Last night I took the final exam for my non-resident professional military education (PME) seminar course. That was the last piece of the first year (basically the first "half") or phase of the program. Interestingly, I also was able to score the Mandarin Chinese Rosetta Stone set of materials from my local library on the same day. So I finished my PME requirements, and now am able to start right in on learning Chinese!
I *should* be able to complete the second year of the PME program at Monterey or wherever we end up going for language training. It is in my best interest to finish it prior to entering the Olmsted program because, well, it's a required course for captains (someday soon I will be one), and in order to be promoted beyond the rank of captain, you must have completed it. With no inkling of where my follow-on assignment after Taiwan will be and whether or not they will offer the Expeditionary Warfare School non-resident seminar, plus not knowing what types of commitments away from home (i.e. deployments) will come with that posting, it is just best to knock it out in as short order as possible. Sure, adding that to learning Mandarin full-time will not make either one easier, but in my mind (not having begun learning Mandarin yet), both things involve being a student and learning, so to me they seem to be somewhat complimentary activities, not mutually exclusive ones.
Off to run - first run since last weekend's triathlon. Been trying to rest up and recover from the race (plus I was devoting all my spare time to preparing for last night's EWS exam). Now that those things have been accomplished, it's time to run again!
GJS
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