Oktoberfest

Some pics of Oktoberfest at the Hofbrauhaus

 Me and my new Polish friend.  Can't wait till he brings back some great Polish vodka.

 Random girls at the next table

 Guys from my class from left to right a Brit, an American and his wife, the Brit wife and a Norwegian guy

Pics of fire power demonstration at Munster

 Look familiar?  Probably not to anyone else but that was my weapon in the Army a TOW (tube launched, wire guided command link wire guided missile)

A post I put on Face book

I never post on FB but I posted this the other day.  This is a few incidents that have happened while at the school.

I never post on FB but felt it was time to sound off.  As most of you know, I’m currently at the Fuhrungsakadamie der Bundeswehr in Hamburg Germany attending the German military staff college.  There are 75 German officers and 17 international students in my class.  As my class began three weeks ago the United States govt was on the brink of war with Syria with no clear mission and no allies.  From the very beginning I was questioned by both my international class mates and German students as to what the heck the US was doing in Syria, but then it just continued to pretty much every facet of American policy, foreign and domestic.  I was stationed in Germany when the current president was elected the first time.  At that time all the Europeans loved him and thought America was suddenly enlightened.  What a difference 4 years make.  On my first day of class I was berated by a Polish officer as to how stupid Americans were to re-elect someone who could have been a part of the politburo of Poland in the 1980s, his words, not mine.  Then almost immediately a Lithuanian officer asked me to explain what our foreign policy was regarding Libya and Syria especially after losing our ambassador last year, and I couldn’t answer as I had no idea.  The British and Spanish then started in on the health care debacle and asked why Americans were so stupid.  Govt controlled health care is the biggest contributing factor in the debt of their countries and why was America going that way.  Mind you this was 0730 in the morning on day one.  I had just met these guys and they just saw an American and went off.  Since that day three weeks ago I’ve had countless discussions with officers from all over the world and all I can say is America isn’t thought of the way it is portrayed in America.  To synthesize my experiences thus far, at least in the international military community, has been embarrassing.  America is viewed as a powerful country that is governed by imbeciles.  I’ve been in the military off and on for a long time.  I’ve served under Reagan, both Bush’s, Clinton and now the current regime.  Throughout it all America was always viewed with respect and maybe with a little envy and fear, but now it’s viewed as incompetent.  I can’t believe that as I walk into class I’m actually looked at with pity almost as someone from an abusive relationship.  No one understands how the greatness of America has slipped to the point of obscurity.  I’ve actually heard people say sentences asking who the new leader in the world is now that America has abdicated all leadership.  Frankly, I almost feel ashamed for my country.  How’s that hope and change working out?  

By the way...

After taking a little time off the undesirable folks looking have this has disappeared.  All is gut.

Into my second week

So I've been in school for a little over a week now.  The biggest issue as you can imagine is language.  My language sucks and it's not like they ease into it.  They assume you can speak the language well enough to be here so sink or swim.  At any given time I get about 50%.  I equate it to understanding the big picture but I miss every little detail or any nuance.  The schedule is pretty easy and I think this will probably be the easiest part of my career.  I can deal with a little down time after being on the road so much.  I will try to post more pics as they become available.  Oktoberfest starts this weekend.  There goes my diet!

Old Elbe tunnel

Hey is what a 100 year old tunnel under the Elbe River in Hamburg looks like.  It still carries traffic and small cars can fit.  It was designed and built in 1910 so it was built with horse drawn traffic in mind.  Pretty cool.  It is basically two holes dug 100 feet deep on either side of the river and then a tunnel was dug between the holes.

On the train

The funny part about this is some old German guy came up and chewed out Madi for having her feet up on the seat across from her.  I was so surprised that it just made me want to laugh.  Who knew there were undercover feet on seat train police.

First cat bath

So after unpacking for another day for 9 hours we decided it was time to bath our new cat as he stunk bad.  So here are a couple post bath pics.

Pics From Hamburg

With my friend Noel and his wife Roxanna in town we went down town and here are some pics of Hamburg.

Our First Guests

My friend and his wife decided to take a trip to Hamburg at the last minute.  Good to see my friend.

Little Kitty

I couldn't help myself but these pictures were just too cute.