Christmas Overseas

It was a different Christmas this year.  Growing up it was always a beautiful madhouse.  Tons of kids running around, lots of food, never quite.  It was a great tradition.   If only i had the writing ability, i would describe in more detail how great it was, but i dont, so i wont. 

I was able to join some friends from church for brunch, and it was a pretty good brunch.  All the guests cooked something connected with their holiday tradition, it was an interesting potluck.  One guy had this dish that was like eggs, sausage, cheese and peppers mixed up on top of bread.  it was baked like a quiche.  It was my favorite dish.  We also made gingerbread men, and no, the candy beard was not my idea, but it was awesome, so i did it.

settled in

while i can't say i love or hate working nights, im starting to adjust.  Either that or all the sugar from a few candy canes is really helping me stay awake.  regardless, the last two nights haven't been too difficult.  thank you americans who support the military, there are boxes of candy canes and homemade cookies all over the place.

on a different note, i'll be moving to a new apt in a couple of weeks, hopefully close to the new year.  i haven't seen the new place, but i hear its a little smaller.  can't say thats gonna bug me, i have no objects to small living quarters.  my sophomore year i lived in a 12x13 foot room with Joe and i loved  it.  although i wont have a bunk this time, and im sure they will have a queen sized bed, what a waste of space. im pretty sure i'll be closer to greg/becca and scott/sarah, so that will be nice.  i'll also be closer to the mall, grocery store, and papa johns.  i'll say this, the large pizza may be a little smaller than the US version, but they deliver really quickly.  you can get almost anything delivered here.  craving burger king, delivered.  groceries, delivered.  not sure about starbucks, but i only order papa johns and have eaten at least 6 large pizzas since being here.  luckily im working out now.

third night shift

so im 3/4 done with my third night shift, and while i do enjoy the time to read, its pretty boring here at night.  I just finished "Christian Jihad" by the Caner brothers. its basically about the war the "official" church waged against the non-official church (mostly muslims and jews, but also a lot of christians who cared more about the word of God than what the church leaders thought)     im not even catholic, but as a christian i'm ashamed of all the evil done in the name of god. there is a lot of argument as to why the church should not run the state, since man is always corrupted.   its a fairly dry book, as im sure you guessed, but there are a lot of historical accounts that would open the eyes of many americans who think christians have always been peaceful people and the muslims are a warmongering people.  while both sides have killed and murdered, i believe its important to know the past of whatever group you associate yourself with.  in the end, only God can judge.

this is gonna be short

So its 3:11am, my time, and im staying up late because im about the start working the night shift.  I'm about to fall asleep, but thanks to tays reminder, i realized i never posted pics of my loan payoff visual aid.  I got two vases from IKEA in kuwait and a bunch of coffee beans.  I filled one vase up, and as i pay off my loans, im moving the beans from the right side, to the left.  I wont say how much each bean represents, but i have measured how many beans there are in total and how much i need to more, depending on how much i pay.  here is a pic:

new spot

sorry to say nothing exciting going on here, just one update sort of worth mentioning.  with a co-worker leaving, i've started working at a different location my group supports.  its in a different building, and while not always busy, i support a lot of higher ranking army people, so the stress is higher. the room im in is really cool and i wish i could give some details, but if i told you, i'd have to kill you, and i dont want to kill anyone.

hope everyone is doing well and enjoying the snow in TX.

An explanation of why it takes me so long to post pics or mail stuff

A Day in the Shoes of Bobo,

I wake up at 4-4:50, depending on if im gonna try to read before work or shower or whatever.  I get up, brush my teeth, comb my hair and get dressed.  That part might take 10 minutes if i have time, or 3 minutes if i overslept, much like college.

I try to leave the apt by 5, or 5:15 depending on who im riding to work with.

After driving 20 minutes to the base, i spend 20 - 40 minutes in the security check line or getting my car searched.

The goal is to be in the office by 6 where i start fixing stuff, taking a breakfast break around 7.  They have kiwi almost every day and if i get a to-go box, i'll stick 3 or 4 in there and eat them throughout the day.  Free food is only not awesome for my tummy, which likes it a little too much.
Lunch is a little after 12, then sometimes i get a to-go box at 5:30 for dinner or just to snack on during the evenings.

We leave the base around 6:30 and are hopefully back at the apt by 7:15.  This leaves 3-4 hours until i need to get to bed, which is why it takes so long to do anything.  My internet is really slow, but we were told there would be DSL at the new apt which we are moving to next month, but we shall see.

During those 3-4 hours, this is what i do:
Read Network+ or CCNA training books, pretty boring, but required for advancement at work
Hang out with Greg and Becca, always fun
Thurs nights i go to church, im really liking it, very small but close
Read good books (i've knocked out 5 books since leaving TX, its a good feeling finishing a book)
Just got my computer working, but i've spend a few nights working on that
I have the newest, greatest computer game, Modern Warfare 2, but have only played it for about 30 minutes so far, i dont want to get sucked into it, there are so many other things i need to do right now
Work out at least once a week, but like i said, tredmills suck, so do stationary bikes
Chat with or try to skype family, and soon friends, but thats all dependent on the internet.

first kuwait market day

So Greg took me to the friday market last week.   sorry this has taken so long to post. this post will be mostly pics, and im gonna try to edit some of my older posts and add pics.

Here is a pic of one of many overpasses with incorrect spelling.  Not sure

here is a picture of the parking.  this is just a small representation of how dumb this country is when is comes to parking, driving and transportation in general.   notice all the cars on the edges of the pic.  they are all parked correctly, then some guy parks his car in the middle, facing the wrong way.  monkey see, monkey do...

here is a little (maybe 5 ft) guy carrying two seats.  good old philippino workers.  they are everywhere. some will follow you around with a wheel barrel and carry all your stuff.  i also saw a guy carrying three chairs, pretty impressive, but i couldn't pull my camera out before he took off.

here is how many couches they had

 

all of those plastic bags on the table each have a remote in them.  and the TV's are all wrapped in plastic wrap.

here you can get a small idea of how big this place was.  you're looking at most of one roof, and part of another.  there were around 16 of those things.  some with electronics (where all of Americas computers from the 90's went) some had hardware and building supplies.  some had clothing, others rugs, others carpets, others furniture, others couches, others toys, and the rest were just random collections of random crap.

i just thought these water towers looked cool.

and here is a road sign on the way back to my apt.