It is time, finally for the continuation of "The Past Two Years" If I remember correctly I left off at my getting ready to fly into Bagram Air Field...
The only thing I remember about the flight into Afghanistan was the combat descent we went through just before we touched down. Pretty much, its a really big dive while turning so kinda like a nasty downward spiral....not for the weak. But that was the worst part...the best? Seeing people turn white and start to get sick from it XD...I know, Im morbid. But anyway...the doors to the plane opened up and we all offloaded. I remember taking my first steps onto the Afghan soil and thinking to myself...'wow...Im actually in Afghanistan." It was kinda surreal. It was in the wee hours of the morning and there was still a chill to the air...as it should being over 11k feet above sea level. We got our "Welcome to Afghanistan" briefing with the 100th do and donts speech that we all could have repeated verbatim. After the stupid briefing, we wandered out into the sun...and we saw our surroundings for the first time...In the distance, we saw mountains...huge mountains capped with snow.
These mountains were the Hindu Kush Mountains...mountains that linked up with China at the other end. It was definitely an awe inspiring moment. Well, we grabbed our bags and got a "bus" which felt like it was going to fall apart at any moment and found our way to the "clam shells" BIG tents made to fit hundreds of bunk beds...they were by no means private...but hey, it was home for the first week or so in country. During this first week, we took classes that dealt with things that EVERYone should know when they arrive in country. We also became accustomed to the base and learned where we would be working and WHAT we would be doing...and turns out!...we had one AWESOME job...(But that's for another section. ;-)) During this time, I got a nice pretty laptop "top-notch" internet...($100 a month for little better than basic internet) BUT it worked for what I needed it to, like skype and iTunes...although it took like 30 min for ONE SONG >_< And movies took like a week...if I was lucky.
After the first week, we were moved to more permanent housing...if you could call it that. It was a wooden hallway with 4 rooms off either side...each room was about 5'x7' very small, but it was home...so stay tuned for next time to hear some of the cool stories we had from various missions and my time of R&R!
Till next time...but before I leave...want to see some artistic people...look at this jingle truck!
Cool part is...these things were EVERYWHERE...and not one was like the other!
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