The Adventure continues...
Well, I arrived back in Afghanistan a few days ago...
I don't really feel like going into detail about the nightmare that was my return trip, but suffice it to say that someone "upstairs" was reminding me that yes, I was returning to a shitty place, and that no, the trip home was not going to be easy. Allah akbar, bitches. I invite anyone who complains about the airline situation in the USA to take a little trip on Afghan Ariana Airlines. Have you ever showed up to the airport only to find out that your plane, for some reason, left an hour and a half early? Yeah... It happened. I actually lost my temper in the airport and flipped out on someone, which is quite rare.
So now I'm back. Japan was a good time, but I thought it was definitely time to come back. I don't know when I'll be back there... It was relaxing in some ways, but it was time to come back. So maybe you're wondering what's been going on since I came back? Well, on friday my roommate decided to start drinking at 9am or so. Here's a little schematic of what went down:
This is one of the many hazards of Afghanistan. Work wise I haven't really done a whole lot. I had a lot of good ideas personal/professional goals upon arriving here, but unfortunately it looks like I may be being sent to Konduz. I was pretty pissed off when I found out about that, but I've pretty resigned myself to whatever happens. Hopefully something will come up and I won't have to go, but fuck it. The guys here think I'm being dumb because if I went to Konduz I wouldn't really do much of anything all day, but that's not really what I want to be doing. I'd much rather be able to keep busy and help develop some good training here and whatnot... If I were at Konduz I'd probably just sit around and make stuff like this:
So yeah.. It's not like Konduz is some sort of hellhole (moreso than anywhere else around here) but I was just a little surprised when I found out I'd be headin' out there. Whatever happens happens, but I was just kinda jazzed about being able to stick around Kabul and help improve this program a little bit.
Ok, so what else? Nothing really. I'll keep you posted if anything of note happens.
More later--
I don't really feel like going into detail about the nightmare that was my return trip, but suffice it to say that someone "upstairs" was reminding me that yes, I was returning to a shitty place, and that no, the trip home was not going to be easy. Allah akbar, bitches. I invite anyone who complains about the airline situation in the USA to take a little trip on Afghan Ariana Airlines. Have you ever showed up to the airport only to find out that your plane, for some reason, left an hour and a half early? Yeah... It happened. I actually lost my temper in the airport and flipped out on someone, which is quite rare.
So now I'm back. Japan was a good time, but I thought it was definitely time to come back. I don't know when I'll be back there... It was relaxing in some ways, but it was time to come back. So maybe you're wondering what's been going on since I came back? Well, on friday my roommate decided to start drinking at 9am or so. Here's a little schematic of what went down:
This is one of the many hazards of Afghanistan. Work wise I haven't really done a whole lot. I had a lot of good ideas personal/professional goals upon arriving here, but unfortunately it looks like I may be being sent to Konduz. I was pretty pissed off when I found out about that, but I've pretty resigned myself to whatever happens. Hopefully something will come up and I won't have to go, but fuck it. The guys here think I'm being dumb because if I went to Konduz I wouldn't really do much of anything all day, but that's not really what I want to be doing. I'd much rather be able to keep busy and help develop some good training here and whatnot... If I were at Konduz I'd probably just sit around and make stuff like this:
So yeah.. It's not like Konduz is some sort of hellhole (moreso than anywhere else around here) but I was just a little surprised when I found out I'd be headin' out there. Whatever happens happens, but I was just kinda jazzed about being able to stick around Kabul and help improve this program a little bit.
Ok, so what else? Nothing really. I'll keep you posted if anything of note happens.
More later--
2 Comments:
Ariana Airlines sucks, but Azerbaijan Air sucks worse. I was in Kabul from July - September of '04 and had to fly to and from Kabul on Azerbaijani Air (or whatever the hell they're calling it).
The shoved us all into the front compartment, even though the entire rear half WAS COMPLETELY EMPTY. You literally had about 4" of leg room. I had to crawl over people to get to my seat. The seats in front leaned back at a 45 degree angle, so you've got the back of some dude's sweaty head right at your mouth level.
The stewardesses (they might have been stewards - they were pretty husky) all had facial hair and these giant moles right near the corner of their mouth.
I couldn't wait to get the hell off of that plane. The most striking thing for me was seeing the Caspian Sea and all of that water after being in the dust of Kabul for so long. Keep up the good writing.
Jinxy
http://clownops.blogspot.com
I didn't have too much problem on the plane from Baku to Kabul, but I did run into some problems in the airport... Maybe its cuz I flew business class, which is the same as economy class, but in the front 4 rows. :)
Someone forgot to tell the fine citizens of Baku that they didn't have to pretend like they were in a really bad 70s movie portraying Russian pinko corruption at its most stereotypical level. :) I got dinged for like $210 cuz my luggage was overweight (which I paid for at Dulles). The limit was like a total of 10 kg or something ridiculous like that. I didn't wanna make a fuss for 2 reasons: I knew I'd get reimbersed, and I didn't want my pelican case to end up in the Caspian.
I decided after my short stay in Baku International (dur) that the workers there were #2 in my pantheon of international asswipes, dethroning Canadians, who are at a close #3. North Koreans are at #1. Sorry if I've offended any Canadians by saying that, but dayum, y'all can be meanies. I guess that makes me a bigot...
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