It is December 13th, and there are three days left of the semester. Monday are devoted to physical tests and the department dinner in the evening, Tuesday for the presentation for the Head of School at the new departments we're heading for and the Grand SOU dinner with all the departments downtown somewhere. God knows where they are going to cram in a hundred and ten broad shouldered cadets. Hopefully they have gotten something worked out.
On Wednesday we have the last line up.
It seems odd to think that it is already over. An entire semester has passed and it feels as if it didn't even stop to say hello. Now suddenly we're facing three weeks of Christmas holiday only to start anew next spring with a new class, new teachers and a new focus on the education.
I will miss 4th department. It was a good department. We did not have any of the problems the other departments faced. No intrigues, no fighting, no fuzzing, not even much dislike. Just a general good atmosphere. Sure, we had our oddballs, not everybody got along. But they were still good guys, and it was never enough to make life unbearable.
Since we got back from Bosnia people has been eager to share the pictures taken, and I downloaded the photos from the joint FTP server the other day. The myriad of familiar faces, places and the forests of the Bosnian mountains all together formed a hand that gripped my heart pretty tight. When I got to Matt Damon's video of me putting mascara on Matthew's mustache outside the Sarajevo airport to highlight it better for his picture in the Best Mustache Contest, I laughed so hard the tears ran down my face.
It's been fun. I have loved this semester, more than I had ever thought I would - more than I thought I ever could. I have loved this place more than I have ever loved any other place. I have never felt so at home, so accepted.
Writing this I realize it seems much like a clich - how often haven't you heard the very same thing from old scarred soldiers, or heard the same thing from the roughnecked soldiers in the Hollywood movies? - but it is true. Not in the "I could give my life for these guys and I know they would for me too because we are soldiers and dying is what we do best", that would just be ridiculous. We haven't been at war for two hundred years.
But we have been facing so many other things together, our hopes and fears, our thoughts about the future, about death and killing, we have been planning and cooperating in PM writing, English classes, shooting exercises and Bosnia stations. We have gotten to know each other to the point that there is really no-one in class that I can't just sit down next to and chat about anything.
They're fucking awesome.
To end this December rant I would like to further detail the picture of the good Cpt. B., whom we were so skeptical towards in the beginning, but who turned out to be one of the most interesting and - without smiling even once - one of the funniest officers I have ever encountered in my, although brief, time in the Swedish Defense. This he spoke on Friday, as a comment on the decision the department had just agreed on to use the model 87, which is the more proper dinner uniform, for the dinner on Monday. After the decision was made, he had cleared his throat and, in his usual calm and cool manner, commented his humble view;
"I am of the firm belief that the model 87 is of evil. Looking back at history it is clear that many of the horrifying turns in history can be referred to this particular suit, from the sinking of the Regal Ship Wasa, the battle of Poltava to the extradition of the Baltic in the nineteen-forties. Thus my opinion is firmly rooted in the belief that such sinister costume should be used..." He paused slightly."...with moderation."
I will miss 4th department.
On Wednesday we have the last line up.
It seems odd to think that it is already over. An entire semester has passed and it feels as if it didn't even stop to say hello. Now suddenly we're facing three weeks of Christmas holiday only to start anew next spring with a new class, new teachers and a new focus on the education.
I will miss 4th department. It was a good department. We did not have any of the problems the other departments faced. No intrigues, no fighting, no fuzzing, not even much dislike. Just a general good atmosphere. Sure, we had our oddballs, not everybody got along. But they were still good guys, and it was never enough to make life unbearable.
Since we got back from Bosnia people has been eager to share the pictures taken, and I downloaded the photos from the joint FTP server the other day. The myriad of familiar faces, places and the forests of the Bosnian mountains all together formed a hand that gripped my heart pretty tight. When I got to Matt Damon's video of me putting mascara on Matthew's mustache outside the Sarajevo airport to highlight it better for his picture in the Best Mustache Contest, I laughed so hard the tears ran down my face.
It's been fun. I have loved this semester, more than I had ever thought I would - more than I thought I ever could. I have loved this place more than I have ever loved any other place. I have never felt so at home, so accepted.
Writing this I realize it seems much like a clich - how often haven't you heard the very same thing from old scarred soldiers, or heard the same thing from the roughnecked soldiers in the Hollywood movies? - but it is true. Not in the "I could give my life for these guys and I know they would for me too because we are soldiers and dying is what we do best", that would just be ridiculous. We haven't been at war for two hundred years.
But we have been facing so many other things together, our hopes and fears, our thoughts about the future, about death and killing, we have been planning and cooperating in PM writing, English classes, shooting exercises and Bosnia stations. We have gotten to know each other to the point that there is really no-one in class that I can't just sit down next to and chat about anything.
They're fucking awesome.
To end this December rant I would like to further detail the picture of the good Cpt. B., whom we were so skeptical towards in the beginning, but who turned out to be one of the most interesting and - without smiling even once - one of the funniest officers I have ever encountered in my, although brief, time in the Swedish Defense. This he spoke on Friday, as a comment on the decision the department had just agreed on to use the model 87, which is the more proper dinner uniform, for the dinner on Monday. After the decision was made, he had cleared his throat and, in his usual calm and cool manner, commented his humble view;
"I am of the firm belief that the model 87 is of evil. Looking back at history it is clear that many of the horrifying turns in history can be referred to this particular suit, from the sinking of the Regal Ship Wasa, the battle of Poltava to the extradition of the Baltic in the nineteen-forties. Thus my opinion is firmly rooted in the belief that such sinister costume should be used..." He paused slightly."...with moderation."
I will miss 4th department.