A day in the life...(remembering the first 32 days)

of a alternative service conscript really depends on what kind of field you end up working in.

But everyone of us started our time in the barracks of 成功嶺 (Cheng-gong ling)，located in Taichung, Taiwan. Was it really bootcamp? It's not reminiscent of scenes from "Platoon" that much is for sure. Sure, your personal freedoms are taken away and so is much of your dignity, but in the end, it's not really military boot camp. Because conscripts of the alternative service come in all shapes and sizes, and physical condition (ranging from "normal" to, well...semi-normal?), the extremity and strenuousness of the training is in my opinion...lacking. No guns, no live ammo training, no grenade tossing, if that's what you wanted to know. In that respect, boot camp was, I'm afraid, very, very disappointing.

But there were things I liked about it.
First, a regimented, communal lifestyle has its pluses. Life becomes regulated, and if you follow the regulations and examples, your day floats by pretty easily. There's no time to think (except at night if you can't sleep...rare) about other things except for the tasks at hand (where your place is in line, how to follow orders, how to respond to commands, etc. Once you get the hang of this, you ease up a bit, notice more and more about the things and people around you and you also start to make comparisons about how life was just a few days ago and how it is in "solitary confinement". You know when you will be hungry, tired and mentally exhausted. All very useful things to know if you haven't learned already while you're carrying out your everyday life outside of 成功嶺.

Second, I met people from all walks of life. People you probably wouldn't have met in the first place, say nothing about eating, marching, slacking, sweeping, sleeping near...and being collectively punished, yelled at or praised for some kind of action. Responsibilities aren't evenly distributed, but those with added responsibility and tasks also have breaks and special perks. Being tall for example, meant that you had the (un)lucky honor of being selected as a "section head" 排頭“, I was 七分隊 (Section 7) 排頭 for four weeks, and each week I learned a lot. I learned about my other 15 section mates, which ones were slackers, which ones were hard working, who had a habit of straggling in last on roll calls and who cracked the best jokes. 排頭's were a section's nanny...they made sure everyone in the section was present or accounted for (even during leave), distributed various things (including paper, stools, vitamin C,) and usually first to be critized if a ordered formation pattern ended up all wrong. By the end of the second week, 『報告執行分隊長，第七分對全員到齊，報告完畢』("Sir, section seven all present and accounted for!") was coming out of my mouth like water flowing through jagged rocks in a stream (use your interpretation). Despite my best efforts, I often slipped this phrase, but, my superiors never really gave me too much of a hard time about it---because some other people did a lot worse.

Third, even though we weren't trudging knee-deep in mud or storming imaginary beachheads, a sense of comraderie developed between me and my peers---collective suffering, boredom and misery sometimes yields great friendships...I think that's something this experience can attest to. Whether it was pointless (not so pointless back then) bickering over the fine details of practicing the left hook marching formation for the army song competition; or trying not to snicker while staring at one another during twenty minute standing drills, it didn't matter how old you were, what your social background was or how many degrees you earned...you were just a number among other numbers [I was 12099 as you can see] doing some of the most pointless things ever. You referred to your peers as numbers and probably didn't learn their names at all unless you became friends afterwards. It was the temporary displacement of individual identity, mixed with a collective sense of individuality-lost that created artificial conditions for the burgeoning of genuine friendships. Odd and paradoxical, but true in itself.

...
Next time (but not necessary limited to): "Bridging the gulf of the incomprehensible: from basic training to English specialist in bumble fuck no-where, Taiwan."