Been awhile...

Wow its been over a month since I was able to post. Things definitely got busy! Finishing up the deployment was great. I was exhausted and ready to get home and out of the jet for awhile. We had some great last trips there that I will try to post on FB. I really loved the Med when I was there, but turkey itself has some cleaning up to do. I think that if they did, it could be the next greece. The people are nice, there are beautiful things to see, and its still very inexpensive.

Getting home was such a relief. I spent two weeks roaming around the west and east coasts with one of my favorite people and completely unwound. We had some crazy adventures involving a deer we hit, a rental car we secretly drove out of the state, cars that wouldn't start and several airplanes we almost missed. All in all it was quite a good trip.

Now I'm back on the road and seeing the world-well the middle eastern portion of it mostly... But i'm hoping to get more time in germany and see some friends there, I'll try to keep ya posted...

Tired

Its beautiful outside. I should be going downtown, but I'm exhausted. The consistent 15hr days and revolving sleep cycle are beginning to take their toll. Its been 4 months of flying. I want to go out and see the sights, but my body is wearing thin. Turkey has been beautiful, but my mind is already back home. I'm excited to see family and friends, to sleep on my own schedule, and to cook my own food. I have just under two weeks left. A few more flights, and we are done. Its so close, but I'm now separated by the furious tediousness that accompanies packing to move. There are still a few gifts to be purchased and boxes to be packed for the mail, but then, i'll be coming home. for now... perhaps a nap is in order.

Postcard life

So I finally made it to the Med, and yes, its as beautiful as the movies portray it. A few of us had a day off recently so we decided it was time to take advantage. After organizing a bootleg trip with some local taxi drivers, we were set to jet. We just told them we wanted to see some cool stuff, and they said, 'Ok, we take you dair', in turkenglish. We started our day at 0900, well more like 0930, as a few of us had been out late the night before. We jumped in the cabs and put our our day completely in the drivers' hands.

After a 45min cab ride reminiscent of a James Bond car chase, (with no seat belts I might add), we arrived in Tarsus. We saw this really beautiful glacier fed waterfall right in downtown. Apparently it was were the river had been diverted and flowed over an old roman burial ground. It was interesting to be at a Turkish tourist spot-we were the only americans, but there were a bunch of turks filing off of tour buses. It was neat to see an attraction the locals came to as well. Then, after paying for one of the most disgusting bathrooms i've ever seen, we were off to find some more sights.

we stopped at St. Paul's well after asking 10 people for directions, one of which, a 5 yr old kid, asked for money and then pointed in the completely wrong direction. After finding it, we took some pictures and decided to head for the coast as we were running out of day. While walking to the cab, I spotted a cart selling this mysterious red liquid from hand-corked bottles and thought, what the heck. Three of us bought a glass, and tried the mystery drink (which came with a dark red root looking thing sticking out of it), only to find that it tasted like sour, salty armpit. We tried to drink it all, but couldn't without gagging, so we told the seller we had to run off to catch a cab. Apparently its a local favorite, but you couldn't convince my tastebuds if you tried.

We finally made it to the med and stopped at this big hole in the ground that you could hike into. It was like 300ft or more down and there was an old chapel at the mouth of a cave. It was quite breathtaking. Not however, as much as the med.

We ate lunch on the water overlooking a baby blue water inlet and surrounded by hills covered in flowering bushes. The fish had been caught that day and the appetizers were mouth watering and plentiful. After this wonderful lunch, we went to the beach and rented a paddle boat. There was a castle out in the ocean that we paddled out to and explored. The view of the shoreline from the top of a parapet was amazing. we paddled back and finished the night with a turkish coffee and home-made strawberry cake at a small cafe. All in all, it was quite a wonderful trip. My post doesn't do it credit, the pictures are better, hopefully you can all see them someday.

Lonnggg Day

Today was very long. We flew all the way to afghanistan just to be turned away by a wall of sand. It was so thick you couldn't see more than a half mile and it rose to 9000 feet. When we finally landed, it was awful. Sand everywhere. I was stuffed up in under a minute. we spent about an hour on the ground and it was way too long. However, as we departed, there was this surreal sight of the full moon juxtaposed with the sun. The moon was on my left, full and extremely bright, just above the horizon. The sun on my right was just setting and was in the exact same place. It was quite a sight to burst out of the sand and see the moon and the sun having a staring contest. Amazing.

Its been too long,

Turkey has been a very nice change of pace. The weather on the med is amazing and I've been trying to enjoy it as much as possible. This base is so beautiful right now, it has flowering trees and roses blooming everywhere. I went into downtown Adana, but will have to save that trip for another day. Its too late tonight, I'm flying tomorrow, off to my beauty rest.

Turkalicious...

Well, I made it. I'm here in the lovely Mediterranean. The first thing to stand out was the green grass, palm trees and clean fresh air. It was such a contrast to the sand, sand, sand of Kuwait. I just got in last night so I dont have any stories yet, but I hear the haircut experience is quite something and I'm due for one so I'll let you know soon.

Not a bad weekend

Well I'm still down here in Kuwait. Going on 3 weeks now. Its not too bad, the heat hasn't become quite unbearable yet and the pool has been really nice. Plus, there have been a lot of broken jets recently which leaves a lot of people hanging around to do stuff with. This last weekend, we commandeered the pool for a bit and played some pool volleyball. It was almost like home, laying in the sun and then jumping in the pool to cool off. Pretty sweet actually.

I've also started lap swimming. That is one of the hardest things ever! I usually only swim for survival purposes, but now swimming for distance, I cant believe how difficult it is. I can only swim 500 meters as of yet (it is my second workout of the day usually), but hope to get to a mile before I leave. When I finish, my heart is pounding and I'm gasping for breath. Ive always heard it was a great cardio workout, but man, its harder than I thought. Oh well, word is I will be off to Turkey at some point this week. We'll see....