Camp Taji, Iraq

Getting to Taji from Speicher was a lot tougher than I thought it would be. To get to Taji, I got a ride on a Chinook that went to 6 other FOBs en route. Normally that wouldn't be so bad, just a couple of hours in the air. However, this particular Chinook didn't have a working heater. Given that we had snow and freezing rain earlier that day, you can imagine how cold it gets when altitude and speeds climb. There was frost on my glasses, which are plastic, if that gives you any idea how cold it was. The pilots said it was somewhere around zero when they were at altitude. AND there's me, of course, jacket packet away neatly in my rucksack, inaccessible for the whole flight. Other than that, not so bad. So far I've been through one day of training here at COINSOC. Camp Taji splits in half, one side Iraqi, one side American. I'm actually staying on the Iraqi side. There are Iraqi guards at the gates and Iraqi tower guards. The chow hall serves Iraqi food. Call to prayer sounds on the FOB just like in the towns everywhere else in Iraq. We train with them side by side. I have Iraqi instructors for Language, Culture and History. In a couple hours, I'll sit in the Chow hall with my Iraqi food and my American beer, and watch the Super Bowl. We've got a training holiday for the Super Bowl, which is pretty nice. After the game I'll hop a ride to the American side to go to the PX. The basic amenities are all here. There's a PX you can go to (about the size of a small college dormitory room), an Internet cafe for MWR, a laundry facility that has a faster turnaround than the one at Warrior, and a phone center. I'll have access to skype, but only the chat feature. The computers in the lab have skype on them, but no headphones or mics. Did I mention the chow hall is great? I actually enjoy the Iraqi food, its pretty good. We are supposed to go to an authentic Iraqi Restaurant in sector sometime this week. Everything I've heard about it says its some of the best Iraqi food you'll find. I'm looking forward to it. Right now we're still learning the alphabet and how to write words in Arabic. It isn't an easy thing to learn in 3 days, but so far I'm doing OK. The instructor is impressed with my ability to write in Arabic, says it is very accurate, but doesn't like that I write left handed. As far as being able to read what I write and translate... that's a different story. I'm getting there though, slowly but surely. Missing the first day didn't help much. I'm catching up fast though. That's all for now, I'll try to write again later.