Mood:
happyWow, the end of a busy week! -Or the beginning of another one. Either way. Both Jacoby and I finished our Fall Break, so it was back to school with both of us.
School for me has gotten to be much better, now that we are out of the Strategic Studies module. Strat Studies was a university module, taught by UNSW (University of New South Wales), and it was bad. Really bad. But now we have started our electives and I have completed week one of Counterinsurgency (COIN).
COIN is taught by a man named Dr Michael Evans. The guy is brilliant. In fact, after I heard him give a guest lecture on one of the few good days in Strat Studies, I knew that Dr Evans had stuff to teach and I wanted to hear what he has to say. Thank goodness I got into this course. It's been fantatic!
We spent last week talking about the history of Insurgency and the many books and practitioners of Insurgency and Guerrilla Warefare. We went from Mao Tze Tong (China), to Michael Collins (Ireland), to Che Guevara (Cuba, South America), to Gen Giap (Viet Nam).
This week we are studying the origins and early thinkers of Counterinsurgency. From there, we will go on to more advanced COIN studies, to include actually writing the Australian Military Doctrine on the topic, as currently they have none.
Before all of that, though, I will leave for Vietnam on Friday, as part of the Overseas Study Tour. It should be a good trip. We've had a few briefings on it thus far, and even spent Friday afternoon walking through the Australian War Memorial's Vietnam section, getting refreshed on Australia's involvement there. It'll be a ten-day trip, all in all.
As for Jacoby, he's had a busy weekend! On Saturday, he played his first Hockey game in Australia. The Canberra Phoenix (Jacoby's team) played, well, someone else, and won! Jacoby had a few minutes of ice time and came off the ice feeling good about having played. By the time he got out of the dressing rooms, he was already late for his Soccer game.
Yes, soccer. Jacoby joined the Canberra Grammar School's 2nd team (think Junior Varsity at the 8th Grade level, and you're there). Jacoby played defence, but I don't know anything about soccer, so I can't be more specific than that. He's not the goalie. He had a good amount of field time, and appeared to have fun. They lost the game, but they played pretty well (I'm guessing).
We saw two movies this weekend. Iron Man is here, and we really enjoyed it. We caught that one Friday night after our Japanese dinner (more on that later). Last night we saw Darleejing Limited (or something close) and it was terrible. It had a few funny seconds in it, but all in all, not good. We saw that at the ANU movie club, so it didn't cost anything. Seriously, though, go see Iron Man.
On Friday, we went over to Toshi's house to eat. He is another International student in the course with me. He invited Kimberly, Jacoby and I over to his house for a Japanese dinner. It was fantastic! His wife made all manner of Japanese foods for us to try. We ended up staying for a couple hours talking about Japanese culture and learning about his family, and such. They are coming over here for Tex-Mex before the end of the month. He gave me Wasabi...I'm giving him jalapenos!
Today we went to the annual Pumpkin Festival heald in a small town (population 150, no joke) called Collector. It was a nice festival for a town this small, and we were fairly impressed by it. Now, it was small, to be sure, but it was much better done than say, the Queanbeyen Multicultural Festival, if you remember that. After spending about an hour out there, we headed back to the Hall Markets for another walk around. We bought a few odds and ends, and then headed to the Tradies Club for their meat raffle.
We won another tray of meat, like last week (if I mentioned it, I don't remember). Some people come out of this thing having won several trays. I'm talking meat for a month, here. We won a tray, which is enough for four nights of dinner, and I'm feeling pretty good about that! We aren't "killin'" at these raffles, but we aren't walking away empty handed, either. I guess we are doing pretty well, percentage wise.
We went back to the Tradies for dinner, although the plan was to listen to live music at the Irish Club. We went there first and didn't care much for the band that was playing...
And that brings me to right now! The big events coming up are two fold. First, of course, is Vietnam on Friday, but even bigger than that is Sabrina's visit. She should get here while I'm gone. It's a long flight, but she'll be fine and I'll see her as soon as I get home.
Anyway, all is well, and we are looking forward to another busy week! -And in case she's reading this (I doubt it, but maybe), Happy Birthday one more time to Mimi (my Grandmother). She's a fantastic lady and I sincerely hope she had a wonderful day! Jamey (sister) is next, with a birthday this Thursday. Happy Birthday to you, too.
Take care!
- Ryan
