Today I did something completely different.

Instead of sitting in my truck like normal, I sat on this barrier for the whole day! Gave me a totally different view of the LNs (Local Nationals) I was watching.

These are Iraqi birds. They are brown just like the dirt. They like hamburger buns. Everything is brown here. I've seen a few square yards of green grass, and I think it was just growing from a leaking sewer line.

This is an Iraqi Beetle. It vibrates. I'm pretty sure if I decoded the vibrations into morse code it would say something like "Dirka dirka! Jihad dirka!".

I got two packages today, one had my sunglasses that I ordered. They are ballistics rated which means they are BULLETPROOF (for really small bullets and shrapnel anyway). So that means you can SHOOT ME IN THE EYE and I will only laugh at your puny attempt to harm me. Also, no, I do not make my bed. Take that mom. And also SSgt Vega who tried to teach me to make it perfectly in Basic Training. What a waste of time.

The second package had my two school books for the two college classes I'm taking while I'm here. They are brand new and would have cost $350 but I get free books through my school thanks to some government grant they have. So, that means that when I finish the classes I can sell the books for probably $200 and actually make a profit from going to school. Score!

I don't have a picture to show you, but I have noticed that all of the Iraqi guys take a bottle of water with them into the port-a-johns. I have not yet figured out what they do with it and I'm not sure that I want to know, but I will keep you updated on the progress of the investigation. Perhaps they just rinse their hands with it? But there is hand sanitizer on the door outside most of them. Perhaps they use it as some sort of strange Iraqi portable bidet? How would they do that with a non-full bottle? I do not understand the physics of that theory. They do like to take baths with the bottled water outside the port-a-johns though. Before they eat they use bottled water to rinse their hands and face.

Also they eat the same thing every day as far as I can tell. It's basically huge pieces of flat bread that they tear into pieces and dip into... something. And also they eat Lay's potato chips. Strange.