So, a while back I posted about online reunion/alumni services. You can read it here - Online Friend and Alumni Finder Services . One of the things I wrote about was an impending 20 year reunion with the friends I'd attended grade school with. We all went to a Catholic school and had been together from 1st through 8th grades. There was interest in getting together, so some of my old friends went to the trouble to set this up. They contacted a bunch of people, sent out invites, and ...

We'll be getting our new input of students tomorrow. I'm really looking forward to it. We're conducting an experiment here at DLI and I'm going to be one of the MLIs that gets to participate. Some of the other schools have already started this program, but this will be the first time we try it out in the Korean school. Instead of our normal input of 30 students per class on day one, we're going to start with only 12 (maybe less). Also, instead of breaking them up into three sections of...

Just got my hands on the memory card for the camera and looked over the pictures from the Army Ball. There were some really nice ones of my wife but most of the ones of the two of us together didn't turn out so well (insert joke about me here). Either the camera was moving or the lighting was bad! Oh, well, we did get a photo package done, so hopefully those will turn out nice. Also, hopefully I'll get some pics via email from some of the others at our table. I'll post more if I get dece...

Stopped at the new Chili's in Seaside on the way home from work today for some take out. My wife wanted the Triple Play Combo and I got the Monterey Chicken (thought about calling it the Seaside Chicken since the Chili's is in Seaside, not Monterey) for myself. When they gave me the total, I had to ask if they had it right. Turns out, Chili's gives a 50% discount to military members in uniform! 50%! That's right, I said 50%! How cool is that? I'll tell you how cool it is. It's super...

As I posted last week, I attended the Army Birthday Ball on Friday. It was a few days early, but also as I stated before, the Army is old and doesn't like to party on a weekday, just like me. Well, not just like me, the Army is 230 years old, I'm only 34. But still, we both prefer to celebrate on a weekend rather than a work night. I was surprised by the number of people there. There were over 50 tables, each with 10 people seated. I was also very surprised by the number of junior enl...

My wife and I are going to the Army Birthday Ball tonight. It's a little early, but the Army is is old and just like a person, it doesn't really want to celebrate on a weekday. It'd rather do it's partying on the weekend! This will be my first ball after nearly 13 years of service. Never had the desire to go before, really. In fact, I'm only going out of some minimal peer pressure. HAHA! But I am a lifer, so I guess I should start doing this sort of thing more often. I am looking ...

Spending a few days in a team building workshop with the teachers I'll be working with when we get our new students in a few weeks. We recently rearranged the entire department in preparation for the new class. The new class is going to have to meet much higher standards at the end of the course, but we are also making changes to set ourselves up for success. The new standards are going to include covering all of our course materials in 2/3 the time. We'll spend the entire third semeste...

Been a while since I had staff duty. I can tell you that I have not missed it. I'm dead tired and still have a little over four hours to go. On Tuesday I was asked to support the other Korean school for their Joint Language Training Exercise on Wednesday. I answered that it would be no problem without even thinking about it. I wish I had remembered staff duty. There were other MLIs available to help out, but I never thought to ask them. It wasn't until later in the day that I'd rea...

Don't know why, but CRS (Can't Remember Shit) Syndrome has been really kicking my ass lately. Three times in the last week I've forgotten to grab my cell phone on my way out the door. I know, some of you may think that's freedom, but I like to have it with me. I've gotten away from wearing a watch all the time, so I rely on it for the time more than almost anything else, really. Not only did I forget my phone this morning, but I also forgot my ID. So, when I got to the base, I had to pul...

Language Day 2005 is over now. It was a long day for me. My day started at 0430. I got up and drove to San Francisco. My wife took a week long vacation to visit some friends in Hawaii and she was flying back in. Traffic wasn't too bad getting up there. I got to the baggage claim area about five minutes before my wife came out of the security area - perfect timing! Traffic getting back to Monterey was pretty good, too. I was able to get to work about 20 minutes before the high sc...

Tomorrow is Language Day. It is an annual event here at DLI. Thousands of high school students and teachers, mostly from California, but some from across the nation, come to our post and get to see what life is like here. We put on teaching demonstrations that the students can sit through. We have cultural entertainment lined up on the main stage for the entire day. We also have cultural displays in various schools where the students can learn a little about the art, culture, and histor...

As I stated in another post, the past couple of weeks have been extremely busy. My class recently took their final tests, the Defense Language Proficiency Test (DLPT) and the Oral Proficiency Interview (OPI). I also posted recently about how nervous and excited I was for them and their results. The class did very well. Of the 21 students in my class, only two did not make the 2/2 standard on the DLPT and two others did not meet the 1+ standard for the OPI. The two that didn't get the...

I had my last funeral of this rotation on Saturday. It was another two man detail and was for a Coast Guard veteran. On Friday I called the local Coast Guard unit and got in touch with the Petty Officer that would present the flag. He told me that he had been a member of the national honor guard in Washington D.C. and had done a number of funerals before. I told him I'd be at the chapel at 1330 on Saturday and I'd have the bugle and white gloves. On Saturday, I got to the chapel on tim...

I've been very busy the past two weeks. I was actually up in the rotation to do a funeral the week prior, but had a number of things that took me out of the loop. So, I had a couple weeks without any funerals. I finished our last week on funeral detail by doing the last two. One on Friday and another on Saturday. I got the word on Wednesday that I'd have a funeral on Friday. It was just a two man detail in Monterey. On Thursday I went to practice and got the rest of the details. It ...

Someone recently posted a link to an English quiz. I can't even remember who it was now. I took the quiz and because of a computer hiccup, I lost my cut and paste job of my results and the window closed. Didn't feel like taking a 40 question quiz again (yeah, I'm that lazy) so, I never replied there... Sorry to the OP of that thread. But here's a link to a new quiz that tells you "What kind of American English do you speak?" Your Linguistic Profile: 80% General American ...