EXERCISE UNITED CADET 2019: GMC – Morgan Thomas
I am sure that most, if not all of you, are aware about the 5 week CCF exchange program to America which happens each summer. I would love to tell you about every single minute but it would be far too long so I’ll keep to the highlights. Myself and 6 others departed from Heathrow airport on July 24th to Atlanta, Georgia and after 7 LONG hours we arrived to the welcoming party of Dr Greer, his wife Jennifer and Abby- whom many of you know who as she attended RHS both this year and the year before on the reverse exchange. Myself, Helena, Fred and Jack said goodbye to the others as they left to RMA, as we headed on our way to GMC. After landing roughly about 11 at night, Dr Greer took us on a diversion to the infamous Chick-Fil-A… and it lived up to its reputation. We then continued on to Georgia Military College.
Throughout our first week we spent most of our time exploring Downtown Milledgeville, the Fricke’s house and the Greer’s house/back garden, AKA Lake Sinclair, where we all (minus Fred) were very much sun burnt, also attending our first softball match. We also attended the ‘Damn Yankees’ play which was held in the next town along, which many students from GMC participated in, and we were lucky that Mrs Lee and Mrs Smith plus her daughter Kathence were able to take us. Fortunately for us, Mrs Smith was free the following day, and so asked us what we would like to do. Not only did she buy us Milledgeville’s speciality birthday cookies but also took us to Central State Hospital ( a psychiatric hospital that had recently closed). Mrs Smith told us that her father worked there in the main building years prior to its closing and stories of what had happened there. So as you can imagine it was a very action packed week, however our highlight was by far our first Raiders session were we were welcomed with both open arms and a 2 mile warm up run in 38 degree heat, followed by lifting stretchers and tyres where Jack decided to rip his shorts. At this point school hadn’t yet started for those at GMC and so Mr Courson took us to Six Flags were we decided to get thrown 200ft in the air for what would be called fun, this was a fantastic day as we were able to get to know both Kathence and Pnut (yes, this is her name) better.
Finally the big day came, first formation. As all of us were escorted by Abby and Fricke who were both seniors. We were invited to their last first formation breakfast, where we were once again welcomed with Chick-Fil-A. This was a unique moment to be apart of, as for many of the seniors it was an very emotional day as they wouldn’t have a last first formation again, so many tears were shed and plenty of photos were taken. Later that evening we were taken to downtown to get dinner on what is known as the First Friday, where music plays throughout downtown and all families come to celebrate. I found this very enjoyable, in fact so enjoyable I danced in the street with Kathence in front of everyone!
That weekend, Dr Greer and Jennifer took us to Lake Linear (a few miles from RMA) to relax after our ever so busy first day of school, which consisted of 3 lessons. We all found this weekend very enjoyable as it gave us a chance to play many water sports and explore the area. When arriving back at GMC we decided to go again to raiders, were this time we didn’t have to run but undertake their obstacle course, which involved the infamous belly buster, 7ft wall and many more interesting obstacles! This was a great experience as we were joined by the best female Raider Lyssa who took us though each obstacle and how it should be done. Later that week, we attended our second Softball match where I has the pleasure of throwing out the first pitch to captain and friend Whitley Ward, the girls won their match and were supported by large crowds of students.
On the 16th August, the Greer family took us to the Atlanta Braves v LA dodgers game, where we unfortunately lost in the 7th inning after 3 home runs from Dodgers. This was an amazing experience as not only did we watch the match, but got to experience the American sporting atmosphere, which is actually surprisingly different to a British one. This was also a rather emotional time as the Greer’s were spending their last few moments with their son Aiden before he was leaving for Army basic training.
On our last week we attended most of the raider sessions where we were taught rope bridge and other skills whist building up our cardiovascular endurance, then it came to our final session where we were presented with our raider badges by the man himself, Coach Van Dine. This was very emotional, as we has just spent 5 weeks with these individuals working as a team and becoming apart of their family, and so for the final time we said ‘Family on 3…1…2…3 Family’. Once Mr Pooley returned to GMC with the RMA boys we were invited to Mrs Lee’s house for a leaving BBQ where we all relaxed by the pool and enjoyed our last bit of sunshine before flying back.
Our final formation was emotional to say the least; we shed a lot of tears and said many goodbyes to those we had just formed lifelong friendships with, although we were all very much ready to go home at this point.
I understand that this is a very long report about the exchange but in all honesty this is barely a fraction of the things that we did and only a small insight into the memories we made. I really encourage those who want to go to do so; push yourself out of your comfort zone, go and meet new people. I hope that this gave you a brief overview of what happened, the opportunities we were given and the friends we made. Should you have any questions feel free to ask any of us that went on the trip, ask the Pooleys or read the article on RMA! To finish, here are our further highlights of the trip!
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