This morning I bit the bullet and drove for the second time. I still haven't been gutsy enough to do the drive back in the evening, but I'm getting there. Anyway, on the way to work this morning about 10 drops of rain hit our windshield. It was so surprising I didn't know what to do at first. I am really looking forward to what a real rain can do out here, though I'll probably regret that wish when I'm slogging through black colored mud sticky from all the oil in the atmosphere.
All the same, I hear that for a few weeks in the spring the entire desert is green and dotted with flowers in some areas. I'm really looking forward to that part.
The weather is finally getting cold at night. I turned the AC off entirely last night and I'm thinking about picking up a little space heater. Yup, it gets pretty chilly at night and it's only October! Hopefully the box I mailed our coats in gets here before too much longer...
Saturday, October 28, 2006
Friday, October 27, 2006
Working for the weekend
Well it looks like the office gods are smiling on me. I will be going onto “normal” Kuwaiti work week with a weekend of Thursday and Friday. This will be nice because Tom will have the same weekend as I will. Now I just need to get a license and a car…
Thursday, October 26, 2006
Autumn
It’s definitely autumn here. It’s strange how quickly it has changed from really hot to downright chilly. I had to get Mr. Joseph, our building superintendent to turn on the hot water this morning. The water tanks sit on the roof tops so the sun heats the water normally, but the nights are getting cold enough that when I get up at 3 AM for my shower, its freezing. This morning, on my way to the chow hall, I noticed moisture on the rocks and dripping from the roof tops. I had to ask someone if it had rained, but it was just dew. Of course I haven’t even seen dew here before so it was interesting to me. I could actually feel the cool moisture in the air and there were small puffy clouds in the sky, which is quite a bit different than the normal brownish haziness from the sand dust. It will be really cool to see seasons again. On Kwajalein all we had was a wet(er) season and a dry(er) season, so this will be a welcome change. I mailed our jackets to us from Kwaj… I sure hope they show up soon!
Monday, October 23, 2006
Last night in civilization, if you can call El Paso civilization
This was toward the end of the evening (like 10:00 or something lame like that) before we caught a cab. From left to right, that’s my battle buddy Mike in the red shirt. The dude in the back is Jarrod who is here in Kuwait on another base. Then that’s Goober looking very pooped all sprawled out across the table.
CRC folk
This is Goober. He was one of the pack I ran with at the CRC. He was named Goober by the folks we dared him to just go sit next to. You can see the table he sat with behind him in the shadows a little bit over his left shoulder. I think they wanted to adopt him and make him their mascot. Either that or he told them he was a taxidermist because I swear two of the ladies at the table looked like they had dead critters on their heads… I bet half of the Aqua Net sales in the country are made in Texas.
"Week end"
Tomorrow I will be enjoying my second “week end” in country. I have Tuesdays and Wednesdays off. Of course I was used to Sunday and Monday off on Kwaj. However the actual Kuwaiti weekend is Thursday and Friday, though there is talk of it moving to Friday and Saturday… Are you as confused as I am yet? Is it any wonder I haven’t quite gotten the hang of time over here?
Sunday, October 22, 2006
Ramadan is almost over
So Ramadan is almost over. There was a lot of partying in the streets last night. Apparently, the Kuwaitis party by having big family dinners, lighting off fireworks all night and shooting their guns in the air. I opted to turn in early.
Thursday, October 19, 2006
So here we are!
This is a crazy town. We got here during the holy month of Ramadan. The Muslims fast from sun up to sun down, which is really rough if you think about it! Not even water or chewing gum is allowed. Way harder core than me. Westerners can even be tossed in jail for eating, drinking, smoking etc. in public during daylight, so you have to be careful. Anyway, they do everything slowly except stand in lines or drive. Then they’re hell bent on killing themselves or someone else in order to get there 2 seconds faster than anyone else. Weird.
So here’s a rundown of what’s happened since my last post. I made it through the endless in-briefings and poking and prodding at the CRC. I did it on about 4 hours of sleep a night. Often we didn’t get done for the day until 11:00 PM and had to be in formation at 4-5:00 in the morning. It was draining, let me tell you. On my last couple of days they had to redo some of the blood work since they’d lost it and I was so tired and stressed out just before my last inoculation, I started just sobbing and couldn’t stop. I wasn’t hurt. There was nothing really wrong. I was just tired and homesick and family sick and Kwaj sick and I missed my husband and my cat. Pathetic, hu? Anyway, the poor guy kept handing me Kleenex and looking at the needle he was supposed to stick me with and I could tell he was questioning the moral implications of sticking a crying woman. Poor guy. He was this cute little enlisted guy and he just didn’t know what to do. So I left and regained my composure and went back in. The guy was still pretty worried, so I had to crack a few jokes in order to get him to stick me… Hm. What was I thinking there?…
So that was done and I managed to get out of El Pitso alive. Barely. With just over a pint of blood left in my veins. They must be building an army of vampires with all the plasma they stole from me. My arms looked like I was a total junkie.
Next came the day and a half travel to Kuwait next to a guy who was shorter than me but had shoulders that took up a full 2 seats. After the CRC experiences, I thought I’d been through the worst, but oh no! So I was awake and doing stuff for about 48 hours straight strapped into a plane seat and trying to figure out how to get comfortable in half my seat. Once we got there they handed us yet more forms and expected us to be able to fill them out! *shudder* I think that if I ever leave here I will never come back. Having to do the CRC and the flight once was plenty-nough for me for a life time.
Now that I’m here, I am really starting to enjoy it. The food really is fantastic and some of the people are really cool. The folks I work with are really nice people, which is good since I’m spending at least 60 hours/week with these hosers. I get up at 3:00 AM in order to get ready and get on the road at 4:00 AM so I can be at work at 5:00. It only takes about 20 minutes to drive here, but sometimes getting through security takes a long time and we don’t want to leave the night shift hangin’. The chow hall here is awesome! Really good food and lots of it. I think I’m eating more fruit now than I ever have since they have just tons of it and it’s already all cut up and whatnot. And I’m lazy. Heh.
So we do basically everything that is server related and I am learning a TON! Everyone that works with me is smarter than I am, which I always love. They’re a little protective of me since they haven’t had a girl working in this shop in eons and the last one didn’t last long. So they all treat me like I’m their 12 year old kid sister (even the ones younger than me) and they are all super cool about escorting me around so I’m safe and protected. Isn’t that sweet? Something about this place just makes me feel a little bit helpless and I actually appreciate the guys stepping in and being the body guards. It’s strange because I’m so independent and hate to be babysat, but the Middle East is just a little bit hostile toward females. You can feel it rolling off of them in waves. American women are so spoiled because we’re treated more like equals there than anywhere else I’ve ever been. Kuwait just brings that into sharper contrast. American guys, you should know you really are the best. American women, especially those older than me, thank you so much for what you went through/are going through to ensure my freedom and equal treatment. I don’t think I’ll take those things for granted ever again.
So Tom and I found a beautiful villa and should be moving in next week this time. We have a whole floor and a half in a nice section of town. 3 bedrooms, 3 full bathrooms, a half bath for guests to freshen up before dinner, a nice sized living room, a small kitchen/dining area, 2 balconies and a rooftop, a maid’s quarters attached to the laundry room upstairs… I mean this place is to die for. You know the shower heads that have like 6 nozzles that go up the wall as well as the main one overhead? Yup, every single bathroom. And the master bathroom has a jetted 2 person tub… purrrrr. There are interesting details, like hand-made artisan tiles everywhere, even in odd places on the walls just for decoration. We’re going to get some fruit trees and maybe a couple of chickens a quails so we can put them on the back balcony and have fresh lemons, tangerines, lemon grass, eggs, etc. all the time. I’ll post some pictures soon because you guys aren’t going to believe this place.
Tom and I will be going car shopping soon, which makes me all kinds of nervous. I haven’t driven here yet, and I don’t really relish driving 120 KM/hr on an in-town road. Tom assures me that it took him a couple of weeks to get the hang of it and now it doesn’t even phase him. Yeesh.
Oh well, as the Muslims say, “Ensh Allah!” I know I spelled that wrong, but it basically means, “whatever the will of God is…” J I’m so Arabian.
I sure miss my family and my friends right now. If anyone wants to come on out, you know we have an extra bedroom with your name on it! I love you guys!
~h
So here’s a rundown of what’s happened since my last post. I made it through the endless in-briefings and poking and prodding at the CRC. I did it on about 4 hours of sleep a night. Often we didn’t get done for the day until 11:00 PM and had to be in formation at 4-5:00 in the morning. It was draining, let me tell you. On my last couple of days they had to redo some of the blood work since they’d lost it and I was so tired and stressed out just before my last inoculation, I started just sobbing and couldn’t stop. I wasn’t hurt. There was nothing really wrong. I was just tired and homesick and family sick and Kwaj sick and I missed my husband and my cat. Pathetic, hu? Anyway, the poor guy kept handing me Kleenex and looking at the needle he was supposed to stick me with and I could tell he was questioning the moral implications of sticking a crying woman. Poor guy. He was this cute little enlisted guy and he just didn’t know what to do. So I left and regained my composure and went back in. The guy was still pretty worried, so I had to crack a few jokes in order to get him to stick me… Hm. What was I thinking there?…
So that was done and I managed to get out of El Pitso alive. Barely. With just over a pint of blood left in my veins. They must be building an army of vampires with all the plasma they stole from me. My arms looked like I was a total junkie.
Next came the day and a half travel to Kuwait next to a guy who was shorter than me but had shoulders that took up a full 2 seats. After the CRC experiences, I thought I’d been through the worst, but oh no! So I was awake and doing stuff for about 48 hours straight strapped into a plane seat and trying to figure out how to get comfortable in half my seat. Once we got there they handed us yet more forms and expected us to be able to fill them out! *shudder* I think that if I ever leave here I will never come back. Having to do the CRC and the flight once was plenty-nough for me for a life time.
Now that I’m here, I am really starting to enjoy it. The food really is fantastic and some of the people are really cool. The folks I work with are really nice people, which is good since I’m spending at least 60 hours/week with these hosers. I get up at 3:00 AM in order to get ready and get on the road at 4:00 AM so I can be at work at 5:00. It only takes about 20 minutes to drive here, but sometimes getting through security takes a long time and we don’t want to leave the night shift hangin’. The chow hall here is awesome! Really good food and lots of it. I think I’m eating more fruit now than I ever have since they have just tons of it and it’s already all cut up and whatnot. And I’m lazy. Heh.
So we do basically everything that is server related and I am learning a TON! Everyone that works with me is smarter than I am, which I always love. They’re a little protective of me since they haven’t had a girl working in this shop in eons and the last one didn’t last long. So they all treat me like I’m their 12 year old kid sister (even the ones younger than me) and they are all super cool about escorting me around so I’m safe and protected. Isn’t that sweet? Something about this place just makes me feel a little bit helpless and I actually appreciate the guys stepping in and being the body guards. It’s strange because I’m so independent and hate to be babysat, but the Middle East is just a little bit hostile toward females. You can feel it rolling off of them in waves. American women are so spoiled because we’re treated more like equals there than anywhere else I’ve ever been. Kuwait just brings that into sharper contrast. American guys, you should know you really are the best. American women, especially those older than me, thank you so much for what you went through/are going through to ensure my freedom and equal treatment. I don’t think I’ll take those things for granted ever again.
So Tom and I found a beautiful villa and should be moving in next week this time. We have a whole floor and a half in a nice section of town. 3 bedrooms, 3 full bathrooms, a half bath for guests to freshen up before dinner, a nice sized living room, a small kitchen/dining area, 2 balconies and a rooftop, a maid’s quarters attached to the laundry room upstairs… I mean this place is to die for. You know the shower heads that have like 6 nozzles that go up the wall as well as the main one overhead? Yup, every single bathroom. And the master bathroom has a jetted 2 person tub… purrrrr. There are interesting details, like hand-made artisan tiles everywhere, even in odd places on the walls just for decoration. We’re going to get some fruit trees and maybe a couple of chickens a quails so we can put them on the back balcony and have fresh lemons, tangerines, lemon grass, eggs, etc. all the time. I’ll post some pictures soon because you guys aren’t going to believe this place.
Tom and I will be going car shopping soon, which makes me all kinds of nervous. I haven’t driven here yet, and I don’t really relish driving 120 KM/hr on an in-town road. Tom assures me that it took him a couple of weeks to get the hang of it and now it doesn’t even phase him. Yeesh.
Oh well, as the Muslims say, “Ensh Allah!” I know I spelled that wrong, but it basically means, “whatever the will of God is…” J I’m so Arabian.
I sure miss my family and my friends right now. If anyone wants to come on out, you know we have an extra bedroom with your name on it! I love you guys!
~h
Sunday, October 01, 2006
In El Paso
Well I'm here at fabulous Fort Bliss in El Paso TX. I was born here but I don't remember it. There's probably a good reason for that besides the fact that I left as an infant. I'll have to find the hospital just so I can say I've seen it. I should be flying out to Kuwait in about a week.
Boy, was the flight here a nightmare! I haven't really slept for about 2 weeks, so if I make any ridiculous statements about leprechans in my foot locker, you'll know why. So I got up at about 2:30 this morning so I could make my 6:30 AM flight from Portland airport. I got to Dallas at about noonish and was supposed to be on a plane to El Pitso (as Mom calls it) by 2:00. Well the plane was about an hour late taking off and then we had to turn around about 20 minutes into the flight because of some wackiness with the air conditioning. So I didn't land here until about 7:00 or 7:30. follow that up with about the last 2 hours of filling out forms and I'm a gonner tonight.
The next few days will be filled with briefings, screenings and other silliness and I won't really be able to be too specific about that, but hey, I'm here, I'm feeling queer and I'm getting used to it... wait...
I'll post again once I reach Kuwait.
Boy, was the flight here a nightmare! I haven't really slept for about 2 weeks, so if I make any ridiculous statements about leprechans in my foot locker, you'll know why. So I got up at about 2:30 this morning so I could make my 6:30 AM flight from Portland airport. I got to Dallas at about noonish and was supposed to be on a plane to El Pitso (as Mom calls it) by 2:00. Well the plane was about an hour late taking off and then we had to turn around about 20 minutes into the flight because of some wackiness with the air conditioning. So I didn't land here until about 7:00 or 7:30. follow that up with about the last 2 hours of filling out forms and I'm a gonner tonight.
The next few days will be filled with briefings, screenings and other silliness and I won't really be able to be too specific about that, but hey, I'm here, I'm feeling queer and I'm getting used to it... wait...
I'll post again once I reach Kuwait.
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