Cats & Calzones

The group I came here with from my base invited me to supper at one of the little restaurants on base to get a break from the dining facility. We went to a little italian restaurant called Ciano's that is of course operated by a bunch of Indians or Turkish guys. I honestly can't tell most of the nationalities apart. They all look pretty similar and all of their languages sound like gibberish. If they sound like Apu from the Simpsons though, I know they are usually Indian.

I got a "Number 67", a vegetarian Calzone with olives/eggplant/mushrooms/tomatoes/cheese. Except I'm not a huge fan of olives in the first place and these ended up being whole olives with the pitts still in them, meaning it would be very easy to break your teeth on them. So I left those on my plate. Honestly it wasn't that good and I wish I had just gone to the dining facility where the food is better and also FREE. But it was ok to try somewhere new at least.

 

Here's a little tiny can of Pepsi that one of the guys paid a dollar for. It's the size of a Red Bull. Rip off! Especially since the full 12 ounce cans are free at the DFAC (dining facility). Dummy.

This one looks like a Sprite. And it's a regular size can for the same money.

The group from my base. I know, I should start getting them to take pictures of me since I'm the one that you know, not them. Maybe next time. Look how awesome and safe we are in our reflective track suits. 

Iraqi cats do not say meow, they say "Dirka dirka, Muhammed! Jihad!".

We've been told multiple times in briefings not to feed the wild life around base, so of course the first thing everyone in my group does when seeing this cat is to call it over and start petting and feeding it. 

Here are some old bunkers around the flight line on base. It is quite obvious they have been there for a long time.

Everyone paints the big barriers to represent their squadron/branch whatever.  I'll try to take a picture of ours and post it as well.

The bunkers are all falling apart. Hard to tell if it's just from age or from actual attacks. Some have gaping holes that look like they were probably caused by some sort of rocket, but it could just be a cave-in. According to Wikipedia the bunkers were built before 1985 and were heavily damaged in the first Gulf War.

Also, here is what the base looks like from space, because I know you were all staying up at night wondering what that would look like. As you can see it looks like a huge pile of brown dust with a flight line and a fence around it. Which is quite accurate.