I had forgotten....and I mean just plumb forgot about those silly details...but it didn't take much to remind me, all of 15 minutes of boots on the ground.  I had forgotten how hot it can get, how the wind blows such that it feels like a giant hair dryer was chasing you everywhere.  And the sand...how it goes on and on and on...with no end in sight and getting in places that sand has no business being in!  I saw a ton of camels and goats, which I hadn't seen the last time around...at least not as many.  My arabic is rudimentary at best but I plan on making it very smooth in the weeks to come.  More to follow-

 

I can't ever remember eating as much Arabic bread in my life like I have in the past week.  There is something to be said about eating that bread while in-country that makes it very special.

A crazy trimester indeed.  Two days after moving to a nice mediteranean chateau, I'm informed Im to undergo Army training and will spend a year in Irak.  I was soooo dreaming ofa typical andalusian summer, with horse rides on the beach, learning to play Flamenco on my guitar (which I was going to buy...) and finishing grad school.  Most of all, enjoying the European lifestyle with my HP, that was the icing on the cake.  Instead Ive spent the last three months in an open bay barracks teaching my squid (blue navy) counterparts what is and how to use 782 gear and all the ins and outs that the "green" navy is well acustomed to and that the blue navy is totally clueless about.  HP, a true trooper, has been on standby to come and do "missions"...with me from Dallas to Fort Hood...literally undercover missions in between my army training missions!!  And so, Ive been the luckier of the troops on this venture so far because I've had my weekly dose of TLC just because the training happened to be in Texas.  I really hate to think how it would have sucked had it been somewhere else.  HUA Fort hood....

 

So now, were cocked, locked and ready to roll in country.  The bird will be here within the week.