More from Kabul

Well, I have been in Kabul for a couple of days now and am slowly getting used to life here. I am working for an Australian Army O-5 and will be starting the night shift on Sunday night after I get all of my check-in stuff done. I will also probably be changing rooms once the second floor is finished in the new US barracks although I think I would prefer to stay where I am at since after 10 September, I will only have one phantom roommate who is only here for about 4 weeks out of every 4 months! The weather here is much better than in Kuwait with the highs in the low 90s and lows in the mid 60s and no humidity! On that note however, the winter will be much like that of the DC area and since Birthday/Christmas is coming up, I need to ask for a nice warm bath robe (XL) and nice warm slippers (11). If someone living in a climate that would have such items would be gracious enough to supply one of these, please let me know that you are doing so in a comment for this post so that I can post it and do not end up with multiple robes/slippers. I am very grateful for all the support I am receiving from family and friends and will be ecstatic with anything so please do not feel that you have to send me a package! I am just as happy with letters, postcards, or even comments on my blog post.

Now, some more on the base here. I have not been outside of the Forward Operating Base (FOB) since arriving, but i can tell you that it is just like in the news and movies. It is very run down and busy. Numerous buildings throughout the city are damaged or destroyed and have not rebuilt. While I was traveling from the airport I saw a whole lot of people walking, quite a few cars, horse drawn carts, goat herds, and some signs of progress though it is slow! I will post some pictures once I get somewhere with a higher speed connection (probably Saturday). The food here is good, mostly European. Not much of a variety, but interesting. Kabul is situated between some mountain ranges so we have heavy smog, but I am sure it will be a nice view after a good rain. There are representative from about 50+ countries here all working and living on the same ~15 acre plot of land in the middle of down town. There are also three PXs (Post Exchange) here all European and with Euro prices that you would expect in dollars from an American PX which makes everything about 1.5 times as much. I will be going to the nearest American base in the next couple of days and will probably stock up on some essentials there. All in all, everything is going well although I am looking forward to digging into my job which will make me very busy and should make the time go by much quicker! I will write more when I get a chance and again, I will include pictures from Kabul and my jaunt in Kuwait!