Sunday, June 17, 2018

MORE (training and travel, that is:)

So I made it to the Middle East, but still more travel and training was to be had before arriving at my final base/hospital in Iraq.  We had more than a week stopover in Kuwait.  Luckily, they have really built up our bases in Kuwait since the Gulf War and even since my last stop there in 2012 on my way back from Afghanistan.  Although we had to stay there over a week, we did very little paperwork and training (but the lecture by the Army Reserve Veterinarian on taking care of Military Working Dogs was excellent!)


We were able to celebrate a 50th birthday party (no, not mine YET) in the DFAC (aka dining facility) complete with candles on a (piece of) cake.  Probably not "technically allowed," in the DFAC but very fun and even the staff came over and helped us sing Happy Birthday (I think they thought it was like a TGI Friday restaurant or something).  They even served beer in the DFAC, although the non-alcoholic kind (O'douls- which I hate).   I had to have one, though, just to get a picture.  I was obviously the only one "drinking" at lunch and probably the only one who had even had an O'douls in the last 6 months in the DFAC!



They did, however, have beautiful sunrises (shown) and sunsets, although these were due to the ridiculous amount of dust in the air.  You could actually safely stare straight at the sun at sunrise and sunset without protective eyewear (at least I think it was safe :).



Most importantly, though, they had an amazing gym, a movie theater (that showed first run movies), and even a pool to help pass the time "productively."  I was able to do three-a-day workouts, including morning and evening run/swims with some elliptical, lifting, and P90X spaced out in between the two every day.  I even got to see four movies, including Ocean's 8, Adrift, Action Point, and Breaking In.  We left right before I got to try a spin class, though, which made me sad (it took me a while to find out where and when the classes were :(  The pool was AMAZING!  Now, off to Iraq!




 

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