Qatar

Like I said in my last post, I'm currently in Qatar at Al Udeid Air Base, which is a major hub for all flights going into and around Iraq. We don't know when our plane will leave and so we're staying in the transient billeting for now. They are big tents with about 20 bunks per tent. Our group that is going to Ali AB is all in the same tent plus others going to other areas. We got here and it was freezing cold. Again, my cold weather gear was in my checked luggage along so I was quite uncomfortable for a while. Even during the day here there is a chilly wind and I don't think it got above about 60 degrees today, though I didn't wake up until 2pm after in-processing and going through customs last night.







The bunks aren't too uncomfortable, but after so long traveling and trying to sleep on an airplane, any flat surface feels pretty good to sleep on. The tents are heated which was great last night, but this morning it got unbearably hot, as I don't think the heating system has a thermostat, it's just on or off and it was left on. I would guess it was about 90 degrees in the tent and I was sleeping right under one of the vents on the top bunk (the vents are the white tubes hanging from the ceiling, if you can see them in the pictures). Needless to say I was just laying on top of all my covers and was still burning up, but managed to still get at least some sleep. You can also hear the wind blowing against the tent, the door opening and closing as people come and go, open their storage trunks, etc. My wife would not sleep well here! :) Somewhere along the way I lost days of my life. I remember getting on the plane in Denver, and somehow I've ended up here days later and I only slept in a bed for one night. I'm not sure where the rest of the days went, but they were sneaky about it.

The little base here has quite a lot of stuff. There is a large central tent that everyone calls "the bra" because it looks like a bra, which is where I'm sitting to write this with the WiFi. It's quite cold and I'm right out in the open so my typing is getting slower and slower as my fingers decide to stop moving quite as nimbly. There is a media building with computer access, a movie theater, dining facility open 24/7, gym, BX, bar (we're limited to 3 beers with a ration card, if someone chooses to drink) magazine reading room, Pizza Hut/Subway/Baskin Robbins/Coffee shop, etc. You can even buy a custom tailored suit here for cheap. And, inexplicably, there is also a place to buy a new car. I'm not sure why or how, maybe it's some kind of tax break? We don't have any duties here, so we can just wander around using the WiFi or gym or whatever else we want all day. Picture of the bra below along with our tents from the outside along with the volleyball court (full of rocks, ouch) and one of the bunkers where we would go if we were attacked (which are apparently also used as a popular make-out spot for couples, as they are not allowed in the opposite sex's billeting).





The dining facility isn't bad, food is similar to basic training, except now I have time to eat it and taste it. I just swipe my ID card on the way in and then have unlimited access to whatever I want. I can see why a lot of people gain weight out here, it's basically an all-you-can-eat buffet for every meal, including sodas, ice cream, cookies, short-order grill, etc. I'll have to watch what I eat so I can leave about 25 pounds of myself out here in the desert! The good thing is that there is also a salad bar and fruit bar so it's just as easy to eat more healthily. The sodas are all in Arabic of some kind, as well as the milk.







The glass of "stuff" in the following picture is supposedly "lemonade". It tastes sort of like lemonade but looks suspiciously exactly like the "orange juice" that I had last night for breakfast. I have a theory that the machine that dispenses the juice actually contains only one kind of liquid and then they just change the labels. I think I may avoid the juice in the future and stick to the water/milk, though I hear the fruit punch at least isn't brown. Maybe they add red food coloring to that spout.



The jet lag isn't bad so far. A couple more nights and I should be pretty much on the right schedule. I guess working on crew and switching between nights and days all the time has made me pretty flexible as far as staying awake or sleeping at random times.

Here are a couple more pictures of our billeting area to finish up this post. I'll post again if anything else interesting happens here in Qatar!