I'm almost there

I am no longer in the States, but I am not to Iraq yet. I am in Kuwait...waiting to go to Iraq. We are here for about a week or more and we have a little bit of training to do (like shot our weapons to make sure they still work) and then we are going to sit around and wait for a really long time. We have about three days worth of training and over a week to be here, so you can do the math and realize we have a lot of down time.

The plane ride was not bad. It was a commercial plane, and we flew out of Ft. Hood Texas to Bangor Maine and then from there to Germany (which was six hours) had a two hour lay over and then flew to Kuwait which was another six hour plane ride. We landed in Kuwait at about 10 am, so it was over 24 hours of traveling. We had to take a two hours bus ride from the airport in Kuwait to Camp Buehring, and that was probably the worst part. We were driving in air conditioned buses, but it was so hot out that it didn't feel like it was even working. There is no exageration about how incredibly hot it is here, I walked from the shower trailer to my tent and my hair was dry by the time I got there (about a 3 min walk).

The living conditions here are not bad. If I was here for a year I might say otherwise but I can handle it for a week. All of the females are staying in one gigantic tent. There are approximately 60 of us sleeping on cots, and the tent has A/C. It gets really cold at night too, which is great. The bathrooms are Port-A-Johns and that sucks...but that is the way the army works. I think we will have more permanent bathrooms in Iraq. We have shower trailers, which is what it sounds like. They are trailers that have about 12 shower stalls in it with sinks. The problem is there are only 2 female shower trailers for about 100 females...and they only put a certain amount of water in the trailers every morning and it has to last all day. There are these huge water dome things outside the trailers that they fill up with water, and we have to make it last. So we have to take what we call combat showers (which is probably how people shower in California...) You turn the water on and rinse down then turn the water off and put in your shampoo, turn the water back on and rinse it out, turn water off and apply conditioner, turn water on and rinse, turn water off and use soap, turn water on and rinse off, turn water off and get out. That sort of thing. It isn't that bad, and there is no cold water here. The water bakes in the heat all day so you have to take warm showers.

There is bottled water everywhere, so don't worry about me being dehydrated. The chow hall is nice. Lots of food and more variety than Ft. Hood. Those of you that I talked to about Ft. Hood's food knows how much I complained about it. The food here is much better in comparison. The veggies and fruit are fresh, so I can't ask for more than that.

There is Starbucks here, seriously. It has the same Starbucks feel and design as the ones at home. I will of course take pictures so you believe me. They also have wireless internet there, and I will hopefully be able to use that tomorrow (it was down last night when I tried to do this). There are lots of fast food places and recreation things to do so we can keep ourseleves occupied. I will take lots of pictures, so you can have a visual of this place.

Oh! We are eight hours ahead here...so it is 8:42 currently and midnight back home (in Missouri and Texas). So long story longer, I made it to Kuwait safely. =)