Christmas

We had a good Christmas here.
Good food.
Good company.

One Santa, Many Expressions

One Santa, Many Expressions, originally uploaded by ~*nma*~.

Push his green belly button and be surprised!

Thanks P* for sending me this little guy. He's keeping me entertained!

DFAC on Christmas Eve

DFAC, originally uploaded by ~*nma*~.

The workers are up late setting up for tomorrow. The grills and tables aren't usually outside like this.

Fuzzy Me

Fuzzy Me, originally uploaded by ~*nma*~.

What I did on Christmas Eve.

After telling Carol I didn't have anything to do, she suggested taking self-portraits.

{I couldn't get myself in focus.}

Look at what my troop is doing...

I am leaving this camp in 7 days (or so) and I'm leaving this country shortly thereafter.

But one of my soldiers started blogging about this place too!

And if you want to continue to send him packages of the sort you've sent me this year, let me know and I'll send the address (our zip code changed).


The Last Hooah.

For your 'greasy hair'

For your 'greasy hair', originally uploaded by ~*nma*~.

Packaging says:

Purifying
Greasy Hair

{i giggled like i was in junior high}

Roasting Marshmallows

Roasting Marshmallows, originally uploaded by ~*nma*~.

Periodically we have a bonfire, I mean, burn our classified material.

One guy had marshmallows.

We improvised with some commo wire and skewers!

Them: Selling Stuff

Selling Stuff, originally uploaded by ~*nma*~.

Been while since I posted, and this photo was taken a few weeks ago. I went to the Irbil City Center to do some shopping. These guys are located just outside the Citadel, reportedly the oldest inhabited man-made structure in the world.

"Open on December 5th"

was written on today's envelope.
{I have twenty more envelopes with similar writing!}
and inside were these two little guys.

B* sent me a tabletop Christmas Tree, so up they went!



Lila and Sue are sisters, living in Pennsylvania. I've never, ever met them, yet they have regularly sent me letters and packages and cards all year. The story is that they ran into my friend N* at the post office, got to talking and somehow my name and address was passed to one sister, who then passed it to the other sister.

Anyway, this last mail push, I had a big box from Pennsylvania, and in this big box were 25 envelopes - a little present for each day until Christmas.

I teared up when I realized what it was - the generosity of strangers completely humbles me. I mean, these two women take such time and care to put together something like this for someone they've never met. I know they have more Soldiers on their mailing lists too.

Thank you Lila and Sue!

Live Entertainment

Tonight the band assigned to CENTAF (Air Force component of Central Command) goes around to different camps, FOBs and bases within the area of operations. I missed their initial performance by mere minutes - they were packing up as I arrived the other night.

Circumstances at their next scheduled location forced them to stick around for a couple more days. We were not complaining - its so nice to have different people around. I suspect people get tired of talking about the same things, with the same people.

Anyway, the band agreed to put on another show for us - and we all had such a good time.

Break

This was this afternoon. My two commo guys.

Happy Birthday 3ID

poster taken from their website: here.

I was able to see their reenlistment ceremony. All those chairs were filled with Soldiers who volunteered, continuing to serve.

It was pretty cool and I realized that this is what I will miss about the Army. I was ... well, emotional in a mixed up kind of way. I will really miss this sort of thing, the ceremony and the significance of being in uniform. I mean, I didn't feel enough to change my mind, but I will miss this... noone but us really gets it.

A bit harsh...

my last post.

Certainly, I was miserable, but there were many, many good things about my trip and my return. I made a list of happy things.

*people going out of their way to help me (SGT H @ Finance, 1LT L and SFC P with the signal platoon)
*chat w/ T - reminding me of something called 'grace'
*emails from people who love me (P, M) that are under no obligation to love me
*getting on that flight back to camp
*having people happy to see me when I got off the helo
*hot water for my shower
*a heater that works!
*my bed

I also got mail from cousin (yummy cookies - thanks ria+3!), sister (good coffee and love the Onion you included), Blue Star Mothers, boy, 2 T letters, Amazon.com (Heroes Season 1, The Best American Nonrequired Reading of 2007 (love this series), and Ryan Adams & The Cardinals Follow the Lights) (love this guy)...

Made it!

Honestly, this was the worst trip.
Ever.
Beats any other time I've ever been stuck
in an airport
or in a car
or in a blizzard in the middle of nowhere Kansas ***at least when we were stuck in Kansas, we had a bar to dilute our misery***

I'm finally back in my little 10x10 (or whatever the dimensions) room.

It was
cold
cold
cold
in Mosul and the room I had was without a heater. The next day I switched rooms to one with a heater, only to have that heater crap out somewhere between indirect fire attack 3 or indirect fire attack 4. My awesome Army sleeping bag really is awesome - I was toasty inside, but the chill outside made for a rough wake up. Really, I've slept in colder environments (uh, south of the Imjin River in Korea ... in JANUARY!), but I just was not in the mood for it. Especially after a 14 hour wait for the C-17 in Baghdad, only to go south to Kuwait to catch a C-130 headed north to Mosul.

And I was extra miserable because it was THANKSGIVING and I was with no family to speak of - not my parents or sister, my roommates or friends, or my Zaytun family either.

I'm looking for a little love...at least a little sympathy!

[Feel sorry for me! Feel sorry for me!]

Holiday Weekend

Happy (Late) Thanksgiving!

Not much going on here with me. I spent a week in Baghdad for some administrative stuff and now I'm in Mosul trying to take care of some contracting/money stuff. I've been living out of one bag for over a week now, and I'm ready to get back to my little 10x10 room in Irbil!

I was able to have Thanksgiving dinner with some friends I met back in January. We ate around 8pm at the big, big DFAC on Victory Base.

Here in Mosul, places are already decorated for Christmas. I think they're trying to make us feel better, but really, I think it just makes me feel even more isolated and lonely. I'll be home soon (52 days soon!) so I'm trying not to think about Holidays.

I've got 2 maybe maybe 3 more mail pushes, so please don't send anything more my way. I have enough things and whatnots to keep me stocked until I leave and leave behind for the rest of the group. I have enjoyed everyone's letters and packages this past year.

That's it for now!

Ludicrously Tasty

The Box says, "CRUNCHY NUT! ... its ludicrously tasty!" (this pic was just sent to me, we discovered notquiteright marketing months ago...)

{Not as funny as Liz's gem "The Cleaning Power of Barf"

CLS

I know these are bit late.. apologies. I've got some free time and my internet connection is cooperating!

The students stick each other with IVs the last day of the combat lifesaver course (CLS). This guy's buddy needed some more practice...

Things I've Done This Week That I Haven't Done In Awhile.

1. Ate a meal at the Korean DFAC. Realized that I hadn't seen the ROK Commanding General since September! One ROK Colonel kept asking me if I had ever eaten this food before. My inner voice: "Yes, I've been here 10 freaking months! Of course I've eaten kimchi!" What I really said was, "Oh, of course! I love Korean food!" Then this same Colonel kept telling me that I should learn how to cook bulgogi and bean paste soup because that's what "Good Korean wives do." I just smiled :)

2. Ran 8 miles - all at once! My running friends will understand. My family, {ahem, cousin Ria}, will continue to think I'm nuts.

3. Worked. Oh, I have lots of smart ass comments for this, but won't include them here ...

4. Responded to stupid boy comments.
Him: Ah! You smell so good I could take a bite out of you!
Me: Don't ever say that to me again.

As of today, I've been here 10 complete months! Which means I have 2 months to go!

in a truck. for hours.

I might look tough here,



but the biggest threat during the convoy were these kids! So excited to see Americans, they are tearing through the streets, weaving in and out of parked cars...



and catching us at the stop light. This little guy came right up to my window and waved and waved, blowing me kisses when we left.



It was so cute. And look at me! I look like an alien!

Chai Master

This guy we called the Chai Master..


mmmm....chai....

Ibrahim Khalil

I tagged along with the Border Transition Team (BTT) last week. They were training one of the Iraqi border brigades, and since lately I find myself without a lot of work, I asked if I could go with them. We stayed at the Ibrahim Khalil Border complex, the main POE between Iraq and Turkey.

{Here is one guy's observation of the Turkey/PKK tensions. And another article.}

I didn't see any Turkish soldiers, or any PKK rebels - just a lot of trucks moving back and forth between the countries. (Well, a lot of trucks waiting to move back and forth between countries.) We did eat at a truck stop within the complex - kabobs, lamb skewers, bbq chicken, flat bread, fresh vegetables, zaytuns (which means "olive"). The food was so good we went back the next night.



It was a welcome break from camp, and the 10-man BTT always takes care of me whenever I tag along.

Happy Halloween!

{taken with my camera phone}

one of the new guys who's really excited to be here (uh, that would not be me) managed to get his hands on a pumpkin.

stalker?

Um, yeah, so I saw this today at the sign in sheet at the gym.

Not really sure who wrote my name and drew little hearts around it, but I'm a bit freaked out....

in-country travel

is seriously a pain in the butt. especially from our location where there isn't a military airfield anywhere close. And I get cranky cranky when I'm tired. And boy was I tired.

I did get down to Baghdad for the C6 conference. Ran into some old faces, people I worked with way way back when. I seem to forget that I've been in the army for over 8 years and have been around, working with all kinds of people. It was nice to grab a coffee and watch rocket attacks in the distance (I'm only sort of kidding). It was nice to grab dinner or lunch with old friends and catch up.

Oh yeah, we had a conference! I've been so out of the commo stuff that I didn't really know what was going on. My superstar staff sergeant has been handling all that stuff while I was the LNO/Team Leader. Everyone was excited to meet him and the Koreans - put a face on these headless voices from online conferences and whatnot.

I don't seem to have much to write about; I used to try to make these posts anecdotal, but I've hit a wall of sorts. Nothing exciting is happening up here, and I don't have much to write about, at least nothing appropriate - my annoyance with people, Turkey and the whatnots between them and the Kurdish Regional Government, my opinion on this war and what's going on back home...yeah, inappropriate.

I can't wait to get home and see everyone. Thanks for the love and prayers and packages and letters and emails.

bbbrrrrr.

It got cold last night.

Definitely not complaining. Much better than the 120+ we had a few months ago.

*sigh* and that's all I really have!

Signal Battalion

We met with the Signal Battalion commander and some of his staff about some issues and projects we're working on. I now have the time (and energy) to go to things...like meetings and conferences.

{Snapped this with my camera phone and added a filter in photoshop.}

I'm back...

I've been back to Camp for about 5 days now, and wow, things are different.

1. People left! Friends left! Two I was prepared for, and we said our goodbyes before I went on leave, but the one was a complete surprise! My Navy girl left to head back to the states. We were able to meet up at the airbase in Kuwait before she shipped out.

2. I have a boss. Well, I've always had a boss, but he was in Baghdad. I'm no longer the team leader and I couldn't be happier! They finally found a major to take the senior LNO position, so I now find myself with zero responsibility and about 1/3 the workload I had before. This is fantastic. (of course I have responsibility, just not nearly as much as before)

3. Half the Koreans rotated about 3 days before I went on vacation. I know about 3 Koreans. That's it. And now that I have a boss, I don't have to go to the daily Korean meetings.

I really don't know what to do with myself. I finished up my final classes for my masters. So, no more school. I'll finish my resume and look for jobs...read...run...go to the gym...learn spanish...play violin...

Anyway. It is good to be back, only because I'm that much closer to finishing up my time here.

Amsterdam

Heineken, originally uploaded by ~*nma*~.

We didn't just drink beer the entire two days... I wasn't allowed to take pictures in the Van Gogh museum, but was allowed during the Heineken Experience!

I thoroughly enjoyed Amsterdam, though 2 days is probably enough time to spend there. I liked the bicycles, the diversity of people, culture, food, canals, leaning canal buildings, flower market... um, didn't experience too much of the other, ahem, fun parts of the city. Stayed away from the smoking establishments. Had some drinks in the Red Light District.

I'm still sorting through the pictures, while trying to pack up boxes to send back....

Wall @ Vatican

Wall @ Vatican, originally uploaded by ~*nma*~.

Can't sleep.
Thought I'd upload some pictures.

More are here.

Heidelberg

Heidelberg, originally uploaded by ~*nma*~.

Dre took me to Heidelberg last weekend where we ate lunch outside, drank some beer, people watched (there were lots and lots of people), walked up this monster hill to an old castle...

More photos are here.

We just returned from 3 days in Rome. Pics to come...

Japanese Garden

Japanese Garden, originally uploaded by ~*nma*~.

Woohoo! I'm on leave!

We went to the Japanese Garden in Kaiserslautern (i think I'm spelling that correctly). I also have time and while procrastinating doing homework, I discovered Comic Life on my Mac. Created this little storyboard in about 3 seconds.... fun fun fun.

The rest of the pictures can be found here.

Coffee. And Thai Food.

We've figured it out, Green Beans Coffee has a mafia-like hold over coffee in the camp area... the dfac coffee is awful, thus after breakfast and dinner we'll walk to the coffee container, and spend $ on good {better} coffee. My battle buddy orders a latte and I usually go for the spiced chai. mmmm.





We're still here in Kuwait - though tonight we'll do our pre-travel briefing and then sometime tomorrow we'll be leaving. The camp here has a pretty nice set up, and they try to keep the transient troops entertained - big MWR tents with movie screens, movie watching booths - you can check out a movie and watch it on your own tv/dvd w/headphones, internet cafe, foosball, pool. The USO here is very comfortable... lot of couches, carpet, bean bag chairs... I fell asleep there not once, but twice yesterday.

Yesterday, I went to get a massage (yes, there is a beauty salon here) and the girl who did it was Thai! She was like "we same-same"; she's been in Kuwait for a few years and her sister and brother live here as well. She asked what Thai food I was missing, and this morning she brought me som thom & khao ni aow...never thought I'd get this in Kuwait.

Kuwait. and the Air Force Marathon - backwards.

So...I'm here in Kuwait for a few days waiting to fly out to Germany and I've been trying to stretch the fun I'm having here ... taking my time at meals, sleeping whenever I feel like it, procrastinating on finishing my homework assignment..

Anyway, I traveled down here with another Soldier from Zaytun, and we discovered that there was a 5k Fun Run, so we gave that a whirl - well, we each won if it had been a race! He was the first boy, and 5 minutes later, I was the first girl! Zaytun sweep :)

This morning I decided to run again...went out the little check point, took a left instead of the right we took for the 5k, and I see all these people running towards me. More so than the normal morning run. And most of them are wearing Air Force PT uniforms. And a little bit further, I smiled and waved at this guy and he giggles and says "Hey! You're going the wrong way!" Uh, then I come across a water point. I ask one of the volunteers what's going on and he's like "Oh, its the Air Force Marathon!"

Me and T

Me and Tino, originally uploaded by ~*nma*~.

....well, not only am I missing my korean sister, I'm leaving the guy acting as my older brother! When I return from R&R, T will be on his way back home. While I'm happy he's finally returning to his family (after fifteen freaking months here), I will sorely miss his friendship.

**this was taken tuesday morning, after a nice, slow jog where we argued the first 1/2 mile (as our days usually begin - in argument, just like a brother I imagine) or so, we fell into our usual rhythm of point/counterpoint conversation ..this time about the recent testimony, though usually not about such heavy topics.

My Korean Sister ....

Me & CPT Park, originally uploaded by ~*nma*~.

Went back to Korea!!!

My job (since, you know, the world is all about me) just got, like, a million times harder.

CPT Park was such a delight - each morning she was smiling and had already done the work I was going to ask her to do for the day and had the answers before I asked the question... She advocated for me and my team, fought her staff on my behalf, giggled with me about boys... ah! I'm so missing her right now!

We've got a new group of ROKs in, and I'm just lacking the energy right now to develop relationships... I figure when I return from R&R I'll feel better and a bit more energized... we'll see in October :)

Jonah

This is an old church/temple. Very old. Apparently, this is where Jonah preached God's message to the people of Ninevah. {If you've forgotten your Bible stories, here's the one about Jonah}

Mosul sits in the Iraqi province of Ninewah and a Chaplain told me this Ninewah was the same as Jonah's Ninevah.

Along for the Ride

Truck, originally uploaded by ~*nma*~.

I needed to get to Mosul and another team going to Mosul needed an additional person, so I tagged along. I haven't been in HMMWV in years thanks to working at an Air Force base in my last assignment. It was a relatively short trip - about 2 hours maybe.

We arrived early in the morning and it was like entering a different war. Irbil and Zaytun are so quiet, dark and comparatively safe, but Mosul is a different story. Despite the early morning mortar attacks and constant activity, I was happy to be with Americans and on a larger, more populated camp.

apologies

Yikes, its been awhile since I've posted - I know this b/c the emails have been of the "haven't heard from you in awhile - you ok?" type. Apologies!

I'm up to my eyeballs in catch up work due to a quick trip to Mosul last week to take care of some other work before the end of the fiscal year. I ended up on a convoy with the border team, which, was a first. The convoy was fine, we didn't get blown up (yay!). I did get some teasing - one guy wasn't used to a girl-voice on the radio. Hmmph.

Getting away from my office was a nice break, but being in Mosul reminded me of the good things about Irbil and Camp Zaytun. The daily rocket attacks, the number of people be-bopping around, the constant noise from the airfield and generators - its QUIET at Zaytun.

Pictures soon...

Office container

Office container, originally uploaded by ~*nma*~.

Self-explanatory.

Soldiers Creed

Soldiers Creed, originally uploaded by ~*nma*~.

I like this t-wall. {for some reason the photo is cut off on the right. Click the photo to see the entire wall.}

Softball

Softball, originally uploaded by ~*nma*~.

Despite my un-social mood, and my crap softball skills, I did get out last night to watch some of my guys play the ROK logistics battalion in softball.

I think my guys were annoyed that when I sat down, Korean after Korean sat next to me and had their picture taken.

I felt like a freak sideshow attraction.

P.S. I have the same Incheon Marathon tshirt as the guy in the front! A few of us ran the 1/2 marathon there in 2003. I tried to tell him that I had the same shirt, but I don't think he understood me.

60 Minutes on 'The Other Iraq'

60 minutes re-broadcasted a piece on Kurdistan. Find it here.

I can see 'dream city' from a hill on camp!

34%

Hey! I hit 1GB on my gmail account! {that only took 3 years}

Saturday Night...

We went to their house for dinner {Civilians contracted to train the Iraqi police force - great bunch of guys}



where one of the guards always makes us chai in these little glass cups



that get ridiculously HOT. I leave mine sitting out for a minute before attempting to hold the cup, let alone drink the chai



{I'm stll learning my new camera. Would have been a better picture if the first cup was in focus.}