Afghanistan!

I went to Afghanistan! (quite the busy month, I know).

The trip was planned for a week. I went with 3 Army guys, kind of to help support them and introduce them to people in theater. They're all nice and easy going guys, so that part of the trip wasn't too bad.

We went all over (well, to the US -side): Bagram, Kabul, and Kandahar (and a few outlying places here and there). Afghanistan looks just like Iraq, only the locals are more attractive (intense eyes!), and there are mountains. It's still dirty/dusty/sandy though.

There's really nothing too great to share about the trip - well, besides that lovely day in Kabul. We were supposed to go to ISAF (another compound more in the city) for just an afternoon. We took a convoy (Ooo!) and met up with my coworkers. Then we got ready to head to another location... approached the main gate/exit, and they shut it, not 2 cars ahead of us! The foreign soldiers said there was an IED and to check back in 30min. Apparently they can clear them by then.

So we got out, looked around some shops, and started to hear gun fire. Oops! The gunfire when on past our 30min mark, which means they wouldn't be reopening the gate any time soon. Ok. No biggie. You have to be flexible. We went inside and made some conference calls, and while in the middle of one the whole building shook. There had been a large blast, large enough for us to know it was a VBIED (aka car bomb). Oops!

Here's a link to some photos and a little story on it:
http://thruafghaneyes.blogspot.com/2010/01/attack-in-kabul-18-january-2010_18.html

We were supposed to catch the afternoon convoy out, but now we were on lock down... without our bags! We'd left them that morning at the airport baggage storage area. Poo. Suddenly I was buying clothes and bath supplies at the exchange, and a coworker lent me an extra sleeping bag for the night. The boys had to sleep in the transient tent, but being a girl I was able to bunk in a room (there's usually a few open slots for ladies).

Luckily by the next morning everything was good again. We got back to the airport and flew into Kandahar where we ended the trip. I was never so happy to return to Bahrain, but I've thrown out to my boss that I'd like to deploy again :) I found a site I think I'd be good at running, so I'm going to put in for a manager's position. It'll just be 4-6 months, nothing too bad, unfortunately there's a few approval processes to go through - usually they don't like people who live abroad to deploy, but we'll see.

Jeep!!

A new car for ME!!!

I ordered my Jeep through military sales and it only took 6 months! (ick). That's alright, they built it from the ground up for me, so I'm a happy little customer.

A little back ground: I learned to drive when I was 16 in California. Dad took me out in the Ford Taurus (automatic) into the back development areas where no one was around and said "put the pedal to the metal!" I think I made it up to about 45 before freaking (imagine me and guns! ha!). Mom had the chore of teaching me stick - it involved me in the drivers seat of an '86 VW Van, and her making hand motions and screaming "clutch clutch! other one! right! left! break!" ... so needless to say I did NOT do so well with manual shift in Southern California traffic, and have stuck with automatics.

That said, I recently had a bit more training in northern Iraq. The group I was with would leave out for afternoon meetings and I would be left on camp all alone :( No one but me and the little manual Land Rover. If I wanted to go shopping, I had to drive myself, so I stuck to the base's back roads and stalled in front of many different groups of (very attractive and buff) men.

So, twice traumatized by the stick shift, I decided to go ahead and buy my Jeep as a stick. Why?! Why the pain? Because it's a Jeep, that's why.

His name is Mr. Jiggle's, and I love him. yes, I stall a lot, but we're learning each other's pressure points. He gets me a lot of attention - men love Jeeps! Men love to laugh at women that stall Jeeps and grind gears (I'm apparently a clutch r ider too - eh, I've got a few thousand miles before THAT goes out).

The top will come off once the weather clears up a bit - it sprinkles every few days. In the meantime I pay my cleaning man about $50 a month to wash it twice a week.

pretty!!

The New Year and Laura's Visit

I had a pretty great start to the New Year (now a month late, sorry!). I went to Jim's Restaurant - where Jim was hosting a buffet with drink specials and a DJ. We had a table of about 20 or 25, and somehow gained special seating out on the patio. The night was lovely - a little bit of rain, but it was about 70 degrees. I had a bad hair day, and 99.9% of the photos I was in turned out horrible. I blame the use of a new hairspray and the humidity caused by the rain. I'm never opposed to embarrassing photos - so here's the worst one of the night. Silly string. Silly Jen.

A few short days later my friend Laura came out to visit!! I planned the week down to the minute - unfortunately we both came down with the bit of food poisoning that kept us laid up for a full day, but it also allowed us to bond over British home and style television.

We traveled around the island, from north to south. Here are some of the sights we saw:

The tree of life. Impossible to find (exit Isa Airbase and head north for about a mile, it'll be on the left about 1/2 mi off the road in the dirt) and incredibly disappointing. Preservation; apparently it doesn't happen here. The tree's supposed to be about 400 years old or so, fed from an underground spring. Look at the lovely artwork people have left..

Quite sad.



Then there was the Bahrain Cultural Museum (located near the Marina Club, against the bay on the northeastern side of the island). I recommend going if you're ever out ($1.5, about 0.5BD). It's broken into sections that define Bahrain's history and culture. Some of the artifacts are recovered from digs, a lot of it is recreated, but it's a chance to look at a culture you don't normally read about in history text books.



Then there was the Bahrain (aka Portuguese) Fort (located near the Seef Mall, up against the water). It's been rebuilt, and there's a lovely white-walled museum that now displays the history and artifacts. It only cost about $3 (1BD) to get in, and you could spend all day walking the grounds and enjoying the ocean breeze (assuming the weather isn't too hot). The museum sells coffee and there's a nice outdoor sitting area. You can sit here and watch the sunset and the fort light up.

We also drove out to the Saudi Causeway. It's two small identical islands linking Saudi Arabia to Bahrain. Identical, as in there were Mc Donald's on either side. They have towers you can take up to the top and, on clear days, see the Saudi mainland. ... not the day we went. But it was still neat. We're not allowed to travel into Saudi unless it's on official business. I doubt that'll ever happen for me, so this is as close as I'll ever get (which I think my dad will be happy with).

There were other events - dinners, drinks, brunch, malls, and lots of chit-chatting. I miss my little Laura, but hopefully we'll be seeing each other again very very soon!