Hi Laura, and welcome!  You're absolutely in the correct place. While my son left DLI Monterey in December, he had a circuitous journey to get there, and went to his A school, then BUDS, then Monterey, so I can only speak to the Monterey portion. I believe that sailors are allowed certain privileges after a specific time, which can be different for different sailors (someone else correct me if I'm wrong, please!). My son got his car immediately. He also had only 1 roommate. I can see if I could dig up some pictures. Because multiple armed forces are there, he will be lodged with the Navy, although his classes will be language based, and thus can have all branches represented in them. There is minimal PT, or at least inadequate, according to my son, lol.  We also live in northern California so were overjoyed to have our sailor close for the 18 months he was there. It is absolutely beautiful. We were allowed to see him nearly from the beginning, but again, he had already gone through his A school before arriving. There's not a lot of free time, or at least not when my son was there (under Covid lockdown, so all classes were online 6 hours a day, plus then 2 hours of homework).  Once he got in a routine, he was able to come visit us monthly. Good study habits and routine are the most important thing. I can only speak for what my son did, but post-graduation he attended Crypto school in Texas, and is now in MD, although most of his friends went to GA. Hope this helps. It does get easier, so hang in there!