I'm a person again!

For the past month I have been passport-less, driver license-less, and social security card-less.  I had to send all this to the US Embassy in downtown Baghdad to get a new passport made.  I was really worried at first because  if something happened I would have NO way out of this country but luckily it all made it back to me today.  I am so excited to have my new passport not only do I have double the pages which is awesomeme because that means much more traveling without incident but my picture looks like me this time.  Last time I looked like I had black skin LOL it was really bad.  Anyways, now I can start putting in for my LAST RR, the next time I leave Iraq it will be the last time....no coming back. :)  I am still toying with the whole vacation thing.  I am just not sure if I would like to take one more vacation on this side of the world while I am here or just head home.  A part of me says the most responsible and smart thing to do for my pocket book is to head home and start getting settled back in to regular life but then another part says I more than likely won't be over in this part of the world for a couple years so I should take full advantage.  I think I might just go against my character and pull a whim of taking a vacation and not having a lot of plans.  It will only be a week long trip then I will come back to Dubai for 3 days before heading back to the states.  I just really don't know yet.  I know if I take a vacation I'm going to feel guilty for spending the money but if I don't I'm going to be kicking myself for missing out on an awesome trip.  So I'm going to keep researching and talk with my family and friends,  who knows where I'll end up or what I'll end up doing. 

Does anyone have any suggestions?

Carving Mango Melon...errr I mean pumpkins

Yesterday a couple co-workers and I had to go out the the Iraqi grocery store and fruit stand to gather supplies for our Halloween party.  We got everything we needed inside the store and so we headed out to the fruit stand.  They were stocked with all sorts of things that were a big treat. 

Besides the normal apples, oranges and bananas they had cilantro, plums, pomegranates, mango melon, and another special kind of fruit that I will be telling you about in a few days. 

Anyways we were getting the things we needed and I saw the mango melons and the light bulb went off. 

I thought...

Halloween= pumpkin carving- your in Iraq so there are no pumpkins= mango melons instead!

That's right folks little uncreative me thought of the idea of carving the melons with faces just like we would with pumpkins back home.  My friends hooted with enthusiasm and so I bought two and was so excited to see the outcome. 

Last night after work Dustee and I set out to make it happen.  She advised on their faces but I did all carving and cleaning out. 

 I think for Iraq we did an awesome job and I can't wait to show them off on Halloween and at our party.

I love Gossip Girl

A show I have gotten super hooked on since moving to Iraq is Gossip Girl.  I love it and it is pretty much the only show that I HAVE TO SEE know matter the situation or circumstance...well that and True Blood.  Of course I don't get the channel on my Iraq TV but I do get it through iTunes.  Since it shows at home on Monday nights that is Tuesday morning for me so by Tuesday afternoon it is ready for me to download.  This past week's episode was great. There is so much scandal going on but it hasn't been revealed yet.  Serena is probably my favorite character and there are a lot of people out to get her right now but we don't know why yet and she doesn't have a clue.  I can't wait for the upcoming episodes to see if Chuck and Blair are going to get back together, what's next for Nate, and how is Serena's new romance going to pan out? Awe the questions! I can't wait for this coming Tuesday it's going to be interesting...but then again it always is. ;) Check out the preview for the upcoming week.

Magical

A world in which elves exist and magic works offers greater opportunities to digress and explore.
Terry Brooks

Tuesday's Travel To Do- Paris Catacombs

Paris, France the city of lights and lovers. Paris is one of the most influential cities in the world be it art, science, of course fashion and lets not forget how romantic it is. I think everyone wants to at least visit this great city just because well… it’s so great and I am no different. Paris is one of the top places that I want to visit and granted the city itself is a site but below all the great attractions like the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame Cathedral, Arc de Triomphe, The Louvre, Versailles, tons of great shopping and little cafes that serve coffees and croissants lies the Paris Catacombs.

In honor of Halloween this coming weekend I thought that this week’s Tuesday Travel To Do should be a little spooky and creepy and the Paris Catacombs definitely makes that list. Below all the hustle and bustle of Paris is a tunnel system that after being used for mining was turned into storage for all the dead bodies that had already decayed. I researched and found my facts on Wikipedia and as history goes back in the 1700s Paris was growing and the dead were buried in mass graves. They didn’t use coffins normally because of the limited space and to speed up decomposition they would put lime on the bodies. After so many years of doing this they were poisoning themselves because all of the rotting flesh and lime was soaking into the ground…the same ground that held their well WATER. YUK! A man had an idea to use the abandoned mine tunnels as storage for all the bones that had been dug up just to be replaced with “fresh” dead bodies. The creator sort of took joy I guess in doing this and even arranged all the bones in designs almost like art.

I couldn’t imagine going down there but I have to say that is pretty unique and very creepy. When I do make it to Paris I will for sure be stopping by the grotesque attraction for a look.

That Feeling

Don’t you just love the feeling of when you hear from some one you love…that instant rush of happiness? I do and I woke up to that feeling this morning around 4:30 when I started receiving texts from a special someone. I could feel the happiness swell in my body and it was a great way to start off my Monday. He got me to thinking about how much I miss and love dancing the night away with a long neck in my hand, hanging out with my friends around the fire, and how sexy he makes a black felt hat look. I have a confession that I am in love with all things love. I love being in love, I love falling in love; I love all those happy moments and feelings you get when you love someone and are truly happy. I am so ready for that and I can’t wait to get home and start experiencing all the things in life that I have been missing in the desert not only love but just hanging out with my friends, taking road trips, relaxing on the weekends, sleeping until noon and cooking my own food. Awe the simple things in life those are the greatest things to me. I have posted some pictures to enjoy that to me express love.

Have a great Monday and a great week!

Sunday Words of Widsom

Office Space

Apparently for the past 10 years I have been missing out on one of the funniest movies or so I was told.  After everyone around found out I hadn't seen the movie Office Space they were screaming at me YOU HAVE TO WATCH IT IT'S HILARIOUS!!! OK, I was obviously missing something so I set out to find the movie.  I had to trade the complete 3rd season of my beloved True Blood but I found it.  A couple days ago I watch it and I do have to say the movie was pretty funny.  I think I found it even funnier due to the fact that I am in Iraq and if we had cubicles that would so be all of us.  If you haven't watched this movie and your having a frustrating week at work then you have to pop this in the DVD player because it provides great comic relief.  Have a great weekend!

Tuesday's Travel To Do- Giant's Causeway, Ireland

As always, this idea was spurred by Bing my wonderful, favorite search engine.  I was on the Internet to look up something totally different but when I got to Bing this was today's background image and it got me to wondering... where and what.

When I clicked on the picture I learned that this was the Giant's Causeway in North Ireland an area of about 40,000 interlocking basalt columns, the result of an ancient volcanic eruption that happened over 50 million years ago. It is located in County Antrim , on the northeast coast of Northern Ireland , about two miles (3 km) north of the town of Bushmills . It was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1986 and a National Nature Reserve in 1987 by the Department of the Environment for Northern Ireland . In a 2005 poll of Radio Times readers, the Giant's Causeway was named as the fourth greatest natural wonder in the United Kingdom . The tops of the columns form stepping stones that lead from the cliff foot and disappear under the sea.

Most of the columns are hexagonal, although there are also some with four, five, seven and eight sides. The tallest are about 12 meters (36 ft) high, and the solidified lava in the cliffs is 28 meters thick in places. The Giant's Causeway is today owned and managed by the National Trust and it is the most popular tourist attraction in Northern Ireland .

How they formed: When highly fluid molten basalt intruded through chalk beds to form an extensive lava plateau. As the lava cooled rapidly, contraction occurred. While contraction in the vertical direction reduced the flow thickness (without fracturing), horizontal contraction could only be accommodated by cracking throughout the flow. The size of the columns is primarily determined by the speed at which lava from a volcanic eruption cools[5]. The extensive fracture network produced the distinctive columns seen today. The basalts were originally part of a great volcanic plateau called the Thulean Plateau which formed during the Paleogene period.  If you are ever are in any of these other places there are similar sites like this one that you can visit: the Prismas Basálticos in Hidalgo, Mexico, the Los Tercios waterfall in Suchitoto, El Salvador, Fingal's Cave and the 'Kilt Rock' on Skye in Scotland, east coast of Suðuroy, the Faroes, Svartifoss in Iceland, Jusangjeolli in South Korea, the Garni gorge in Armenia, the Cyclopean Isles near Sicily, Devils Postpile National Monument in California, Devils Tower National Monument in Wyoming, the Organ Pipes National Park just outside of Melbourne, Australia, the "Organ Pipes" formation on Mount Cargill in New Zealand, the "Rocha dos Bordões" formation in Flores, the Azores, near Twyfelfontein in Namibia, Gành Đá Đĩa in Vietnam,[15] Cape Stolbchatiy in Russia, Coloanele de bazalt in Racoş, Romania, Fingal Head in New South Wales, Australia, the Hong Kong National Geopark in High Island Reservoir in Hong Kong, China, and on St. Mary's Islands on the west coast of India and in Riyom, Nigeria.

Ok now that you have had your history lesson isn't that interesting? I have never seen or even heard of anything like this but then again I'm not a big geology buff either.  While I was reading up on Giant's Causeway I thought I could make this a weekly deal and seeing it is Tuesday and it's about travel I dubbed it Tuesday's Travel To Do. Each week I will post a new spot that is a must when making or adding onto my travel list. It may be a country, attraction, site, or some other random cool thing but I promise they will be equally interesting and as off the grid as this one.  I would have never thought that Ireland would be on my travel list because when I think of Ireland I think of rolling green hills and that's about it but apparently there's more there than I thought. Plus one of my friends traveled there a year or two ago and reported back that the guys there are smoking hot. LOL

*I got all my facts about Giant's Causeway from Wikipedia*

My floor was a water bed

On Thursday morning my mom called me. The exterminator was suppose to have met her out at my house that Wednesday afternoon to spray the inside and outside of my house so I figured she was calling just to let me know everything had been taken care of.

MOM: “Well, do you want the good new or bad news first?”
ME: “Uuhhh I don’t know”

Let’s remember I have probably been up a total of 15 minutes by this point so I don’t care about a lot of things right now. I am not really a morning person per say.

MOM: “The exterminator called me and let me know he had some free time early in the afternoon and asked if it was ok to go out and start spraying the outside of the house. When he got there he called me to tell me there was water coming from the garage.”
ME: SILENCE
MOM: “So I leave work to go out there and the garage door won’t open so I go through the front door and I hear water running and in front of your stove looks like a water bed.”
ME: #@$%
MOM: “So we turned off the water and tried to figure out where it was coming from and Mike thinks you have a leak in the wall behind your sink. Guess this wasn’t the best way to start your day huh?”
ME: “No not really. Ok so what’s the good news?”
MOM: “Well it could have been worse!”

I thought maybe there was something really great that happened that might overshadow the bomb that I just received but I guess she is right it could have been a lot worse and it still may we won’t be sure until the plumber get in and starts his repairs.

The plumber hasn’t made it out but is going to hopefully start today and in the mean time some people came out to suck up the water and put out de-humidifiers in the house. To do all this they had to rip up part of my brand new kitchen floor and part of the carpet in the living room because it too was wet. I am so disgusted not at anyone but just at the situation. First, that was a brand new floor and I have a home warranty and insurance and all to cover most of the costs but still. Second, I hate not being there to take care of it all myself. My mom does a great job but I hate her having to deal with all that for me. I wouldn’t be able to do anything without you mom I hope you know how much I appreciate you. I know it could happen any time and it doesn’t have anything to do with the house it just one of those things that comes with it. My mom said they had a big storm on Monday so she thinks a lot of it has to do with that. The day the people came to suck up the water my mom also discovered the garage door motor was burned up so now that has to be dealt with.  I hope that after this nothing else happens at least until I get home but I would prefer to go mishap free for a while. I do get new carpet out of the deal so I guess that is a plus.

How the Indians became Indians

Do you have friends that are completely different from you in every aspect so that makes them that much more interesting to you; they seem to know all sorts of things that you think are awesome but would never think to discover yourself? Well I have a couple friends that I have met in Iraq that are like that. They know all sorts of interesting things that I find so neat. The reason I am asking is because I learned the most interesting fact a couple nights back. My running buddy and I had finished our workout and on our cool down mile we always catch up on our day and just talk about things. I have no clue as to how we go on the subject but somehow we got to talking about Christopher Columbus and I learned the most interesting fact. He told me the reason why Indians (Native Americans) are called Indians. I had actually never thought to look it up but now that we were on the subject it did click and I thought “yeah why are they”? Below is an answer from the Internet and pretty much exactly what he told me.

The term Indians as applied to Native Americans, or the indigenous peoples of the Americas, is thought to have originated in a misconception on the part of the Europeans who arrived in Central America in 1492. Since Christopher Columbus began his journey to America with the intent of finding an alternate route to Southeast Asia, he is said to have assumed that the people he came into contact with upon reaching land were Indians. Despite the fact that people probably realized this mistake within hours, the name remained in use. Similarly, the islands in Central America came to be called the "West Indies", as opposed to the "East Indies" that Columbus originally had in mind as his destination.

The next day I was going around to all my co-workers asking them if they knew why Indians were called Indians and almost none of them knew….and they were American. The person who told me wasn’t even American he was English. I thought gosh I wonder what we were learning in school while we should have learned this important fact. LOL When I told Jas the answer he wanted to prove that I was actually right so he looked it up. Mind you Jas is Indian but Indian from India so he found another answer and loved sharing it with me. Below is the answer he came up with.

The myth that has been perpetuated for generations that Columbus thought he was in India and named the natives Indians is nothing more than a myth. The Paugesauks in the late 1980's hired a Spanish ancient dialects linguistics expert to translate Columbus's diary. He found that Columbus was so impressed with the peoples' spirituality and their devotion to the Creator that he referred to them as In Dios meaning walking in God's way. Some person misread that along the way and figured Columbus missed India by half a world and mistakenly referred to the Natives as Indians.

I refuse to believe this hair brained idea and I am sticking to my first reported answer. I find it most believable and just a great story. I love meeting new people and discovering what they know. I know me and my mate Vincent will stay close friends even after we leave Iraq. I can’t wait for him to get back to London and buy his country house so I have an awesome hang out for when I want to escape for a week or so.

The Joys of Fall

I stole this picture from Haley I thought it was a great representation of Fall and made me really miss being home and getting to enjoy the season....the cool weather, carving pumpkins, watching the leaves change, breaking out the long sleeve sweaters, and of course football

How to tell if you need to pray at work

There is no other word except PRICELESS!

Trips of a Lifetime

As long as I can remember I love going and being away from home. As I have grown older I have discovered I love traveling. I haven’t even begun to travel to everywhere I would like to but I have scratched the surface and that is a start. There are a few key points that I really want to hit like all of Italy, Paris, and skiing in Switzerland but I want to see and experience the entire world. I love learning about and seeing different things. I have a travel bucket list of places I would for sure like to hit but if it isn’t on this list it definitely doesn’t exclude it from my journey. I don’t have many of the countries that lie in the Americas just because they are the most accessible for us American’s and a bit cheaper to experience, unlike Europe, Asia, Australia, and Africa which is a bit more expensive to get to and experience. As I go through life I hope to knock most if not all of these off my list plus some.

* indicate I have been there with month and year of visit following

Thailand-  Even though I have been to Thailand I was only actually in the Bangkok airport and then 16 wonderful days in Phutket.  I would really like to take another trip to explore Bangkok and other areas in Northern Thailand since I have visited Phuket the paradise island.

*Bangkok airport- January 2010
*Phuket- January 2010
Singapore
Malaysia

Japan
Nepal

China

Indonesia

Philippines

Maldives

Australia
New Zealand
England
France
Italy
Germany- I visited southern Germany but still the country is so big I will for sure be going back to get more of this wonderful land.
*Munich/Bavaria- May 2009
*Austria- I didn't find Austria that great.  I thought the people there were very rude.  I enjoyed my stay in Vienna but probably won't be making another trip until most other destinations have been struck off the list.

*Vienna- May 2009

Netherlands
Czech Republic

Poland

Switzerland

Spain

Greece

Cyprus

United Arab Emirates
*Dubai- July 2008, May 2009, August 2009, January 2010, April 2010, June 2010, August 2010
Israel

India

Turkey
Morocco

Egypt

South Africa
Kenya

Russia

THE WORLD.....EVERYWHERE!

Read travel post here.

Backpacking Trip
Being in Iraq I get to talk to people who have travelled a lot and have a lot of different ideas about travelling. One of my English mates has been backpacking twice. Once for 7 months and then again for 1 year, as I listen to some of his tales I think… “I want that life experience!” I was asking him all sorts of practical questions about money, accommodations, and routes and after talking with him I am making it a goal to save my money and go backpacking for 6 months. I think 1 year is just a really long time and a lot of money. 6 months is a reasonable amount of money and an enormous amount of traveling. Asia is big for backpackers because it is so inexpensive but I think I would enjoy backpacking through and across Europe so much more. I think I would like all the culture and architecture a bit more and it would be a perfect opportunity to learn more world history and really use my German. I plan on hitting Germany again; I love that country and I have only been to the southern region. Bavaria is stunning but I want to set foot in Berlin. There is so much history there. I have worked up a plan so to speak and hopely within the next year or two I will get to make my journey.

How weird is it that my red lines accidentally made like a super hero M! LOL I think that is a sign.
Length: 6 months from April- September

Goal: To have many life and cultural experiences while traveling the world learning about myself and others

A few must sees/dos:
o Stonehenge
o Eiffel Tower
o Vatican City
o Leaning Tower of Pisa
o Concentration camps in Poland
o EVERYTHING!!!!

Estimated budget (not including airfare): $9,000

My friend said when he went on his journey he had 13 open ended plane tickets that earned him 29,000 frequent flier miles and only cost him $1,200. Isn’t that amazing? I need to talk with a travel agent to see if that is possible now so I can get a better grasp of what I am actually up against. LOL

Where I plan on visiting:
England: London
France: Paris, Nice, Marseilles
Italy: Rome, Venice, Milan, Naples, Florence, Tuscany
Netherlands: Amsterdam
Germany: Berlin, Frankfurt, Stuttgart
Spain: Madrid, Barcelona
Switzerland: Geneva
Poland
Hungary: Budapest
Greece: Athens
Czech Republic: Prague

Where I have been so far on the map:



create your own visited country map
or write about it on the open travel guide

Creamy Pumpkin Strudels

I can't wait to try this recipe!

Oh how I wish I was home right now to enjoy this season.

I am obsessed with all things pumpkin right now and have been thinking of all sorts of dishes that I want to try once I am back in my kitchen.

I think it may be officially Fall in Iraq.

I slept with my window open last night and this morning I walked out into the FRESH air. It was so nice.

I topped my morning off with a big steaming mug of butter toffee coffee.

It was DE-LISH!

Now some one must try this recipe and let me know how it is. I can only imagine and just that is making my mouth water.  I will for sure be revisiting this post one Sunday once I am back home.  This morning while surfing my daily sites I saw this on Yahoo's Shine and had to post it.  Enjoy!

Ingredients

1 15-ounce can pumpkin
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
12 sheets frozen phyllo dough (18x14-inch rectangles), thawed
2/3 cup butter, melted
1 cup granulated sugar
4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 cup chopped pecans
1 8-ounce package cream cheese, cut into 12 slices
Whipped cream (optional)

Directions

1.Preheat oven to 400 degree F. For filling, in a small bowl combine pumpkin, brown sugar, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Set aside.
2.Place 2 sheets of phyllo on top of one another and brush top sheet with some of the butter. (Keep remaining phyllo dough covered with plastic wrap to prevent it from becoming dry and brittle.) In a small bowl combine granulated sugar and 4 teaspoons cinnamon. Sprinkle a generous 2 tablespoons of cinnamon-sugar mixture over the brushed phyllo. Sprinkle with about 2 tablespoons of the pecans.
3.Cut the 2 layered sheets of phyllo lengthwise to create two long strips. Place a slice of cream cheese about 2 inches from end of dough strip. Spoon a well-rounded tablespoon of pumpkin mixture on top of the cream cheese.
4.To shape, fold bottom edge of phyllo up and over the filling. Fold in sides and roll up to encase filling. Place on a baking sheet, seam side down. Brush with some of the melted butter. Repeat with remaining ingredients. Sprinkle with any remaining sugar-cinnamon mixture. Bake for 15 minutes or until phyllo is golden brown. Serve warm with whipped cream, if desired. Makes 12 servings.
5.To Reheat: Cool strudels on a wire rack. Reheat within 2 hours or place cooled strudels in a covered container. Chill overnight. To reheat room temperature strudels, place strudels on a baking sheet lightly coated with nonstick cooking spray. Bake, uncovered, in a 350 degree F oven for 10 minutes or until center is warm. Reheat chilled strudels using the same method but heat in a 400 degree F oven for 10 minutes.

Recipe source: Yahoo's Shine originally from Better Homes and Gardens

Wanted** Kitchen Renovation



I looked into every corner of the web yesterday and last night to find what I had already in my head and LOOK it came together.  I love the fabric that I came across as well.  So let me walk you through...when I get home I would like to up the elegance of my kitchen a bit. My counter tops I have now are fine but I would like to replace them with the Silestone. It is sort of like granite but it's suppose to be better.  A co-worker told me about it and I found a great mahogany color that fits my vision perfectly and I think it isn't too dark but dark enough to tie in the floors with everything a bit better.  Once the counters are in I want to put in a really nice but simple tile back splash.  The small multicolor tiles above would be the main tile used and then I would just break it up with the ceramic patterned tile.  I think it gives me that touch of french country I am looking for without being too much.  The finishing touch would be the curtains the would go in the dining room and over the kitchen window.  I think once I am done it's going to be my vision in real life.   Now all I need to get is a sewing machine and I will be the next Martha. LOL  I can't wait to get home and make this a reality.

Organized Chaos

The secret of all victory lies in the organization of the non-obvious.
Marcus Aurelius

Venting

OK so I have had one hellacious week and I have to vent my frustrations somewhere so bare with me for a minute or so. First off, can the time go by any SLOWER!!! OMG, the next three months are going to be torture I can already tell. My job has slowed down tremendously and by 9:30 a.m. I am completely done with my work. Now let’s not forget that at this time I still have to sit through 9 more hours of crap. Then comes my co-workers. I have always gotten along with all of them fine. I mean generally I can get along with most people and even if I don’t like you I can work with you that is just professional…right? Anyways, there is this one lady who sits directly across from me and drives me effing mad. She is a loud mouth, know-it all and everything that spews from her big, ugly mouth is condescending and rude. I can take a lot of things but rude isn’t one of them. She talks on the phone until around 8 in the morning starting as soon as she get in which is about 4:30 a.m. then it starts back up around 3 in the afternoon. (Daytime and evening in the states) Hey I understand we all have family and friends we like to keep in touch with but when you are in an office with 5 other co-workers yelling at your husband and calling other people liars in your Yankee accent EVERYDAY it doesn’t usually fly for good office etiquette. This lady just gets under my skin one day I went to the DFAC alone, gasp, and when I got back she looked at me like I was insane and then started going on about how dare I not invite her and all this crap. Of course I got defensive I mean hello we are all adults and the last time I checked she was not my mother and I don’t have to invite anyone anywhere unless I want to. Ok I am done, just had to vent. I have decided that I can solve my own problem by just ignoring her and the rest of my co-workers a few days and just chill out. This morning was the first day of my lovely plan so as soon as I sat down I popped in my headphones and have barely spoke the entire day. I am for sure not speaking to her…I tend to hold a grudge for a bit anyways.

Thanks for listening to that now for the rest of the week it has just been quit miserable here. I have been fighting a really bad case of allergies and after 4 different medicines the medics have finally given me antibiotics and it seems to be working. Thank goodness because I really don’t know how much more my body and mind for that matter could take. I also accomplished a lot while working out this week. My running partner and I shaved a whole minute off our time last night and a couple nights back I completed 2 miles on the dreaded hill! If you were here you would know how much of an accomplishment that is because it’s dusty and hot and just in general the conditions are bad. Not to mention I haven’t been serious about training in a while so….we are getting there. I settled into my new room and I love it even though it is the same as the other one I just really like my location and the feel of this room more. The temperature has been great as well. Finally Satan has turned down the fire and we are actually enjoying really cool mornings. Tomorrow the high is only 83 and that is awesome almost time to break out the long sleeves LOL. I am Internet window shopping for my house and making a list of ideas I would like to work on once I get home. Right now I am working on the kitchen, I can’t decide if I want to decorate the space between the top of the cabinets and the ceiling or not. I want my dining room and kitchen to have sort of a French Country feel so I guess we will see what I come up with later on down the road. I am enjoying thinking and looking at a lot of different ideas. Anyways, I hope everyone has a great Sunday mine will be perfect once I get off work, run 2 miles, and am laying happily in my bed watching a movie.

My Home Away From Home

I have never shown my room in Iraq but I think now is the perfect time since I am moving into a new room.  I am not gettting a bigger room unfortunately but I am moving WAY closer to my office and I'm going to be surrounded by neighbors I know.  I have been living in a small room for over a year now and I am right by the sewage tanks and when they empty them the gasy smell floods my room.  It is so bad I wake up from my sleep suffocating from the gaseous smell in my room.  So needless to say I have about had it with the room not to mention that my new trailer mate (the person I share a bathroom with) is a disgusting pig and NEVER cleans up the bathroom after herself.  The other day I was venting about all this to a co-worker and she said well you can just move in and be my trailer mate.  The lady that was living there was transferred so it worked out perfectly. 

Outside my room

  

My cell number LOL

Looking into my room from the doorway

Looking out from my bed

My sink and toiletries

 This is my room that I have lived in for the past 1 1/2.  It's approx 8ft X 12 ft  and VERY small.  There is really only room for the essentials.  I had a big bed in this room which is bigger than a full but not quite a queen so it took up a lot of space.  The bathroom isn't shown but it's only a toilet and a shower stall...nothing special I promise.

NOW....my NEW small room

I have way more space in this room because I have a twin bed so it will fix width wise in the room.  I like this because now I have enough space to do Insanity and to just move around more.  I really like my new room I feel way more comfortable with a little more space plus I have an awesome trailer mate.  Shkurte was helping me move last night and she got to giggling saying she feels like she is in college.  We are both the same age but never had the dorm experience in college or have got to share a space with a friend.  I think we are going to have a lot of fun.  It needs a little sprucing but overall I only sleep there so I am not really worried about wall art and things.  I usually just decorate around my vanity mirror.  So now you know how I live when I am in Iraq.

My new room- This is as close as the city I have or will probably ever live.  A row of trailers is like the suburbs...everyone's looks the same

New room number

Vanity- needs a little sprucing



My bed and some of my floor space.



Restaurant Row Iraqi Style

Iraq is really moving up in the world. Over the past couple of years the base has really expanded vendor wise and it is really almost like the real world now....ALMOST!  We have a mall which really just consists of a grocery store, office goods store, movie shop, barber shop, clothing, and a jewelry store.  Outside the mall there are a few little restaurants and a bowling alley.  I haven't been to the bowling alley yet but I think that's going to have to be a night outing with a few co-workers soon.  It would be a great way to unwind and just have a night out of the norm around here.  Now on the opposite side of base there is a little strip that has a hardware store, and what is essentially our restaurant row Iraqi style. HaHaHa  We have a juice bar where you can get protein shakes and things, the Turkish Coffee and Tea shop, Turkish Restaurant, Royal China Chinese Food, a bakery, and the Mediterranean/ Italian Food Restaurant.  My favorite is the Chinese food restaurant.  I love anything that's loaded with carbs be it noodles, bread, rice...whatever.  The other places are good but it seems that the food from the other places tastes sort of funny almost like the meat your eating really isn't what you think it is. SCARY!!!

Anyways the other day we headed out to lunch and I thought we were going to the DFAC but halfway there the course changed and we ended up getting Chinese.  I didn't complain the egg fried rice has got to be the best egg fried rice EVER!  I always get a #3 and a #8 which translates to beef and green peppers and egg fried rice.  Throw a little soy sauce in there and you have lunch for the next two days.  They fill the little boxes so full that half is enough so you always have half for dinner or half for lunch the next day.  It is very tasty and very filling.  The food is a little pricey but it is a nice change ever once in a while and worth it after months and months of DFAC food.  Royal China is a walk up to the window and order type of place and even though they have a little tent set up the a/c isn't the best so we brought our food back to the office to eat.  I took a few pictures of my boxes of deliciousness and the sack.  I remember the first time I ever went there I was so impressed that we got our food in the little take-out boxes and even got chopsticks.  Hey it's the small things that count right? LOL So anyways, our lunch was great and it was a nice change of pace.

Rain...PLEASE

I wish it would rain in Iraq so bad. 

 It is turning fall at home and everyone is bringing out the fall gear, decorating their homes, burning pumpkin spice candles and watching football and I am jealous. 

 I want to be home so bad but I just have to tough it out a few more months. 

 I have been channeling rain on my iPod every morning by listening to a nature sounds CD.  The thunderstorm and lightning one is my favorite and it is so relaxing.

 I just picture myself at home in my comfy bed while its raining outside......

A Travel Have To

The other day on Bing the homepage image was of St. Basil's Cathedral in Moscow, Russia.  I have always loved this building and has been on my travel list for as long as I can remember.  The cathedral looks like something you would find in Willy Wonka's candy factory not a cold, not so lovely place like Russia.  Well I guess I can't say it's not lovely I haven't been there and if I ever get to go then I am sure my opinion will change.  Anyways just had to share plus it's a really pretty picture.