Birthday

Today was my 27th birthday, but surprisingly the first I've spent in Iraq. Iraq is a pretty good birthday-having location, but some things are a little different than back home. For instance instead of those little confetti poppers and noise-makers at the party, the EOD (Explosive Ordinance Disposal) guys set off gigantic explosions that shake buildings and produce mushroom clouds not unlike this one:

Instead of going to a nice restaurant you can walk a half mile to the BX and have Pizza Hut prepared in a tiny trailer by people that do not speak English. Instead of birthday candles you can take a trip to the trash burn pit, which is a gigantic hole in the ground filled with trash. And fire.

Other things are the same though. The crew from my base took me to Pizza Hut and got me a nice card and some alcohol wipes, which you can never have too much of around here, then we played some cards at the Hot Spot, it was a pretty good birthday considering. Missed being with family of course, but from what I hear they had a nice party without me.

I forgot to bring my camera, so I didn't get any pictures of these events. Bummers. I have it with me now though, so you might get some awesome pictures of me following around a garbage truck today, watching him empty dumpsters.

I guess the Super Bowl is early Monday morning here, and a lot of people are excited about watching the game. It's also easy to tell who the alcoholics are, as we are allowed two beers during the game as long as you don't have to carry a weapon in the next eight hours. I'd say most people are more excited about the beer than the game. The dining facility is decorated in Super Bowl paraphernalia and there are parties going on all over base for those that aren't going to partake of the beer. (In case I never said it before, alcohol is forbidden in deployed locations, so no one has had any alcohol since they've been here, which could be a year for the Army guys.)

My college classes start tomorrow, which will be nice. Will have something else to do to occupy my time and actually have something to show for my time here. Depending on how hard they are I may pick up another one next month and try to knock it out as well. If I can work ahead in the classes it will be extra nice as I can probably finish them pretty quickly, but that just depends on the teacher.

Does anyone have any questions about what it's like here or want to know about anything in particular? I feel like I'm running out of things to say and don't want to bore people with things that aren't interesting. Just leave a comment or email me and let me know if you have anything in particular in mind.