Universal Friendships

One of the great opportunities I have while we’re here is meeting many of the other spouses. The air force has it’s own community with base locations, acronyms, problems and blessings, many of which are foreign to me but as they live it everyday, most of the spouses already have a lot in common.

The past couple of days I’ve had the chance to meet and mingle with several of the international spouses which has been lovely. I mentioned in an earlier post that one of Tom’s classmates is from Colombia so I took his wife Olga, with me to a Fall Social gathering on base Wednesday night so we had the opportunity to get to know each other better. The base offers English classes to the spouses 3 days a week and they also go to a Baptist Church in Montgomery a few hours a week for more classes. Some have had some English before in their own countries but others are just learning it here. I have been so impressed with their progress even though they think they aren’t doing so well.

In the past 48 hours I’ve met women from Pakistan, Israel, Estonia, Egypt, Sri Lanka, Japan and El Salvador. These women are gorgeous, friendly, smart, and fully aware of and grateful for the opportunity to be here, learn the language and meet all of these awesome new friends. They have an international support group and get together monthly for coffees and meet in each other’s homes for cooking and practicing their English.

Olga’s husband Mauricio arranged a surprise birthday party for her yesterday at a little local coffee shop. She was very surprised and seemed moved the by gesture. These women are so eager to learn American customs like….is it okay to open these gifts here, or should they be taken home? Many interesting conversations about their young children easily adapting, schools, books (Sira, from Pakistan is reading TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD and loves it), food, and anything else you can think of. They’re also so anxious to practice their English with Americans. Hoping I get to be a lucky one to spend time with them.

You know you're living in Alabama when the national fair is hyping the Ham Bone Express Pig Races as a highlight.

The Community

We’ve had the opportunity to become involved in a couple of community events in Montgomery. The first was the Dragon Boat Race & Festival down on the river. People in the community could put a team together of their co-workers, friends, or family to compete against others. The organizers brought in professional coaches for a week who taught them the basics of rowing, then on the day of the races rode with them to steer the boats.

We spent two days with them. The first was a few hours on an afternoon practicing what we would be doing as volunteers which was basically being on the dock to help load and unload the boats and then empty them of water before the next team loaded. The practice day was a breeze as there weren’t that many teams that day so it was lovely to just be on the dock and meet some new people.

The day of the race we had a shift in the middle of the day and it was plenty warm. Things were much more hectic as we had teams coming and going quickly to keep the races going. We had drinking water on the dock but Tom had to sneak away during a break to find us some food at one point. He came back with a deep-fried catfish sandwich adorned with ketchup on white bread. Southern cuisine!

It was good fun though and we met lots of great people. The coaches were terrific & funny but competitive by nature and there were other groups volunteering as well, including students from fraternities and some kids from an organization named Bridge Builders.

We worked with some more of that group again another day in helping to prep for a race for Big Brothers Big Sisters. That day we were in a vacant retail building just loading the runner's goody bags with coupons, t-shirts and runner numbers. I asked one of the members if I could snap a photo of her t-shirt as it had their mission statement on back which I loved. It was great to work side by side by with this awesome group and some of the other students from the Air Command and Staff College (ACSC).

You know you're living in Alabama when you're considering adding the Boiled Peanut Festival to your list of social activities.

Academia

So you may be thinking this is a huge change for Tom based on his past life. The reality is that both his Coast Guard and Air Force gigs have always included lots of study and classes required for his promotions. But that was always on top of everything else he had to do. So as consuming as this schooling is, the fact that it’s ALL he has to worry about with no travel, no other job concerns, and no house upkeep actually feels a little luxurious right now.

He’s also incredibly disciplined. Sometimes annoyingly so. Did I mention that when we were in college together he graduated Magna Cum Laude? Um, yeah. He sort of digs the academia thing so this is right up his alley. So even when we are doing “fun” things, he is managing to study.

In the Car on the way to the Football Game

At the Pool

and At School Before Church on Sunday

You know you're living in Alabama when you go out for Friday night ice cream and happen upon a full out church service in the parking lot of the Blue Iguana Bar & Grill and Bama Lanes Bowling Alley. Music, preaching and altar call....all on a flat bed trailer.

Saturdays

Saturday is our free day every week which hopefully includes a break from studying so we can just play. We have managed to squeeze a plethora of good times into a 12 hour period every weekend. If you know my parents you understand that I was taught by the masters how to do this well. Now that we don’t have a house or yard to keep up and Tom’s not traveling weekends we’re finally getting to actually enjoy what a Saturday is supposed to be!

This one started early as Tom was participating in a Sprint Triathlon in a place called Pike Road which is about 45 minutes from us. A Sprint is a 300 yard swim (this was in a lake) followed by a 12 mile bike ride, then a 3.1 run. Tom trains through the week but rests a couple of days leading up to the race.

The community where the race was held is called The Waters which I had plenty of time to wander around while he raced. No, you will not see me doing a triathlon anytime soon….Sprint, half or full. Anyway, the setting was gorgeous and apparently the water in the lake was comfortable though Tom feels that its his weakest part of the race.

Because he’s a strapping stud he took first place in his age category but said he was sucking air the whole time. Some days your body is just not in the mood to be beat to death apparently.

We went to the base after the race to shower and get ready for the rest of the day. Our 32^nd anniversary was Wed. but he was busy with school so we decided to celebrate Saturday. We had a gift certificate that all the spouses had been given at orientation for a free lunch at Baumhower’s so we took advantage of that and then went and had massages. We took a long drive home and happened upon a little place called The Capitol Oyster Bar at Montgomery Marina that we had been told about. We stopped and sat out on the deck overlooking the river and had drinks & a basket of crayfish while we just relaxed. The weather here is still gorgeous!

Stopped at the apartment for about an hour then headed to the community theatre in Prattville for a production of The Compleat Wrks of Wllm Shkspr which is a parody of all of Shakespeare’s works played by 3 actors with interaction with the audience. Well, um. It was painful. I can count on one hand how many times I’ve left a theatre at intermission but this was one of them. Needed better direction, better talent who actually knew their lines, etc. Stopped on the way home for a “build it yourself” yogurt and finally called it a night. Long day, but a very nice one.

You know you're living in Alabama when instead of dead raccoons the highways are lined with armadillo carcasses.

What We're Doing Here

Okay, so a little background as to why we are now in Alabama. Tom was in the Air Force for 4 years. In fact we met at Weber State after he got out of the service and had been stationed at Hill Air Force Base. He decided to stay in Utah and became a theatre major (No, he had never done anything remotely like theatre before) and we had classes and were cast in plays with each other. After graduation he went on and got his Masters in Film Production at The University of Utah. He has been working as a civilian for 22 years back at HAFB first as a producer/director (he was also writing and doing on-camera work) and then the past couple of years as Deputy Director when they changed that department to the Second Combat Camera Squadron.

He is also in the Coast Guard Reserves though he is on some kind of leave while we’re here. It’s always a little confusing because between both jobs he’s done quite a bit of traveling and it was always difficult keeping the two jobs straight for those of us at home. When he was activated for long periods of time after 9/11, those were all for the Coast Guard. This opportunity in Alabama however, is through his job at Hill Air Force Base.

First Day of School

So, he’s here going to The Air Command & Staff College. He was one of only 15 civilians chosen to come so it’s a great opportunity. Here are some stats:

There are 514 students

316 are Air Force

83 are from other branches of the military

75 are international students representing 68 countries

25 are reservists

15 are civilian

Average age is 35.8 (We think Tom is maybe the 2^nd oldest student here)

Students tend to be in the top 20% of their peer groups and will become senior leaders.

They tend to be Type A personalities (Um, for those of you who know Tom….ya think?)

The 514 students are broken down into 15 “divisions” and then those divisions are broken down into “flights”. In Tom’s flight there are 13 classmates. This is the group he spends the most time with. It includes 2 international students; one from Colombia and one from Saudi Arabia. One female who is expecting her first baby (twins) this Spring while her husband will be deployed (God bless her) and 3 of the other’s wives are expecting babies as well while they’re here. So yes, they are all in a very different season of their lives than we are.

Graduation will be in mid-June of 2012 but everyone here will start to find out where their next assignment is around Feb or March. The whole point of this program to earn a Master’s degree and prepare the students to move on and use the knowledge they’ve acquired here in new positions. So, though they are holding Tom’s job at HAFB for him (someone is in it temporarily for now) until he has something else, the real intent is to take this experience and move on to something new. Definitely, an adventure.

You know you're living in Alabama when the bank teller turns around and yells into the back office for....wait for it....."Billy Bob!".

Fans

Just getting the hang of this "blogging" thing but still struggling with layout, getting photos to go where I want them (like in the right order) and getting caught up to real time. So any words of wisdom or tricks of the trade you experts could share would be greatly appreciated. In the mean time, please be patient and I'll catch y'all up. Yes, I AM talking like that now.

One of the very first things we did when we arrived was to attend a Montgomery Biscuits baseball game. There's a great area downtown where the ball field is located that's right next to the Alabama River. The field itself reminds me a lot of The Salt Lake Bee's field but the seating area seems a bit smaller. Food offerings were much the same but there are plenty of "biscuits" to be had. And yes, the biscuit mascot is amusing.

I'm not sure I can convey what a big deal football is here. There is a high school field in downtown Montgomery that looks like the U of U football field. The whole Auburn/U of Alabama rivalry makes BYU/U of U look like a love fest. We knew we wanted to attend a game at each school while we were here but had no idea Auburn's opener was against Utah State. We knew immediately, THAT was the game we had to hit.

We went early assuming traffic and parking would be a nightmare. It was less than an hour away and as it turned out most of the hard core fans were already there in their RV's and tailgating like there was no tomorrow. I haven't been to a "big" football game in years so I don't know if it's like this all over but the tailgaters were spread out all over the place. Blocks and blocks and complete fields were filled with them. Food, blow up tigers, parties and LOTS of blue and orange. Because they were the reigning national champs and this was the home opener there was an extra bit of electricity in the air. They have an amazing band that kicked things off out on the street and worked it's way down to the intersection for a pep rally. Our timing was perfect as we were right on the road and had great access to the parade, the live radio show and all the pre-game activities. Tickets were the same price through Utah State or Auburn so I ordered them through Auburn because Utah State couldn't mail them to me. We ended up clear at the top of the stadium but they were awesome seats for the band's formations, the "war eagle" that flies around the stadium and the game itself. The small Utah State group however had great seats down close.

We thought the poor Aggies would get their little blue butts kicked but it ended up being a great and exciting game that Utah State nearly pulled out. Tom and I were having a hard time being well-behaved guests as Utah pulled ahead but as we were surrounded by 85,000 crazed Auburn fans we felt it best to not be smug. The reigning national champs are not real big on being defeated by some po dunk team from Logan so you can imagine the mood of the crowd. However, they got lucky in the end and managed to win in the last few seconds. It was a great game and we had a terrific time. We got plenty of sun and enjoyed hanging around after to watch all the celebrating. I was in blue and white but Tom had on his blue & orange Coast Guard aloha shirt so they thought we were one of them. All in all a fun day!

You know you're living in Alabama when the sporting goods store next to your house carries more than three brands of Wild Hog Bait.

Prattville

I wanted to introduce you to our little town. It's not really all that small, though many people we knew in Utah who had been stationed at Maxwell AFB had suggested we should find a place here as it had a "village" feel to it. It has approx. 32,000 people and is just 13 miles north of Montgomery and the base. It takes Tom about 17 minutes to get to school.

The historic section of town is lovely with old homes with porches, churches and what seems to be a downtown area that's trying to reinvent itself.

It was the center of everything at one point but right now there are a lot of empty buildings. There are a few small businesses so I'm going to do my best to frequent them. A cajun cafe, a little gift shop with garden cafe, florist, an old hardware store, spa, barber shop, and thrift store among others. We found the Prattville Pasta Pizzeria (say that fast 3 times!) that we really like for take out.....and you know how Tom is about his pizza. Kind of a pizza snob so his nod of approval is a big deal.

The town is named after Daniel Pratt who acquired land at the fall line of Autauga Creek and began producing cotton gins.

His company became the foremost producer of cotton gins in the world earning Prattville the designation of "Birthplace of Industry in Alabama".

The old area of town is about a 10 minute drive from us. We actually live just off the main highway where there really is the biggest build up of shopping centers, restaurants, etc. The Robert Trent Jones Capitol Hill golf complex is across the road from us and provides a gorgeous trail for early morning walks and is hosting the LPGA Navistar Classic this week. Actually we're within walking distance of everything we could need or want including Hobby Lobby, Target, Starbucks, Kohls, TJ Maxx, Ross, Wells Fargo, Cinema 8, Wal-Mart, a Chevy dealer, Dollar Tree, more restaurants & fast food places than I can count and wait for it.....The Bass Pro Outdoor World! (That's for you dad & bro's) It's awesome to be right in the heart of everything we need but that's what has also drawn all the action away from downtown Prattville. It really is a gorgeous area and we're happy to be where we are!

Flexing my Realtor Muscles

So a quick tour......we had the luxury of choosing an apartment and then having it fully furnished with rental "everything" including furniture, simple accessories, flat screen, linens, dishes, etc. When Tom was here for orientation in June he went to the furniture place and did a mighty fine job of selecting some nice neutral (and very comfortable, I might add) pieces for us. Saved us from having to haul our stuff across country for only 10 months.

The living room is big and open. Lots of windows that look onto the road in front of us. Perfectly sized kitchen with stainless appliances and laundry right off kitchen. Our bed and master bath is also on this level as well as the "veranda". Each apartment has one of these which is basically a screened patio. Ours is adorned with our lovely lime green fold up chairs, a moving box draped with my sarong as a table cloth and little hanging tiki lights that Nic gave us. It's very festive indeed and clearly, this room was not furnished.

Next we go upstairs where there's another full bath, an office with a futon, a built in desk in the hallway and then, the guest room. Yep! There's your room.....when you come to visit us. Plus, we have a blow up mattress that would fit in numerous places throughout the apt. My point being that yes, there are plenty of places to sleep and you only have until mid June to make that trip so let's get it on your social calendar now, shall we?