("Editors"note: this entry was started 11/05/08 and posted 11/07/08)
I have been out of CONUS for a week. Not that a week is some "milestone" or anything when I consider my other international travels. India was more personally challenging the first week, and the Czech Republic was about a week total. But I guess those are different.
The building I work in is called the Perfume Palace (i mentioned that before I know). Its this big marble structure that has a top almost like a orange juice squeezer
(you've seen the pictures). Explanations I have heard claim that the Big S H built the palace for his daughter cause she liked the shape of a perfume bottle (and the palace is a similar shape). Or it is the palace where his mistresses lived.
As I stated in some of the emails or in a previous entry here, there are at least three large palaces nearby. This whole area used to be Saddam's private Zanadu. It was known as the Abu Gurahib Palace Complex (or at least that is the English type name for it). Your average Iraqi did not know that this area existed until after the US invasion. SH would shut off water to Baghdad in order to fill his lakes and still people didn't know. Those people who worked here lived here, and if someone knew about the complex and happened to tell someone who did not live and work here, they were killed and the people they told were killed as well.
An interesting similarity to India is the bats. Every night around sunset they come out to "hunt" insects. It can be kind of unnerving.
There is a balcony on the 3rd floor of the Perfume palace that looks back toward the BIAP (Baghdad International Airport). Sunset from the balcony are spectacular. One of my goals is to get some pictures from that balcony, if possible of a sunset as well.
Several times this week as I walked from the Palace to the DFAC (Dining Facility) for dinner I have heared the call to prayer wafting over from outside the wire. It reminds me of Mike's bachelor party weekend in Brooklyn, sitting on the roof of Adam's building late that Friday night (or reeeal early that Saturday morning).
There was a VBIED (vehicle borne IED) explosion out on one of the access roads to the BIAP yesterday(?). I never heard it, but we found out about it that night. I guess some folks had been out walking and even saw the flash and heard the boom. We all are safe and were never in any danger.
Every now and then you can hear the folks training at the firing ranges. That can be a little jarring at first, until you determine which direction it comes from.
I have been out of CONUS for a week. Not that a week is some "milestone" or anything when I consider my other international travels. India was more personally challenging the first week, and the Czech Republic was about a week total. But I guess those are different.
The building I work in is called the Perfume Palace (i mentioned that before I know). Its this big marble structure that has a top almost like a orange juice squeezer
(you've seen the pictures). Explanations I have heard claim that the Big S H built the palace for his daughter cause she liked the shape of a perfume bottle (and the palace is a similar shape). Or it is the palace where his mistresses lived.As I stated in some of the emails or in a previous entry here, there are at least three large palaces nearby. This whole area used to be Saddam's private Zanadu. It was known as the Abu Gurahib Palace Complex (or at least that is the English type name for it). Your average Iraqi did not know that this area existed until after the US invasion. SH would shut off water to Baghdad in order to fill his lakes and still people didn't know. Those people who worked here lived here, and if someone knew about the complex and happened to tell someone who did not live and work here, they were killed and the people they told were killed as well.
An interesting similarity to India is the bats. Every night around sunset they come out to "hunt" insects. It can be kind of unnerving.
There is a balcony on the 3rd floor of the Perfume palace that looks back toward the BIAP (Baghdad International Airport). Sunset from the balcony are spectacular. One of my goals is to get some pictures from that balcony, if possible of a sunset as well.
Several times this week as I walked from the Palace to the DFAC (Dining Facility) for dinner I have heared the call to prayer wafting over from outside the wire. It reminds me of Mike's bachelor party weekend in Brooklyn, sitting on the roof of Adam's building late that Friday night (or reeeal early that Saturday morning).
There was a VBIED (vehicle borne IED) explosion out on one of the access roads to the BIAP yesterday(?). I never heard it, but we found out about it that night. I guess some folks had been out walking and even saw the flash and heard the boom. We all are safe and were never in any danger.
Every now and then you can hear the folks training at the firing ranges. That can be a little jarring at first, until you determine which direction it comes from.
Today was a really long day. But it was also a good day. My team leader has decided to knickname me "The Don", because I deserve respect. I knocked out 3 projects, attend a "tiger team" high priority issue meeting and resolved a data issue with another project today. I didn't even realize it was Friday until about 18:30. I just thought it was Thursday. By the end of this payperiod (tomorrow) I will have worked 125 hours. That isn't even a full schedule cause some of my time was in DC. Oddly, the 80 hours work week makes me think of the summer in Texas, only that sucked and this doesn't.
I will post the pictures to this blog probably only once I am back, as it would bog the public servers too much.
Hug those you love.
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