Training

The new students are no longer everywhere. Actually, they still are everywhere, but they are now in rectangular units throughout the campus. There are differences now. Before the students were settling in, walking where they wanted and dressing how they wanted. Now all students wear the same blue and white pants and shirt (very much like a cross-training outfit). Chants and shouts can be heard all throughout the day. Each new student is assigned to a group of about 50-100 other students. These students are part of a training group that marches, shouts responses, makes turns, comes to attention, shuffles, regroups and does it all over again at the command of a drill sergeant. All Freshmen partake in this two-week training for six days each week, eight hours per day.

I wanted to give the facts, rather than make comments about my thoughts on such training. Some of the questions I have asked are:

“What are the benefits of such training?”
“What are the drawbacks?”
“What do the teachers and students think of this?”

I was concerned about taking pictures of this event due to the questions it may raise about why I was doing so. Instead I took a couple of pictures from my apartment.





I was not excited about another incident (on the train I tried to take some pictures of signs like, “please don’t spit everywhere,” and several crew members became very angry with me). I then proceeded to delete the photos in front of them.