From the desk of Allie.....
All college freshman have to do a few weeks of military training at the very beginning of the school year here in China. Our school was trying to be sensitive to the oppressive humidity that is the month of August here in Hengyang and postponed the training until the end of September. What this means is that I had one class with my freshman before I said goodbye to them for 4 weeks. But it also means that the campuses are swarmed with mismatched camo wearing (seriously down to the camo shoes) freshman.
I keep remembering when my family went to drop my brother off at the Naval Academy and saw the scared, shell-shocked look on each freshman's face with their white uniform and freshly shaved head....This was very different. Here training seems to consist of singing songs meant to boost moral and counting to four in unison as they march around the campus. In fact the other day, one of the commanders (?) turned to me and said into his microphone, 'Hello, nice to meet you' which made his squad (?) start giggling and shouting hello. I laughed and tried to imagine any giggling or spontaneous shouting happening on that hot summer day in Annapolis so many years ago.
Overall, it seems the students enjoy it. Here's a video:
awesome! love the giggling
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