This week was an interesting one. We had some new classes and met some new instructors. We had our first PT (physical training), PDT (police defensive tactics), PDU (Police Driving Unit) and drill classes.
All of our dorm mates were asking us over and over again when our first drill class was scheduled. Apparently if you have been through drill you want to watch others suffer through the first class. Our facilitators that teach us our APS classes made a special point to be there in the bleachers of the drill hall our first class. They were laughing so hard that they were all crying, one said for about 10 seconds he couldn't breathe. All in all I didn't find it as bad as everyone was warning us about. In drill when you screw up he will usually make you do pushups, and we did about 60-70 pushups in class that day. In between laughing and crying the facilitators managed to take a few pictures (not from my camera, mine doesn't work well in the drill hall) so I will see if I can get a few on the site here.
PT, PDU and PDT were just introductions and we really didn't do anything in the classes except go over the general rules of the classes. We would start doing our training next week. We did this week have to start our competencies this week, which means we have to do a minimum of 3cardio and 2 weight training workouts a week. So I am running around Depot most nights and in the gym the other nights, this should get me into some decent shape!
We also started to get issued our uniforms this week. So now we don't stick out like sore thumbs when we are marching. They didn't have any long sleeve shirts for me so I am wearing the short sleeve shirts with a tie. I kind of stick out of my troop but it is better than wearing my civilian clothes, plus I am nice and cool during class.
This week also started the Depot work schedule. Up at 5:30 work all day until 11pm and then lights out. 5:30 comes far too fast and there were a few mornings waking up and saying "What the hell am I doing here?" Which apparently is a quite common question that new cadets ask themselves. But the bad news is that this is only going to get worse, as was evident on Thursday of this week when our facilitators in APS told us we needed to have to do a 30-35 minute presentation. They said it is usually due on Monday but since we started half way through the week it is due tommorrow. Well that night none of our troop were in bed by lights out, some being out well past 1 in the morning. The group that I was in pulled off a very good presentation and managed to impress our facilitators enough to have them give us a Superior.
The RCMP has four different grades when at Depot. The worst is a U. This means Unacceptable if you fail a benchmark you get a U. Two U's in the same benchmark and you are gone. The next mark is a NI. NI is needs improvement, pretty much self explanitory. The most common mark is a P. Professional is where the RCMP wants you to be. If you pass a benchmark you get a P. The next mark is not reguallary handed out, that is the S. Superior is when you exceed the expectations of the RCMP. You get a piece of paper signed by your facilitators and you that goes in your file.
So when we heard we got Superiors our group was quite excited. It made all that work worth it.
Well made it through this week, the fun stuff should be coming next week.