Day 54

June 17th

I couldn't find my room mate this morning and she missed PT. I found out later that she wound up sleeping in another room and the room owner didn't have PT so she also didn't wake up. I was a little worried, but she showed up right before we had to be in the band room for inspection; which was really quick and kinda funny today. After that I got a break in my room for about half an hour, so I took a nap. Then some of us did a guard mount while walking the streets on campus and using a field of grass to represent parliament hill. The guards also joined us for this practice and it was kinda neat to see what they do. The entire spiel takes about an hour. It's amazing how much money is spent on this parade that happens once a day for an hour. All these ppl have to be paid, fed, housed, clothed and be made part of the military (basic training) and so many more side costs...This is one expensive free tourist attraction!! I spent the afternoon in the library and my march pack is just a few songs short of being complete at this point. Yay! Again, we were dismissed early enough for me to go straight to the pool. I like swimming early because I find I am more motivated to go earlier in the day. I am also more awake for the rest of the evening. Also, there are less ppl if you go earlier and I had a whole lane to myself. This allowed me to swim at my pace and I got 52 lengths done in 35 minutes I think? Not all that fast, but definately an improvement on the first week of swimming! I spent the rest of the evening chilling in my room. I finished off the last of the BBQ from home and I watched Austin Powers while rotating the wheels on my rollerblades and cleaning the bearings. All together a very relaxing evening. We are in combats tomorrow, so I didn't have to worry about polishing boots. Good thing too, cuz after doing a guard mount through puddles and in grass, my boots are trashed!