A Bad Game Of Poker

So, of course I'm still in Qatar on my 4 day pass. The last two groups to come down here from where we are from were here for 8 days. So we were betting on at least a couple extra days while we waited to get a flight out. : ( No such luck. BAH!! More on that later, don't want to give out TMI right now.

Today was pretty fun. We were SUPPOSED to go on the fishing trip, that got changed to the boating cruise, then that got cancelled too so we went to the 4 story mall that is supposedly twice the size of Mall of America. Well folks, let me tell you, Mall of America must be small, or they have misjudged this place. Don't get me wrong, we had fun running up and down 4 stories of mall, and I climbed a rock wall, and slid down a big huge ice ramp on an intertube, raced around in mini go carts chasing two little arab kids and one of my fellow soldiers (I WON!), and visited with an Egyptian local national who told me that I had the best arabic accent (albeit my arabic is limited) that he had ever heard from an American or Western European. I bought some stuff in his shop.

I really over ate during my time here : ( I shouldn't have but I just felt, hey, I have a month before I go home, I'll indulge some. I broke my nice Timex Expedition watch too, oddly enough the corner of the watch broke off, so it wasn't the typical 'band broke' or 'battery died' type of thing. Luckily some super glue seems to have fixed the problem, don't know for how long.

I'm sure I'll post more on a reflection post about this trip, right now I have to go pack. BAH, I wanted an extra two days, this is irritating!!

Current Lyrical Ramblings

Time is wasting
Time is walking
You ain't no friend of mine
I don't know where i'm goin'
I think I'm out of my mind
Thinking about time

Time - Hootie and the Blowfish

Volleyball In The Rain

So, Qatar is one of the sunniest countries in the world, right? Yah, not so far on my pass. Day 1, cloudy, day 2, again, cloudy, and today, day 3, raining, not anything bad, just light rain.

Today started in the briefing room like always, where you meet to go on the outings, and I was picked out of 23 people to be the NCOIC of the day, basically in charge of the group. So we got out and into 6 Nissan Pathfinders, all on super sized springs and sand tires, and headed out into the dessert.

We roared up and down sand dunes, tearing around like maniacs, we weren't allowed to drive but that was okay. The drivers we had were maniacs. Then we all rode camels around, that was interesting, I found out they don't like to be pet, or at least they aren't used to it. I would lean forward and pet the camel and he would snarl at me and growl loudly, everyone was laughing their asses off about it.

Then we loaded up again in the Pathfinders and roared across the desert to the beach. It was sprinkling the entire time thus far, and that didn't stop. I got into the Persian Gulf up to my knees, but that was as far as I would go, it was just way too damn cold to go further, the wind coming off the ocean was gusting up to 30 mph and I didn't want to get sick.

So we played volleyball for about 2 hours, and that was a blast. I got totally drilled in the nuts when this girl who wasn't too good dug the ball and it bounced off her wrists at a 90 degree angle and beelined right into my crotch. Again, that was good for some laughs, not so much by me for a couple of minutes.

Finally the food got there and we all ate. It was local cuisine, a beef kabob, a mutton kabob, some bread (no where near as good as the iraqi bread) some humice? (I think?) and a couple of salads, along with some rice and chicken. I swear the chicken there must be the scrawniest of all the world's chickens because it was like chewing gristle off the bone.

All in all I had a great time. Lost my 70SPF suntan lotion, but I'm not going to worry too much about that, I'll buy more. The sad thing is, I didn't even use it of course. Hell, if it keeps going like this I won't get a chance to use it at all. So be it!

So far, lots of fun, taking some pictures, will post them when I get back home.

Current Lyrical Ramblings

Some strange arabic music they played all day today, sorry, I have NO clue what it was, it was interesting though.

Rest & Relaxation

Isn’t it amazing how a vacation is defined as a break from work, as though it’s a time for ‘rest and relaxation’, when in reality it’s like you try to pack as much crap into a shortened time period as you possibly can. This is no exception, this 4 day pass to Qatar. Last night we ate at the Chili’s here by the pool, and I ate far too much, then slammed down my 3 drinks, 2 Fosters and a Corona, in about 15 minutes, and then I actually felt a little ill. I drank all three of my drinks with orange juice.

Afterwards I called my wife up quick, then headed off to bed, I was beat. Slept till about 7 this morning, up again, called belly again, then at 0900 we headed off to the Hyatt Mall. Quite disappointed, to be honest, the prices are just outrageous here. And the mall itself left a lot to be desired. There really wasn’t much in the way of interesting stuff, in my opinion. I sort of enjoy shopping in Iraq by comparison, because there are so many unique and unexpected items.

Oddly enough, the people of Qatar seem to LOVE coffee. There must have been 6 coffee shops in a mall that was about 2/3 the size of a typical U.S. mall like you’d find back home. I wish I would have bought sunglasses the last place we were at while flying here. The PX here has a horrible selection, and you’ll pay more than 100 dollars for any pair out in the malls.

It was quite hot today, so I got ready when I got back from the mall to head down to the pool. And oh what luck, it suddenly got cloudy and sprinkled on us at the pool, so that was basically pointless. I am having fun though. Tomorrow we are signed up for a tour leaving at 9 in the morning again, this time it’s the inland picnic tour. For now though I’m going to bed. NIGHT!!

Current Lyrical Ramblings

I can't sleep, I keep dreaming of losing you
I feel so alone in the night, scared to open my eyes
I'm in too deep, I'm in over my head this time
Can't get you out of my mind, no matter how hard I try

Say You Will – Foreigner

Not Guitar, QATAR!!

I’m currently on my 4 day “rest and relaxation” pass to Qatar, a tiny country in the middle east. Headed out yesterday afternoon from Iraq and ended up here finally at like 0200 today, then we had briefings till close to 0500. After that we got our linens (sheets, the venerable green wool blanket, pillowcase, frumpy old pillow, and a towel) and they showed us to our ‘tents’.

The tents we are staying in are actually inside of a much larger warehouse, it’s kind of nice because it’s so well climate controlled. Inside the tent are bunkbeds, I got in reasonably early and got myself a bottom bunk. You have to have a lock for the lockers because there are people around who love to steal stuff, so they say about Qatar. If that’s the least I have to worry about here though, hell that’s alright with me, I’ll just be sure to lock my shit up.

It’s really warm here, probably about 105 degrees outside, but you know me, I love the heat. I just swelter away and enjoy myself. Oh, on the trip here I got vomited on, the girl across from me, another member of our unit, suddenly said “I need a bag” and I didn’t follow what she meant, but she needed a throw up bag, and no one heard her, we barely got her carry on bag and my bag out of the way and she leaned forward and upchucked right between us.

Now, to fully describe what it’s like riding on a C130, you are sitting facing one another, legs basically intertwined, probably only about 3 feet apart total. So I had a nice up close and personal view of her tossing chunks, and right down my calf too. Well, you probably know what puke smells like, but imagine in at about 95 degrees packed inside of the tight confines of an airplane, and it was pretty rank. I’m surprised no one else threw up.

So, it’s great to be in Qatar, and that is no lie. They basically set up ‘recreational programs’ for us to do here, that involve going out in groups of 25 to do things like water sports, beach picnics, historical tours, mall tours, etc. We wanted to go on water sports (me and the other 4 people from our unit who are here) but that filled up far too fast. So we ended up signing up for one of the smaller ‘mall tours’. I say smaller because I guess they have a 4 story mall here that is TWICE the size of Mall of American. Yes, I know, your jaw is wide open, mine was too when I heard this. And get this, this is actually only the FOURTH largest in the world. I have to wonder, where are the other three, and if this one is THIS big, just how big are THEY?

So we are going to the mall tomorrow to do some purchasing. I did buy a couple of things this morning because you have to dress appropriately according to the culture here. I didn’t think my Coed Naked Snow Skiing shirt nor my Moo You Bastard shirt would fit in well over here. I ended up buying 3 plain Hanes white Xlarge tshirts and an orange collared shirt. I have two other dressy tshirts but none with a collar, and although you aren’t required to wear a collared shirt now (used to have to off post all the time) I still wanted one so I could look nice. It’s a little flashy in terms of the color, solid orange, but I am sick of drab colors, this is the first time I’ve worn civvies in more than 5 months. Plus, hell, I can work for a road crew when I get back if I need to, with this shirt haha. Oh, and NO SHORTS off post. You have to wear jeans. That’s going to be warm haha, thank God I enjoy the heat.

So, I think I’m going to get off the computer here and go to the pool. A 4 foot pool with no diving boards. Yes, LAME – O! Everyone knows I like the diving boards. So far so good, it’s pretty fun here. I’ll keep you updated!!

Current Lyrical Ramblings

See me I'm down and I get deeper with every breath
See me I'm over the edge farther with every step
See me I'm down and I get deeper with every breath
Standing over the edge I'm taking my last breath

Starless - Crossfade