Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Day 13 Man! I was tired!



Dear Family-

Today was pretty much a blur. I ended up going to sleep at about 1 AM and did not wake up until about 2:30 PM. I was one tired puppy and last night I was sleeping in a real bed for the first time in almost two weeks. Today I spent a lot of time cleaning up my room and bathroom. Everything is new (including the building) so it needs to cleaned. I also spent a lot of time sorting through my clothes and doing laundry. It is pretty much a jeans and polo shirt environment so I pretty much did not need to bring 2/3 of what I brought with me. I will be sending a lot of stuff home once I get situated a little bit better.

One big problem I encountered is money. I brought cash as instructed, but you really need only an ATM or Credit Card. Everything you do or want outside of the base is done in Kuwaiti Dollars. It seems that most people only shop off post for food and stuff. This appears to be mostly for convenience sake more than anything. I will do what I have to shop on base once I am granted access. That brings me to the one sore point in this whole adventure. I have filled out an access form 3 times so far, but I still do not have access to the base. This is apparently normal and should be resolved in the next day or so. I have tomorrow off as well and I hope that I do not sleep as long as I did today.

The big bright spot for today was that I was able to get my travel companions out of the bag completely. They have not been willing to come out since I got to Fort Benning. First it was because they didn't like being around all of the people in my room. Then they were scared because they were in a tent in the middle of the desert. Now that I have my own place with access to a kitchen, they are ready to start hanging out. The fact that I told them that I was no longer feeding them in the bag had very little to do with it I am sure.

They have taken up residency on my dresser and are glad to be getting some fresh air.

Internet has been flaky at best today and this post has taken me the better part of an hour and a half to complete. I am going to have to look in to other means of internet access.

Love you all!

3 comments:

Erin said...

Wow! Your room looks so crowded! How did you get all those guys through customs and security? I hope Squeaker is behaving....Lion 2.0 tends to lead him down a mischievous path. (Sorry all that cash isn't coming in handy...)
P.S. What?! You have to do your own laundry? Oh, say it isn't so!

Unknown said...

Well I was worried that you might be lonely in a desert country all by your self. Now I see I needn't have been worried. You imported your own company. I must admit I harbor a little envy over the gym, pool and hot tub.

Kat said...

Can I tell you how cool that photo is??? My brother in law is Navy and when he was stationed in Iraq, he took a bear with him, dressed in camos and all. It became a bit of a pal to everyone. The whole family started sending gifts and clothes for the bear and he would "write" letters home to the family. My sister will not believe that another fellow was so brave!