Long time writing

It's been a long time since I wrote here. It's probably because not much has happened since my last entry. The only thing that's really changed has been the weather. It looks like spring has arrived.

Other than that, we as a unit have been packing up and getting ready for a replacements to get here. They told me I was going to be on advon and leave about 10 days or so early before the main body arrives. Unfortunately, that date keeps changing and our advon party might get there a day after everyone else. That doesn't really make any sense at all though, so I expect some more changes to be heading our way. Semper gumby.

New unit

We've had a new unit come in a replace most of the people that ran this FOB. For being active duty and all that, they have really made a bad impression on everyone. They are here for a few days are start making retarded rules that don't make a lot of sense. They had two guys get caught trying to steal stuff from a hadji shop and now their photos a posted everywhere with warnings below them. I'd be pretty embarrassed if I were this unit. I have a feeling because their pissing the locals off they're gonna have a bad time in the summer when things start heating up.

Finish line

We're down to less than two months now. I think everyone is getting anxious to get back. I know I am. The weather has been pretty good lately, hopefully it stays that way until we leave. Here's what it looked like when it snowed:

I also ate at the local kabob shop today. It tasted good, but I'm not sure what kind of meat it was.

Winter storms and packing

Here I go again talking about the weather. It really hasn't been that bad here. It's definitely cold, probably 10 to 20 F, but not what I had imagined. People talk about the freezing Afghan winters like they talk about the hot Iraqi summers. The Iraq summer is bad, no doubt. But the winter here hasn't been all that bad. I'm pretty sure Washington DC probably has had more snow then we have.
We're starting to get serious about packing. Our connexes (the ones that will be sent via convoy to a Pakistan seaport) are in the process of being packed. They'll be inspected by U.S. Customs soon. It feels good to be doing this, because everyone knows it's close to the end. Hopefully they won't end up like the last unit though. When they opened theirs up in the U.S., all they had was rocks. Apparently, someone had replaced all their stuff with rocks somewhere along the way to Pakistan. We'll see what happens to ours...

Getting close

The bad weather has passed and the sun is up... for now. Hopefully it'll stay this way until we leave. The snow isn't so bad, but the rain and mud just make it miserable. We've built some drainage along the sides of our "roads," but the water still pools and they get muddy.

We're getting close to be done. We're starting to pack our connexes that will be put on a ship. We probably won't see them for a few months after we get back, but that's alright. Packing the connexes is one of those signs that the end is getting closer.

I don't usually post about the unit as a whole, but it seems that some people are getting more frustrated and angrier as the time has gone by. There is a lot of complaining going on. It reminds me of my last deployment, except at this time people were starting to come out of the mid deployment depression and be happy. It's interesting how morale continues to drop even though we're nearing the end. I'm curious to see if there will be a mas exodus from the unit when we get back.

Australia pictures

Here's just a picture of me on our last bus ride.







We crossed the tropic of capricorn... big moment in history.









This is a lake on the largest sand island in the world.

Picture of the skydiving crew... we all survived. I was the only guy skydiving that day, so I definitely couldn't back out. Nice pants huh?

Both of these are pictures of the Whitsundays. They are a group of islands near Brisbane. The beach on top is supposedly one of the best beaches in the world. The sand is like 98 percent quartz so it is very fine and almost completely white.

Same lake on the sand island.

We stayed on a cattle ranch one night and the took us out on a tractor ride. That's our bus in the background.

Famous opera house in Sydney.

Waiting for the ferry...

Snokeling in the Whitsundays.

Back in Kuwait

I'm back in beautiful Kuwait yet again. I think this is my sixth time being here. The civilian side of the airport is really nice, but very expensive. I'm now at the military side waiting on a flight to Afghanistan.

It's still hard to think I just got back from Australia. Now it seems like I barely left Afghanistan but now I'm back again. I still need to post pictures of all the stuff that happened there.

I think my favorite part of the trip was skydiving. If you haven't done it, you need to. I also really liked surfing and going out with my Korean buddies and getting Korean food. Yum... I would have liked to spend some more time at some of the resorts we stayed at, but then I wouldn't have been able to see as much of the country as I did. I guess I'll just have to plan another trip there soon...

Australia

Well my trip to Australia is just about over and I haven't even made a post on it. It was extremely busy but a ton of fun.
I landed in Sydney, where all I did was sleep and walk around the city a little. After that, I flew to Proserpine which is a ways up north to start my tour. We started in a "yacht" which must be an Australian definition because it was tiny. We had barely any room to sleep. Other than that, it was pretty fun. We saw a lot of the islands called Whitsundays and got to go to some nice beaches and do some snorkeling.
After we got back, we stayed at a resort for one night which was really nice. Maybe I should have just stayed there instead of going on the boat.

Leave

Today's the day I'm finally leaving Afghanistan for a little while. Actually, I probably won't be leaving Afghanistan for a few more days, but at least I'm leaving my little FOB. I'm pretty excited and I hope everything goes ok. I'll try and update this a little more since I'll have something to talk about.

Guitar

It snowed again today, looks like it might be a regular occurance for a little while. Oh well, I should be leaving in about 2 weeks for leave. There have been rumors that our leave will be pushed back a little bit because there guys in December that are still waiting to go. We'll see what happens.

I'm still practicing the guitar, with little improvement. We'll see how that goes. I also invested some money into some of the banks that took a nose dive this year. I heard they probably will start going up, so maybe I'll be making some money.

Snow Day

Today has been our first real snow that stuck. Hopefully it doesn't melt anytime soon, otherwise there will be a ton of mud. Everything else seems to have really slowed down due to weather. We have to conserve most everything because flights are rare or non-existant. I like the snow, but it seems to cause a lot of problems.

Not much else going on, I just hope our leave won't get delayed. I talked to one guy who also went Australia, and he said he had a good time. I'll try and post some pictures of the snow when I get the chance. The mountains around us look pretty cool.

Bad Weather

The weather has been pretty bad the last couple of days. It's been raining, hailing and windy, but no snow. It makes it hard for anyone to leave or come in or mail to get here. If winter stays like this, it's going to be really slow.

Not much else going on here. Waiting for January to get here. Also, if any of you have any requests for authentic Afghanistan stuff, let me know. I'll try and buy it soon and ship it out.

Snow

It finally snowed here. It was just a little bit, and it didn't even stick. But the mountains around us still have a little snow on them. It's going to be a mess here when it does start. Just a little rain makes this place a mud bath.

I got my visa for Australia, so I should be good to go. It'll be good to get out of the freezing cold and go to the warm beach. Although I'm thinking about opening a ski lodge here. I think there's definitely a market for it... somewhere.

Winter

It looks like winter is officially here, because it's really cold. It's been pretty busy because a lot of people have gone on leave. Not too much longer for me, and I'll be hanging out in Australia. Actually there's not a whole lot of time left on this deployment either, maybe four or five months. It should go by pretty quick. Other than that, it's been really quiet. It should stay that way for a while too.

Swine Flu

We recently receieved the swine flu vaccination. We'll see what happens. It seems like this is how zombie outbreaks start though. A vaccination is swiftly approved, the long term effects are unknown, and a massive vaccination policy happens. Who knows, but recently I've been feeling this... hunger...

Anyway, we never solved the mystery of the shower stall. Whoever was doing it, stopped. It'll probably be on unsolved mysteries on A&E because it was such a big deal. That's pretty cool at least.

Mystery

Something horrible and wrong has been happening the last few days here. Something so savage, so barbaric, that normal people won't even believe it.

Three days ago, a discovery was made in one of the showers stalls. Not just any shower stall, but the cleanest one with the hottest water. It was a... human turd. Why would a turd be in the shower? Who did this? Most people believed it was a local national, someone not familiar with what one is supposed to actually do in a shower versus in a bathroom. However, the plot thickens the next day...

The next morning, there's another one! How could it be? Is it a joke? No one knows...

And finally today, another one!! My personal theory is that it's a soldier. There's some really dirty people here, and it wouldn't surprise me if they were just lazy. It could be a local national, but they're the ones that have to clean it. So why would they do it? Hopefully, we'll solve this unsavory mystery soon. To be continued...

Really Cold

It's getting really cold now. I could see it snowing pretty soon. Otherwise not much new. We're having another mass exodus of people going on leave again so it probably will be busy this month. Which is good because after this month there's only December left before I go on leave.
The food here has been pretty bad lately, not sure why. Maybe I'm just getting tired of it. Although they did have breakfast served for all three meals the other day. I don't like eggs all that much, and after the third time having it I had enough eggs for the rest of the year.

Pictures

Here's some pictures:

November

It's already November! I think that's our halfway point. If it's not, oh well, I'll still say it is because it sounds good. I keep forgetting to bring my camera, but I'll post pictures soon. Not much else going on, just looking forward to January. One of the units here is leaving, and other just flew in to take their place. So it's pretty crowded.

Halloween

Almost time for Halloween. Not much is going on here, although KBR shipped some pumpkins over and carved them. It's getting pretty cold, especially at night. I keep hearing this winter is going to be worse then last years. I don't know how last year's winter was, so I don't know how bad this winter will be.



It's been really quiet here. Hopefully I'll have some more pictures to put up soon.