Week 10

I found out that the reason my skate board has not arrived is that they haven’t shipped it yet. It is so state of the art that they seem to be having a hard time getting all the parts together. Oh well, at least my ASL Curriculum has made it. I am both excited and nervous about learning Sign Language. It is a big step but one I look forward to taking. So far it has been a little tough teaching my self ASL. I can’t ask the teacher to clarify since all I have is pictures to look at. I am determined to learn though and will do what ever it takes to do so.

This week was nice. I got to play host to a couple of my fellow contractors who came to town for a few days to do an upgrade on our system. It was cool having people to hang out with and to show around. Most times I will go to lunch or dinner by myself and be in and out in about 15 minutes. With these two we just kind of sat around after we were done eating and chatted. It was a little uncomfortable at first, due to being a break from my normal routine, but I started to enjoy and even look forward to it.

I pulled my first all nighter at work this week. We had a routine upgrade to the equipment that should have taken about an hour. We ran into some complications and I didn’t get to bed till 6am. After 24 hours of not having any sleep I tend to get really cranky. Luckily this only kept me up for 22. The next day I just relaxed and watched lots of DVD’s and drank lots of coffee, my reward to myself for working hard. I watched a lot of ‘My Name is Earl’, my new favorite sitcom. It is a really funny but semi-wholesome show, a rarity these days. Despite some philosophical and theological issues, it is a really great show.

I have had a lot of strange dreams since I came to Iraq . A lot of them have aspects of the war or other things having to do with my work in them. Last night I dreamt that I saw a soldier walking on base doing sign language. It is very interesting and at the same time very weird. Being here can feel very surreal at times. I feel like when I get back it won’t even seem like I was in Iraq . I wonder if people will see any difference in me. I wonder if being here will have a positive or negative effect on who I am. I hope whatever happens I am able to use this opportunity as a chance to grow.