IRAQ!
Internet really sucks out here so far, took me forever to load SG, but I can't not do this!
Not completely settled in, but I definitely found my new favorite city... Dubai! I already knew about the grandeur of the city and all it's sights to see, and was a little upset I was unable to go out and see them all. What I had not been prepared for were two things:
1. Immediately, this is one of the cleanest cities I have ever seen, and that's saying a lot for a city in the desert.
2. The people. In one bar I met six different people, and no two were from the same country. Brazilians, British, South Africans, Bosnians, Chinese... etc etc. And everyone is just happy.
And then I come back to this place, except it's far from the place I had left a little over two years ago. A base that was once a thriving get together for soldiers, providing local sales and bargaining, multiple franchise food chains, and a store that could rival a Walmart back home, was nothing more than small shop surrounded by empty walk ways and virtually no people. I remember this one area of the base where we always ended up staying and hanging out. Hadji shops galore, good food, lots of rooms, and even karaoke, was now nothing more than a large space of sand dotted with a few remnants of what it once was. A busted wheel over here, a peice of a tent support structure over there. For the longest time I thought I was lost on a base I knew so well, only to reach a gate I had crossed so many times before realized what I had just passed. Memories and laughs with friends whom I have not seen in awhile... overtaken by the harsh and barren land it once celebrated in...
Internet really sucks out here so far, took me forever to load SG, but I can't not do this!
Not completely settled in, but I definitely found my new favorite city... Dubai! I already knew about the grandeur of the city and all it's sights to see, and was a little upset I was unable to go out and see them all. What I had not been prepared for were two things:
1. Immediately, this is one of the cleanest cities I have ever seen, and that's saying a lot for a city in the desert.
2. The people. In one bar I met six different people, and no two were from the same country. Brazilians, British, South Africans, Bosnians, Chinese... etc etc. And everyone is just happy.
And then I come back to this place, except it's far from the place I had left a little over two years ago. A base that was once a thriving get together for soldiers, providing local sales and bargaining, multiple franchise food chains, and a store that could rival a Walmart back home, was nothing more than small shop surrounded by empty walk ways and virtually no people. I remember this one area of the base where we always ended up staying and hanging out. Hadji shops galore, good food, lots of rooms, and even karaoke, was now nothing more than a large space of sand dotted with a few remnants of what it once was. A busted wheel over here, a peice of a tent support structure over there. For the longest time I thought I was lost on a base I knew so well, only to reach a gate I had crossed so many times before realized what I had just passed. Memories and laughs with friends whom I have not seen in awhile... overtaken by the harsh and barren land it once celebrated in...
diixia:
