I had an interesting weekend! I drove a tank and fired some weapons. When the initial offer arose for me to go on this day trip I immediately said no. After some thought, I realized that more than likely, I'd never had another opportunity to do this. So, I said, "Yes!"

We left fairly early, and it wasn't too long of a drive on pretty good roads. 15 of us came, and we had to be sneaky about it too. Jen was setting this up as a surprise for her husband's birthday. He was completely clueless until the very last minute and boy, was he excited!

All but one of us signed up to drive the tank. We climbed on the top and off we went! To quote Sophie, "Driving a standard tank is nothing like driving a standard car." I did pretty well, and was complimented on my steering. In order to steer, there were two levers, one right one left. You had to quickly pull them toward you and then back. Trying to see the road was another story. You have two slits at eye level and don't get much of a view peripherally. It was exhilarating though! Pat, who is prone to zany stunts, asked that the tank literally drive over him! They, surprisingly, agreed.

We left for a nice lunch at the tourist camp. They had everything all set up for us and it was warm. After sitting on the metal tank for a few hours, we needed some toasting! While we were eating, Gurgit noticed my face was very red and I said it felt extremely hot. Then I noticed hives all over my body! I was having some sort of allergic reaction to something. We couldn't figure it out. Luckily, Megan had anti-histamine with her and I took one. I had to lay down and couldn't eat my food. After about an hour I was feeling better, but still confused. I was the only one to have any reaction, but the day had to go on and I had some guns to fire!

We arrived at the shooting range and I was the first to go! Only three of us signed up for the machine gun. We had the options of: machine gun, AK 45, sniper rifle, two kinds of pistols, and a grenade rocket launcher. I had chosen the machine gun, the AK and the pistol. I did not get the chance to fire the pistol, but that's okay. I turned out to be pretty good with the machine gun! The AK was pretty scary for me so Josh finished my rounds. It was so noisy though! The gave us shells to plug our ears with. The weapons we were firing also managed to start two fires on the hillside. The men who worked there had to run and put them out.

We talked some about the noise and how we couldn't imagine being around so many guns firing at once, let alone having them shoot back at us. It made us think about war and the soldiers coming home from it. Just holding the gun makes you aware of the power behind it, shooting it, even more so!

The craziest part of the day was when Pat decided to fire the grenade rocket launcher! It was so loud! Everyone had said that it went straight though the mountain and came out the other side. They all went to investigate, but I decided to retire to the van. It was getting cold and I still wasn't feeling quite right. Turns out it ricocheted off the front part of the hill and exploded behind it. It was quite the experience though!

So, first term report cards are done and sent home. I very nearly forgot because we had spirit day and everything was jumbled. The kids really enjoyed spirit day this month. We had to built a tower, fit as many of us into a hula hoop, and tie up someone! They were very excited because initially the class thought they'd get to tie me up! Thank heavens, no. Come Monday we will begin a new term and a new month. Only three weeks left until my Christmas vacation in Vietnam!