Kuwait is Ku-wet

Well, we made it to Kuwait after a nice long plane ride. We left out of Killeen at about 5:30 pm on Monday, the 5th and landed in Kuwait City at approximately midnight on the seventh, I think. After losing nine hours of time and making two stops, one in Bangor, Maine and the other in Hahn, Germany, I had no reference for time whatsoever. I wish we could have had a bit of time to hang out, though. When we landed in Maine, I made all of my last minute phone calls, since cell service is either nonexistent or ridiculously overpriced over here. After a five and a half hour flight, we landed at the former Hahn Airbase near Frankfurt, Germany. It was not the idyllic little European town one might think it to be, unfortunately. Being a former American base, it looked more like the remnants of a concentration camp. Apparently, from what I have gathered online, it is called Frankfurt-Hahn, but it is miles away from Frankfurt itself, and it's not even on the rail.

Hahn is in the middle, but no Frankfurt to be seen

Anyway, we got ushered off of our plane, which was a rather aged DC-10 run by Omni International Airways, and were shuttled to a holding lounge that had a pitiful little Duty Free Shop, a typically touristy Gift Shop, and a couple coffee and snack kiosks. I bought a Coke, which unlike most other foreign Cokes I've had, was kind of dissapointing. I liked the bottle, though. I also got some postcards, one ofwhich will be going to Arnold's, and I'm undecided on who to send the other one to. Don't despair, people! All of you will get mail at some pont. We get free mail here, and I plan on thoroughly abusing that privelige.

everything is a little sideways in Germany...

After liftoff from Hahn, we flew another five hours to Kuwait City, Kuwait. We got on a bunch of buses that had casino carpet for uphosltery and were sent to another holding point (at this time we were beginning to feel alot like cattle). We were made to drink some Arabic water, which I was pleased to see is ISO 9001 certified. It was also only slightly hard, having a mere 50 ppm of hardness. I have been told that a good few people have had kidney stones from the hardness of the water in Iraq. I'll have to find a good way to counteract that.

crazy!

Next we embarked on a two hour drive up to Camp Buehring, which is nothing more than a bunch of semi-permanent structures in the middle of the desert. And, in typical fashion, consistent with this deployment, it looked like this:

trust me, it's wet

We brought it here from Ohio, I think. This was also taken at about six in the morning, and we stil hadn't slept.

After breakfast, which is leaps and bounds better here than in Texas (honestly, how is it possible to get a Mexican omelette half way around the world, but I can't get one two hundred miles from the border?), we were allowed to go to sleep for a while. Then I got up and explored the place, which like I said, is a tent city. Most of them are semi-permanent quonset huts reminiscent of old hangars. We do have some decent facilities, though. I am in a free internet cafe right now. We also have a movie tent, several post exchanges, three dining halls, and many phone banks. The only downside is the sheer flatness of the place. There is absolutely nothing to puctuate the horizon. It's nearly impossible to tell where the sky and land meet. I'll try to get some good pics up of it. That's the only thing that will bother me, I think. It seems as though living in places like Cincinnati and Las Cruces has accustomed me to mountains and hills.



Well, I think I'll wrap this up, and don't forget to check back frequently!