T+364 days and counting

As I was leaving the Iffley gym today after my workout, I was reminded by Kristen (Wolverton just to be clear) that today is graduation day at USAFA. I then realized that tomorrow will mark the 1 year anniversary of my own graduation and the first day of the rest of my life. After this realization, I became quite scared because it means that members of the class of 2010 are now officers which is frightening for the AF. Who let that happen??

Much has happened in this past year and, since even more fun and exciting and crazy and scary and exhilarating (etc etc etc) things will continue to happen in the years to come, it only makes sense to maybe write some of them down to share with people.

So, my plan is to use this blog to highlight some of what happened in the past year since I graduated and then attempt to continue this blog on a fairly regular basis. I hope that I will be either remotely consistent or marginally interesting or, maybe if I'm lucky, a little of both.

So here goes:27 May 2009 (Hub). Graduation day. Walked across the stage to shake hands with VP Joe Biden and was told to "go show 'em something kiddo". Apparently despite being 22 years old I'm still a kiddo. Thats ok, I don't wanna grow up. The day was incredible with picture perfect weather, family and friends (including my uncle who came all the way from Israel) and the amazing feeling of throwing my hat up in the air as the Thunderbirds flew overhead. INCREDIBLE!
"60 Days" Following graduation, all the new 2nd LTs are given 60 days of paid leave. I spent the first few weeks in Israel, first as an Academy Officer Escort for a cadet trip, then on my own visiting family, then with Kristen. Highlights of the trip included meeting the President of Israel, Shimon Peres, attending the graduation of the Israeli Air Force Academy and Flight School, and getting to show Kristen around the country and introduce her to my family over there that she has heard a lot about but never actually met.
In August, I went back to the Academy to work with the 2010 Scholarship applicants. It was rought because all I wanted to do was be in England, but on the whole it turned out ok and it was good to see that (maybe with our help) 2010 managed to get a Marshall Scholarship and a Rhodes Scholarship. Hopefully we were of some use. I also got to help out with the soccer team while at the Academy which was good fun. Also a highlight, climbing Mt Yale, a 14er, with Brian (Mueller).
On my way to England in late September, Michal joined me in Colorado and we had an epic Road Trip across the country to Virginia where I left my trusty steed Stevie G (yes, I named my car after Steven Gerrard. Don't judge) in the capable hands of Shiri. Highlights of the trip included the amazing signs we saw while going through Kansas (including Jesus in the corn), the St Louis Museum where I slid into a huge puddle and got rust and mud all over my white shorts, the AMAZING pie and cookie in Lawrence Kansas, the shady hotels that we were hoping would be shadier and more Supernatural style, rocking the classic rock and We Will Rock You and Spamalot while driving, getting to meet Shiri's friends and see her campus, and finally getting on a plane to England!!
I arrived in Oxford early in October and immediately got to work on whats important: football tryouts. Just to be clear, when I say football I obviously mean soccer. Tryouts went well and I made the Blues, which is the first squad. I loved my teammates from the start and had a great time playing with them. All was going superbly with the team and with my personal playing until....
November 11, 2009. Most people remember that day as Veteran's (or over here Armistice) Day where you get a day off from school or work. Unfortunately for me I will now always remember it as the day that I decided to go and break my ankle while playing football. Don't quite know what it happened except that one second I was playing a perfect crossfield ball right into my teammates run (I'm not making this up, ask everyone who was there, they all were watching my perfect ball so they didn't see me on the ground) and the next second I was on the ground in intense pain. I managed to walk off the field but by the time the game ended I could no longer walk. Thankfully Neal (Wendt) picked me up and brought me home and then, later that night, Ian (Helms) and Hila (Levy) took me to A&E (Accident and Emergency, the British ER). The injury kept me off the field for 13 weeks.
Jump ahead 13ish weeks to Varsity, the annual match between Oxford and Cambridge. Think Army-Navy with a couple hundred more years of rivalry. I managed to get myself back on the field in time for the match but the absolute highlight was the fact that Ian and Neal came out in full force. I will let the pictures do the talking. Additionally, they were keeping the crowd entertained with their cheers nobody understood (like Neal's "Safety School") and fake accents (Ian's "lets go Oxford" being the standout example).
Following Varsity, our team continued playing in the British University and College Sports cup, the equivalent of the NCAA championships. Despite never making it past the first round of the tournament in the past, we went on to WIN the whole thing! Who would of thought that I'd one day be a national champion in football? Craziness! Also exciting about the match was the fact that Anson (Stewart) was visiting and got to see the game and experience our ridiculousness on the bus home.
My reference to Anson segues right into my next topic, which was the great couple of weeks I had in March and April that included visits from friends and lots of travelling. First Anson came and we explored London (the Transport Museum of course) and Bath, then Ashley (Kiley) and Mackenzie (Hogan) arrived and we did Oxford and more London.

Then Anson and Mac went home and Michal, Ashley and I went to Ireland. It was a great trip! We got a car and drove around the country, seeing Kilkenny, Waterford, Blarney Castle, Cork, Killarney, Galway, the cliffs of Moher, and Dublin. We spent St Patty's Day in Dublin which, I must say, was quite the experience!! The day after St Patty's we flew to Liverpool where we didn't really see much of the city but we got to watch Liverpool beat up on Lille in the Europa Cup and we saw Stevie score a goal and Fernando score two. It was amazing and I now want to go back to Anfield and see more matches!! After Liverpool, we split from Michal and went up to Edinburgh for a few days which was great fun as well. I really enjoyed Edinburgh as a city and it was good to hang out with Ash.After the Ireland/Lpool/Scotland trip, Michal and I flew to Israel to celebrate Pesach with the Israeli fam. It was a great visit, spent entirely with family. Had some great conversations with the fam, especially with my cousins Rotem and Guy, and spent time with adorable little Amit. It was great to be with the family for the holiday and it made me miss Israel all over again.

Once back in the England I remembered that I'm here for work and should probably get on the whole studying thing... Since then I have finalized my project and am currently working towards my Transfer of Status report that will be in August ish.

This past weekend I went to Groningen for a football tournament. However, the emphasis there seemed to be alcohol/party first, football second, which made it quite the experience. I got back to London on the 24th (which is my birthday) and I got to spend the day in London and finished off by seeing the England-Mexico football match at Wembley Stadium with Michal, Ian, Neal, Brian, and Jeanie (Gordon). It was a great match (well, great second half), Stevie was probably the best player out on the pitch, England won, and all in all it was a great birthday.
That pretty much brings me up to date. I'll also include the various places around the UK that I've been since arriving here just for your reference: Cardiff (and Caerphilly Castle), Birmingham, Telford (and Ironbridge), Stratford, Brentford, Nottingham, Essex, Sheffield, Warwick, Surrey. Hopefully that list will continue to grow and, when it does, I will tell you about it.

I have decided that, while I'm still in England, I will end each blog with an example of a time in which I made a fool of myself by saying something that is very innocent or obvious in the states but means something completely different here. My first example? Never refer to the concept of "double fisting" (ie carrying a beer or drink in each hand) around Brits. It means something COMPLETELY different.... Awkard.....