Alamo and lessons...Good or bad?

Today after work I took my first trip to downtown San Antonio. I visited the river walk and took a boat ride/tour on the river. It was interesting to hear about the building of the riverwalk, the history behind some of the buildings in the area, and to see the Christmas lights that decorate most of the trees in the area. There were an overabundance of people, though, and this was a bit uncomfortable for me.

Before going on the boat we ate at Dicks. The waitress was extremely rude and sarcastic; in other words perfect for her position. The food was not too bad. I had alligator nuggets for an appetizer. I had the chicken fried chicken for the main meal. It wasn't too bad, but I didn't like the sauce.

Before all of this, I went to the Alamo. It was an interesting historical place with lessons hidden in the stories told. Who would have thought that history would support the fears that some people have about large amounts of immigration from Mexico. The Mexicans invited European/American settlers in to have a buffer zone between them and the Comanche, but soon there were so many of them that Mexico was afraid that they would try to separate. Today there are those who think that this is what will happen within the US. Most don't site this little piece of history, but it shows that while many may be paranoid, there may be some history to back them up. Perhaps we really need to listen to people and see why they think what they do, and see if there is more to it than we would like to believe. There is way too much dismissal of others on both sides. :(

And now I must start to decide where I need to turn to next in order to offend people!

DLI has begun!

I left the conference in California (www.cbiworld.org) on Sunday before it was over, and as a result missed one of the sessions I really wanted to attend :(  I arrived in San Antonio around midnight. I was grateful to have my friend and her son meet me at the airport to take me to her house where I am renting a room for my time here.

Working at DLI seems to be an interesting assignment. I am scheduled to be deployed to Afghanistan hopefully in May if my security clearance goes through. As I haven't even been able to start the process yet, I am uncertain how long this is going to actually take. I just found out that my training is going to be quite extensive. I have 3 weeks of preservice training followed by 4 weeks of Afghan specific training. This is supposed to include language training as well. Then I will have to do an Air Advisory Course for an unknown amount time. In addition to this I will have to do Combat Readiness Training at Fort Dix in New Jersey which will last another month! With all this training, I wonder how long I will actually have left on my contract when I finally get to teaching!

I have been suffering from information overload, though I am grateful for it. I have also been introduced to many different people who have all been very kind and helpful. I was taken out to lunch by two separate people, invited to dinner at another person's house, and have been accepted by just about everyone. As political as everyone says this place is, I have managed to ignore it thus far. I just hope it stays that way for me.

San Antonio is not a place I would choose to live if it weren't for the job here. There isn't a lot in the way of restaurants (lots of Mexican places, a few others but nothing too great according to those who live here). It has been a little colder here than usual, so that has resulted in some interesting talks.

I am much more interested in the Defense Language Institute and the students that actually represent over 120 countries! I learn so much from them, and it is interesting to hear them speak with each other outside of class. Yesterday during an observation I say next to an Iraqi Lt. Col. He was very nice and wanted to talk with me about my time in Iraq. It was interesting to be able to talk with someone who knew where I was talking about!