Kyrgyzstan

May 3-5

Well, I awoke to another beautiful morning in Ireland. I'm sure you are wondering what was on the menu for breakfast. You guessed it. Potatoes! Actually there was a great layout of fruit, granola, weird bread, cereals, eggs, bacon, sausage, beans (yes, beans), and potato wedges. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Other than that there wasn't much more to my day. It consisted of an 8 hour flight, a movie (Unstoppable) and an episode of the Band of Brothers. Unstoppable was good because it was based on a true story. If it hadn't been, I don't think I would have bought it. I forgot to mention a few days ago I began my Band of Brothers Series. I have a few different seasons of shows and decided to start on this one. I think The Office will be next. I'm on the 7th Episode now. They are all just over an hour long and there are 10 total. It's very good. I highly recommend it. I wouldn't say its better than The Pacific but still, worth a look. 

I slept for most of the flight. Once we landed some busses took us to an unloading zone where we eventually grabbed all our gear to make sure it didn't get lost and stacked it all up on pallets. Then it was off to get linen's because we will be here for a couple days and then chow. I've now officially had two breakfasts today. One Irish breakfast on the 3rd in Ireland and a decent chow hall breakfast on the 4th in Kyrgyzstan. What happened to my lunch and dinner in between??? Oh yeah, flying over a billion time zones to the east is a great way to completely miss a day. If you ever start off a day on the "wrong side of the bed" and just want it to be over with, here is your solution. Hop in a plane, and fly east. If you want your day to never end though, wait till I get back to Hawaii and fly west to come see Julia and me!

I think about living in Hawaii often. The fact that I will be living in the best place I've lived yet AND that I will be living there with the greatest girl in the world somehow always consumes my thoughts. 

Two times now my Marines have mistaken me for one of the Corporals in the Battery. When enlisted Marines mistake a Lieutenant for a Corporal, it makes for an awkward moment. One time I was Skyping with Julia and a fellow Corporal proceeded to wrap his arms around me and pretend to kiss me on the cheek. He would have noticed it was me much sooner but his eyes were closed preparing for a passionate kiss. He later told me it was the most embarrassing moment of his life. The other time was when a SSgt woke me up shaking me telling me to get out of the rack before he gets in it with me. Hahaha, and people wonder why I love this job. Marines are great. You never… never know what to expect. 

This place is alright. Theres some neat shops to check out and a lot of chow halls. I'm glad I don't have to stay here for deployment. I think I would gain 30 pounds. Its a shame that some people actually do deploy to a place like this and get all the same pay benefits others get in combat zones. Oh well, not my worry.

Looks like I'll be here for a little bit longer. Hope you are all doing great back home. Love you guys.


- Ric