Day 5: 31 JAN 08

Today I missed both breakfast and lunch. I took care of business at dinner though. Its funny how your day and schedule can be remembered/ based off of the meals. Anyway this morning I went on a shoot with a fellow co worker who happens to be a Marine. He was heading out so I got some extra footage for him. I had a great view from my location. I wanted to take some pictures but did not have my camera with me. I can always go back and get some and just say its in the sake of AFN. It looks like I have Saturdays off, with Sundays being the go in and get stuff done day of the weekend. Anyway in the afternoon we had a big briefing from all the AF people which was ok except for the fact that we live in a different area than them which means most of what they touched on was not for us. We live in an Army village, but I like it. Its not as uptight about PT uniform regulations and what not. I also picked up the heat for my friend today. If you do not know what that means than good and if you do then good too. Internet was slow all day but I read on CNN that the Middle East and Asia experienced a huge slowed down. That’s kind of funny. I would have to say that yes I am in Asia! You really do have to stop and think about it sometimes. I feel as if I am on a different planet. I am sure that will be reinstated once I leave base. I will not go into detail about that tonight. As time goes on and things become more apparent I will talk about it. As far as information goes, what I try to do is talk to someone different at dinner every night. I find going to dinner by myself gives me a little alone time. Nothing against the people I work with but all day everyday for 6 months is more than enough. I will survive socially if I attend a meal without one of them. In fact tonight I talked to a native Afghan who was from NYC but came back to work as an interpreter. He told me some pretty interesting stuff that I do not feel comfortable blogging. Lets just say if you know my Dad, just know he will thoroughly enjoy it. Well I guess that’s it for tonight. I have a feeling these blogs are going to get way more interesting. Stay posted and always feel free to email me at psujozz@yahoo.com. I had someone say they could not comment because they did not have a goggle account. I am not sure how that works…. I also promise to post some pictures soon. Even some with me in them. Good night Rob

Day 4: 30 JAN 08

Well lets see…. I woke up today at about 8 and then fell asleep again until 9:05 which made me 15 minutes late for work. Luckily its only a 2 minute walk from here. The dining hall and px are the long walks which lake about 7 or 8 minutes down the road. We have 3 vehicles at the station, of which 2 we can use. Driving on base is very slow though as there are people everywhere. I felt like crap all morning but better after lunch. I think the Lt Col got persuaded heavily to let me go to the Broadcasting side, so there it is. I should start shooting stories next week, if not this weekend. We work like 7 days a week. The thing is work is also a hang out area. We can all home there, watch movies, play video games, and check email (during non regular work hours). Our rooms are small and do not make for any type of group fun. So on the weekends we get loose ends finished, do some unique radio shows, prep for the next week, and just hang out. The Super Bowl will start at 3:30 am here. Just as I get my sleep pattern on I got to wake up to watch the Brady Bunch win their 4th Super Bowl. O well at least I will be able to watch it. Meals here have a large time window. The chow halls are always open but hot meals are only served at certain times to include a midnight meal. I hope to put on the weight that I want too. I load up each meal but have obviously been missing breakfast. Maybe tomorrow I will go. I got AFN TV hooked up to my laptop but the signal is not very good. I just bumped into one of our maintenance techs, on my way back from my before bed bathroom visit, and he said we are getting free regular cable soon from the one company on base. We shall see what happens there. One of the guys here, who is also from Pittsburgh but is a reservist, says he misses his family and friends and hates the detachment. I try to use technology to make up the difference but it can only go so far. I am looking forward to my time and work here but also hope it moves along fast as I miss Michelle and everyone else of course. OK well work should start producing more commentary beyond the mundane daily routine. Stay posted I mean blogged until the next time.

Day 3: 29 JAN 08

Ok well today was much smoother. I am pretty settled into my room but need to acquire or build a desk. This typing on my lap stuff is getting old. Really haven’t started work yet as we cleaned the office and worked on getting our computer stuff squared away today. I did not sleep good last night but hope for a good one tonight. I like to shower at night because the shower facility is cleaned by a crew and then I got the whole place and all the hot water to myself. I usually sleep past breakfast and go straight to work. They make good omelets there but when it comes to sleep versus an omelet you know what wins that battle. I found out today I am going to stay on the print side of the house. I will probably help out in radio on the weekends but that limits my chances of doing any TV work. We shall see. The man who prints our magazine brought as local Afghan food for lunch. It was his way of welcoming and thanking us. Overall it was pretty good but I made a point to stay away from the hot stuff. I also drove around the base today and got to see some pretty neat stuff. Can’t really go into great detail but I will say this: When the Russians left it was not an organize departure. I have yet to go off base and assume it may be a while. I do interact with the locals who work on base though. They seem happy to be working and smile and wave if you do the same. I met a guy 2 years older than me at dinner. He is from Kosovo. We had a nice chat. This place is ridiculously international. After dinner me and some of the guys from the station played some pickup basketball. I have to say playing ball takes my mind away from all of this. When I am playing it is like I am in State College, Pittsburgh, or anywhere for that matter. The court just puts it all away for an hour or two. Anyway time for a shower. Lights are out in my hut anyway and everyone is asleep except for the one guy in the back room who is hacking up a lung because he has yet to acclimate to all of the crappy dust in the air. Ok more tomorrow hopefully. I start an online class next week so hopefully that will not cut into blog/ journal time.

Day 1: 27 JAN 08

Well it’s late and I promised myself I would write one of these so here it is. I am typing in the dark and now realize I am pretty good at typing without looking. Anyway the old crew is almost all gone and we were shown around by one of them tonight. I took a shower and numero dos and the facilities are not that bad. The water has a ton of chlorine in it so my skin is dry as hell. A gym is close so I plan on trying to lift every day. The chow hall has a ton of food and is open for long periods of time. I was awaken in the middle of the night by a loud sound (sorry can't go into more detail there). I hope that’s not an everyday thing. I am tasked to be a Public Affairs guy but they may pull me to Broadcasting. We shall see. Anyway I am hitting the sack. I will write tomorrow and will even look into putting this into a blog instead of emailing everyone.

Day 2: 28 JAN 08

Well I got internet in my room and a haircut. I talked to Michelle on IM and need to go to bed now. I will write a lot more tomorrow. I really need to sleep.

My Afghanistan Blog

This blog is intended to follow the life and experiences of one Airman and his deployment to Bagram Air Field Afghanistan. It is not intended to represent the feelings of the Air Force or US government. It will not violate any UCMJ rules or operational security for those also deployed to Afghanistan with me. Its just a nice way for friends and family to read about my daily grind.

- Rob