An overdue update

Hey all,

I know it's been a while since I posted.  I've pretty much failed at consistently keeping this thing updated.  I just passed my 3 month mark in my contract.  It's hard to say I've settled in as there really is no "settling" in, but I did get a new mattress, tv and xbox which helps pass the time sometimes.  The job isn't bad.  It's nothing like what I did at Boeing.  I actually enjoyed the job at Boeing more on a day to day basis, but this one provides good experience moving forward. 

I work Mon-Sat and get Sundays off, so on that day I typically just sleep in as late as I can.  Fortunately, sleeping in is pretty easy since the B-Hut I live in has all of the windows blacked out.  As a matter of fact, the Sunday before last, I woke up and considered getting up to go get some breakfast at the dining facility before it closed.  Then I looked at the time and saw it was 11:15.  So lunch it was!

I recently finished my first set of college courses so I have a few weeks before the next set starts.  I'm still not sure if I'll be able to finish my degree before I leave here, but I'm sure going to try as I'd much rather look for a job with the undergrad degree behind me.  We'll see whether or not that actually works.

This update is boring, I know.  I'm a bit tired and it's a busy day today, but I wanted to get something down at least.

Now that this site is unblocked for me from work, I'll try to update it a bit more consistently.

A slightly better post

So I don't think I've updated anything since I was at CRC in Indiana. 

 

CRC:  That plays is a model of military inefficiency.  Half my time was spent waiting around to do nothing.  YAY.  I was there for the scheduled week.  I almost didn't get out of there.  While going through all the medical screening they found one test that the place I went to before leaving apparently hadn't done.  G6PD.  I could have gone my whole life quite happily never knowing anything about that.  Basically, they test your blood for something.  If you have a particular deficiency, they know the give you an alternative medication should you contract malaria.  If you don't have it, they give you the normal.  I found this out on Tuesday and had to get a ride off post to get the test done and then wait for the results.  If the results didn't come back by that Friday, I'd be stuck another week.  Fortunately, it came back with about 3 hours to spare and I got out of there.

 

From there it was off to Kuwait.  We had a brief layover at Frankfurt international airport.  I had a pretzel.  I wouldn't say I forgot how good German pastries are, but it never does cease to amaze me how much better they can make even a basic pretzel.  Man that was good.  Anyway, we stayed there for about 45 minutes and got back on the plane for the ride to Kuwait.

 

We got to Kuwait and took a Bus to Ali-Asalim.  During the height of the war, we controlled the whole place.  In the downturn, we've been relegated to a small portion of it that's way off the beaten path.  The thing that struck me most about Kuwait was that it looked EXACTLY as I'd pictured it.  Sandy, dirty, barren.  Don't be fooled though, there is A LOT of money in that country.  Those citizens who can trace their Kuwaiti heritage back hundreds of years are given a stipend by the government every month from the time they're born to the time they die.  I head the amount was anywhere from $50,000 to $80,000.  Again, that's PER MONTH.  So those citizens don't work.  There are a lot of Kuwaiti citizens who do work, but they're not the old school citizens.  Also, I always knew the pound and the euro were stronger than the dollar.  That's a given.  What I never knew was that not only is the Kuwaiti Dinar more valuable, but it beats the crap out of even the pound.  One Dinar costs about $3.61.  Again, that country has some money.  It's just a shame so much of the country is dirty.  I did spend some time in Kuwait City for a few days.  The company brought us there to do company in-processing.  They put us up in an apartment and we had briefings and training all day for about three days.  Being in downtown Kuwait City, you could almost think you were in the states.  Across the street from me was a McDonalds, Baskin Robbins, Carls Jr, etc..  Down the road was an Applebees, Buffalo Wild Wings, Cinnabon, Pizza Hut, Dominos...  Also across the street was a coffee place.  They made the best lattes I've ever had in my life.  The coffee was amazing. 

 

After that period, we went back to Ali to get ready to catch a flight to Afghanistan.  I was in Kuwait for about 5 days and caught a flight to Bagram on a C-17.  I have pictures to post later of that.  From Bagram I took a small puddle jumper to Kabul.  Fortunately, I didn't have to stay the night at the airport.  We got picked up in some up-armored land cruisers and drove to Camp Eggers where I stayed for about a week for some quick training on policies and procedures here.  Afghanistan is even dirtier than Kuwait, but without the benefit of money.  It's a very poor country.  Oh, and right as I was getting ready to fly into Afghanistan was when the whole Quran burning fiasco took place.  So that made the prospect of driving through that much more fun.  Then I get here and those two Army officers get killed just a few miles from where I was.  Then, last week, that Army SSG went insane in the afghan civilians of a couple different villages.  It hasn't been the best "Welcome to Afghanistan" period.  That being said, I'm more than happy to stay right here on base.

 

As of yesterday, I've been here in Camp Phoenix for two weeks.  One of the biggest advantages to Phoenix is that we have an educational center here on post.  It's the only one in the Kabul area.  This past Monday I began college courses.  One in person, and two online.  I was also lucky enough to get my own b-hut after my first night here.  Basically, there are these small buildings and they use ply wood to separate them into either 6 or 8 rooms.  I got lucky enough to get in one that's split into 6 rooms so mine is slightly bigger than normal.  However, don't think that means it's actually sizeable.  It's about the size of a jail cell.  Fortunately, it's all mine.  I was finally able to unpack my stuff after a month of transient living.  That was an awesome feeling.  The gym here is pretty nice too.  It's pretty typical of a normal gym.  Cardio equipment, free weights, machine weights, etc..

 

I have reading to do for my class tonight so I'm going to get to that.  Attached is a picture of what I look like if I don't save for a month and a half.

 

I'll start updating a lot more regularly.  That should be a decent snapshot of the last month+ of my life.

Update

More To Come....

 

I can't access the blog from work so the only thing I can do is update via email which I forgot about until recently.  I'll try to get some time today to catch you up.

Falling Behind

Wow, not having access to a reliable computer and internet connection as really left me behind.  I still need to update all three of my followers with the last week and a half.  I'll do that soon as well.

Landed in Afghanistan

Well, I'm in Kabul.  I'm at the Kabul International Airport.  I'm not sure when I'm going to get to NKC.  The roads are black so they can only drive during certain times.  Therefore, until they can get a truck up here, myself and the other guys I came with are hanging out in an Alaska tent.  (I'll post pictures as soon as I can for those that aren't sure what that means.)  It could be worse.  It could be a WHOLE lot better, but it could be worse.  There's... umm..... there's heat!!  That's a positive.

The plane I was trying to make out of Kuwait was leaving early.  We had to be in the tent at 0330 for role call.  Mike and I decided to stay up all night rather than risk sleeping through the alarms so we hung out at the MWR, got some McDonalds around 1:30, drank a lot of coffee.  We made the flight though.  We got into Bagram a few hours later and I was afraid I might be in Bagram for a few days.  I'd heard of that happening a lot lately, mostly due to weather.  Fortunately, there was a flight just a few hours later.  I made it onto that and after a 15 minute hop over a mountain landed in Kabul.

It's colder than Kuwait was.  It's not too bad though.

I really just want to get to the base.  This transient thing sucks.  I just want to be able to finally set my bags down, unpack them and not even think about them anymore.

I'm tired, so this is a boring post.  As I said, I'll get some pictures.  Maybe after I sleep I'll get more humor back too.

Oh, and this is the wonderful homemade lunch I have to look forward to every day.  And no, there is no microwave.  That's straight cold boyardee.  I'm starting to question the defense budget cuts. 

Yay

This is what I woke up to this morning.  Good times.  I'm really glad I have some nice boots.  I watched a couple guys in gym shoes take a nice dive while walking.  Yesterday it was cold.  Today it's slightly warmer and snowy.  That means slush.  And that equals nasty. 

I wonder if I'll update this blog so often once I get to afghan.  Food for thought.

Death by powerpoint

Apparently that's the docket for the day.  On the bright side, they read every word on every slide to me like it's a bedtime story so I don't even have to waste energy or brain power reading those long words like D-E-N-T-I-S----- oh crap, he starded another long word.... forgot what that last word was...

Monday Morning

Another beautiful army morning.  I didn't realize it was possible to cut bacon so thin you could see right through it.  I'm not sure what's on the docket today but I'm sure it'll be every bit as thrilling as one might expect from training briefings.

I really want to just get over to the desert and get this thing started.

Day 1 of CRC at Camp Atterbury

The included pictures shows what I've been doing for about 8 hours so far today.  I probably have at least an hour left.  If any of you Boeing people are complaining of the annual training, they have nothing on the army.  This is ridiculous.

On the bright side, food's free...

It begins

I'm about to get on my flight on my way to indianapolis.  Saying goodbye was hard.  I hope this gets easier at some point.

Mobile test

Testing mobile upload

Bart's a retard

I don't believe I really have to expand on that for anyone that knows who I'm talking about.

Getting Closer

It's February 6th.  In 5 days I'm supposed to be on a plane away from here.  The reality of it all is beginning to sink in and it sucks.  I haven't even left yet and I miss my boys already.  On the bright side, I think we found a place for the family to move to that won't be out in the boondocks like the current residence is.

I keep thinking I should have just taken the whole week off.  There's still so much to do and I'll have Thursday to try to get everything done.  I want Friday as open as possible.

This had better end up being worth it.  If it's not it's going to be a year of suck for nothing.

Blog Creation

Today is 3 February 2012.  In 8 days I fly out of SEATAC airport to begin my 5 day training course in Indianapolis.  On 17 Feb I'll be flying via military aircraft to Kuwait and a couple of days later to my destination in Afghanistan.  Hopefully I'll be able to find the time and commitment to post regularly.  Most of my updates will be mobile uploads for the first week.  After that I'm not sure what my net access will be like.  The plan is to purchase a laptop by sometime in April, so unless I can get consistent access to the site from elsewhere, there might be a gap in updates between late Feb and sometime in April.

Feel free to follow along, comment and email me.  I've never been away from my boys for long and maybe this avenue will provide me a way to tell them how much I'm thinking about them while also helping them feel a link to me across the geographical gap.  I'm both nervous and excited about this opportunity.  Though I have little idea what to expect from the time I leave here.

I expect that some days over there will be better than others.  Therefore, in the event this blog ever gets used as a venting session of my frustrations, please forgive the content if it becomes less than P.C.