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 forward to all the challenges and excitement of the year ahead. Whatever the future holds, it is going to feel good to have DLI behind me. I've learned some valuable things this last year... but I'll save the victory speech for later. I still have to get through 8 more weeks of school and it's crunch time, as they say. I've committed to expending every bit of energy I have left from now until the end.

That commitment didn't come without motivation. We recently took the 301 exam (first mid-term, third semester) and lets just say the results were not that good. Half the class failed at least one of the Reading and Listening exams, and the rest barely passed. I really think the school needs to re-look the format of these tests, and we've all stated as much. But, as with most big institutions, someone somewhere put a lot of work into making things as they are and they aren't in the mood generally to make changes, especially when the recommendations are coming from students with bad grades. My gripe isn't so much about the authentic materials being sampled during the test, its the fact that the questions are worded so strongly and the answers (multiple choice) are so close in meaning that even a native speaker would have difficulty getting them all correct. Additionally, you aren't permitted to take notes on any of the listening passages, which makes keeping track of two-minute long news clips challenging to begin with. Basically, you have to be near-native in your abilities to have even a chance at an A. But, enough griping. Don't want to make this place seem ridiculous, I just think it could be a little more reasonable when it comes to testing format.

On a lighter side of things, we had a great immersion program this past week. 3 days of nothing but Arabic seemed a lot smoother than the previous two immersion sessions. All of us were more confident and I have to say it was really fun this time. Also, Tom and I are joining another buddy to get our scuba certifications this coming weekend. I'm really looking forward to FINALLY getting in the water after being here for so long without even putting my feet in it.

This is what the inside of our classrooms look like.

Here's a shot of our Military Training Day, held this weekend. We have to maintain our skills as best we can while we are in school. In this case we are using a firing range simulator to "qualify" on the M9 pistol.