the "calm" before the storm

  As I've mentioned before, a few weeks ago the Ensigns and I began planning the orientation for the international students which will begin on Monday and last nearly 12 days until the following Thursday which is Induction Day to Plebe Summer.  We found out today that the Peruvians did not complete all their paperwork so they will not arrive until sometime next week.  The first midshipman arrives from Bangladesh around dinner time Sunday and the next from the Republic of Korea at 12:30AM.  The rest all arrive between Dulles and BWI throughout the day Monday.  My role will be to (wo)man the fort back at the IPO office when the Ensigns drop them off in groups.  I'll assist them in calling/emailing/skyping home to let their families know they've arrived safely, and get them checked into Bancroft Hall.
  Concurrently with this huge event, I am also helping my mentor with SF182's.  These are the financial forms for the (American) midshipmen from the academy we have studying abroad this fall.  These forms are super important as it is ultimately how they will receive their pay while abroad, and especially their advance before they leave.
   And on top of it all- my director asked if I could "help out" with a project on Tuesday.  This project is the complete and total development of the orientation for the semester exchange midshipmen.  Interestingly, the USNA grants 4-year degrees to students from countries where we are attempting to foster better relations, but only allows students from nations where we have excellent relations come for a semester (each year Russia goes back and forth between this category.  They were scheduled to send 2 mids for a semester exchange but then canceled at the last minute after long conversations with my director).  This orientation is a mess.  I've mentioned before that my director is not well liked, and is a micromanager.  In a nutshell, he took this responsibility from one of my co-workers, made it more chaotic by involving a 3rd party (i.e. me) and then tossed it at me to sort out.  Thankfully my mentor and the person originally supposed to plan it have been my saviors.  It has been a great experience building this from the ground up- but with 2 huge responsibilities already going on, it has been more than stressful.
   Of course in the midst of everything, Derek & I had to venture BACK to D.C. to fetch the holy Chinese visa for my boss.  After sitting in rush hour traffic my mentor called and asked if I could hold the passport for the weekend and bring it Monday because she was locking up.  HOLD MY DIRECTOR'S PASSPORT ALL WEEKEND???  Thankfully, a few minutes later the Colonel called on his way home and stated, "Meet me at Gordon Biersch, I need an alcoholic beverage," and we were able to pass the passport off to him.
   My days are getting more insane, and the nonexistent pay makes me think I am crazy.  But I should say- even when I am up to my eyeballs in Naval lingo, foreign bullshit, fine details, and pink post-its on every surface of my desk, I love every second of working in an international programs office.

"Want to learn the visa walk-through process?"

    A few weeks ago when the Ensigns began working full time with me, the 3 of us were assigned to a tiny little office next to my mentor's.  It's quaint, and we've attempted to decorate it. Most of it however remains tan, and the Ensigns tan uniforms do nothing to help this.  As I walked in Monday morning (having been off Friday), I was pleasantly surprised to see several more odds and ends scattered around in an attempt to decorate.  It makes me laugh to think about all this "stuff" that the office has received from foreign nations that's been shoved in the back of a closet for years- and now we're decorating with it.  My favorite is a bronze plate from Cambodia that says "International Cambodian Naval Commetee" (yes, spelled wrong).

  After examining the decorations, my mentor walked in with a thick packet and said "Want to learn how to do a visa walk through?"  Of course.  I want to learn everything.  Of particular interest to me is immigration/passports/visa requirements, so I thought this sounded fascinating.  At this moment, Derek walked in, informing us Pete had a nasty bout of food poisoning from a questionable omelet over the weekend.  "You'll have to go with Patricia then, no sense in you staying here alone."  Go?  Go where? I thought.

   Fast forward 15 minutes- we are in route to Crystal City, Virginia,  with coffee in hand, and a playlist of French music on the speakers of my corolla (Derek studied in France) with specific directions to get our office's director his Chinese visa before he leaves in 11 days.  Obviously, for a normal trip (like when I traveled to Spain for example), you can either visit the country's embassy or go online, fill out the visa application and within a short amount of time you'll receive it.  In this case, since he waited until the last minute we had to travel to Crystal City, VA to receive a department of defense diplomatic note requesting special permission for his Chinese visa to be expedited.

   Crystal City was full of tall buildings and inside was full of people in uniform.  As we approached the front desk and they asked what type of ID we had, Derek said something all official, and I simply said "A driver's license." Apparently this was the wrong answer. I had to have an escort up to the travel services division on the 10th floor.  Talk about feeling incompetent as Derek walked off through the elevators and left me in the lobby.  

   One hour later- dip note in hand, and thankfully no parking ticket, we began the search for the Chinese Consulate.  Between my iPhone, Garmin and our common sense we were unable to locate it before it closed for lunch hour.  We did however locate the official embassy where I am assuming the ambassadors, attaches, and other super important people work- but this is not where the visas were issued from.  It was here that I was talking very obnoxiously about hopping the fence and voicing my frustration about my arm pit sweat that Derek suddenly turned around and told me to shut-up!  There were 2 gorgeous Chinese women meditating and praying under traditional umbrellas next to the embassy out of protest for a religious group that is apparently being persecuted in China.  If I spoke Chinese I would have apologized for ruining their peace (and asked where I could get an umbrella like that for my mom, who loves Asian culture).

    After a Chipotle break, a short recess to check the French-English soccer match, and some more frolicking around the local D.C. area we placed a phone call to my mentor who gave me more specific instructions of how to locate the consulate.  The consulate was not in fact a building on its own with a large chinese flag waving outside like we were looking for, but inside a tall office building we had driven and walked by several times that morning.  We finally got there, waited in an oven of a hallway, and then went in. Our saving grace was being recognized in having an official passport (different from a tourist passport) since Derek was in uniform.  We were able to bypass the tourist line and walk right up to a window.  

   The awful part?  We have to go back Friday to pick it up.  It wasn't all bad.  We got out of the office, saw nearly every road in D.C. (I discovered through his navigational skills why Derek choses to bike and not drive most places), bonded over our love of Europe, and learned even more about Dept of Defense travel.  Hopefully Friday though, knowing where we are going I will not accidently interrupt any peaceful prayers. 

The Circle of Trust

  When I arrived at the USNA almost 5 weeks ago, I knew how to walk from the parking lot across from Alumni Hall to my building.  And for the first 2 weeks I walked to the opposite side of my building because I didn't know there was a simpler way to go.  But now, after having gotten lost more times than I can count (and wandering off sometimes too), asking more questions than I ever have in my life (thank God my office has enough people to spread these out on), and just simply listening at all times- I can give a pretty decent tour of the Academy, which I have done for a group of Peruvian cadets (who specifically called ahead and asked for females... bizarre?!).  Refer to a previous post for why I did not give tours to the Saudi Arabian cadets.

  A lot of my recent "insider" information has come from the 2 Ensigns I'm working on international orientation with.  In working with student affairs, I never want to feel like I'm stuck in an office away from students.  I feel like the change working with the Ensigns now is allowing me to understand more of what it's like to be a midshipmen at the academy.  I enjoy hearing their stories, especially because they are so unique from what a traditional college student experiences. And I feel like a proud older sister as they're about to go off and train in the Navy.

   The 3 of us have developed a great working relationship.  It has been comically deemed the "circle of trust," since we have all accidently sent emails from each other's accounts, having to share just one laptop.  One is from Alaska and one is from Texas (the same small town as my sister matter-of-factly, and he was fascinated to learn that the Chrissy he'd been listening to on the radio was her!).  It's a breath of fresh air to have young (sane) people in the office.  Since we are so ahead of the tasks assigned to us for international orientation, we spend a lot of time making fun of each other, parking illegally around the yard, decorating our tiny office with post-it notes, arguing over which of the 3 of us should be the employee of the month, and quizzing me on my Naval Knowledge (you would not believe the amount of acronyms that are used).  We have another Ensign joining us in a week (he's off getting married right now, yikes!) and I hope he is able to fit in well.

    It's hard to describe the dynamic of our whole office and the leadership style of my director.  Let me just say- my director is not well liked and I think he sleeps better at night only when he's thrown people publicly under the bus, or insulted them. In an incident that was of no fault of my own, the Ensigns quickly came to my defense.  They also were very disappointed in my daily Pop-tart lunches and have insisted on bringing me some of their creations for lunch each day, for example home made salsa, nut clusters, and sandwiches with potato chips smashed on them (Mom, I know you will be glad to hear that people are making sure I eat, haha).  They are quite the chefs.  They spend quite a bit of time asking me about my experience at a "real" college, which I think is adorable and strange all at the same time.  They just don't understand what I did with all my free time between classes, and sadly I don't have a productive answer for them.

    Today after being mocked repetitively for my headband matching my shoes, I received the comment, "You're the woman, I don't know why you haven't baked for us or something yet." I suppose I need to run to the store and purchase something that appears to be homemade.

May activities

  My duties in the IPO have drastically changed with the incoming month of June.  However in May, aside from sneaking out to see the commissioning week excitement around the yard, I actually accomplished more in my first 4 weeks than I anticipated to all summer.  Most of it was helping my mentor catch up on things that the office desperately needed done, but didn't have the time or man power to do.

  The first task I started with were fact sheets for all the countries we send midshipmen to.  These included basic things like capital, population, ethnicities, religions, etc (which hopefully the mids already know).  But the exciting part was putting together a cultural section.  This is where having studied abroad and traveled a lot came in handy.  For example, I spent nearly the first 2 months in Spain answering the phone "Hola?" the equivalent to Americans' "Hello?"  When in fact, Spaniards say "Díme," which literally means "tell me" as soon as they pick up the phone.  Finding little nuances like this proved difficult yet fascinating, especially for the countries I essentially knew nothing about like Qatar, Oman, Jordan, Morocco.  I have become much more cultured and inspired to stay current in world news.  In fact, just the other day there was a devastating fire near the school where we will be sending 2 mids this fall in Qatar, which I read about in the news.

   Another task I was especially proud of was compiling a list of transfer credits.  I made a multi-tabbed spread sheet (I've very quickly taught myself excel) with each major and the courses that will transfer from each foreign institution, organized by language.  It was incredibly tedious, time-consuming, and required a lot of translating.  However, this will be, and already has been useful for mids interested in certain programs that want to see what courses will apply to their major.  The final document was sent to department heads, the Dean of academic affairs, and most nerve-wrackingly, my director.  I got a quick response of "great work."  If you knew my director, this is like a billion dollars :)

   I've also been working with the website a bit, I've coordinated & assigned midshipmen who have previously studied abroad to incoming exchange students, compiled pre-departure travel packets for the 48 mids we have going abroad in the fall, and helped record financial information.  I have been registered with the Dept of Defense to submit APACS (Aircraft and Personnel Automated Clearance System), which is the system that all military personnel, and associated military personnel (i.e. USNA professors and staff) must be entered in and cleared from to travel on official orders.  I have also sat in on a command brief for NETSAFA (Naval Education and Training Security Assistance Field Activity) officers visiting the USNA to learn about the training of future Naval officers.  This proved very interesting.  Most of the officers were from Saudi Arabia, with a few from Ukraine and other countries.  When the topic turned to women at the Academy, I felt very awkward being in a room full of men.  Although I respected the Colonel before, I especially respected him after his responses to the Saudi Arabians, who clearly were not in agreement that women should be at the USNA.  And finally,  I helped my mentor with a introductory session for rising Youngsters (what sophomores are called) to introduce our programs abroad.  This was neat, as it was a few days after the Herndon Climb and they were anxious to show off their bruises of triumph.

   For the month of June, I am working with our 2 newly commissioned Ensigns on the international midshipmen orientation which will last almost 2 weeks before Induction Day and the start to Plebe Summer.  More on this later- as it has already proven VERY interesting!  

Color Parade

  It's hard to believe that the month of May is nearly over.  It seems like just yesterday I was dying for May 7th to arrive so I could begin my internship.  And now it's nearly June 1st.  I guess that's what I get for wishing my days away, my grandmother always told me never to do this after all.
   I've been talking a lot about what's been going on at the USNA these weeks, but little about what I've actually been doing besides ducking out of the office to peak at everything (I recently discovered a great patch of window space in the ladies room that you can see the field from where a lot of activities take place, this will be so great when Plebe summer begins!).  I promise I've actually been getting work done.  The highlight of my week was on Wednesday watching the Color Parade.  I snuck out of the office and watched for the Brigade Commander to start the march (from the ladies room of course).  When I saw him finally come down the cobble stone street, I bolted out of the ladies room, down the steps, ran through the hallway (thank God no one was around), quickly composed myself and walked outside my building.  Every midshipmen is divided into Companies which marched together from Bancroft Hall (their dorm) to the field.

Once they all assembled on the field, for an hour or so they did various presentations with their rifles, the bugle corp, and of course their colors.  There was a large to-do with the transferring of the colors from the company who hosted them this spring semester to the company that will host them the upcoming fall semester.  This is based on the company with the highest marks in academics, merit and athletics.  Quite fascinating.  Unfortunately, though the temperature was mild, the humidity was intense and quite a few midshipmen were dropping like flies.  

   As soon as they marched back to Bancroft Hall, literally seconds later they were out of their dress uniforms and back in the white ones.  I've never seen a wardrobe change that fast in my life.  I heard one overbearing mother begging her son to keep in on for 5 more minutes to pose in front of the Herndon Monument.  "Mom, this thing is like 10" thick, you put it on then."  Mothers will be mothers. I'm just grateful my school didn't have as many scenic places and monuments to pose by when I graduated as the USNA. It must take hours for the mothers to pose their sons and daughters here.

   Yesterday there were a ton of different awards ceremonies all over the yard.  I was actually impressed by my ability to give a few sets of parents directions on my lunch break. Tuesday the Mids will graduate and commission. They will become Ensigns in the Navy or 2nd Lieutenants in the Marine Corps (the lowest ranking officers), and then they will go off for more training (i.e. Naval Aviation training in Pensacola for 2 years).  At 10:00AM the ceremony begins down the street at the Navy-Marine Corps Stadium and at 10:04AM the Blue Angels are flying over.  I am going to sneak out of my office one last time and try to witness this!!

Herndon Monument Climb

  Please stop raining, please stop raining, please stop raining! I thought the entire drive to work this morning.  I wanted nothing more than to spend my afternoon watching the class of 2015 outgoing Plebes climb the Herndon Monument.
  As of yesterday afternoon the food trucks were set up, and the protective fencing was placed around the monument, but the monument remained grease free.  This morning however, it was thickly lathered with a crisco-like substance.  Many of my co-workers said it seemed thicker than most years (2 years ago in fact, it wasn't greased at all on the basis of safety issues, but that Vice Admiral was only in position for 1 year).
   I walked out at 1:30PM, the scheduled starting time, and listened to the Plebe class's accomplishments thus far.  After a traditional song and the firing of a canon, off they went! The strategy was to take off their shirts (and socks), throw them at the monument, and the Plebes that got there first used the shirts to wipe the grease off.  After 45 minutes I went back inside and pretended to do work.  However every 10 minutes or so I got up and looked out the window as I pretended to do things like throw something away, copy, go to the restroom, etc.  I felt like such a Navy nerd.  After a half hour of this, I admitted to myself that I wasn't going to get anything done, shut my computer down and walked back outside.  I met up with the midshipmen who work in our office who told me about the past few years and particularly when they did it ("It only took us 1 hour, 14 minutes and 38 seconds," one told me.  "But who's counting right?" I laughed.  We were particularly proud when we saw a very tiny, tan skinned boy nearly reach the top.  Though I can't spell his name, he frequents our office, as he is one of the Sri Lankan students earning his 4-year degree here.  There were 2 girls who were very actively involved as well, which I thought was pretty neat.

   Around 3:45PM, when they finally reached the top and replaced their Plebe dixie cup hat with a Midshipman cover, Plebe year ended.  As the shirts said "Keep Calm and Climb On- Free the Plebes, Class of 2015!"   We officially have no Plebes on the yard now, as the newbies don't arrive until the end of June.

Color Parade practice

   Today I anticipated to be like any average morning going to work. Usually by Wednesday or Thursday I have doubled the amount of coffee I drink in the morning, but I expected nothing out of the usual. As I got off the highway and made my way through scenic downtown Annapolis, I began to notice police cars and fire engines around entrances to the USNA gates. I proceeded to Gate 8 where I typically enter, only to be greeted by a line of traffic nearly a mile long. Not knowing what else to do, I called my mentor to try to find out what was going on (voicemail), and waiting impatiently. When I finally got to the gate at 8:20 ('m supposed to be in the office at 8:00) I was told I could not enter because of the color parade. I started asking questions, "I thought it was Wednesday? Where can I enter? Will I be able to get in at all?" He brushed me off and refused to answer me. My first rude USNA-er.

   I tried calling my mentor again, and the general office number. No luck. I certainly couldn't call the midshipman working in our office since he was part of the color parade. I felt like such a rookie... I thought the parade was Wednesday and I didn't know the protocol! I looked for spaces outside of the yard as I drove to a different gate, only to be denied again. "Where should I go?!" He must have noticed my panic. "What's your business on the yard?" he asked. "I'm an intern!" He suggested I try gate 1. I didn't bother asking where it was. I pulled over, whipped out my map, silently thanking Chuck a million times in my head for giving me all the touristy materials on my first day. When I FINALLY got on the yard I met several dead ends, nearly drove into the water several times, when my mentor finally called me back. I parked where she directed me to. Then came navigating to my building. When I thought I'd found my building I realized it was not in fact my building but the library basement.  This is how plebes must feel, I kept thinking, but thank God I won't get screamed at and told to do 100 push-ups.  As I walked outside into the bright sunlight, when my eyes finally adjusted I looked up and I was standing directly across from where nearly 1,000 First Class midshipmen where gathered neat and orderly on the field. 

   "Ma'am, you can't be here, this is blocked off to the public," a stern looking guard said to me dressed in uniform.

   "I'm sorry, I work here. Which way is Mahan Hall?" 

   "It's right there," he pointed to a building not even 100 meters from me.  "You work here and you don't know where your building is?" he said quite rudely.

   "You must not work here or you'd be friendly," I replied.  As I walked away in my defense I added, "I'm new."

   Turns out it was just practice. I can't imagine what things will be like on Wednesday for the real deal.  To the guard's obvious disgust I did snap a picture as I walked away, just out of spite for his rudeness.