From Bliss to Baghdad

Well I finally made it to Baghdad Iraq. It only took three stops but I made it. I have been working about 12 to 14 hours each day with a break for fine food, brought to you by KBR. My work was not as I expected but it is very interesting nonetheless. I cannot go into specific details because then I would have to kill you. Once I get my camera charged again, I will post pictures of the palace and other stuff. Instead of being at the Embassy and Green Zone, as originally thought, I am working at a place called Camp Victory. It is on the grounds of the Al Faw Palace, which used to be an old Ba'ath Party Palace and hunting resort. I call it the I will fall palace because the first thing I noticed about it is the bombed out bridge in the front of it. The interior closely resembles Ceasar's Palace in Las Vegas, only here you cannot knuckle up to the players club table and be comped with the presidential suite and the all you can eat steak and eggs breakfast. My office is one of Sadaam's guest quarters.

Anyway so instead of being directly fired like I proably would be at the Embassy, I usually wake up to small arms fire outside the walls followed by the occasional mortar. I am working on getting on a convoy to go down the green zone and downtown Baghdad to check things out. I am confident that this will happen before I leave. The sick and twisted part of me hopes that a mortar will land near my tent. I am surrounded by about 12 to 16 foot Jersey Barriers and would like to see if they "really work." I have also experienced my first wind storm this morning, with a sand storm on the way. I am living in a tent but hope to have a trailor soon. Again I will post pictures once my camera is up and running again. That is all for now.