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 ...

In just about 20 minutes, my students will be filing into a classroom to take the first part of their Defense Language Proficiency Test (DLPT). Today will be a listening form. Tomorrow, they will take another listening form and one Wednesday they will take the reading form. We'll have the results on Thursday. I'm a bit nervous for them. Students test every few weeks as classes near completion, but this is different because these are my students (really Uncle Sam's students, right? But,...

Between my current assignment (TRADOC) and my last assignment (SUSLAK), I've been out of the normal rotation of assignments. Not quite out of the "green" Army, but outside of what is common for the "green" Army. And it shows. Today, I saw a warrant officer in the barbarshop. Or at least I though he was a warrant, but when I saw him sit down, I could clearly see MI branch insignia on his left collar. From across the room, I couldn't tell if his right collar bar had dots or not, so I tho...

In no particular order - Calvin and Hobbes In Cadence Left, Face Marathon Candy Bars Being able to run a five minute mile (also, a six minute mile and a seven minute mile) Living overseas (ten consecutive years living in Hawaii and Korea makes living in the Continental US still seem strange at times) My Ecosystem Details

I went home a bit early on Friday, so I missed the email that warned me that there might be a funeral on Tuesday. It wouldn't have mattered if I had gotten the email, there was no information other than there might be a funeral on Tuesday. When I got in on Monday morning, the NCOIC didn't have any more information but told me he'd get it and contact me later. Around 1000 he emailed me the information and instructions to contact the funeral home and confirm everything. He also told me that...

Have you ever noticed that the people who usually say, "I call 'em like I see 'em" to defend their opinions/comments (very often rude or trolly opinions/comments) often need glasses? My Ecosystem Details

When we started this rotation, one of the three SSG's volunteered to do all the two-man details if the other two of us were willing to handle all the full honors details. We accepted and it worked well for a bit, but last week, the overall NCOIC assigned me to a two-man detail when he saw we had two on back to back days. Since I did three full honors funerals over the previous two Saturdays, he gave me the detail on Friday and gave the Saturday detail to the SSG that has been working the tw...