A trip to the City

14 December 2008

I feel like a farm girl who's gone to the big city for the weekend! I had the opportunity to come to Baghdad for a couple days, mainly to see Jake who's here serving his punishment for not getting out of the Navy fast enough, and a little bit to learn more about medical jobs in the Army. My little 4 day adventure is almost over, it feels like I've been away forever so it's pretty sad to know that weekends have no meaning to me anymore. It also feels like it's been so long because I miss my awesome bed. And yes, my bed in my shipping container really is awesome. I affectionately call it my bubble gum bed because everything is pink, sheets, pillows, blankets, PJs, pink, pink, and more pink. I'm not complaining though, it's a lot better than army colors and it's all been given to me by friends and family, so thank you.

Our conference was in the Al-faw palace, the same building Jake used to work in for those of you who saw his pictures. It's pretty amazing, not without it's imperfections though I learned today on my tour. It was built too fast so the structural integrity isn't what it could be. Saddam's initials are on every single pillar in the palace, along the walls, and just about anywhere else he could stick it. I can't see the interior decoration of my house ever having CJE on every surface.

Jake showed me around most of the compound, in a vehicle, so it's a lot bigger than what I'm used to. There are roads and sidewalks here, I'm used to dirt and gravel. A lot of the buildings are made out of marble or some other type of non mud material so that's new too. As fun as it is to be here and see all the Iraqi buildings and actually feel like I've experienced more than just mud and dust, it's not so much better than where I'm at that I'd prefer it. I'm just introverted enough to enjoy being somewhat more secluded. The highest ranking person on our FOB is our Brigade Commander, a Colonel (full bird colonel which means his rank is the eagle...a full bird) where as here there are bookoo generals and colonels and all sorts of other Coalition Forces, Australia, Britain, other places that have dust colored uniforms not like us retards who wear gray-ish blue-ish square patterned clothes??

I'm still struggling with the whole picture thing but eventually I will conquer all. Then I will give more details about everything I've seen.

Until then I'll try to add Jake's blog link so that you can see the pictures he has from here.