+) women showing off their button collections. Now I am all for collections (I still have my dinasaurs, and coins from my childhood), but really...buttons? One of the ladies saw us kind of snickering and took it upon herself to introduce us to the world of button collecting. We learned so very very much. We saw buttons made out of bone, buttons made out of wood, out of ivory, and all sorts of things. We saw buttons worth 10 cents, and buttons worth $2000 (who the frick pays that much money for a button?). We learned that there is an annual national button competition (we are going to go). All that is to say, it was a once in a lifetime experience.

We then went to an arts and crafts festival (I must remind you that Ashley was a part of this adventure and definitely had a role to play in where we went...but lets be honest, it was the guys who picked the button festival). With regard to the arts and crafts festival, the only real thing worth mentioning is that both Ashley and I won something from a raffle they held. First time I've ever won anything...ever. I was pretty darn excited!

Well thats it for now. I will post about this week soon.