Joined the army!

Starting last month (Aug. 17th), I was bound to be one of the ROC* troops for... exactly 11 months. And while in boot camp, I thought I'd join the paratroopers, just to get a taste of it. Otherwise, it could well be 11 months totally wasted. At least as a paratrooper, I'll get five free jumps, plus another month's training in the mountains.

During boot camp we practiced stupid stuff like bayonet fencing (?), marching, some simple PT (running & push-ups)... the lot. The coolest thing I remember was: during my 6-round, 175m shooting final exam, the handguard on my rifle (which didn't belong to and wasn't maintained by me, but rather belonged to some other company under the same regiment... this I had to clarify) went "bang" and just disintegrated! And afterwards I just collected the pieces, held them as if it was intact, and got off the rifle range. Squad leader was rather pleased by this kind of reaction.

Anyway... hope the days coming be all good.

*  Republic of China. Weird, huh? Although technically, THAT is the official name of the governing regime in Taiwan; the "free China" that'd overthrown the Ching Dynasty, and fought the WWII; as opposed to the Communist China that is today.