Dreaming of a White Christmas- Morzine, France

The song, "I'll be Home for Christmas" always brings me to tears when I'm unable to go"home" for the holidays.  However, what better place to distract me than a white Christmas in the French Alps!  I remember a couple of Christmas days when a few snow flurries made their way down to Texas, but this white Christmas was something worth writing home about.  

Four other Olmsted scholars and their families rented a chalet for the week and graciously invited us along.  Lou and Karin Frketic: Bologna, Italy, Tim, Meaghan and little 15 month old Tim Gallagher: Paris, France, Brian and Jen Hensarling: Brussles, Belgium, and Paul Rogers, Lyon, France.  Previously we had met only one of the spouses at the Casablanca Marathon, but we were not surprised to find that these individuals were extraordinary to say the least!  We had an immediate connection and bonded over our Olmsted stories.  

It was quite a trek coming from Africa, but it was well worth it!  Our first flight had a layover in Madrid, and the second flight took us to Geneva, Switzerland where we then got a shuttle to drive us to France.  Thankfully, this past year of traveling has somewhat prepared us for adventures such as these.

We spent our first day relaxing around the chalet, building snowmen, and having snowball fights.

How did the guys feel the need to celebrate?  With mustaches of course.  What says Happy Holidays better than 5 hairy upper lips?

For three days we were able to have a nanny watch the children for some adult time.  We skied in France and even caught a lift over to Switzerland (see the bordering mountains in the picture with the Gallaghers).  Our adult time was only half a day, but we clearly couldn't quite hang like we did in our younger days (see an exhausted Jamil on the lift down the mountain).  However, we found skiing in Europe to be much more of a social sport with packed restaurants and bars located at the bottom of every slope.  I was not complaining!  When we ordered fondue, I was surprised to see this beautiful device brought to our table.  The heater is covered in copper, and the cheese drips down onto the plate.  It was fun and oh so tasty!

On our last day, Jamil set out for some more aggressive skiing with the guys while all of the girls went snowshoeing.  This was unlike what I had imagined!  My thoughts in my younger days were, why would you want to walk around the mountain when you can ski down it?  However, after 2 days of skiing, my mind and body were up for doing something a little different.  I had no idea that I was about to escape into pure white serenity!  We hiked through untouched areas of the mountain where the snow literally looked like a blanket of diamonds (hard to tell with my phone camera pics).  The scenery inside the trees is obviously completely different from the beautiful open views on the slopes but no less breath taking.  Possibly my favorite part was the feeling of walking on top of a blanket of soft snow.  It felt amazing.  Our guide explained how without the snowshoes we would quickly sink into the 2 meters of snow, but the snowshoes allowed us to glide along the top easily (only a few stumbles, not including our perfectly executed summersaults and snow angels).  The change of pace and scenery helped me to recharge, see the snow-covered mountains in a new way, and think about the true meaning of Christmas.  

Christmas Eve we saw Santa in a ski town parade.  He drove off into the moutains on a snowmobile with an impressive firework finale to some dramatic Braveheart music.  We all had a nice dinner in town and headed back to the chalet where we wrote Santa a letter and left him some milk and cookies.  A friend reminded us not to forget the carrot for the reindeer.  We woke on Christmas morning (see my obnoxiously festive attire) to find some cookie and carrot crumbs, and a letter from Santa (thanks to Jen), and a couple of gifts for the boys; puzzles (thanks Mimi and Papa), knitted owl hats, and a French ski book.  Meaghan even brought stockings with some cute reindeer finger puppets, and Karin brought balls, bubbles and trucks for the three boys...always a hit!  Christmas dinner was served by the fabulous cooks at the chalet.  The dinner was earlier and the children were awake to eat with the adults.  Gabriel stayed occupied through the many courses with this new word puzzles, and Abraham was busy tearing the paper table cloth and putting the pieces into a cup (He's sweet but destructive, I tell you!  I'm having visions of all the things he will surely destroy in my home over the years...).  After we put the children to bed, it was time for the white elephant gift exchange.  Each person brought a gift from their country, and we walked away with a super cool painting from Lyon, France (see small painting above). Thanks, Paul!

We took a break from the ski slopes on the 24th and 25th.  These days included sledding and even a quick trip to the local spa.  Poor Abraham was sprayed in the face a few too many times for his enjoyment, and Gabriel was found trying to make snow angels in much too compact snow.  Thanks to our friends, Jen and Karin, for taking pictures!

Drumroll please....and here is the prized gift!  Not just a scooter, a Lightning McQueen scooter!  Now, I would personally prefer a character-free simple scooter, but Santa knows how obsessed our little boy is with Cars.  Also, Gabriel has been eyeing a friend's scooter in the stroller parking lot at school for months.  What a perfect gift!  He zooms around this apartment like a pro.  Abraham got some more books and a Moroccan poncho (he IS only 18 months but is also cursed with plenty of hand-me-down toys and clothes for many years to come).   

I hope you all had a beautiful Christmas and a Happy New Year!  Joy to the World!

Tangier American Legation

Jamil and Dave took a shot in the dark at gathering resources for their school papers and surprisingly found a jewel in Tangier!  Here is a blog post by Gerlad Loftus, former U.S. diplomat and current director of the Tangier American Legation Institute for Moroccan Studies (TALIM).  He wrote about the Olmsted program and these two scholars after their visit last week:

http://www.talimblog.org/2012/01/deep-education-olmstead-scholars-learn-more-than-arabic.html

Deep Education: Olmstead Scholars Learn More Than Arabic

"To provide outstanding young military leaders an unsurpassed opportunity to achieve fluency in a foreign language, pursue graduate study at an overseas university, and acquire an in depth understanding of foreign cultures, thereby further equipping them to serve in positions of great responsibility as senior leaders in the United States Armed Forces."

The Olmstead Scholarship Program

Friday's visit to TALIM by Olmstead Scholars Captain Jamil Musa (left, USAF) and Captain David Saunders (right, USMC) educated us about this longstanding program (since 1959) that helps create internationally-aware military officers.

You may knowingly remark that lots of soldiers in the US military are fully aware of foreign locales, places like Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan...

Yes, that's true.  But in an institution as large and far-flung as the US military, it's still probably an exception to find people like our two young officers, spending an extended course of study at a Moroccan university, immersed in the language and culture of their Moroccan counterparts.  That's deep education, and hats off to the George and Carol Olmstead Foundation for sending them our way.

Already, with our hosting of the Tangier CLS program, we do our best to encourage young Americans to learn Arabic beyond the textbook.

This is Professional Military Education (PME), but to a different tune than the usual service school (West Point, Naval Academy) or war college routine.  Surprising, perhaps, but then again, the US military has the means to invest in infrastructure of all sorts, including the education of its future leaders.

I remember studying Arabic years ago with some US Army officers, who, unlike me - studying with a follow-on assignment to Egypt - had no idea if or when or where they'd be using their Arabic.  One of them explained, "the Army decides it needs to pre-position X-thousand tanks in the Arabian Peninsula, in the event... (this was in the early 1980s, so he was very prescient).  Well, like tanks, they also say - 'we need x-dozen Arabic-speaking officers...'."  Stockpiled, so to speak, to be deployed at the right time and place.

Several Middle Eastern wars later, the Army presumably has hundreds of Arabic speakers, so the refinement of the Olmstead program is that the uniformed services will also have a handful of officers who will have deep knowledge of Arab societies like Morocco which are not at war.  Countries where young people struggle to get an education and enter the job market, or find a place to live to raise a family.  That kind of deep knowledge is longlasting, and can be of use in war or in peace.

If you tell me, I'll listen. 
If you show me, I'll see. 
If I experience it, I'll learn.

- Lao Tse, 430 BC

That snippet is from an Air Force document looking at PME in 2020.  Not that far away, and in an age when the US no longer has a monopoly on strategic thinking.  Lao Tse knew the value of experience in learning back in 430 BC.  In the 21st century, his modern Chinese descendants are vying with Americans to learn Arabic.

That's why General Olmstead's investment in several generations of internationally-aware officers is so important.  It's not just the tool of language, it's also the qualitative experience of their immersion in foreign culture that will last them a lifetime.