I've been here about 5 days now and it hasn't been bad at all. I've been able to get enough sleep, i've gone running, I eat three meals a day (which I might cut back to two because the food is already getting old) and I am able to shower/brush my teeth daily.
Work isn't all that bad either, I work the night shift here it's sunny when I show up and sunny when I leave, I am told that once we get settled in that we will be able to work out on shift (which will be nice, since I would much rather run at night then during the day). I work 12 hour shifts and again, as soon as we get settled I will be getting one day off a week. The work is a bit different then what I do at home, but it was easy to catch onto and learn, we've already done a lot of what we need to do without the help of the people who have been here for 4 months already (they leave soon and it will be just us in a couple of days). It's still really hot and it will stay hot and get hotter as the time goes on, I'm hoping to get to go off base soon and get into town and check it out, I hear it's a really cool experience.
I just bought a camera (I didn't have one before), so I am going to start getting some pictures up in this blog and probably on facebook too, I have wireless internet in my room, though when I am in there, I am usually sleeping.
We have a dart board in our tent that everybody plays on when we are bored, so, I plan on being a dart throwing expert by the time I get home, anybody up for a dart challenge in four months?
All in all, the job seems fun, the base is nice and the people I work with are awesome. Should be a good deployment for us. Hope everybody back home is doing good. Keep me updated with everything Utah, I find myself browsing KSL news just to see what's going on. (mostly murders and accidents and stuff, pretty boring) Anywho, love you all.
Airman Brad.
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Thursday, June 24, 2010
The plane ride and my First day.
We left Salt Lake shortly after midnight after saying goodbye to my family and friends, it was a huge plane and there was 55 of us to 300 seats - which was cool. I slept most of the way to Georgia, we stopped there to pick up another Unit. The plan was for us to get off the plane and then board back on and get our original seats back, but they made us take all of our crap off the plane with us and they wanted to board the plane by the military protocol which is highest ranking goes on first. We sat at the AFB in georgia for nearly 2 1/2 - 3 hours waiting to board again and once we finally did the Georgia unit boarded first and we boarded second. I got a really good seat at the very front of the section with lots of leg space, it was awesome. I took two tylenol pm's and slept most of the way to Germany. They played four movies on the way there, Surrogates, Twlight:Eclipse, Wolverine and some weird russel crowe/ben affleck movie. I slept through the first three and didn't have any desire to watch the fourth.
We arrived in Germany, the commander announced that USA won the soccer game and that we were allowed to drink if we wanted, but recommended that we don't get plastered because we would be to our final destination 6 hours later.
We stayed in Germany maybe an hour before boarding the plane again, we sat on the runway forever and taxied forever, I ended up falling asleep before we took off and woke up before the "Fasten Seatbelt" sign was off. I took another tylenol pm and was ready to sleep but they passed out breakfast, I had some pretty delicious pancakes and strawberry yogurt. (sidenote, this plane passed hot towels for us about 5 times, I had no idea what to keep doing with them, so I just wiped my face and neck and then gave it back when they came around)
Anyways, I slept forever again and woke up with about an hour left before we landed. I just hung out and watched stuff on my iPad.
After 23+ hours after leaving Salt Lake we finally arrive, they ask all the Airman to get off the plane first, so we do. Then they tell us to take off our coats and put on some gloves. We unloaded the plane for everybody, which wasn't bad - I actually got on the plane where the cargo goes and put the bags on the conveyer belt. After that we filled out a couple forms and in-processed, went through customs so they could make sure we didn't have booze and porn and weapons. After that we went to our rooms, they were nice and cold (which was good because the heat outside was almost unbearable and they told us today was a cooler day) We hung out for a minute and unpacked then we went to the chow hall to eat, it is huge and the food isn't bad, they have tons of free soda that is made in some weird country cause it was in arabic style writing and the tab to open it was different.
We then had to goto some briefing about how to fix computers here and after that we came back and ate dinner, showered and then went to walk around. Once the sun was down it wasn't as bad to be outside, still pretty hot but the sun is the worst part of being in the desert.
We found a library that has lots and lots of books on tape and tv shows on dvd - so, I will be copying those to my laptop for future use. We found a hang out joint with ping pong tables, pool tables, video games and comfy couches, and we found a computer/phone place where you can use a computer or make a 15 minute phone call home. All in all, this place seems like it will be pretty nice for the next 4 1/2 months. Keep in touch with me via email, google text or comments on this blog. I'll catch all ya'll later.
We arrived in Germany, the commander announced that USA won the soccer game and that we were allowed to drink if we wanted, but recommended that we don't get plastered because we would be to our final destination 6 hours later.
We stayed in Germany maybe an hour before boarding the plane again, we sat on the runway forever and taxied forever, I ended up falling asleep before we took off and woke up before the "Fasten Seatbelt" sign was off. I took another tylenol pm and was ready to sleep but they passed out breakfast, I had some pretty delicious pancakes and strawberry yogurt. (sidenote, this plane passed hot towels for us about 5 times, I had no idea what to keep doing with them, so I just wiped my face and neck and then gave it back when they came around)
Anyways, I slept forever again and woke up with about an hour left before we landed. I just hung out and watched stuff on my iPad.
After 23+ hours after leaving Salt Lake we finally arrive, they ask all the Airman to get off the plane first, so we do. Then they tell us to take off our coats and put on some gloves. We unloaded the plane for everybody, which wasn't bad - I actually got on the plane where the cargo goes and put the bags on the conveyer belt. After that we filled out a couple forms and in-processed, went through customs so they could make sure we didn't have booze and porn and weapons. After that we went to our rooms, they were nice and cold (which was good because the heat outside was almost unbearable and they told us today was a cooler day) We hung out for a minute and unpacked then we went to the chow hall to eat, it is huge and the food isn't bad, they have tons of free soda that is made in some weird country cause it was in arabic style writing and the tab to open it was different.
We then had to goto some briefing about how to fix computers here and after that we came back and ate dinner, showered and then went to walk around. Once the sun was down it wasn't as bad to be outside, still pretty hot but the sun is the worst part of being in the desert.
We found a library that has lots and lots of books on tape and tv shows on dvd - so, I will be copying those to my laptop for future use. We found a hang out joint with ping pong tables, pool tables, video games and comfy couches, and we found a computer/phone place where you can use a computer or make a 15 minute phone call home. All in all, this place seems like it will be pretty nice for the next 4 1/2 months. Keep in touch with me via email, google text or comments on this blog. I'll catch all ya'll later.
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