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.