Letter dated 10-24-06

Hey family,
Things are still chugging along here. Actually, time goes on, but we're not doing a ton. Its said that in 3rd phase it can get dull, and I guess its true. Right now we/I just finihsed my (what seems like) 100th practice test this week. We do that and clean the house a lot. Its not so stressful, though, so its okay.
We finally got mail last night but only got through 2/3 of it. There were two huge mailbags full of stuff and we didn't have time for both. Hopefully the rest will come tonight. I read all the letters from home I got but I figure some were skipped. Its okay tho. I still love reading whatever I get. I'm gonna read the other letters I got tonight so I won't be writing any letters. So I only have whatever time is left for this test. So it might get cut short anytime.
Swim week started today. I already made 4th class, and I passed 3rd class tonday. 2nd class will be tomorrow I guess, and you can't get 1st class in bootcamp. Today we swam with flakjackets, helmets, a weapon, and a pack. The pack floats, though, so it was a lot easier than you'd think. The hard stuff is tomorrow. I heard we swim 50 yards/meters with no pack, but all the rest. (I forgot to mention the camies and boots too). You only need 4th class to pass bootcamp, but it'd be nice to get 2nd.
Also today we got issued our service uniforms. The dressy ones we wear for graduation. Half the things will be getting tailored or dry cleaned (we don't have to press our clothes anymore) for the next few weeks, but it was cool to see what we'd be getting. They measured us in this machine that used lasers to copy our bodies onto the computer and we got our measurements from that. It was pretty cool, but didn't really save too much time (there being only one.). Then it took the whole morning for us to get all our stuff. Just one of those instances where it feels like we're wasting time here.
But one thing that has given me joy ever since the crucible is chow. Food makes me happy. And its been real good too. Actually, we all know in our brains that its crap, but everyone has been so hungry that it tastes great. Its a big part of our lives here so I just thought I'd share. Anyway, time to go. Keep writing. Love, Jared