Tonight, the end of Ramadan, begins Eid al-Fitr. The long and short of it is that Muslims break the fast of Ramadan.
To celebrate, and to ensure that we understand the appropriate cultural bits, they had an Eid celebration tonight at the MWR. It was basically a small presentation about Eid plus a bunch of food (I love Middle Eastern food). The double-bonus was the fact that it meant that I could avoid the DFAC tonite...even though it was chicken cordon bleu night (not to be missed from what I hear).
Briefly, my review of the food...
Chickpea samaosa: awesome
Meat samosa: awesome
Lamb kabab: awesome
Chicken kabob: awesome
Stuffed grape leaves: awesome
Salad-type dish with spicy dressing: awesome
Dates: awesome
Various Middle Eastern sweets: awesome
Very good end to the day.
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
First IDF attack
Had the first confirmed incoming IDF (indirect fire...artillery, mortar, rocket etc) today. All in all it was rather lame. The "All Clear" came pretty quickly.
I think that in my head I had planned to some sort of profound post but the fact of the matter is that I was more entertained hearing the C-RAM light up...these things just jumped up near the top of my "most awesome" list.
I think that in my head I had planned to some sort of profound post but the fact of the matter is that I was more entertained hearing the C-RAM light up...these things just jumped up near the top of my "most awesome" list.
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Good weekend
The last few days have been pretty good...no doubt due to the fact that we get Sunday off. As I was rehasing with my friend Amanda (who spent some time here herself) I'm counting the weeks in steaks.
I generally have no idea what day it is since we're in the office all the time. Every Friday the chow hall serves steak...the only way that we know it is Friday is the fact that there is steak. I have one steak down...43 steaks to go until I get out of here.
Went for a run yesterday...probably about 3 miles. To be technical, I went hashing...though with NA beer (Lowenbrau is not too bad, Coors tastes like water that someone put their cigarette out in...). All in all it was good times and nice to meet folks that I didn't know in order to get a little mental space from the office.
Probably about 85 degrees this AM. Not too bad. I have several pictures of the area where I live ("Dodge City South"). Of course I forgot to bring my camera to the office today...ugh.
Ran into some folks yesterday that I was at CRC with...good to seem them here. Their orders were all jacked up so they had to spend a week in Kuwait...not fun. They're a mix of Human Terrain, PSYOPS and other "non-lethal effects" folks. Interesting crew. Saw one of the girls, Leslie, last night while I was reading a book and having coffee at Green Beans. Cute girl, ex-OGA type...one of the guys that I work with has declared her "his project" for this deployment. We'll see how that goes.
Walked in Al Faw palace yesterday (forgot my camera, of course). It was built by Saddam to celebrate the "victory over Iran." Talk about a waste of money - though it is very pretty inside. Out near BIAP there is also the "Victory over America" palace (from the Gulf War)...in a twist of fate it is unfinished. Apparently the MWR folks give tours on Sunday. Will have to check that out at some point. Since all things come in threes...apparently Saddam also had money printed to celebrate the "Victory over the Jews" (1968 war) which can be purchased at the Hajji market. Seems to me that brother is batting about 0.000...
Missed all of the football yesterday...grumble. Luckily the Pats can't lose if they don't play...
I generally have no idea what day it is since we're in the office all the time. Every Friday the chow hall serves steak...the only way that we know it is Friday is the fact that there is steak. I have one steak down...43 steaks to go until I get out of here.
Went for a run yesterday...probably about 3 miles. To be technical, I went hashing...though with NA beer (Lowenbrau is not too bad, Coors tastes like water that someone put their cigarette out in...). All in all it was good times and nice to meet folks that I didn't know in order to get a little mental space from the office.
Probably about 85 degrees this AM. Not too bad. I have several pictures of the area where I live ("Dodge City South"). Of course I forgot to bring my camera to the office today...ugh.
Ran into some folks yesterday that I was at CRC with...good to seem them here. Their orders were all jacked up so they had to spend a week in Kuwait...not fun. They're a mix of Human Terrain, PSYOPS and other "non-lethal effects" folks. Interesting crew. Saw one of the girls, Leslie, last night while I was reading a book and having coffee at Green Beans. Cute girl, ex-OGA type...one of the guys that I work with has declared her "his project" for this deployment. We'll see how that goes.
Walked in Al Faw palace yesterday (forgot my camera, of course). It was built by Saddam to celebrate the "victory over Iran." Talk about a waste of money - though it is very pretty inside. Out near BIAP there is also the "Victory over America" palace (from the Gulf War)...in a twist of fate it is unfinished. Apparently the MWR folks give tours on Sunday. Will have to check that out at some point. Since all things come in threes...apparently Saddam also had money printed to celebrate the "Victory over the Jews" (1968 war) which can be purchased at the Hajji market. Seems to me that brother is batting about 0.000...
Missed all of the football yesterday...grumble. Luckily the Pats can't lose if they don't play...
I keep forgetting how to log into this thing...
Our satellite for commercial internet runs through Austria...even though I've managed to force Google to show an English page all the rest of the stuff (blogger, gmail etc) comes up in German. Very annoying.
Saturday, September 27, 2008
Philosophy and Cigar Friday
Friday night is apparently Cigar Night here in The 'Dad (if you can call Swisher Sweets cigars...). It was nice as we basically took time off of work (2200-2330) to sit around and bullshit.
The question on the table:
We've spent a trillion dollars in Iraq, have killed about 95% of the bad dudes and psychos, and are rebuilding the country from the ground up. Iraq, as a country, has been given an opportunity that no other country in the region has had since the League of Nations Mandates expired (and the Europeans left and simply drew borders on a map...they're good like that).
Is there any real hope that Iraq simply won't turn into a mess like the rest of the countries in the region (Iran, Egypt, Lebanon, Syria etc...)?
Dunno. Food for thought, I guess.
The question on the table:
We've spent a trillion dollars in Iraq, have killed about 95% of the bad dudes and psychos, and are rebuilding the country from the ground up. Iraq, as a country, has been given an opportunity that no other country in the region has had since the League of Nations Mandates expired (and the Europeans left and simply drew borders on a map...they're good like that).
Is there any real hope that Iraq simply won't turn into a mess like the rest of the countries in the region (Iran, Egypt, Lebanon, Syria etc...)?
Dunno. Food for thought, I guess.
About all the pictures...
I was going to put all of them in earlier posts but I'm stuck on stupid when it comes to blogger (read: too lazy to go edit the old posts).
Plus most of the earlier parts of this blog were written in Word and copied over since I was bingo Internet for many days...
Plus most of the earlier parts of this blog were written in Word and copied over since I was bingo Internet for many days...
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