I went out into Kuwait City this week. It was mostly a bust as the museum was closed for repairs, so we got to spend 5 quality hours at the Avenues Mall (http://www.the-avenues.com/
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| You can see my favorite Italian chain on the 2nd floor |
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| They made the inside look like a street |
Although the store and restaurant experience wasn’t anything different from going to the Tyson’s Corner Malls in McLean, VA, it was nice to get out and people watch. Female apparel ranged from the almost completely covered niqab that leaves only the eyes, to the hijab headscarf, to fairly conservative western dress but uncovered, to slightly risqué. There were some Westerners walking around in typical Western apparel and kids wearing all sorts of stuff and running around just like they might in any other mall. The Kuwaiti men mostly wore the dishdasha, a long white cotton robe, or a suit. There are also a significant number of Third Country Nationals (we call them TCNs or OCNs) in Kuwait – they are who we see on base every day doing things like delivering fuel, serving meals and cleaning the restroom trailers and it has been said that half of Kuwait's population is TCNs – and they wear all sorts of stuff depending on where they are from, mainly India and the Philippines.
After that trip I got sick as a dog, as sick as I have been in years. It is no fun being sick at home; being sick on deployment really stinks. The problem is that there isn’t any place to curl up and watch TV/nap/feel sick, you can’t wander into the kitchen and get a cup of tea, and the bathrooms seem very, very far away. I was either in my rack, in the bathroom (which is a 100 yard walk/run from my room), or in the office as eating was really out of the question. One day I slept from noon – 4pm and then again from 7pm to 6am the next morning. My Chief and XO were great and basically kicked me out of the office for a couple of days so I could get better but it was not the most pleasant of times. Although I don’t believe I was Patient Zero I am definitely on the leading edge of whatever this is, others are starting to drop as I improve.
I am sure the NCAA tournament is leading a lot of the news at home right now. This is normally a big time of year for me, my brothers and assorted friends make a trek someplace in the US to watch the 2nd and 3rd round of the tournament while we play golf or other outdoor sports and do manly things. We usually rent a house somewhere, rent a car or two and generally have a good ol’ time. It is something I have been doing since 2003, my good friend Joel invited me that year and we have been going with small (3) and large (12) groups ever since to places like Tampa, New Orleans, Nashville and Miami. There wasn’t an obvious southern city to go to this year so we went off the beaten path and picked Salt Lake City. Had that played out I would have seen Harvard beat New Mexico, Southern give Gonzaga a run for their money and then the Wichita State Shockers knock off Gonzaga with their terrific mascot gamboling about (http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/early-lead/wp/2013/03/23/wichita-states-mascot-is-interesting/). I understand the crowd was very much behind Southern in the first game and having seen them play before (I think in Greensboro, NC) I know they have a killer band that travels around with them. As much as I love everything about the tournament – the upsets, the crowds, the mascots, the group I am with – it is yet another reminder of how things aren’t normal this year, so I have only been paying partial attention to the results. Once again, war is hell.
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| Last year in Nashville |
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