First Simulator

I can now say that I finally feel like I am actually in flight school. My first flight in the T-34C is still around 2 weeks away but I think I can actually see it coming up on the horizon.
Everything I learn now is geared towards flying the T-34C and tonight I had my first test of that knowledge in the Cockpit Procedure Trainer or Simulator. From the outside, the simulator room looks like it is full of little white escape pods from some futuristic science-fiction action movie. The actual simulators... the little white pods, are what would result from someone taking a chainsaw to a T-34, cutting out the front cockpit and replacing the canopy with white plastic. They're very realistic; all the gauges and controls work even though there is no projection or view of the outside world. Each one of the 6 or so simulators in the room is controlled by its very own and very big 1980s style computer (I think they were called "mainframes"?).
It is made more real by the fact that we are tested inside the simulator while wearing not only our flight suit (which we wear all day everyday anyways) but also our nomex gloves and crash helmets. I actually just received my helmet back from the Parachute Loft today. They covered it in the characteristic white reflective tape, attached the boom microphone and other accoutrement's to make it finally look like a real pilot's helmet. I'm pretty excited about it.
My instructor (another civilian contractor, this one a Vietnam USAF vet and former Swiss Air pilot) was really great. He walked me through everything and was pretty nice about showing me the ropes as it was my first time.
In our student slang vocabulary, we've identified 4 simulator instructors who none of us want to have, they're rumored to be both screamers and harsh graders and we've labelled them "the four horsemen." My guy definitely was not one of those, he was, as I've heard them called, a "santa claus."
So I strap into the cockpit of simulator #15 and go through all my normal procedures memorized and with the help of a checklist card including: prestart, engine start, pre-taxi, taxi, ground run-up, takeoff, landing and engine shutdown. I missed two small items out of the whole thing and ended up with both a good score and a good write-up. Again, these grades don't count towards selection but I think it's good to be doing well from the start, at worst I'll have a good reputation.
The whole process took from about 4pm to 6:45. I was home by 7, had dinner made by my roommate and then one of our friends showed up and I got back into my flightsuit and we went back to the base. We studied for an hour to practice for tomorrow's Sim. This one will be a repeat of today's but with the addition of 5 or so Emergency Procedures... for which there is no checklist card, they have to be memorized.
I know them all and I'm not worried, which is why I've had the time to write this.