Well... I've been putting off this update long enough. Unfortunately for yours truly I was unable to cross the level 2 threshold on the DLPT in Listening, finishing with a 1+. As such, I will not receive a diploma, but rather a certificate of completion. It has been a difficult week. The news came as I was on my way to the east coast for the Thanksgiving holiday. I had intended to celebrate, but that was very hard to do considering I didn't make the cut. Needless to say, I am quite disappointed....read more

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I was planning on starting this entry off by talking about how life is treating me here at the last 100 meters of this marathon of learning Arabic, but in light of what has happened at Ft. Hood this last week I would like to take this opportunity to share my thoughts on its affects as someone who has learned a great deal about Arabs and Muslims over the last year and a half. When I returned from lunch the other day reports of the shootings had just begun to broadcast. We all sat down to start...read more

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My apologies to those who are reading this blog regularly for the scarcity of updates here in the past couple of weeks. As things start to come to a close here, the to-do list starts to grow. Not only am I starting to kick into high gear on the studying, but the I'm also figuring out the pieces of the logistics puzzle for leaving Monterey in December and conducting the move to Jordan at the beginning of next year. This move is a bit more complicated than most others have been because the...read more

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I couldn't be happier to have the end somewhere in sight. Seems like this last 14 months has all been one big blur. I think perhaps the thing I am looking forward to most is getting my personality back. Maybe it has been my own doing but it seems like I've really lost touch with the "old" me during this last year. My overall level of activity has diminished significantly and my normally active self has taken a back seat to the got-things-to-do side of me. Aside from that, I'm also looking...read more

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The beat goes on here in Monterey. I've been sort of quiet lately because frankly there hasn't been much to update you all on. Day to day life rarely changes here, as everyone is stuck in a very regular schedule. I did recently have the opportunity to travel out of town for a few days, which was great because it gave me a change of scenery and a chance to see some very good friends. We are now fully into the third and final semester of training, and I think just about everyone is running out of...read more

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We took the Defense Language Proficiency Test (DLPT) for the first time last week. It was a nervous time, as this is the first real indicator of how we've progressed in the course. Academic grades don't really count for much in the final analysis because they are based on tests that are narrow in scope and you can do well on them if you have excellent short-term memory. The DLPT is tested entirely from authentic recordings and reading passages and is cumulative, therefore you are really getting...read more

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Well sports fans, seems I had a few technical difficulties last night that prevented me from updating my blog. I had everything typed out and when I started adding photos it erased the entire thing. I'll have to get back to it again later in the week but for now I wanted to give everyone a brief update. Had a really excellent weekend, to include a very late night/early morning at my favorite Arabic restaurant in Carmel called "Dametras", as well as an air show on Sunday in Salinas, CA...read more

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This past weekend I had the great fortune of heading to wine country... Napa Valley. Never thought I'd get out there given how much time I've had to bury myself in studying, but Christy finally convinced me to get off my duff and go see something. I'm so glad she did... we had a great time with the neighbors and were able to visit about seven or eight wineries in a single day. I was in the middle of taking antibiotics for bronchitis (fun) so I did the driving. The views were spectacular! Napa...read more

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As part of the FAO training program all officers are required to attend graduate school through the Army's Advanced Civil Schooling (ACS) program. The first step in getting to grad school through ACS is to take the Graduate Record Evaluation. For those who don't know, this is like the SAT, but a bit higher level. I knocked that out this past weekend in San Francisco and was pleased to have done very well in both the analytical and English sections. Better than expected actually. I was actually...read more

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Well, I'm back at it again. Thank God for one-week academic breaks! I really needed it. My mind was worn out and I needed to step away for a while. The trip back to see my family in NC was perfect. I made few plans for the week and took each day as it came. I loved NOT planning and being on a schedule for once. I did take an impromptu trip to the mountains for two days, but other than that... just hung out with the family and some good friends. I even did some liesure reading! Whoa! But... now...read more

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