• Italy
• France
• Great Britain
• Ireland
• Turkey
• Romania
• Portugal
• Canada
• some place called “USARMY”

I’ve also sent 29 work-related emails today, and it’s not even dinner time yet. I’ll be back in Germany in a few days, and back in the States in early January. See y’all!

Above is what’s called a “jingle truck.” You can probably figure out why they call them that. The internet connection here is pretty uncooperative generally, so I plan to post the rest of the photos I’ve taken once I get back to Germany.

I hope everyone had a swell Thanksgiving, and I’ll see you all in a few weeks!

I have a lot to catch up on here.

My replacement arrived at FOB Salerno last Monday morning, and within two hours I was able to catch a tiny plane to Bagram. I was prepared for another waiting game there, but I was actually able to get out within 24 hours. I did have to stay up all night waiting for a flight, though. I caught another small plane to Kabul International Airport in the wee hours of Tuesday morning, and then the fun started. I was supposed to call my point of contact at Camp Phoenix to arrange for transportation from KIA to there. But the phones at the airport were down. And I don’t have a cell phone here. So I waited. And waited some more. I asked around about ways to travel the short distance from KIA to Camp Phoenix. After about 4 hours I met a Lieutenant Colonel who called Phoenix and arranged for a convoy to come pick us up. There were about 12 other people stuck at the airport as well, all trying to get to Camp Phoenix. Finally a convoy arrived.

Convoys carrying personnel through Kabul generally work like this: There’s the Rhino (also called a Twinkie, assumedly because it’s tan and vaguely twinkie-shaped), which is essentially an up-armored Winnebago, with bus seats inside. Then there are the humvees; two in front and two in back, with gunners and everything. We all put on our body armor and helmets, got into the Rhino, and left the confines of the airport, which is a secured ISAF facility. We proceeded to tear ass through Kabul, flying around corners, blocking off traffic, and never stopping until we got inside the wire at Phoenix, which is about 5 miles away from KIA. Thus ended my action-packed 36 hours of travel with no sleep.

So I’ve been here for a week now, and I’m getting used to things. There was a lot of work to catch up on, since there was no Maryland field rep here for over a week. But things are basically smoothed out, and now I need to focus on my own classes. They’re requiring a lot more of my time as I approach finals week.

Also: new president. I am cautiously optimistic. I did allow myself to get a little giddy when I read the phrase “Obama administration.” This is the first election I’ve ever participated in where my candidate won. I’m proud of you, America. This is a pretty big deal. Now let’s not screw it up.

There is some sad news, though. My Aunt Sybil died yesterday afternoon. She introduced me to the books of Shel Silverstein at a young age, which I think was probably a big influence on who I turned out to be. I hope she knew that. It had been a few years since I’d seen her.

There are was an article about Dean Ween and his love of fishing in the Stars & Stripes this week. I thought that was odd. I wonder if my mom still mows the yard in my old homemade Ween t-shirt. Mom?

I’ll be heading to Camp Phoenix on October 20th, which is pretty exciting. The bad news is that it’s not actually inside Kabul. It’s a few miles outside of the city, and it looks just like Salerno. And I doubt I’ll be able to actually get into Kabul proper. But it’s still a break in the monotony. And apparently I’ll have my very own shipping container to live in. I just realized I haven’t posted any photos of my living quarters here. I’ll get on that.

I’m a little bummed that I’m missing out on a proper Fall. It’s still a balmy 95 degrees or so during the day. Apparently it’s much colder in Kabul. It’s supposed to snow and everything. That might make getting out in December a little challenging.

Why can’t anybody good ever do a USO tour? I guess all my favorite bands are liberal cowards who hate freedom. That, or the USO thinks that nobody would be too excited about Young Knives playing here. On the other hand, this place is pretty starved for entertainment. This might be the only situation where a band like that would get attention from this kind of crowd.

• Continued weight loss and getting in shape (I’ve lost over 20 pounds as of today)
• A new Macbook Pro when they’re released (supposedly on October 14th)
• More blogging as a result of the new Macbook Pro
• Getting better with Java and Oracle/SQL via my online classes (which may have an effect on the fanciness of this website)
• Photos of things besides this visually uninteresting FOB (since I’ll be in Kabul)
• More lists (with more parenthetical asides)

I’ve been reading like a madman, and thanks to Mike, I have a ton of awesome books to read. So I’m working on those. I’m using Shelfari to keep track of them all, and I’ve added the associated widget over in the sidebar.

Oh, and it looks like I’m getting sent to work at Kabul in October to finish out the year there. Which is pretty exciting. It’ll be a nice change of scenery. Kabul is a pretty huge city, and it’s 3000 years old. Take that, old stuff in America.

Oh, AND: some new photos.