So, in 3 days I'm starting my military service... I'm not very excited by that (it's obligatory in Switzerland), but I hope it will be at least an interesting experience. I managed to get recruited in the 'IT corps'. The only problem is that my formation will be in the German part of Switzerland, and I don't speak German... The only good thing about army is that I get paid (something like 1900-2000$, tax free). Even if it's not that much, I'll be able to buy some nice things, and save for school. The first 3 months are for basic training, lot of physical exercises (I'm really bad at it... ) and theory. We also got to shoot with an assault rifle, the SIG SG 550, aka. Fass 90. I'm not particularly fond of guns, but since it's obligatory... Also, the tradition wants that people keep the rifle at home after their military service. A lot of things happened with this (suicides, accidents, people going mad,...) so I doubt I keep it.
Most of my friends that did their military service told me that the first weeks are the worst. Life isn't the same in the army : you wake up at 5:30AM, the day starts at 7:00AM and normally ends at 22:00PM ( I insist on normally because it looks like they really like to wake you up in the middle of the night to do some jogging, push-ups, or any annoying thing, they can be very creative ), you sleep with something like 15 others people in the same room, the food is bad,...
I also got a recommendation to be promoted to a higher rank, which would be a good thing if I was interested in the army. If I get promoted, I'll have to stay longer, I'll have a lot more responsibilities, and I'll miss the start of the academic year. To be honest, if it wasn't for school, I'd show more interest to this promotion. It would have been I nice professional opportunity (you also get paid better, give orders, and get a better room when promoted ), but I seriously don't have time. The bad thing is that they can promote you without your consent... So I think I'll just play dumb during the first week to avoid it
This also means no more gaming, no more animu, no more decent internet connection . Meh. It's only 5 months, I'll survive.
Most of my friends that did their military service told me that the first weeks are the worst. Life isn't the same in the army : you wake up at 5:30AM, the day starts at 7:00AM and normally ends at 22:00PM ( I insist on normally because it looks like they really like to wake you up in the middle of the night to do some jogging, push-ups, or any annoying thing, they can be very creative ), you sleep with something like 15 others people in the same room, the food is bad,...
I also got a recommendation to be promoted to a higher rank, which would be a good thing if I was interested in the army. If I get promoted, I'll have to stay longer, I'll have a lot more responsibilities, and I'll miss the start of the academic year. To be honest, if it wasn't for school, I'd show more interest to this promotion. It would have been I nice professional opportunity (you also get paid better, give orders, and get a better room when promoted ), but I seriously don't have time. The bad thing is that they can promote you without your consent... So I think I'll just play dumb during the first week to avoid it
This also means no more gaming, no more animu, no more decent internet connection . Meh. It's only 5 months, I'll survive.