Stuck in Potato-ville

2 May 2011 -

Well… a day later and still stuck in Ireland. I shouldn't say stuck because that has a negative connotation to it. I'd rather be here for extra days than in Manas where I have to carry all my gear around everywhere I go. At least here we get nice rooms, convenient showers, and great food. Wow, it's only 10:00 am back in Hawaii and we are about to go to bed!

It's funny… every meal has potatoes. Yes, some stereotypes are very, very true. I had potato soup today for lunch. Remembering it was from a cheap hotel made me think it probably isn't going to be the best quality. Well, the worst potato soup in Ireland can still compete with the best potato soup anywhere else. This stuff was good. For dinner, instead of soup it was mashed potatoes. One of my favorite foods out there. It wasn't as good as Mopsey's mashed potatoes, but it was still pretty good.

Tea. Tea is everywhere. It's actually competing with coffee and for me that is a big deal. I am usually a big fan of coffee and not so much a fan of tea. But they know how to do it right here. Times like this make me want to travel the world to eat all the local foods I enjoy in America and see how everything is supposed to taste. You know what else is in every store here? Guinness. If you are a Guinness fan, I don't think there is anywhere else that can compete with the selection you'd have in Ireland. I'm sure it's driving the Marines crazy that they can't partake. I'm fine with tea and potatoes.

Random thought: Writing day two of this journal I am discovering that somewhere along the way I learned to type without looking at my fingers. I know in college it was my goal, but I don't remember it ever happening completely. I need to go back to one of those typing games I always practiced on and see how much better I am.

I saw a castle today. No, we didn't go sightseeing or anything, its just that right behind our old hotel through the woods is a freaking castle! No joke. I couldn't believe it at first. I had only seen castles in movies and here one was. You would think it would make me think of kings or royalty, perhaps even knights. But no. Instead what came to mind was Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Sad, I know. Anyway, the castle was sweet and it had a beautiful lake right in front of it. I looked for a moat but no luck. I wish I could post a FANTASTIC photo that Dan took of my today doing the heel click on my way to see the castle. Its classic. I'll show it to you whenever we can get his camera hooked up to a computer.

I guess the reason it is so green here is because out of 365 1/4 days in the year, it does not rain about 10 of them. It's just a light drizzle the majority of the time which isn't bad, but its overcast all the time. That made me change my mind about wanting to own some of this beautiful land. I like Sunlight and warmth way too much. I know my fiancee does too. She would likely end up killing me if I brought her here to stay.

Supposedly Osama Bin Laden is dead now. I don't say that because I think they are lying, I just say it because the fact that he could actually be dead has not sunk in yet. And to bury him at sea because Saudi Arabia wouldn't take him? Thats ridiculous. Someone was talking about how they had to do something with his body quickly because Muslims believe you need to be buried within 24 hours of death. Personally, I would say who cares when he should be buried. It's not like he's going to heaven anyway. I don't think, however, that we should do what an unnamed marine posted on his Facebook wall concerning the treatment of his body. It had something to do with being wrapped in bacon. The main problem with his status update is that it did not read Osama… instead it read Obama. OOPS, not smart Marine. Classic mixup. Classic junior Marine. Classic I hope the media doesn't grab that statement and twist it into something completely inappropriate that Marines say.

For those of you thinking it will change things, I am thinking it won't. Only when leaders of small or tight knit organizations are killed is when that organization may fail. This is an huge, very spread out "organization," if you will. All it means is someone will take his place, we may have a new head honcho to look for, and the Taliban will continue to do what they've been doing the whole time… attempting to murder, torture, coerce and control innocent civilians. It will be easy to remember that the day Osama was killed was the first day I deployed. So much for my glimmer of hope to capture him :)

Well, thats all for now. I know these posts will start getting a lot shorter as my time becomes more occupied but there really is not much going on right now so I'm taking advantage of it.