Palestine International Hotel Baghdad

"Jib Chai" The police headquarters I partnered with had an employee who's job was to make chai tea. Maybe he did more than that and I didn't notice, but to me he was the chai guy. Very humble, nice man, and he made good chai - he used the Dunkin' Donuts secret - add a lot of sugar. We drank hot chai even in the hottest days in August. He served it incredibly hot in an hourglass ...

Baghdad will be my home base for travels for 2008. I live in a little tin box sandwiched between sandbags stacked 10' high. The days are hot and the nights are less hot. The food is all you can eat and I eat a lot. I work most of the day and there really isn't that much else to do so except go to the gym and count the days until my next vacation. I will post random Baghdad photos here throughout the year. -B

Today is my two-month anniversary in Baghdad and I feel bad that I haven't updated my travel site yet. I have to start somewhere so here it is. Adam, my roommate, is also from Utah and works for the same company as I do. He did his Graduate degree at the UofU but claims to be a Cougar at heart. He has two adorable kids and his wife sends brownies every other week. I eat more of them than he does. I work at U.S. Embassy in ...

Due to unforeseen circumstances we will not be having anymore curries. Elaine is blocked and I have gone through two weeks of underwear in four days. Anyway to the Mancunian lot - Beer on Thursday 19th in Wilmslow? (Oracle and AZ) Please let me know .... text to 07748461280

... don't know that my mental health can take that right now. I was surprised - coming back in to Baghdad, I realized it was the prettiest place of the rest of the places I'd been, between Balad, Al Asad, Qatar and Kuwait. I don't know that I could be without vegetation and lakes.

... I am a Military Officer working in Iraq. In many ways, I have a common job like most people back in the US; just see the movie "Office Space" or the tv show "The Office" and you'll know what I mean. However, here in Iraq, it is unbearably hot, tensions are high, the importance of our mission is critical to world peace, and I typically work 90-100 hours a week. Now some people may discount me for what I do, and may not want to read on and that's ...

... This will put me into a position where I am much less likley to deploy, giving me a chance to spend alot more time with Garrett. (and of course Christina)I will be in the school at Ft Sam Houston from the 2nd of March until the 12th of June next year. Unfortunatley, Christina and Garrett will have to stay at Ft Campbell while I'm there. Nothing's perfect I ...

Well, today, I ran a 10k Road race, I did fairly well, finished in 48:53, good enough for a t-shirt. next step is the BolderBolder (sp) Baghdad annex next week, I'm shooting for under 45. so the real question is... who's going to run the one in Boulder? I'm doing ok, can't really complain, just normal work stuff, hanging in there, just 4 more months and I get to see ...

Well, here we are again, another long delay between updates. Oh well, let's see here, news... I'm getting integrated pretty well into the Aid Station routine, there's alot of doing nothing. Which means of course that I should have updated this thing alot more, I know, but there's so much nothing, that I wouldn't have anything to write about! The main improvement is that while I'm here, I have time to ...

Well, I'm back, I've been back for a while, I'm OK, I was just getting used to the rhythm again, getting back into the swing of things. I know I'm a terrible person, that there are people who are solely dependant on this site for information on how I'm doing out here, I'm a bad bad man. Anyway, the big change is that I'm no longer what we call a "line medic," I've been moved to the Aid Station, where I will have a more steady ...