Life at the Defense Language Institute

So, Mom has been trying to get me to post about my life here for a while, and since today is a calm day when I don't really have anything to do (except finish homework, but that's for a later story) I figured I could take the time to do so today.

As you all know, I graduated Air Force basic at the end of July. August 1st, I woke up at 2:30 in the morning to out-process and ride a bus to the airport to catch a 7am flight to San Francisco. I traveled with a group of five other linguists, all of them male (as it always seems to happen). I made friends with most of them, when I wasn't passed out from exhaustion, and spent most of the day at the USO there at the airport while we waited for the other groups to arrive. Then we got on another bus and drove for about 3 hours to the base (the Army calls it a post). Then we did some in-processing stuff, and I was in bed asleep by eleven. So a very long day.



For the next couple of days, we did in-processing. I started classes on the 4th, which meant I didn't finish some of the in-pro stuff, but I was glad that I got to start class so early. That meant I didn't have to do details all day because I had nothing else to do. Like most of the rest of the group had to do.

For the first couple of weeks, we were in what is called Initial Transition Program, or ITP. Essentially, we had a curfue on weekdays (10pm) and weekends(midnight), and we were not allowed to wear civilian clothes outside of our dorm room and hall. So, to make up for everything we couldn't do, we had movie nights on fridays and saturdays. I missed the first friday because they forgot to tell me about it, but I went to every single one after that, until I got in the Advanced Transition Program, or ATP. We watched movies like Priest, Sherlock Holmes, I Am Number Four, and some other movies that I wasn't happy about watching. But, once I informed the group politely that if they watched anything unrated or director's cut or rated R for especially bad things, I couldn't watch it with them. I was a little afraid at first that they wouldn't care, and that I would be excluded from the group because of this, but amazingly enough, everyone was more than willing to accomidate me, and several people said they wanted me to be included. It was an awesome feeling to know that I have friends who care.

Here's what a normal day is like for me. And I'm going to be really honest. I have gotten into some pretty bad habits that I'm trying to change this coming week.

4:45am - My alarm goes off. I hit the snooze button a couple of times
5:15am - I finally get up wearily. I quickly change into my uniform and clean up my room as best I can
5:45am - I start working on whatever homework I didn't finish the night before. Usually this includes recording something, so I have to be really quiet, as my roommate is still asleep.
6:30-6:45am - I finish the homework and start studying for the vocab quiz that will be first thing in class
7:15am - I grab my pre-packed backpack and leave for class
7:45am - I turn in my homework to my counselor, who then marks that it's done and doesn't give me any feedback on what I did wrong and what I could improve on
7:55am - class starts, and I start either drowning or feeling good about myself, depending on the day and how I did on the quiz. Class is interspersed with 10 minute breaks every 50 minutes, and we change teachers every hour
10:45am - Lunch break starts. I usually head back to the squadron to eat lunch, but sometimes there is a Korean truck that sits in the parking lot on the way back, and I stop there and get bulgogi. Then I hurry back to the classroom to get some extra studying done, but what usually ends up happening is I chat with my class leader, a staff sergeant in the Air Force who is coming back to get a second foreign language.
12:00pm - Class starts again
3:45pm - Class gets out and I rush furiously back to the dorms to get changed into my PT uniform, then I rush furiously to the Hilltop Track for PT
4:15pm - PT starts, and I'm viciously beat for 45 minutes. My legs always end up killing me by the end because I run incorrectly, and because we run at least 2-3 miles every single day.
5:00pm - To The Colors and Retreat plays, the post flag is lowered, and we are released from PT. Usually. I stumble back to the dorm to shower.
6:00pm - I head to the dining facility to eat dinner (sometimes), occasionally accompanied by a friend or two.
6:30pm - I try to start laundry, but usually can't because someone else has beaten me to the punch. So instead I try to start homework, and I get some done, but I just don't feel up to doing it right then. So I chat with my neighbors, my roommate, I call home, I try writing something, anything to postpone homework.
8:30pm - I finally buckle down and start doing homework.
11:30pm - I give up on finishing homework and waste more time on the internet
1:00am - I crawl into bed, exhausted, leaving some homework and kind of a messy room.
4:54am - I start the whole process over again.

You can see I have some problems with my schedule. But that's about what my life is, aside from days with formations and weekend days.

I'll post more soon.