Convert to islam, repent later

I was going to title this post "Too boring to blog" But then I stumbled upon this movie quote and like it better.

It's been a year since I joined the Navy, and it's amazing how much and how little has happened since then. All in all it's been an adventure, but my day-to-day life is pretty routine and boring.

The hardest thing has been learning Arabic. I've always considered myself a linguist; interested in language for the sake of language. But boy am I in love with Japanese. Even while I'm sitting in class taking notes in arabic, I'm still daydreaming in Japanese two years after graduating college and saying good-bye to that language. Sigh.

It's not the I hate arabic. I'm just not in love with it. But I'm trying really really hard.

I've even started to read a few english-language blogs about living in various middle eastern countries, and I've dipped into reading non-fiction books about Iraq. (It's hard to get into though, since they are all political/ War related. )

I've ordered a few arabic-related books from amazon too, not wanting to rely totally on the base library, so maybe I'll post about those when they come in the mail ^^;;

Anyway, just wanted to poke the blog and commemorate/commiserate a little.

اشوفك بعدين

A day in the life

The other day was pretty crazy, so crazy that I think I will share it with you. No, not everyday is this crazy, but yes, DLI is hardcore.

0500 : wake up, roll over and try to go back to sleep

0515 : realize that room-mate is already in shower. Jump out of bed and dress hurriedly.

0600 : clean room, check over HW one last time to make sure everything is filled in.

0630 : Muster on the grinder. Endure uniform inspection and try to memorize the passdown. Today is the command run, muster for the run is at 1600. People with 7th hour should bring their PT gear to class and change there. Curses. I have 7th hour.

0700 : go back to room, shove PT gear and shoes into back pack.

0715 : grab an undersized bacon biscuit from the kiosk. Snag an apple pastry and some milk to put in the coffee.

0745 : After making coffee, eating breakfast at the desk in the class room, and taking attendance, turn in everyones homework.

0755-1545 : Class. Ten minute breaks at the end of every hour plus a 1 hour lunch break from 12-1300. Eat lunch in classroom in order to read kindle during break.

1545 : pack up and change into PT gear in the head. Muster on grinder.

1620 : Forward march! the 2 mile 'ish' run goes up the hill, around the hill, past the PFC, past 833, back down the hill and ends up where we started. We take up a whole lane, and it's amusing to jog past all the cars that have been stopped so that we can all pass. We are one huge mass of mustard yellow and navy blue, singing chants that we know only half the words to at the top of our lungs and keeping - for the most part - in step.

At this point I lose track of time. All I know is pain and exhaustion. Left over sub is in my fridge. Eat. Read. Rest.

1730 : Deck clean up.

Then it's homework, more reading, and bed. Room-mate goes to bed at 2100 and I follow an hour later.

IAFTSGH Part 2

Today I went to Captain's Mast. Actually, I should clarify; Today I had the opportunity to observe Captain's Mast. Rest assured, I didn't actually get into any trouble myself!

There were 5 people masted, and each one was seen separately. They were all tried under the same article of the UCMJ: Article 92, failure to follow a lawful order. They all broke the same rule too, they all were caught with alcohol in their rooms. That is sooooo against the rules it's not even funny. Now, I have to say that while witnessing Captains Mast did reinforce my desire to follow all rules to the letter exactly, it did also allow me to feel a little more relaxed about my chances of being masted.

I'm always slightly nervous that I might get masted under article 92 for something dumb -like forgetting that I have watch, or putting my name tag on the wrong way. But keeping alcohol in your room? Is it even possible to do that on accident or to 'not know' it was wrong? Especially if you've been here for a whole year already...

Anyway. It was a good experience, but also a pretty scary once. Obviously everyone takes it very seriously, and there are all these officers in the room passing down judgement - and there's always the threat of the worst punishment ever; separation from the navy, or WORSE, loss of the right to study at DLI. If they were to kick me out of DLI and send me to some other job on the fleet, that would be like a fate worse than death practically. I love it here, I've dreamed about studying here for years, and I'm totally dedicated to this job. The idea that it could all be taken away because of one simple mistake or lapse of judgement is a frightening one.

It's all fun till someone gets hurt

Hello,

Today had a perfect ending that more or less nullified all of the bad stuff that happened; First, we had PT, and for PT we played football. I've never played foot ball, and I think the last time I watched it on TV I was like, nine. But it was FUN, and I caught the ball almost every time it was thrown at me ^^:; At one point I was trying to defend our goal (?) and attempting to catch and 'tackle' (two hand touch) the person with the football - And I totally missed him and dove straight into the ground. I thought I'd have bruises, but all the lovely marks I got seem to have faded already. All in all, So much more enjoyable than running laps!

Everytime someone missed a catch, the two people involved in the pass (?) had to do ten pushups. Whenever a team scored a touch down, the entire opposing team had to do twenty pushups. Like I said, it was fun.

After that I had evening colors. I dread evening colors because I'm short, and the shortest person has to 'call'. ( Attention, parade rest, hand salute, all at the appropriate times in the correct order. ) I'm not stupid, but I do have my week areas, and anything involving directionality or sequence is not my strong point. I'm always doing things out of order or saying left when I mean right. However, comma, today I did colors and called it almost perfectly. I think the days of me dreading colors are numbered, possibly even over. Yata!

This all means that the ickiness of the rest of the day has been nicely balanced. There were a lot of angry words, uniform inspections, dental appointments, and Captains' Mast. I'm gonnna write about Captain's Mast in a separate blog post though ^-^

Going Forward Now

Hello friends.

Wednesday 5th is exactly 1 week away from my official departure from home, to boot camp.
I decided to join the Navy Sometime in August, after a lot of thought and some rather discouraging job searches. I was looking for a job that would be both challenging and fulfilling; something that would be satisfying intellectually and financially, something preferably related to my own interest in linguistics that would allow me to further study linguistics and to continue to learn to speak other foreign languages.

For various reasons, none of which I really understand anymore, I didn't contact a Navy recruiter or actually do anything to join the Navy until much later.

However, Once I actually began talking to a local Navy recruiter, enlistment into the Navy was a rapid and painless procedure. I took booth the ASVAB and the DLAB, and successfully got a job as a CTI. This is the Navy Linguist position. I signed my contract early in October.

A new adventure in my life is about to begin and it goes without saying that I'm excited and nervous. The closer I come to my ship-date, the more excited I become. In some ways, I really can't wait. I feel that regardless of the challenges and demands of this new path, that it's the right one to take. I'm sure I will be, in general, happy and successful.

Of course, I do worry. But it's only the vague sort of concern that comes with facing up to the unknown. Everything that I know about my immediate future; Boot camp, the DLI, traveling by plane etc, those are things that I'm confident that I can deal with. It's the things that I don't know about that worry me. What if some unknown factor pops up and takes me completely by surprise?

I've read a lot about the Defense Language Institute and have dreamed about studying there for years, so I feel that all of these fears are totally worth it. After all of the grief, self-doubt, and sleepless nights of college, I have done what few people manage to do; I'm getting to live out one of my fondest dreams.

I'll miss my friends and family. Knowing that I'll be able to keep fairly easy contact with everyone I care about via the internet is a great comfort to me. So it's not a surprise that my last few days before leaving have been all about insuring that end.

I'm re-starting this blog so that I can communicate updates about my new life to everyone at once. I also plan on setting up a new e-mail account, since my goldensquare one will be a bit of a hassle to manage. Those who know the full story behind GOMN might understand a bit how happy this makes me. I haven't picked a name for this new address yet. I'm savoring the potential.

Anyway, since it looks like I've started to ramble a bit, I guess I'll finish up for now.

To summarize; in a little over a week my entire life is going to change. The way I feel now is exactly the way I felt in 2007, when I was preparing to move out of my parents house and start studying at college. All of my personal belongings are being put into storage, and there is really know reasonable way for me to predict who I'll be or what I'll be thinking this time next year. In my head, I've already started to think of 2011 as "The year of Transition." I'm on my way to something different, but I wont know what it is until I get there.