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!
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!
Hey Jason, Nice to hear that things are going well/interestingly for you! Afghanistan should be more of that, I suppose. Why so much pre-deployment training for this one, as opposed to for Iraq I wonder?
ReplyDeleteI don't know if my name will come up with this comment, so if not, it's me, Rachel, from Iraq.
Good thing you told me who it was or I never would have known! Had I been a DLI employee in Iraq, I would have had the same amount of training. At least this time I will know what I am doing when I get there! :) I hope all is going well with you. We need to get together for lunch for sometime...whenever that becomes possible.
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